On Jan 23, 10:46*am, Jay Pique wrote:
Ok I pretty much lurk here except to milk you guys for information
once and a while, but the SawStop posts and safety debates have piqued
my interest. *I work in a shop with about a dozen other guys and we've
got a couple sliding table saws, a couple Unisaurs and a couple of the
big 12-14" Deltas too. *The only saw that really ever has the blade
guard in place is the Altendorf slider, and that's probably on 1/3 of
the time - when someone's breaking down a pile of plywood for cabinet
box parts. *And then it's really only used for the dust collection.
In the 5 years I've been at the shop we've had exactly one hand injury
from a table saw, and that was a guy doing a groove in a very small
part that he admits he never should have done anyway, and couldn't
possibly have done it with the guard in place. *(He basically put a
little groove in the tip of a finger - two stitches.) *When I go over
to the slider, for example, and I need to rip a strip of plywood for
say a stretcher, if that guard is in place I push it right out of the
way. *I just don't like reaching my hand around that big plastic thing
wondering where in the heck the blade is - I like to be able to see
the spinning blade (through my (almost) ever present safety glasses)
so I can keep my hand away from it. *I feel like those guards might
actually make things more unsafe WHILE CUTTING. *Now if someone's
going to walk by a saw and slip and fall into a spinning blade,
well..what in the hell is he doing anyhow? *I mean seriously - if you
can't walk around your shop without falling into the top of a table
saw, you've got bigger issues to address than a blade guard. *And in
the case of the whole Whirlywind versus SawStop debate I'd have to
come down decidedly on the SawStop side of things - if it was a choice
between one or the other. *(But there's not much chance of me buying a
$3000 saw any time soon...and if I were I'd be getting a really nice
used Tannewitz with a feeder or something along those lines.)

So I guess I have no real point other than to say that I think safety
in the shop is at least 95% using good commone sense and keeping your
eye on things. *Feeling how the wood and the saw are responding is key
for me. *Proper technique and feed rate are key. *A splitter is
absolutely a great thing. *Guards? *I'm just not a fan.

Ask people about their opinions on seatbelts or airbags or any other
safety device. Separate the answers into two groups - Safety Device
Kept Them Kicking vs. No Personal Experience With It. See if you
notice a correlation between a positive opinion on the safety device
and which group they fall in.

I understand your point, and agree that a lot of safety devices
require an adjustment in use/behavior, but you obviously have never
been injured so the topic is a theoretical one for you.

Ask a guy what he'd do if he caught his wife in bed with another guy
and then _have_ him catch his wife in bed with the other guy. My
suggestion, regardless of the guy's answer to the theoretical
question, don't be the other guy in the second scenario.

R