On 5/6/2014 9:51 PM, BillinGA wrote:
While watching Delta Force for the 23rd time, I saw an ad from a law firm going after table saw manufacturers. They showed injuries such as missing digits and nasty cuts with many stitches...the narrative from a pretty blonde that said manufacturers did not want you to know there were preventative measures available and these saw companies could be held accountable for your injuries. They showed and named the only saw I am aware of that will prevent many of these injuries. It may be just me but it seems like a suitable comparison would be going after an automaker that did not provide airbags before they were required by law. I guess miter saws are next. Should have seen this coming when McDonalds was successfully sued for selling hot coffee. I am aware of the argument that a brake cartridge is a small price to pay for safety but wonder if other woodworkers don't share my opinion that safe operation of any saw is the responsibility of the operator, no matter when their device w
as made and sold. Certainly no slap at SawStop...wish I had one. Wish I had a lot of new tools.


It is my opinion that the only device that will totally prevent injuries
is the blob that sits in the middle of your shoulder. Even with the
latest technology there will be accidents. To paraphrase Smokey the
Bear. "Only you can prevent accidents."

A great example of this is the automobile. If you look at the last 50
years, and look at all of the safety items placed on autos, there should
be no accidents or deaths today, or at least it should be less that
0.000001%

Every campaign to add some safety device to an auto said it would lower
the death/accident rate by 10% With the hundreds of items added there
are essentially no death/accident.

It does not matter what you do to a device to make it safe there will
always be someone who figures out a way to use it to create an injury or
death.

Have I ever been hurt on a table saw? Yes I did something absolutely
stupid and then followed up with some as stupid to correct the problem.

I was ripping a piece of 1X4 to fit under a mirror. My first stupid
mistake was to set the out-feed feather board to the width that I wanted
to cut, not the to the width of the board I was cutting.

The second stupid mistake was to try to readjust without turning the saw
off

Fortunately it only slice the end of the finger, and I lost nothing
physical. It would have been significantly different if I had not made
the rest of the set up with safety in mind.