When a carpenter buddy told me about a table saw safety feature that was absolutely fail-safe, I had to check it out. In 10 seconds, the video below will make you a believer.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esnQwVZOrUU

Steve Gass loves to work with wood and has a PhD in physics. He conceived the idea and started Saw Stop to make and sell his innovative table saws.

As I watched the video, I thought of another buddy of mine who works in a custom cabinet shop. His boss pushed him into cutting some thin laminate backwards through the saw, even though my pal mentioned how the last time he used that method it grabbed and kicked back. After being upbraided for almost an hour about the need to just get it done, the supervisor ordered him to do as he was told.

With a fear of losing his job, he started cutting and the material bound and pulled his hand into the saw for a nasty gash. The wild part of this story, though, is that the cabinet shop is owned by a physician and he treated my friend for the Workman’s Comp injury. The Doc/Owner told him to go into work the next day, that he’d be fine and certainly didn’t need any time off, even though he has permanent nerve damage in his hand.

In Lancaster County, we tend not to sue people and my buddy just went back to work. Jobs are hard to come by these days.

To end on a lighter note, you can’t watch a saw safety video on YouTube without getting some suggestions about not so safe saw work. Here’s a short one that made me laugh…imagining how easily it could happen to me.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHUtp5w3kis&feature=related