bruegf Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Nice looking saw. I'd like to see him throw a chicken leg into that blade, to demo the SawStop's effectiveness. I can attest to how well they work, fortunately it was with my the aluminum fence of my incra miter gauge instead of my fingers. Accidentally forgot to check the end of the fence cleared the blade before making a cut. The brake fired, cost me $100 for a new saw blade and $90 for a replacement brake cartridge, but it saved the $20 fence. You can't feel where the blade contacted the fence when you run your finger tip over the spot, the only way you can feel it is if you run the edge of your finger nail over it and then just barely. I also watched a demo with a hot dog and you could barely see the mark the blade made, probably wouldn't have even needed a bandaid if it had been your finger. There's a video out there of the saw's inventor actually purposely pushing his finger into the spinning blade. Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_Potts Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 I saw the inventor use his hand to stop the blade at a conference in 2006 so I wouldn't be surprised if he's made a video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jknight611 Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Chick, how is your paw doing? Getting back to work soon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Action Tiger Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Yeah. And how about we call the saw Miss Manners, because I'm sure your pinky will sport quite the jaunty angle now when you sip tea... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_Potts Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Hmm... You thought the saw was analog but it turned out to be digital? Oh no - We've started again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick Ludwig Posted October 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 N0-no-no---HAVE MERCY---no more! (Insert smiley face here.) The big splint is off, the pin in "Pinky" is out. (Pinky not to be confused with "Stumpy".) I'll have to keep a finger splint on Pinky for a couple more weeks and be very careful. The other fingers are healing nicely and will eventually be as good as new, or almost. So will Pinky. Actually, Stumpy is healing the fastest of all. Maybe because there is less of him to heal. They are all very sensitive, and will be for awhile. I'm going to spend some time doing odd jobs on the Breeze today. Nothing that requires heavy work or a delicate touch....and nothing on that "Fire shpitten loudenboomer fingerloppen saw"!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAR Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 To speed up the healing process, you'll want to deal with the "sensitivity" issue. This is common with major surgeries, where considerable tramia is involved. Simply put, touch your fingers a lot, several times a day, anytime you think of it in fact. Lightly tap your fingers on something, use your other hand and flutter it's fingers on your pissed off ones. What this does is desensitize the affected areas, making living with them a lot easier and functionality comes much faster. Don't believe me, ask any tramia or critical care nurse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick Ludwig Posted October 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Thanks PAR, and I believe and will do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Action Tiger Posted October 9, 2015 Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Good to hear you're mending. The stimulation will also aid in healing nerve damage. You need to force your body to find the "extra" neural pathways. Our bodies are miraculous machines, capable of wonderful things, including adaptability. I suffered severe spinal cord trauma and nerve damage leaving me partially paralyzed, with a dead left leg, some 8 years ago. Painful physical therapy and nerve stimulation therapy enabled me to return to "normal". Normal being swimming 2.4 miles, riding 112 on a bike, and then running 26.2 miles, all in a row, in one day. For fun. Everyday I work hard, still, but I'm fixing to run one more marathon race in a few weeks... Shoot, brother, get to drumming those digits and you'll be ready to two hand sammiches outta that cooler in no time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick Ludwig Posted October 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2015 Tiger---You do WHAT?----for FUN? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (add a gazzilion more "!!!s") I'll be happy to just get back to my normal working in my shop old self. I'll definitely follow your and PAR's advice and work on the fingers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lathrop Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 To speed up the healing process, you'll want to deal with the "sensitivity" issue. This is common with major surgeries, where considerable tramia is involved. Simply put, touch your fingers a lot, several times a day, anytime you think of it in fact. Lightly tap your fingers on something, use your other hand and flutter it's fingers on your pissed off ones. What this does is desensitize the affected areas, making living with them a lot easier and functionality comes much faster. Don't believe me, ask any tramia or critical care nurse. In 1988, we were building a trimaran with Graham for the World 1000 race. I challenged the law of probabilities on Graham's table saw with my left hand by reaching across the blade to remove a cut off. In a flash my left thumb and forefinger were bloody to the bone but still intact. Off to the emergency room for repairs and metal splints and back to work on the tri next day because we were up against a deadline. The biggest problem was indeed the sensitivity issue after the wounds fully healed. Holding a nut in place over a bolt that you could not see was very difficult for some time since I could not tell what the orientation was. It has improved in nearly 30 years but there is still some numbness in the finger tips. I strongly support further development of a safe table saw as the SawStop seems like a blunt instrument solution. Effective for sure but not very elegant or economical. I wonder if a magnetic clutch and brake system similar to the one on an auto air conditioner might hold some promise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick Ludwig Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Tom, seems like almost everyone has a story to tell like this. It's been said that you never meet an old carpenter with all of his fingers. Maybe "boat builder" should be substituted for "carpenter". Then there's another saying: "Old boat builders never die, they just get leaky bottoms." Or, "....they just get a little dinghy." Or,........... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designer Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 I remember that day very well. I had to do a small job elsewhere and Tom was working on the boat at the house alone. I arrived home expecting to find Tom at the shop, all I could find was an empty shop with a trail of blood leading away from the table saw. A quick quick phone call found a chastened Tom at the other end with the sad tale. I believe that was when I formulated the rule "never under any circumstances will you reach across the blade". Reaching across the blade to help pull the tail end away from the blade only tightens the kerf on the back of the blade which is spinning towards you. The net result is that your fingers are pulled into the blade at lightning speed, the results are not pretty. Instead of reaching over the blade, use a push stick, lift the board out of the blade and flip it over and finish the cut, or have someone pull out the tail end for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Action Tiger Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Chick, the Action Tiger nick name came from my racing days... 20 years ago when I was actually in the race, not just pack filler. No more triathlon for me, but I still swim a few miles a week, and I've been known to disappear for a 10 or 20 mile run of a morning. Three or four mornings a week... Goes back to that old Cain't Sit Still Disorder. The nerve stimulation really helps in sensitive, nerve dense areas, like hands, feet, face. You will never be 100% again, but you can easily achieve 90% with some work. The extra wiring is there, you just have to reconnect the brain and fingers on a new route. As for the safe saw, an electromagnetic clutch seems cool. Perhaps the electrical charge from your body could set the mechanism off? Don't all sharks have a lateral line, after all? It's all academic to me, as I couldn't imagine ever buying or using a tablesaw again, but the auto stop blade idea is really cool... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAR Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 I remember talking with Dr. Gass around the turn of the century and he looked at clutches initially, but couldn't get the speed fast enough. The SawStop halts the blade in less than 5 milliseconds, which is damn quick. I agree it's a hammer swatting a fly approach, but it does work. Just thinking about stopping a 3,500 RPM arbor in 5 milliseconds seems pretty daunting. Chick, after a couple weeks of desensitizing your fingers, you'll notice a big difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lathrop Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 I actually already knew that rule about reaching across the tablesaw blade but now its tatooed on my brain. I yell at anyone I see doing that. My thought on the magnetic clutch thing is to have the saw blade engage on start up so that only the blade and a minimal arbor mass are involved in stopping. A second magnetic brake would grab the blade directly on both sides. SawStop uses the capacitance of the human body to ground(saw frame) to complete the circuit if the body touches the blade so no direct connection is needed. Another competing system retracts the blade/arbor on contact. That might be more mass to react than the one I mentioned. If a small touch of damage were allowed, a simpler system might be affordable on all tablesaws, even fairly cheap ones. In today's climate, that is probably asking for too much reason though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_Potts Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Chick - I'm glad to hear your healing continues. Robert - If I wanted to go somewhere that was 26 miles away I might try a bicycle and if my destination was 112 miles away a car or train might be in order. Also a kayak would be a good way for me to travel a couple of miles across water. I think maybe one of us is misplacing a decimal but I'm not sure who Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick Ludwig Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Thanks guys. It's great to have sympathetic friends on here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rexaco Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 Here is a novel method for safer ripping with a short rip fence... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Action Tiger Posted October 10, 2015 Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 As to the saw, I immediately thought of the arbor/blade connection being broken when I heard magnetic clutch. The blade could be engaged or disengaged at the drive hub by magnets. You get it snug with a bolt, but the magnets would lock it up to cut. When you get bit, the blade will spin free while the arbor keeps turning. Surely, if we can move trains with magnets, we can connect a blade to an arbor, right? By we, I mean people who do math for fun. You guys think I'm sick? Here's the part about my back nobody ever believes. When it gets bad, super tight hamstring and lower back, flashing hot/cold/numb down the calf and foot, going for a run always makes it better. I am not advocating Chick go run a marathon on his hands to feel better, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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