[SML] Saw stop

[Dougherty, Jim]

Richard Niederberg wrote:

>Why can't someone invent a way to lower the blade in 1/100 sec or less,
>without the costly breaking the blade, which encourages operators to
>defeat
>the safety feature?

Not sure the logic here - you paid a premium to have the safety feature
then would disable same to save the cost of the blade if it goes off (in
the process saving much more money by preventing an accident)?  I¹ve had
three trips with ours, and of those the blade actually survived once or
twice.  Two were operator error, in which case the cost of the blade is
good negative reinforcement.  The third was machine error, which was made
good and then some by the company (replacement cartridges, upgraded
computer unit, no charge).

I personally don¹t think the cost of a blade is incentive for disabling
the system, so much as it is incentive not to trip it carelessly.  If you
do need to disable it to cut materials that would otherwise trip the
system, it¹s very easy to do and spelled out in the manual.  The saws
still come with the guard, riving knife, etc. to be able to use the saw
safely even without the emergency system.

I¹m sure there will come other designs that might reliably save the blade
rather than destroy it. Bosch has one, which doesn¹t have a brake
cartridge slam the blade.  Competition is a good thing in any case.

My $0.02.

- Jim Dougherty
ATD, Middlebury College Theatre Dept.