“It breeds complacency.” Perhaps this might sometimes be true, but couldn’t the same be said about experience?
How many times will a user make an avoidable mistake when each brake activation costs $89 per cartridge, plus the cost of a ruined blade?
I can understand the anti-SawStop arguments, about how it can make users complacent and potentially less safe, but there are flaws in the logic. So while SawStop table saws might not go any further in preventing kickback than other brands’ models, it doesn’t do any less.ĭoes SawStop’s safety tech get in the way of skill-building? When used alongside safe table saw practices, these accessories can help to reduce the risk of kickback. Kickback is responsible for a lot of table saw accidents and injuries, including some that involve blade contact incidents.Īll of the table saws that I’ve seen in the US market today – SawStop and otherwise – have anti-kickback safety tech, usually in the form of a riving knife and anti-kickback pawls. Others point out that although a SawStop might help to prevent serious blade-contact injuries, it won’t do anything extra to stop kickback-type of incidents and injuries. They argue that SawStop safety tech can lead to complacency, and this can increase the risk of injury. Some detractors make the argument that SawStop safety tech creates a safety net that could lower some users’ guard, possibly leading to poor or unsafe practices, some of which can increase the chance of kickback. I think that everyone would agree that all table saw users should learn and develop safe practices, but this won’t prevent all types of accidents. Some injuries might be preventable, while others can be hard to predict. Some table saw injuries might result from accidents, mistakes, a one-time lapses in judgment, or inexperience. People were suffering table saw injuries before SawStop tech came along, and there are still many table saw injuries today. Table saws injuries can happen to anyone – beginners, professionals, and seasoned woodworking hobbyists alike. At the end of the video, they briefly mentioned that a blade guard or SawStop tech would have helped to prevent the injury, and then they question whether listening to a podcast had distracted them and contributed to their blade contact incident. I watched a different video, where an experienced woodworker shared about their table saw hand and finger injury.