Cutting half laps with a dado blade?

[Lee Michaels]

"Robatoy" wrote

Dean Kamen can help out too.

guy is farking brilliant!! ===================

I saw one of these at the local mall. It was so intriguing, I went over and talked to the guy. He was sitting in the chair when it was in the elevated position. I asked him about that. He said he goes into that position when he wants to look down the mall hall. I never thought about that, never have been in a wheel chair.

Anyway, it has that balance feature in it that allows the person in the chair to do all these kinds of things. I asked if the balance features was similar to the segway. He said that it was not quite that sophisticated. But similar technology. Maybe early segway?

The gentleman in the chair made it very clear that his life was very enhanced with this high tech chair. I love to see technology like this. It fills a genuine need and really helps people. Wouldn't it be nice if more technology did that?

[Robatoy]

Segway is also a Dean Kamen product.

[J. Clarke]

Unfortunately it's no longer in production and support ends in

2013--supposedly only 400 of them were sold at a cost of $26K a piece and Medicare/Medicaid (and presumably private insurance as well) wouldn't pay for them. rights have reverted to the inventor so maybe he can interest some other outfit that can get the cost down.

[Upscale]

I do know of a few instances where they've been covered by health insurance if it's essential for one's job and their livelihood. For the average person, you're correct in that they are not covered by health insurance.

Aside from that, they're a mechanical nightmare and keeping them in working order mechanical wise and part wise can be a waking nightmare onto itself. One of them would be a nice diversion from a convenience point of view, but most things out of reach from someone sitting in a wheelchair can usually obtained with the use of a wide variety of reaching and pick up tools.

[Upscale]

> The rights have reverted to the inventor so maybe he can interest some other

It's like any other piece of machinery on the market where competition and demand are what brings a price down. That fact that approximately 10% of the population have a mobility problem and even fewer would consider buying such a device means it's unlikely the price would ever decrease under current or previous market conditions.

That's why even a basic wheelchair capable of travelling around outside a hospital setting retails for $3000 and climbs from there. Medicare (Canadian in this case) with the recommendation of a doctor and/or physiotherapist will pay approximately 80%, but the money has to come from somewhere.

It's ironic since three similar wheelchairs sell for the equivalent of a small car, yet the engineering in a car easily outstrips that of three wheelchairs. However, the demand for cars also easily outstrips the demand for wheelchairs, so they just don't sell for the same price ratio.

[dpb]

Upscale wrote: ...

There's the "why" primarily -- the cost is put off to the third party (and a government entity to boot) so there's absolutely no incentive to lower price as it's a non-competitive market.

--

[Larry W]

How about just clamp a board down in the place where you would put the fence? Of course you will ahve to ensure that it is parallel to the blade.

[Phisherman]

Not a bad idea. I use an inexpensive round mirror with the built-in stand when handcut dovetails. It easily lets me see where I am cutting on the other side. I have two "mirror tools" in my shop.

[Doug Brown]

I wonder if our friend Rob from Lee Valley would be at all interested (considering their not so recent brach out into the medical services side of things?)>

[J. Clarke]

Interesting thought.

What's really needed though is for someone to come up with a high volume market for the technology that allows the wheelchairs to be made inexpensively as a sideline.

[MikeWhy]

Ooh. An extreme off-road Segway? Segways cost considerably less and still have a hard time selling despite the technology glitz.