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> Meanwhile the people who don't care about safety because > they're [never doing unsafe things] This sounds an awful lot like suggesting that skilled users
by gknoy 5y ago
> Meanwhile the people who don't care about safety because
> they're [never doing unsafe things]
This sounds an awful lot like suggesting that skilled users of firearms don't care at all about safety because no one's going to deliberately do stupid stuff. It seems farcical to me. Just as with firearm safety rules, they're there to protect people from the rare moments when we are inadvertently NOT careful. History has shown that people DO do stupid stuff because they were thinking about something else, or were tired, or distracted -- hence why every firearm is treated as loaded, even if you unloaded it, and why weapon safeties exist.
For table saws, having a sawstop helps prevent situations that you don't have fill control over from having bad consequences. Of course you'd still use all the same safety measures you normally would without one.
- VLM 5y agoMost firearms accidents happen during normal operations like carrying, cleaning, disassembly, and so on. In comparison table saws are extremely versatile and can do many operations some of which categorically prevent entire classes of accidents. For example I have a commercially made box cutting jig with various shields and guards and its not physically possible to stick my fingers in the blade during operation. If as you claim my mind drifted and I did stupid stuff, by physical design of the operation its impossible to hurt myself. There's another class of accident involving equipment. Some people do not store firearms with trigger locks or unloaded in safes or whatever. Likewise there's an analogy with table saws where I don't rip small boards without a nice featherboard, riving knife, and some really nice plastic pushsticks. If as you claim my mind drifted, this time by use of tools it would still be physically impossible to hurt myself. There is a class of inherently dangerous operations where no safety tools exist but the table saw is so versatile and flexible people can successfully do the operation... most of the time. My point is instead of spending more money to build a "better" tablesaw to do something dumb, simply invest the money in a COTS bandsaw or track saw or jigsaw hole cutting jig or chainsaw or planer or whatever crazy risky thing there's a better, faster, safer tool. You can do dangerous things with a table saw but there's always a better safer faster way to do it with a different tool. Taking away money by making the required table saw more expensive just means the woodworker will not be able to afford the superior even safer tool for the job.