Waiting for the future
I love the future, and plan to spend the rest of my life there, but how far into the future do I have to wait?
Last week’s blog got a comment I’d like to address. I was pleased to see SawStop’s new band saw and speculated that finally expanding the technology beyond table saws might encourage makers to give us more of the same.
Fellow woodworking journalist Will Sampson commented that SawStop is a destructive system, and he’s absolutely right. When the brake cartridge activates, it destroys both the blade and cartridge, and they ain’t cheap to replace. As I replied to Will, if I had a SawStop and had just avoided serious injury, I'd happily use my saved fingers to dig into my wallet for a new cartridge and blade.
Will’s point, though, was that it shouldn’t be destructive in the first place, and he’s right again. Other companies are developing technology with the same goal — saving fingers — that doesn’t break anything when activated, nor does it create a lot of downtime repairing machinery.
The new band saw is destructive, too. Its system works differently, cutting and capturing the blade when activated, but the blade is nevertheless sacrificed. Still, active safety finally moving beyond table saws may just be the push other manufacturers need to develop better — and, eventually, affordable — non-destructive alternatives.
So, is the future here? Yes, and no. The tech is gloriously futuristic, and it’s here now, but can you afford it now? If you’re a really big production shop, maybe. But for the rest of us, I don’t think so.
Felder’s system, for example, starts at well over $20,000. Same for Altendorf's. Harvey's new D-1 Dream Saw, introduced at IWF, isn’t available yet, but is estimated to run $8,000-$12,000. A lot of woodshops just can’t touch these prices, despite how incredibly awesome the machines are.
These new ways to save fingers, along with other tech yet to be developed, are indeed the future of finger-saving woodworking machinery. I love the future, and plan to spend the rest of my life there, but how far into the future do I have to wait? SawStop’s invention was 26 years ago, and we’re only now getting their technology on a second type of shop machine. More importantly, we’re only now getting alternative, non-destructive (but extremely expensive) methods.
Those prices will undoubtedly come down, and more manufacturers will pick up the tech. Until then, the uncomfortable choice between expensive replacement parts and a trip to the ER boils down to one thing: What’s available right now?
I’m OK with waiting for the future, just not for another 26 years.
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.
