Battle lines
I don’t think there’s ever been a woodworking battle that’s lasted as long as the one involving active injury mitigation.
I don’t think there’s ever been a woodworking battle that’s lasted as long as the one involving active injury mitigation.
When Saw Stop introduced its finger-saving system in 2000, it was welcomed excitedly and hailed as the wave of the future. That didn’t happen, as opposition to forcing manufacturers to use the patented technology became a grassroots movement. But 25 years later, it looks likely the Consumer Product Safety Commission will recommend including it on table saws going forward.
The Power Tool Institute has recently stepped up its opposition, running ads in places woodworkers frequent, like Facebook. The ads link to the PTI website and lay out the Institute’s case against the CPSC legislation. (If you’d like to read PTI’s entire 180-page response to the CPSC, you can download it from Regulations.gov.)
Opposition centers on patent licenses, the cost of the technology, the resulting cost of upgrading table saws, and the cost of replacing the mechanism if it deploys. The argument is similar to the one regarding the cost of airbags adding to the price of a car. If you’re in an accident, replacing a deployed airbag it is so expensive that many insurers will declare the vehicle totaled. But if your airbag deploys in an accident, your last worry is going to be how to fix the airbag, because you don’t have a lot of worries when you’re unconscious in a hospital or, well, deceased.
My wife was in a serious accident seven years ago, her car sandwiched between two others when a driver plowed full speed into stopped cars at an intersection. Her injuries were minor. Yeah, we hated that the insurance company totaled the car, but the alternative of never needing a second car again had the worst happened was an all too real possibility.
Do I want to pay more for my next saw? No, I don’t, but I see the value in the technology and should I need a new saw I’ll have no issue paying for the upgrade. However, I also see the points made by those opposed to the technology, especially as it involves the burden put on saw manufacturers, and the possibility that some may not be able to stay in business as a result.
This is a very real argument. For that reason I’m glad it has gone through a lengthy battle, and that everyone has – and continues to have by contacting the CPSC – an opportunity to weigh in on it.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
