I thought this was rather interesting.

 

http://www.cpsc.gov/PR/adler10052011.pdf

 

SQ

 

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It it can't be fixed with glue and sawdust - it's not worth fixing.

I got the first page read SQ, and I need to take off for work now. I am going to read the rest of it after I get home tonight, thanks for posting. It was an interesting fact that a disproportionate number of folks over 65 were injured more on table saws. I have worked with that age group side by side, in a carpenter maintenance shop years ago, and with my own dad, and there was a basic philosophy that blade guards were not needed, they worked pretty old school with the table saw. My own Dad took the tip of his finger off on my TS after I told him to drop the guard down while using my beast, he exclaimed to me, "Naw, I've been doing this longer then you've been alive son", well, 3 minutes later I hear the saw power down, and he's walking over to me holding his finger in a rag. If pops get's on here, he'll fill ya in on the rest. But there seems to be a general philosophy with "senior" woodworkers that the guards are not needed, at least in my experience working with them. Just an observation.

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

John,

Thanks for the comments.  Sorry to hear about your dad's finger tip. I expect page 2 will be very controversial.

 

SQ

 

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It it can't be fixed with glue and sawdust - it's not worth fixing.

Well I got a chance to read page 2.

This will probably open up a can worms here. But what if folks simply used the guards that came with the equipment to begin with, I will wager that the overwhelming majority of those injuries are done with no guards in place. It would be interesting to see in their data, and I am sure in the Emergency Room questionnaire, were all precautions taken to avoid this injury, ie guards and safety gear in place??

It's like the laws we now have on the books for governing our land, seems instead of enforcing laws we already have, legislators want to pile on more laws.

Seems to me, if folks were more educated regarding the necessity of table saw guards, then the injuries would go down without mandating a safety device like the flesh technology.

We all here on the woodworking forums are very much aware of the need for safety devices.
I would wager again that most of the injuries happen to folks who don't seek out safety education regarding the Table Saw. Most woodworkers and DIY'ers do not belong to woodworking forums or even surf the net looking for woodworking related news. I bet again, about 10 percent of all woodworkers even know that a forum exist, and quite frankly don't care. The tech age has not reached that far yet. Just think of all the million of men and women with a table saw in their garage, used occasionally, the Craftsman contractors saw, the good ol American go to for home owners and part time DIY'ers. The saw is underpowered and destined to kickbacks and what not. For a lot of Americans, Craftsman is the only tool they know. I am not slamming Craftsman, I am just making a point that table saw safety needs to be the responsibility of the individual. But then I was a big anti seat belt and motorcycle helmet enforcement guy too, just to let you know where I stand on this.

 

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker