Regardless of what you put on a swirling blade, whether on a table saw, RAS, mitre saw, etc. there is nothing that can be put on it to prevent accidents. There will always be some fool who tries to make an adjustment to the saw with the blade running or some other dumb thing. Will the SS prevent this person from being damaged when the glove he is wearing (suggested previously) snags in the saw and causes and accident? Would the accident then be blamed on the glove and someone initiate a campaign to use snag less gloves?
In one of these post some one suggested replacing a table saw with a Circular Saw. Has any body seen someone who is damaged with a circular saw? They are the most vicious things in existence.
I had my first table saw accident about two weeks ago, because I DID SOMETHING STUPID. It was not the fault of any design flaw in the saw, it was plan stupidity on my part. After it happened and I realized the extent of the damage, my next though was I don't have SS and have to repair the saw to finish the job. While what I did was stupid, the damage was minimal BECAUSE when I started, I set the saw up properly.
"Something stupid" is a variations on the hardest words to say in the any language I MADE A MISTAKE. No one is willing to take the responsibility for their own actions they always must be a victim of some one else s mistakes. Every one from obama who is still blaming President Bush for his failures to the man working in his garden.
This discussion reminds me of a safety manager I knew many years ago. In the lab we did a lot of work with 2 ml screw top bottles. These were used in a plastic bag to protect that sample in a Nitrogen atmosphere. We got a batch of bad bottles that crumbled when you put the top on to tight.
The safety manager required us to use HEAVY Rubber gloves for protection from cuts if the bottle broke. The safety equipment prevented us from doing our job as the gloves made it impossible to handle the tiny bottles. Is side the Nitrogen bag it was impossible.