On Mar 9, 9:46*pm, Steve wrote:
On 2010-03-09 13:10:57 -0500, " said:

You appear to be the only one here. *You don't see a conflict of
interest? *He has a state-mandated monopoly (patent) and you don't see
a problem with the state also requiring his device? boggle

Nope -- he offered to license the technology (perhaps the fee was
higher than some might deem appropriate, but's that's not _really_ the
issue). The others were certainly free to develop their own systems.

Good grief... That's fine but what if the SawStop hired sufficient
lobbiests to make non-SawStop saws were illegal to sell? Do you think
the "license fees" would be more reasonable?

What seems to gall many writing in this thread is that with a mandated
safety system, there well be no _cheap_ (read: inexpensive) saws. That
means no saws built to a price point for the HDs of this world. Is that
a bad thing? If that's all you think you could afford, yes, it's bad.

Yes, it is BAD. Do you think SawStops would be cheaper if they were
MANDATED?

If you're DELTA hawking a new Unisaw, yeah, it's bad, because your
price point is in the neighborhood of the SawStop.

If I'm me, it's bad because I wouldn't have (didn't, in fact) buy a
SawStop because the feature isn't worth the money. I bought a Unisaw
because it was affordable. If it were mandated I likely wouldn't have
bought any saw.

If you're a hand surgeon (Anyone out there falling into this category?
Hands, please!) this is a bad thing because it's gonna affect your
livelihood. Conversly, this is a good thing for insurance companies...
but you knew that.

Lets make cars illegal too. You know how much money is wasted on
medical care for accident victims?

If you'd like to keep your fingers where they belong (on your hands, of
course -- what did you think I meant?) then this is a damn good thing.

What an asinine argument. Isn't it better to not get your fingers in
the path of a blade. It seems plenty of people manage to do just
that.

The price of a SawStop (irrespectively of the technology, I'm told this
is a GOOD machine) is real cheap insurance. The repair of a partially
severed tendon ten years ago (don't ask, it wasn't in the shop) was
$3,500. Granted, you can barely see the scar, but I'd much rather have
spent that on something else.

I'd rather, and did, spend the money for a SawStop on something else.

I'm pretty new to woodshop. I gulped at the price when I first saw the
SawStop, but I made the decsion right then and there this would be my
next TS. And I will be plunking down the cash real soon.

Goody for you. I plan to keep my fingers out of the business parts on
my Unisaw. I looked at a SawStop, but at twice the price of the
Unisaw it was a non-starter. Choice is a good thing.

So, is the management of SawStop ethical in pushing for the safety mandate?

For me, it's not an issue.

Goody for you. It's obvious that you're the only one who matters.