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SawStop Inventor Sticks His Finger in the Spinning Blade

John P.

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Finger in a SawStopOk, so I told you guys about the SawStop table saw about 6 months ago, and if you’ll recall, this is the table saw that will stop when it senses flesh touching the blade in order to save the roughly 10 fingers that get cut off every day.

Well, the inventor of the SawStop, Steve Gass, finally stuck his own finger directly into the blade on a Discovery TV show and put his money where his mouth… er, finger is. Watch and see what happens!

Comments

  2. What an amazing invention. I wonder how well it works if the person is wearing gloves, since electricity probably would not conduct as well through gloves. Regardless, this is a terrific idea and certainly worth the investment.

  3. My uncle could’ve used this. He lost several fingers in a close encounter with a circular saw. Butchers also lose fingers often, especially when cutting down huge slabs of cold meat in winter mornings, where your fingers are too numb to feel anything and you dont even realise immeadiately that you’ve lost a finger. Differentiating between wood and flesh is easy, but between man flesh & cow flesh is another kettle of fish altogether!

  4. My 10th grade shop teacher could really have used this invention. Watching that video brought me back some very gruesome memories. :(

  5. Well he really had no choice (except to abandon his product) so he had to do it, but it still must take some guts. My father cut his finger off with a table saw some 4o years ago, and although re-attached it’s never been quite the same.

    Thanks for the video!
    J

  6. O. My. God.

    you know if you stand near the edge of a roof, or any high place, and your knees go all jelly even if you know you’re not going to fall? yeah. that’s what watching this video felt like.

    bravo to him — for inventing this incredible system and for having balls of steel!

  7. Holy cow! That’s amazing – Mark has got to get one of those! His uncle has already lost tips of two fingers. He and Mark are both contractors, I always worry about crazy accidents.

    I wonder, though, why the guy chose that particular finger to stick in there…. hmm… I think I’d choose pinky or ring finger for the test. You can still do a lot, I imagine, if you have your first two fingers and your thumb.

  8. If that doesn’t sell his product, then nothing will … unbelievable video.

    Cos I’m a geek, I am just curious … I wonder if the blade would react as effectively if your fingernail hit it first? Are fingernails as conductive, I wonder? But I’m not geek enough to actually test that.