KarlPe

Setup complete, I wonder what I will look like with all that safety gear on me; where can I find a girl who thinks woodworking is sexy - you know - the "she thinks my tractor's sexy" kida thing...

It is going to be interesting to see what the appeals court thinks of this case. In order to appeal, there must be an error in procedure or a ruling in error by the judge. The jury is the trier of fact and thier verdict cannot be appealed. As I understand it, the SawStop inventor presented the idea to a number of manufacturers and was rebuffed. There is a clear parallel between him and the inventor of airbags. The industry should be indited by not lecensing the technology and then offering it as an option on those saws that could accept it, and then disclaming responsibility on those saws that they thought could not accept it. This case will hopefully force all the manufacturers to adopt "flesh sensing" technology, or license the technology from SawStop like they should have done in the first place. I earned the right to use a table saw at age 8 and am now 50 and still have all my fingers. Pawls, riving knives, featherboards and such were non-existant when I learned to use push sticks to keep my fingers away from that spinning blade. The main thing that bothers me is the guy who gave this guy a saw with minimal training, then let him work with it unsupervised. If I had seen an employee having the types of problems the court documents mention, I would have stepped in and did some more teaching. That being said, I would imagine that every teaching shop in this country is either equipped, or trying to find a way to get equipped, with SawStop technology. It is just a better way to go. 99% of the time, there should not be a need to turn off the circuit and that should take care of most times the circuit is needed, just like the airbag in the middle of the steering wheel of my car. To answer the guy who asked about the lone hot dog, it has too little mass to be sensed, so you have to hold onto it as you feed it into the blade to cause the blade to withdraw. To restate: it is going to be interesting to see what the industry does with this decision, because I do not see any way for the 70%+ blame that the jury put on the saw manufacturer going away.

My father started his shop with a TableSaw he inherited from his father. My budget was very small as I started my shop. The first tool I got was a sabre saw, then a clamp on fence to guide it. With that combination, I am able to make accurate cuts on top of a piece of insulation. A basic router came next, allowing me to shape edges and make dadoes. Then I started trolling the pawn shops in the area. A jointer then joined the group, followed shortly by a table saw. Home Depot recently had a "display" model of the DeWalt planer the author of this thread recommneds and it has made me start a project where the thickness of the product was critical. Everything I have made to date has been made from dimensional lumber from the home stores. I am still in the process of getting an open space in my shop big enough to handle a full sheet of plywood, so I find myself breaking sheets down with the sabre saw and the guide on the sheet of insulation...