Dec. 30, 2011

At our meeting Thursday I would like to tell the club a "war story" of mine. Well, actually it was a story of me getting a finger tangled up in a tablesaw blade this week.

In October I purchased a SawStop table saw. These are supposed to stop the blade instantly if it detects flesh & the blade is to drop below the tabletop. Well, I was cutting a piece of ¼" plywood and I got a kickback. Don't ask me how it occurred since it all went so fast. I noticed that the saw had stopped and the blade had dropped below the table top. I thought it has misfired. Then I realized I had a tiny scratch on the side of one finger. There was a tiny amount of blood – no drops. It felt like I had scraped the side of the finger with a finger nail. I didn't need a band-aid. I immediately called a friend that has been talking of buying a SawStop for months, but said he can't justify it. I told him it cost less than an emergency room visit. I called SawStop and they said they would send me a free brake if I would send them the old one. Right now the blade is wedged into the brake. I will bring that to the club to show the guys. I took it to Woodcraft and bought another brake so I could get back to work. Roger wanted to take photos of my finger and the blade/brake. He said he has had several folks come in with the same situation. The new brake was $73.00 and the blade is about that. I don't know if the blade was damaged since it is lodged into the aluminum brake. I suspect if I was still using my Powermatic 66, I would have probably lost more than just one finger. The thing of it is I sold it to the guy that I work for and I have to use it at work. I have been paranoid of using it since I bought this new saw even though I had used it for 16 years and never had a accident.

Doc