Professional tool reviews for the average Joe: Last week, the state Senate failed to actually do anything with AB 2218, a rather troublesome yet persistent consumer safety bill that would mandate "injury mitigation technology" on all table saws sold in California.
9 comments:
Thank god that this bill did not pass. Sawstop is a cool technology and it has applications and locations that it should be used but this technology takes away the danger and the instincts that come with that danger. I really do think that if sawstop becomes mandatory there will be more accidents on other installed power tools and with hand saws. Until you can make this technology in every tool including hand saws you should not mandate it on table saws. I also do not want to see extra weight added to contractor portable table saws. I do however think that we will see this issue pushed into legislation again in California and on the national stage.
really? all this fuss about having the saw stop be mandated and it just gets forgotten about and left to die? anti climatic... though i agree with luke that it does have its place but it does not need to be an unncessary financial burdon and mandate. it will be brought to legislation again there is almost no doubt of that but i find it really funny though that it just got forgotten and left to die
This particular issue will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next few years. Yes, the bill died this time around but I truly believe that this is just a small hurdle for the saw stop people. But on the issue itself, I do understand where the saw stop guy is coming from. The mandate part is the area that really frustrates me. Blame it on me being an American but I do not like someone telling what I have to do. I do love that the option is out there and I am extremely happy to see people trying to help other people. Overall I love the technology but still truly believe it should be up to the consumer to make the decision.
I am im complete agreeement with Luke and Sean. This anticlimatic session concerning this bill is quite ridiculous. This bill should not be passed at all. This technology does have it's uses and does help prevent injury, but the sense of self and caution saves a lot more. The issue I have with this technology is that with it, people will become far to comfortable with it and have no respect for the tool. They will continue use of this without any concern for safety, and that is when things go wrong. I think that instead of mandating this safety technology, people should be trained on how to use these tools correctly.
Would you have preferred a Rooftop-in-the-Rain fistfight between Steve Gaas and Norm Abram? Would that have been dramatic enough? I'm heartened that we don't all need to buy SawStops now, too but this bill DIED in the Senate from neglect, not from being defeated. The fight, as dumb as a great many of us believe it to be, "rages" on at its glacial pace.
Safety is a choice, no matter how many laws you pass making it mandatory. OSHA has been fighting that uphill battle since its inception in the 50s. I've worked with about half a dozen residential contractors in my lifetime and only one in memory didn't immediately remove the blade guard, riving knife and kickback guards on their brand new table saws; when I questioned them, if I wasn't immediately told to, "Shut my clap" (yes, that's a quote), I was told they make the saw harder to use and if I was scared I shouldn't use one in the first place.
My suspicion is that these guys would disable a sawstop-like device as well and then bitch about how expensive their new saw was. Try as you might, you can't MAKE people be safer, you can only educate them and hope they make that choice for themselves.
What I'm finding interesting here is that last week there was a huge discussion about Apple's control over patents and their lawsuit, yada yada yada. Now, We have this article and maybe I misunderstood it, but what nobody really seems to mention is the line here that says it's basically impossible for someone to create a rival to the sawstop: ("but the inventor of SawStop, a patent attorney, owns around 90 patents on the technology that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to come up with any solutions for a mandate apart from his (SawStop)". Different arguments sure, but still.
So I agree with Luke and Jake and everyone on some level really. I've used sawstop saws and seen them in schools and it's true, kids don't respect the tool as much because they don't think it can hurt them, when in fact, even with the pneumatic drop and brake it can. That aside as I was saying before, it's almost impossible for someone to come up with an alternative or similar safety feature, so California is going to mandate that I buy a SawStop saw for my shop and that's that? No other options? I'm sorry, there's a huge issue here. Show me a similar product and competitor and I'll stop rambling but until then I refuse to support this.
Also, for your enjoyment...
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/408216/february-13-2012/people-who-are-destroying-america---sawstop
I am glad that this did not pass. This article said it just right, that a safer saw is not completely safe and it may not be worth the cost for the feature if you are not going to be working with it every day. It does not have the power that they need to do the test or it trips when you try to cut certain materials. I would have possibly supported this bill if the technology was free and any manufactures could use it on their saw and there would be companions for the best saw. I wonder if this is the first in many of these type of laws with the best interest for safety with the saw stop.
The owners of Saw Stop have made a brilliant ploy here, and I hope one that will not go unnoticed by legislators. It's part of a much larger problem in our political system that gives corporations and special interests such direct access to policy makers. Not much, it turns out, has changed since the good old days of the Roman Senate (well, except for the whole tyrannicide thing, I guess, at least for now). I've used the Saw Stop product, and it is becoming more and more prevalent in the industry, especially with cash strapped non-profit arts groups and educational groups who get a break on their insurance for choosing the product. This, in my opinion, should be an incentive based decision. If you have the capital upfront and choose to pay for the expensive, safe, but otherwise not so great table saw because you want to save later on your insurance, so be it. The incentive is yours to claim. Mandating that you do so because you can't be trusted to take care of your won fingers is exactly the kind of parenting in which the government has no place, in my opinion.
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