The laws of physics apply to one and all...(tablesaw issue)

We went almost a year without a table saw failure. Then, we have had two in the last two weeks. One member owned up and took responsibility, the other just sort of sneaked off someplace...

Electricty doesn't play favorites. It doesn't much care about club seniority, how many thousand board feet of wood you've cut up in a lifetime, or even how the table saw worked when you took high school shop class (from an instructor with 3 fingers on his left hand) 55 years ago. :-)

The table saw in Cummins Hall is a Sawstop model. These are now commonly in use in a number of professional wood shops and - especially schools. The primary advantage? It's almost impossible to lose a finger to the saw blade. The human body conducts electricity, and when the table saw senses the presence of anything capable of conducting electricity (such as a finger) it takes about 1/1000th of a second to set off the electronic brake and stop the saw blade. You just saved a finger, but the cost to replace the brake and the blade is over $100. A saw with this technology absolutely makes sense when every member with a key card has access to the saw- no training, no checkout, and no qualifications required.

The primary *dis* advantage of the Sawstop? It isn't going to allow you to cut stuff that you probably shouldn't be trying to cut with a wood saw blade in the first place. That piece of aluminum may be "little", but it will trigger the safety brake and ruin a saw blade. LIkewise, if you try to cut wet wood you will ruin a brake and a sawblade. The same applies to treated wood that has been soaked in arsenic. Arsenic is a copper compound and it conducts electricity.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to try to cut material that will conduct electricity and set off the brake. Not only will you wreck the sawblade, but you will *not* get your project cut. In addition, there are only a handful of people in the club who know how to change the brake and the blade (and who have access to the replacement parts), so depending upon who is or is not in town the table saw may be out of action for a few days following a foul-up

So please take the signs very seriously that read, "Don't try to cut the following materials on this saw..." Electricity is unforgiving, and pretty much foolproof.

Additonal caution; putting or getting anything metal within a fraction of an inch of the blade when the saw is turned on will *also* trigger the brake. Consider using a piece of wood as a "pusher", vs.a metal tool.

Thanks very much!