On Thursday, May 25, 2017 at 4:27:36 AM UTC-5, Leon wrote:

Wow Robert, you really are not familiar with the SS at all it would seem.
Replacing the brake takes a couple of minutes. Have you not seen a demo?
As far as not having a spare replacement brake goes, why would you not have
one on hand? Would you drive out of town with out a spare tire? :-)

OK, leave you alone for one day and look what happens. You personalized my post to the gov and made it your own. Leon...

I never (at least to my memory)referred to "SawStop" in my diatribe to the government. Rereading it, I didn't see SawStop mentioned by name. My references were generic, and the braking systems were referred to as "devices", "mechanisms", and "apparatus".

INTENTIONALLY, I did not want to limit the intent of my scribblings to be directed at SawStop only, but rather intended the post to express my distaste for ALL blade braking systems that would be required by the government. If this regulation passes, there will be a certain amount of time that passes, and Gass' patents will in at least part expire. But since he is aggressively trying to block anyone from developing or marketing a blade brake device, we have no idea what is in development now from other companies. No doubt he would beg, borrow, or steal information that would allow him to block or slow its development or presentation.

I think the group ethos of being blinded by the asshat Gass keeps the bigger picture from being seen. We don't need the government adding more cost, a device of doubtful value to some, and more bureaucracy to our way of doing business. I think that a consumer should have a choice, and I think the government should stop looking for small problems that need to be fixed.

Other devices will be introduced if this becomes a mandate, rest assured. Retro devices will be, too. Soon, all insurance companies will require that any company with a saw will be required to have a blade brake or they will be denied coverage as the machine is deemed unsafe. Believe me, it will spread to the home shop as well. If it is found that the home shop (just thinking if we know anyone like that...!) is used for commercial enterprise you must follow the rules of the insurance company. If you are manufacturing goods for sale at your home, you must inform your insurance company to maintain valid coverage. How soon will it be that a question pops up on your application for homeowners insurance asking that?

And why just table saws? I am reminded of a line from one of my favorite movies, "Outlaw Josie Wales". "Doin' good ain't got no end". Band saws (especially the big boys) are pretty damn dangerous, so no doubt future regulations will protect us from them, too. And why not tighten up the requirements of blade brakes on other saws? Two of my miter saws have them, one doesn't, and the other has one but it doesn't work (worn out). So do I start leaving the ones without blade brakes at home?

Nope. I am a bigger picture guy and that was the intent of my post. I don't want more regulation as it is a slippery slope employed by civil servants that needs to constantly find new things to regulate in order to keep their job. It has to be self sustaining or it "could" go away. So regulation leads to more regulation.

The generic references to braking device were to express that I don't want more regulation, leading to more regulation, which leads to more business cost, then enforcement cost of new regulation as well as compliance costs. I am looking at this situation as to how it will affect my business now, but also how other regulations have affected it over the last decades.

I don't care how long it takes to change the mechanism is a SawStop saw. It could fix itself and in context of my comments to the govt, it has no bearing. I don't care what it takes to reset the Bosch machine, anything that DeWalt, Hitachi, Ridgid or anyone else comes us with. I don't want to start that ball rolling.

So a couple of last things. First, I have used the SawStop saw and it is a completely superior product. I have scribbled here many times how valuable I think the technology is, and if I have the scratch when I buy my next table saw it will indeed be a SawStop. In the last 40 years, almost every single time I have been hurt on the job it has been because I am over tired, pushing to get things finished, and it is at the end of a string of long days. Others have the luxury of saying "well, when you get to that point you should stop", and "if you are that tired it takes twice as long to do the job so you might as well quit and rest, hit it hard tomorrow" and horse**** like that. Not the way it works in a service business. At least not for long, anyway. Regardless of mitigating conditions, people want their work done as THEY think it should be done.

Last thing, it makes me laugh think that job site guys won't "get the job done". When I had an old table saw (110V) that had a broken off/on switch on it, I replaced it. The switch had some kind of surge protecting device to keep the saw from overloading the power, and if it thought you were pulling too much power the saw would switch off. A 20amp outdoor light switch from he lumberyard fixed that switch just fine.

When I was out working in the country on a ranch house, my only saw on the job had the trigger burn up. Now I have me and a crew of three with no saw.. I had an old 25' extension cord that had a bad female side on it, so I clipped it off, direct wired the saw and my helper had to plug it in when I wanted it to run. As an experienced saw man, it wasn't too bad. I would line up 10-15 cuts, let the guys nail why I marked out the next cuts.

Years ago, my big compressor was a 220V SpeedAire monster. No one had the plug configuration we need on the 220V as it was out in a subdivision and they only used the clothes dryer style recepticles as that is all they had on the electrician's trucks. I bought the receptacle we needed, got some ten gauge wire, hooked up the receptcale to the wires and put it in a 220V handy box. On the other end, I stripped back the wires about and inch, folded them back on themselves, and pounded the copper flat enough that it would fit in the job site plugs. Used that device for about 2 years, every single work day (we only had one compressor).

The point is, there is always a way around a problem, whether it is real or perceived. NEVER, ever, rely on your employees (me included, apparently....) to do the "right" thing.

Logically,