Well that makes me feel better. I had come up with The World's Best Idea one night in a bar and wanted to patent it, and the next morning I couldn't remember The Idea. Glad to know I didn't really lose anything. ;)
R
I worked for a large multinational for *many* years on a very active patent review board (we reviewed around 200 patents a year). How many patents do you hold?
Absolutely false. The has the patent on a sensor connected to a saw blade detecting a human limb activating a blade brake. *ANY* sensor that detects human contact with the blade and activates *ANY* sort of blade brake falls under this patent. That's a pretty damned broad concept. Have you even read the subject patent?
Why don't you take your fortune and gamble it against his patent. You will *not* win. No one else is stupid enough to try.
I'm sure the sensing mechanism is pretty basic. Instant touch sensing switches have been around for years. I think the real patent is on the complex electro-mechanical circuit and mechanism that jams that alum block into the blade before it can do any real damage. The design of a mechanism that reacts so quickly is surely innovative and worthy of a patent.
nb
Me too. Most people have no idea how truly horrific or expensive hand injuries from power saws can be:
"Power saws may cause severe lacerations and fractures. Nerve, tendon, vascular injury and amputation are possible as well. Fingertip injuries are the most common with the thumb being the most commonly injured digit. An injury sustained from a power saw could quickly and suddenly have devastating consequences. It has been determined that a circular table saw can sever a human forearm 6 centimeters in diameter in just 40 - 60 milliseconds depending upon the feeding power of the saw."
-- Bobby G.
You "think" wrong.
I was drunk and cut my finger off. Stupid!! I was at work the next day. Quit advocating being a pussy.
nb
You're advocating....being stupid? Tough? Stupid and tough? Or was notbob going for joke and no get laugh?
R
Yes, that's a choice. I made the opposite choice. If I had to pay $3,500 for a saw, I probably wouldn't own one.
My Unisaw that's one tenth that age works very well too. It works a lot better than the SawStop I wouldn't have. ;-)
"keith" wrote
I understand enough to know that patents can be gotten around. I know that patents don't stop others from doing as they please. I know a company that filed suit against about a dozen companies for infringing on his patent. After 6 years, all he has to show so far is a big stack of lawyer bills.
Just because you are not clever enough to get around it does not mean that some smart guy working in his basement will not. Sorry, but that's the way it is. As I said, we'll talk again in a few years to see the status.
Some can. Some are so basic and broad that they cannot. This one is in the latter category.
No courts keep people from doing what they please. If you don't think SawStop is going to defend its patents to the death, you're nuts. They have a lock on this one.
You're simply clueless.
Nice dodge.
wrote
Your opinion.
Of course they will defend it, just as the example I gave. Years later, the "infringers" are doing business as usual, the patent holder is paying lawyer fees and has recovered nothing, stopped nothing. Only winner so far is the lawyers.
Your small minded opinion. The future is not over yet. Lets talk later.
Tip of your finger if you're incredibly lucky! Anyone unlucky enough to see how fast a radial arm saw can "walk" across a piece of lumber (usually from starting the motor with the blade already jammed against the stock) knows how fast it could drag your whole arm into the blade with devastating results. A modern power saw cuts human flesh and bone like butter since it's designed to tear through tough oak.
I often wonder why people have such a "stuck in the craw" attitude about improvements in safety engineering? You see it all the time here. Is it a macho thing? Is it oldsters railing at the changes in the modern world that they feel they have no control over? Is it the massive ego of believing they are so smart and so lucky that they are immune from accidents? Well, no one is immune. You can only hope to reduce accidents but you can't control when you have a stroke or a heart attack and when that safety interlock is the only thing standing between a bad event and probably a lethal one.
Anyone who thinks it can't happen to them should read:
This is a no-brainer like consumer protection on predatory lending. Yes, Angelo Mozillo and all the other mortgageers only ripped off the dumb people, but tell me - are only the dumb people suffering? No, we all are. It turned out that consumer protection equals protection of the entire economy. Same for the guy who saws off his hand. We all pay for that. Higher insurance rates, taxes for disability payments, workmen's comp, etc. It seems like common sense to lower expenses, especially needless ones. Deadman switches don't appear because one man died or almost did. It's because decision makers have seen dozens of deaths and maimings, year after year and feel compelled to limit those occurrences. That's why so many Federal safety agencies are called "tombstone agencies" because they only get into the game when the death rate from something climbs past the ignorable point.
"In the United States, approximately 9400 children younger than 18 years receive emergency treatment annually for lawn mower-related injuries. More than 7% of these children require hospitalization, and power mowers cause a large proportion of the amputations during childhood. Prevention of lawn mower-related injuries can be achieved by design changes of lawn mowers, guidelines for mower operation, and education of parents, child caregivers, and children. . . . Power lawn mowers caused 22% of the amputation injuries among children admitted to one regional level 1 trauma center"
source:
-- Bobby G.
You would think, with more than 30,000 injuries and 3,500 amputations per year due to table saws, that a new invention to prevent such accidents would be welcomed. I wonder if it's just a Luddite mentality, an anti-Big Government mentality or just plain foolishness not to want to have a safer tool available. My friend just bought one and the greatest advantage is that his wife doesn't go around with a knot in her stomach anymore when she hears him fire up the blade. His opinion is that $2K is peanuts compared to what a serious saw accident costs.
Of course, if you're a Perfect Pete who's never made a mistake or had an accident in his life, then I guess it's a waste of money . . .
-- Bobby G.
Not all of us can afford multi-thousand-dollar table saws for occasional use. A $500 saw would be a luxury for me, since I don't use it to make money. I'd be a lot more inclined to throw money on an auto-stop saw if it didn't destroy much of the saw in the process, and it was not subject to false trips like the current one apparently is. I grew up in construction, and saw a few bloody accidents over the years. Almost all of them were due to user error, and in hindsight, easily avoidable. The best bang for the buck on safety is TRAINING. I got mine from my father, and the old master carpenters he employed. Someone who has never used power tools, but started watching TOH and decided they want to get into it, well, that is a problem. Short of signing up for courses at a vo-ed center, how can they get trained? Read and understand the manual, like Norm always says on his show? Watch a video? Go to a Saturday demo at the Borg? I dunno. There is no way to completely idiot-proof industrial machines.
Robert Green wrote: (snip)
Not a matter of saving the $5 or $10- it is a matter of badly-designed dead-man switches and skirts making the mower less usable for somebody who knows what they are doing, who wears hard shoes when mowing, and just wants to get the job done. Little kids (under 15 or so) probably should NOT operate power equipment. They don't have enough life experience to pay attention while the engine is running. No kids here, so I am not putting anyone but me at risk. When I sell the mower, I'll take the magnets off the deadman switch handle, and cut the zip-tie holding the skirt up, and all the nanny features will be back in operation. Next owner can make their own decision.
Using that logic - cost be damned - your friend should have an ejection seat fitted on his car.
My INFORMED opinion, as opposed to your pull-it-out-your-ass wishful claptrap. I know how to read patents.
Look at the market (for table saws) before you make an even bigger fool of yourself.
You're being the wishful virgin dreaming about her knight. "Technology" will not solve all of you're imagined problems just because of your wants.
w.
Which appears to have made you assume:
"Given the average age, I'd say these were people with experience too."
I'd say that that is an assumption that cannot be made. Of course, it also has to be based on your definition of "experience". If someone uses a table saw *once*, do they have "experience"? Technically, by definition, yes. However, in terms of this discussion, no.
I don't think that the average age can be that easily associated with "experience".
They give stats about age and they give stats about board size but they don't give stats about professionals vs. experienced amateurs vs. weekend warriors.
I'm above the given average age and I use a table saw for DIY projects. I'd put myself somewhere between "experienced amateur" and "weekend warrior".
If I was the next one to get hurt I would raise the average age slightly. However, as far as experience, I'm sure that I have less hours on the TS than many 20-something contractors do - those that rip hundreds of board-feet a week.
My only point is that I don't think you can conclude that the average age of 51 means that those with experience are the ones being injured. It *may* actually be true, but I don't think that the limited information given justifies that conclusion..
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