Comments on flesh sensing saws....

[Handplanesandmore]

ould easily recoup all my investment and then some down the road 

I dare them to tell us we cannot sell old saws on the private market

Nothing on this in the CPSC position paper.

However, if AMI tech. did become mandatory and all you could buy in the market were saws with such safety feature, I would think twice before selling my old saw. Why? People who bought your saw and got injured could sue you for selling an unsafe saw. Yes, you might win in the court at the end of the day, BUT, do you want to go through that? I wouldn't...especially the buyer of my old saw could be an injury lawyer himself or herself!
Simon

[EricU]

I don't know if it has been studied enough, I expect that most of the injuries are contractors using really cheap saws without guards.  Probably freehand.  I did some work for a contractor once, after i took one cut on  his saw, I took the job home and did it on my saw.  His saw was terrifying

Of course, as an unintended consequence of this, if contractor saws are doubled in price (or more) then more guys are going to be using upside-down circular saws.

[JGrout]

Nothing on this in the CPSC position paper.

However, if AMI tech. did become mandatory and all you could buy in the market were saws with such safety feature, I would think twice before selling my old saw. Why? People who bought your saw and got injured could sue you for selling an unsafe saw. Yes, you might win in the court at the end of the day, BUT, do you want to go through that? I wouldn't...especially the buyer of my old saw could be an injury lawyer himself or herself!
Simon

Only if they mandate all old saws be retrofitted. that is to my knowledge not possible. 

So, how they going to stop use without just buying us out completely. 

Grandfathering rules that make sense like all saws are to be supplied with a blade cover and  a splitter protects the rest of us and those who could care less about nanny based saws.

[Cecil]

...
However, if AMI tech. did become mandatory and all you could buy in the market were saws with such safety feature, I would think twice before selling my old saw. Why? People who bought your saw and got injured could sue you for selling an unsafe saw. Yes, you might win in the court at the end of the day, BUT, do you want to go through that? I wouldn't...especially the buyer of my old saw could be an injury lawyer himself or herself!
Simon

Could they force a recall?  I don't know much about the Craftsman RAS recall, whether Sears did that on their own, or whether the government was involved.  However, I understand it is against federal law to sell a recalled item.  Here is one article.  I have no idea whether this is true, I only know what it says.

[Dave Diaman]

If I'm not mistaken this isn't the first time this has happened. Gass lobbied for this some years ago. I have two major problems with this. For starters I think the Sawstop technology is a great thing but I don't need the government shoving something down my throat that a may not want or be able to afford. Sounds a lot like health care doesn't it which has been a tremendous success. The other big issue I have is that there is only one option in the US market right now. That gives Sawstop a monopoly on tablesaws which is a big problem. If Gass was really concerned about public safety he would offer the technology to everyone at a reasonable price and not sue anyone who tries to take a chunk of his business.

[Handplanesandmore]

Only if they mandate all old saws be retrofitted. that is to my knowledge not possible. 

So, how they going to stop use without just buying us out completely. 

Grandfathering rules that make sense like all saws are to be supplied with a blade cover and  a splitter protects the rest of us and those who could care less about nanny based saws.

I am not saying you would be forbidden from selling your old saw (at least unlikely at this point).

I am saying if one can sue a restaurant for a coffee spill that was too hot, a buyer of a second-hand old saw who got injured could sue the seller. Injury lawyers are good at what they are doing.

Are you prepared for the risk of going to the court on a sales that nets you, say, a few hundred bucks? I wouldn't be. I wouldn't even give the old finger-cutting saw to anyone when all the saws in the market have that finger saving feature built in. As a woodworker, I enjoy being in the shop, not in the court, even as unlikely as it might be.

Call me overthinking.

Simon

[Admiral]

 If Gass was really concerned about public safety he would offer the technology to everyone at a reasonable price and not sue anyone who tries to take a chunk of his business.

Dave, with all due respect, see the other thread and my reply about standards based patents licensed on a FRAND basis; his demands are not out of line in my experience; and now its Festool anyway....

[fredhargis]

I sincerely hope at least some of these comments went to the CPSC. That was the intent.

[LarryK]

Last comment from me. I've been in construction mostly finish carpentry and cabinets plus woodworking on the side for 25+ years. I'm not 9 digit construction. I respect the power of all my tools. Although I think saw stop is nifty it doesn't take the place of good thinking and safety practices. Push sticks are awesome things. Your hand should never be closer than 5" to the blade. Furthermore I question the reliability of the product. How many years has this product been tested? It's electronic based correct? Sawdust is awful on electronics. I don't care how air tight it is dust will get in. My point is do they guarantee it will work 20 years down the road in a humid shop or under jobsite conditions? I've had jobsite table saws get wet before. Will it hold up if it's left outside. Okay you could argue you won't have a saw that long. I've had my jet for 20 years, it's got a blue cabinet for gosh sakes. It's a reliable saw. Will the electronics in sawstop last that long. The only thing guaranteed to work every time is gravity. Thats the argument they are missing. I'm done.

[Handplanesandmore]

Last comment from me.  I've been in construction mostly finish carpentry and cabinets plus woodworking on the side for 25+ years. I'm not 9 digit construction. I respect the power of all my tools. Although I think saw stop is nifty it doesn't take the place of good thinking and safety practices.  Push sticks are awesome things.  Your hand should never be closer than 5" to the blade.  Furthermore I question the reliability of the product.  How many years has this product been tested?

As a SawStop user and then an owner, I agree no features can take the place of good thinking and safety practices. When driverless cars become the norm, I would still prefer a driveless car that allows some manual override option.
SawStop -- company established in 1999 -- came out in 2005 or so., with 80,000 units (?) sold today (I forgot the figures I found last time, I could be way off here). As of today, no one single failure of finger protection has been reported or established (don't trust the naysayers telling you "someone" got injured because the sawstop failed to work. That someone could have been rich today if it had happen.)
My car has been recalled twice this year -- one for an airbag recall and the other for another safety issue or something else. I still want all my car safety features there, even though one of them may fail when I need it. The chance of me getting injured by a failure of the SawStop tech. would be much lower than me getting hurt in a car accident, I would hope.
Simon