30 June 2009

Awesome safety saw


A table saw is reconfigured to sense electrical conductivity; when it does so, it goes from 5000 RPM to zero in milliseconds, destroying the blade but preserving the finger.

The demonstration is a little misleading in that it appears the finger needs to be on the table (?) so the electrical conductivity can be sensed, and when the inventor used his own finger he touched the teeth almost tangentially; had he moved the finger into the blade quickly there might have been an injury.

Still, it's a remarkable invention.

Thanks, Skip, for forwarding this.

3 comments:

  1. Presumbly this thing has a radius of operation that might even extend beyond touching it. so moving slowly might be slightly different than moving fast. But even so it's going to cause only a small divot.

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  2. I wish there was more on the device itself. What fires the brake into the blade? Would it work if your finger had a non-conductive coating on it, such as glue or paint? But an excellent safety device.

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  3. the thing that fires the brake...and i'm pretty sure about this...is a gas cartridge where it takes the gas in the cartridge and covers the blade with electricity or something like that and when the blade senses anything within millimeters, it stops. this type of blade stopping technique has been around for about 5-7 years.

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