No more need for a guard?

[Dean Heighington]

Hot-diggety-dog...

[Dean Heighington]

amazing and wondered if they could incorporate it into a Grinder!!!

[Andy Burns]

Where's the blade going to go to on a grinder, and where's the sacrificial arm thing going to sit? and what teeth is is going to bite onto?

Sounds like a non-starter for an angle grinder to me.

[Dean Heighington]

That's a bit of a defeatist attitude Andy! What happened to 'better by design'? or 'where there's a will, there's a way'?

I'm thinking there could be a toothed gear on the motor spindle before it emerges from the casing (behind the blade/wheel) and has a 'brake' waiting to contact that in an emergency. I would imagine a 'special' blade would have to be employed that could detect 'salt' within a digit/hand or the could be a sensor wire/guard or flange mounted after the blade.

True, it would involve some major R&D but considering the amount of injuries involving grinders it would be a great safety innovation saving time and money as well as digits!

Perhaps also incorporate an accelerometer to detect if the tool is dropped, switching it off in the process!?

[Weatherlawyer]

All comparatively expensive compared to the noble art of using a push stick.

The crumple zone and blade damage is $60 that wouldn't have been needed plus the cost of the machine in the first place and the cost of downtime replacing it. But I can't believe that at least some damage occurred to the spindle when the blade flexed.

[dennis]

I feel it may be easier to develop a better guard. Something powered so it doesn't let you get near the blade and covers it if you don't hold the tool safely.

The sawstop moves the blade away, it may be easier to move the finger and be a bit more painful so they don't do it again.

I would prefer something more passive like the ballistic clothing you can get for chainsaw safety. There is less to go wrong and it looks like its impossible to test the sawstop is working without destroying it.

[F Murtz]

The problem will be when, because the technology exists the do gooders try to make it compulsory.

[ARWadsworth]

Mass murderers will also find faults with it when trying to chop up bodies.

[Andy Dingley]

This is America. They don't have do-gooders, they have paid lobbyists. As SawStop are trying to do just that, I wouldn't buy one of their products on principle. They'd be a lot better served by fitting splitters or riving knives to their saws, not finger-brakes.

The other problem is that SawStop does nothing to stop kickback accidents, the sort that are far more likely to cause me an injury.

[Steve Walker]

The nigh on instant stop would probably disintegrate the disk in all directions and even if it didn't the sudden stop in a large, high-speed, hand-held tool would quite possibly do more damage and injury than the disk would have caused without the system in place.

SteveW

[John Rumm]

What do you mean "will":

happening!

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Mass murderers don't care about such details. Serial killers might, though.