Ok Mr Gould. So I tried to use the million dollar table saw and the piece of garbage was broken again. I am sur no one has taken responsibility or reported it. It's sur nice. Dave s.
Thanks very much for calling this, indirectly, to the attention of the Docks Committee. You are correct. Nobody has taken responsibiity for the misuse of the saw, or reported it.
Actually, the table saw is not broken. It is working as designed.
With all of the potential liability associated with a table saw available for public use, the club installed a saw with a built in safety feature that "brakes" the saw blade, within milliseconds, if it comes in contact with anything that conducts electricity. The primary purpose of that system is to prevent accidental amputations (and multi million dollar lawsuits resulting therefrom). Saws with this feature are becoming standard equipment in wood shops open to the public.
To use the table saw, a member must remove a plywood cover plastered with warnings and instructions. "Do not cut metal on this saw." "Do not cut wet wood on this saw" "Do not cut wood treated with aresenic or other copper compounds on this saw"
And guess what happens when the member decides that he or she knows more about how to use the saw than the folks who built it? Or when a member decides that "cutting this one little piece of aluminum, just this time can't really hurt all that much, can it?" The saw works as designed. There's a reason for the warnings.
Again, Dave, you are entirely correct. Nobody reported that the brake had fired on the saw. My guess is that they were cutting something on the "prohibited" list and didn't want to admit it.
The table saws do take a beating in Cummings Hall. The new saw is there because there were important safety features broken on the old saw- and parts were no longer available.
We will replace the brake and the blade no later than Saturday.