Teh Missus nearly lost an eye using a handheld circular saw - we posted a photo of her gruesome injury over the saws at the shop as a warning to others.
Also - I had a shop teacher in high school who was missing 1 and a half fingers. He lost the first one teaching shop safety - swinging his hand back towards the running blade whilst intoning: “Never do this.”. One of the kids fainted dead away. The teacher tucked his finger in his shirt pocket and excused himself from the class. The very next year - he was teaching shop safety and holding up his hand - showing the missing finger - and said: “You want to know how I did this? Just like this.” - and he swung his hand back (again) and this time lopped off half of the next finger. Absolutely true story.
Also also - his nickname was Bozo - but that was because of his hair.
So the great thing with a track is that you can just snap a line, drop the track down, and go. That said, track saws are really used for one offs- if I have a stack of sheets to rip I’m running them through the table saw. Where the track really shines is rips at funny angles, especially when you need a finish-y grade cut. (If the cut is gonna get hidden in any way, I’d just free hand rip with the circ.)
I had read about something like this happening to a gentleman on some work site. First time it was a mishap, the second time someone was asking the guy to explain how he lost the finger and he proceeded to recreate the accident, a little too perfectly.
TBH I don’t think their intention was quite so rent seeky, the impression I got was fairly idealistic- to me the proof is that they wouldn’t have gone into production in such a ridiculous industry to enter if they didn’t believe in it. I still rather believe if the big multinationals wanted they could wipe saw stop out. There’s just not enough money there to be worth it.
This is really what it comes down to- you’re already dealing with tight margins, and a good shop that would actually think of spending the extra on the saw/maintenance, they already have proper safety training and procedures in place and that’s where you reduce most of your incidents anyway, so why bother?
Where I do think it could make a huge difference is on job sites. The environment is way less regulated, particularly when you get to the remodel level, where safety is shockingly often negligent, even amongst the good ones. Don’t get me started on the budget outfits that pay their workers pennies and really don’t give a fuck what happens to them.
They have this expensive one-use upgrade that might help save your life, but you’ll probably never need it, so why bother? I’ve been driving for 25 years and I still have all my bones. I’m pretty sure I can go another 25.
my main problem with this type of technology is that it better be 100% effective and 100% foolproof, because people install measures like these then promptly forget all safety precautions and good habits. you still don’t point a gun at your head even if the safety is engaged.
idea: this company should market their tech by donating it to every highschool shop class that requests one. good pr. public service.
You don’t want to reach over the blade or to be directly behind the wood (avoid the kickback zone) but his reach is exaggerated because he knows the kickback is coming.
Oh, well… Crap. Perhaps “SwiftKey,” then? It has the best predictions I know of (optionally using your own text/FB/etc. history, to add precision), plus lets you use the same “Swype-y” input methods, if you prefer. I actually like it the best of the video keyboards I know of (besides “Hacker’s Keyboard,” when using my phone to talk to a PC or play “Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup” online ^^’).
Among other things, it doesn’t try to avoid swear words, unlike most prediction models. If I start with “Fu-”, for example, I get 3 rather…er…“topically useful” suggestions, every time xD.
