CPSC Proposes New Safety Rule for Tablesaws

On 05/25/2017 1:05 PM, dpb wrote: ...

BTW, that's a range of $11,400 - $42,000 per incident. Needless to say, they're not counting just a knick and a bandaid in the statistics, here, altho it surely don't take long to rack up $10K in an emergency room visit.

Correct, I confirmed that with SS before ordering.

My share of the cost to close my thumb to half length was $600 + a couple of plastic surgeons office visits to observe healing and remove stitches. That was in 1989.

That would probably easily reach $5K now and that might not even touch it, I'd guess.

The number in all this that floors me as seeming to be just inconceivable is the 54,800. That's 150/day on a 365-day year, if you give contractors working 6-day weeks it'd be 175/day, every day! That, I just can't believe is really so, but I know of no way to refute it without way more time/effort than have to devote to the task. And, all I know of is the same database they're quoting, so if it's somehow all mucked, where's an independent set of data with which to counter...

It is a large number but on average only 3.5 people per day for each state. And that is skewed because the population differs greatly from state to state but I think it evens out. One would think with rules and regulations roofers might not be falling off of roofs. In our neighborhood in a 6 month period, when the homes were still being built, ambulances came out on 2 occasions to deal with a worker that fell off a roof. Even back in 1989 when I cut my thumb the surgeon asked how it happened. I told him I was woodworking and he finished the sentence with, and you were using a table saw. He mentioned that they see 2-3 TS accidents weekly, in that hospital alone. Multiply that by the 30 plus hospitals back then, in Houston, and consider that is one city. The numbers add up.

Sorry, I am a poor reader.

That just jumped out when I read it.

KN

When we had our shop roof replaced, the guys had a barrier at the wall and every one of them used a harness. This was a roofer that does a lot of commercial/industrial stuff. The local small contractors doing residential seem to disregard many of the rules.

I too wondered about the numbers buy I'm often startles at numbers for skateboard and bicycles too. Much higher than I'd guess.

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One other operational scenario came to mind... :)

I know there's a bypass mode for very green wood that otherwise shorts out the system; if one were to use up the brake cartridge on hand, will the saw operate in bypass mode?

But how well do they perform, most are getting they're 20 in before retirement, most likely they have been promoted to their point of incompetence as is the way with bureaucracies.

I don't see any productivity numbers or opportunity costs in there.

On 05/25/2017 5:56 PM, snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com wrote: ...

That's the summary net, not the analysis.

And note I didn't say I thought it necessarily was a great (or even good) one; just that they're required to at least go through the motions.

If fact, if one wanted to contest the implementation, I suspect there's a good spot to attack but it would take more in-depth analysis than just writing "I disagree" to make a strong enough argument that they would actually have to do something in response.

If I understand the question, I don't think so. AFAIK, the cartridge is required for the saw to operate. Tripping the "stop" drives the aluminum block into the blade taking both out and both need to be replaced before the saw is functional again.

It would be good if the information were available. Of course none of this is because they didn't even look.

On 05/25/2017 6:07 PM, snipped-for-privacy@notreal.com wrote: ...

Sorry, ya' lost me there...

The full proposal is here

there are links to the rest of the Docket file that you can track down from there (albeit I've not looked at other than the above document) that should have essentially everything they've developed.

The information lost time, lost opportunity... IOW, _all_ of the costs on those who are affected by the rule.

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You can read the analysis/report...as noted, the quote was just the one sentence bottom line executive summary blurb.

No hard feelings Keith. ;~)

I have not tried it but the purpose for the "key" operated bypass is to prevent the brake from triggering. I do not think the saw will operate with no brake. The brake is part of the boot process. LOL, Yes you can't just walk up and turn it on if it is completely shut down. There are 3 switches that have to be turned on for the saw to operate.

There is the master switch near the bottom on the saw, it can be locked in the off position, then the boot switch which runs diagnostics and "warms up the brake". When the lights stop blinking and the green light remains on you can then turn on the saw. In the winter it takes longer to boot as the brake has to be warmed more. I leave the main and boot switches on during the day so that the saw actually turns on immediately when I want.

With all that behind me, I have cut wet treated lumber, once, and forgot to run the bypass. The blade began to cut but the motor shut off and the blade stopped spinning. There was no brake trigger but trouble codes blinked until I removed the wood. I thought surely the brake would trigger, as an after thought. I guess the saw can differentiate between meat and wet wood. ;~) I'm not sure I would want to test that again.

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So other than a direct complete external bypass to the motor itself it wouldn't run is what I get out of that...so the complaint that if didn't have a spare on hand one's out of business until get one is so.

Just curious if there were a way to do as Robert suggested of disabling the system to keep going...