The technology is awesome. Would love to own one. No way I can afford it. I'd rather spend the extra jing on more tools and more capability. The owner is a prick. If I owned a pro shop, I'd fill it with sliders and sawstops and nothing else.
Not necessarily in that order.
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Gass has sorta gotten what he wants...the Air Force has mandated that SawStops replace all present table saws. I don't know what the time frame is, but Fairchild's Woods Skill Center has just taken delivery of the first of three that are going to replace perfectly good Unisaws.
If a minor in a high school shop class, or an employee in a cabinet shop loses a couple fingers in a table saw accident, what do you think, in today's litigious society, the lawsuit rate is? Would you conclude that it's probably pretty high?
Now, contrast that lawsuit rate, in the presence of a device that is proven to minimize the damages, but wasn't being used.
Do you think any institution could make a case to minimize a lawsuit by using the defense, "we didn't want to spend the $4k to save this person's hand" ???
I believe, whether Gass had approached OSHA or not, you'd start seeing this phenomenon anyway..
I remember when seat belt laws were first being discussed.. and the resistance to change.. NOW, if someone is injured in an auto accident without using a seat belt, that person is perceived to be moronic..
Steve Gass checked into the woodnet thread on this video and claimed that the hand in the ice water was to offset the heat of the lights.
AFAIK, the thing works because your body has capacitance. IOW, the charge on the blade has nowhere to go until it encounters a big, surprised, capacitor (or "an ugly bag of mostly water", if you prefer). Charge leaks in an attempt to charge that capacitor and that load is what is detected. I'm not sure a little salt water on your hands makes a big difference in your capacitance, but I could easily be wrong.
AFA the steak not tripping it, I first thought maybe it wasn't big enough to have sufficient capacitance, but I noticed on the second watch that he's touching the steak with his hand. I'm assuming then that they have the blade break bypassed to show us how effectively a TS will cut meat (us).
AFA "sneaking up on it," remember that you're watching the close ups in super slow-mo. Around 4:00 into the video he gingerly (but pretty flippin' cavalierly, IMO) pushes his finger in. Also, there's a shot or two with the throat plate removed where a hotdog is whacking down from above. Again, that's super slow-mo. Watch how few teeth go by in the time it takes for that weiner to make it's trip into the blade.
AFA Gass's business practices... whatever. If you refuse to patronize businesses that try to use the gov't to limit your free-market choices, tho, you should also stop buying medicine, oil/ gas, electricity, et. al.. Steve Gass trying to be a one-man lobby may be offensive, but no moreso than all the others to me.
I didn't say anything about "capacitance".. salt water certainly doesn't increase the bodies' capacitance.. a salt water saturated finger would increase the conductivity of the finger.. conductivity and capacitance are different.
I wouldn't place much creedence in Steve Gass giving a straight scientific answer to any questions posed in a Woodnet forum anymore.. not with the beat'downs he's taken there.. nor would I expect him to understand and use the appropriate smileys when he's being flip with his answers..
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