daveferg

As was properly noted, making changes in the required safety equipment on table saws will be very slow to have an impact. Good table saws, particularly name brand cabinet saws can be in use for decades. Therefore, the best approach is to re-emphasize good safety practices and the use of available safety equipment.

Are you aware that safety standards for tables saws (guards, anti-kickback devices, etc.) are over 100 years old? They were first developed by the ASME and distributed to businesses for voluntary compliance. Not until the OSHA Act in 1970, did these become mandatory for businesses.

Frankly, I think table saw manufacturers have done a horrible job of making their tools as safe as possible. Talk to saw users, for example, and with few exceptions, they hate the stock guard supplied. A big part of the reason is the guard takes time to install and remove for non-through cut operations, like dados or cutting tenons. In my experience, only one manufacturer came up with a simple removal method--involve one thumb screw on a self centering pin.

Finally, of those 31 thousand injuries, I would have to ask how many occurred to people using the guard, feather boards and/or push sticks????? I'd venture to say, not too many.

Yes, the table saw is versatile, but as such, not every operation, in my opinion, has been properly designed/developed, from a safety perspective. A good example is cutting thin strips of wood. Most users incorrectly set the thin distance between the blade and the fence, allowing little room for a push stick, and making an OEM guard unusable. However, there have been any number of articles and even a couple of new fence designs, to allow the user to safely cut thin strips without getting near the blade or risking kick-back. I for one, don't think the table saw is necessarily the best tool for the job. I do much better work with a band saw and thickness planer or drum sander.

Obviously, the answer rests with educating users in safe practices. But where will they get this training? Shop classes in public schools are some of the first victims of the budget ax, and even with the few remaining, due to insurance and liability, often students are not allowed to use the table saw.

TV icons like Norm Abram rarely if ever used the guard so people could "see" the cut. At first they put a disclaimer on the screen, but even that soon stopped. Congratulations to Scott Phillips for consistently using guards and safety equipment on his show, but that is just one out of many shows and even magazines that omit using the guard for "clarity".