SawStop is a table saw manufacturer headquartered in Tualatin, Oregon, USA. The company was founded in 2005 to sell table saws that feature a patented automatic braking system that stops the saw within milliseconds if its blade comes in contact with the operator's hand or other body part.

How it works[link]

SawStop's saws apply a small amount of electric current to the blade of the saw. This current is continuously monitored. If the saw detects a change in this current (as would occur if a hand or other body part came into contact with the blade) an automatic braking system is activated, forcing an aluminum brake block into the blade. The saw stops within five milliseconds, and angular momentum lowers the blade into the table. The operator suffers a small nick instead of an amputation or other more serious injury.^[2] The design takes advantage of the difference in "electrical capacitance and conductivity" between wood and flesh.^[3]

According to SawStop, there are restrictions and limitations:^[4]

• The braking system must be deactivated when cutting very green or wet timber.
• Non-conductive blades or blades with non-conductive hubs or teeth cannot be used.
• The braking system is designed to work with kerfs from 3/32″ to 3/16″; using thinner or thicker kerfs limits the saw's ability to stop the blade after accidental contact, likely resulting in more serious injury.
• It is impractical to retrofit into existing table saws.^[4]

Activating the braking system often damages one to two teeth on the blade.^[4]

History[link]

Steve Gass, an amateur woodworker with a doctorate in physics who worked as a patent attorney,^[1] came up with the idea for SawStop's braking system in 1999.^[5] It took Gass two weeks to do the design, and a third week to build a prototype based on a "$200 secondhand table saw."^[1] After numerous tests using a hot dog as a finger substitute, in spring 2000, Gass conducted the first test with a real finger on himself: he applied Novocain to his left ring finger, and after two false starts, he placed his finger into the teeth of a whirring saw blade. The blade stopped as designed, and although it "hurt like the dickens and bled a lot," his finger remained intact.^[1]

SawStop, at the time consisting of "three guys out of a barn in Wilsonville", demonstrated a prototype in August 2000,^[1] at the International Woodworking Machinery and Furniture Supply Fair, a trade show.^[5] A series of meetings followed, where in an attempt to license his invention, Gass "negotiated with major players such as Ryobi, Delta, Black & Decker, Emerson, and Craftsman"; he followed up on those negotiations with a February 2001 presentation to the Defense Research Industry (a trade group for attorneys representing the power-tool industry).^[1] That presentation immediately preceded one from Dan Lanier, Black & Decker's national coordinating counsel; Lanier's presentation gave Gass the impression he was unlikely to succeed in convincing major power tool manufacturers to license SawStop technology.^[1]

In July 2001, SawStop was awarded a safety commendation by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for "developing innovative safety technology for power saws intended to prevent finger amputations and other serious injuries."^[2] In 2002 Popular Science named SawStop's technology one of its "100 Best New Innovations."^[6]

In January 2002, SawStop appeared to come close to a licensing agreement with Ryobi, who agreed to terms that involved no up-front fee and a 3% royalty based on the wholesale price of all saws sold with SawStop's technology; the royalty would grow to 8% if most of the industry also licensed the technology.^[1] According to Gass, when a typographical error in the contract had not been resolved after six months of effort by Gass to get Ryobi to sign the proposed deal, Gass gave up on the effort in mid-2002.^[1] Some subsequent licensing negotiations were deadlocked when the manufacturers insisted that Gass should "indemnify them against any lawsuit if SawStop malfunctioned", something Gass wouldn't agree to since he would not be manufacturing the saws."^[1]

The failure to license it to Ryobi or another manufacturer prompted SawStop to start its own company; over two years later, the company's first saw was produced by a Taiwanese manufacturing plant in November 2004; by 2005 SawStop had grown to "eight people out of a two-story barn Gass built himself."^[1]

Citing statistics that show accidents with table and bench saws resulted in 3000 amputations of one or more fingers, SawStop's technology inspired Representative Kevin Joyce to propose the Illinois General Assembly's 2005 Electrical Saw Safety Act^[7] The number of finger or hand amputations has more recently been estimated to be 4000,^[8] costing more than $2 billion a year to treat victims.^[1][9]

In June 2006, the CPSC recommended that the U.S. government begin the rulemaking process that could result in mandatory safety standards for table saws.

SawStop has provoked opposition from the Power Tool Institute (PTI),^[8] which represents Black & Decker, Hilti, Hitachi Koki, Makita, Metabo, Bosch, Techtronic Industries and WMH Tool Group. In April 2008 they told Congress that SawStop's braking system is:^[10]

• dangerous because it requires the user to come in contact with the blade before activating;
• unproven, particularly in terms of durability;
• prone to false trips caused by commonly available wet and green wood;
• potentially vulnerable to latent damage that cannot be inspected and may cause a hazard;
• costly to the user because once activated, saw blade and cartridge must be replaced; and
• significantly more expensive, ranging from a minimum of 25 percent and ranging upwards depending on saw type

The PTI objects to the licensing necessary due to the "more than 50 patents" related to SawStop's braking system;^[10] such costs "would destroy the market for the cheapest, most popular saws, adding $100 or more to the price of consumer models that typically sell for less than $200."^[8] In response, their members developed "new plastic guards to shield table saw users from the dangers of a spinning blade" and began selling models with that feature in 2007; as of May 2011, PTI says "its member companies have received no reports of injuries on [the 750,000] table saws with the new guard design."^[9]

References[link]

Roy Underhill (born 22 December 1950)^[1] was raised in Washington, D.C., and was the first master housewright at the Colonial Williamsburg reconstruction. Since 1979, he has been the host of the PBS series The Woodwright's Shop. As of 2011, the show was the longest-running PBS "how-to" show.

Underhill was introduced to traditional woodworking by a sister who worked at the Smithsonian Institution. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned a degree in Theater. In the early 1970s, Underhill and his wife moved to Colorado to form Homestead Arts to pursue a career in acting. When that failed, the Underhills moved to a remote area of New Mexico where traditional woodworking was one of the few means of survival.^[2]

In the late 1970s, Underhill moved back to North Carolina and Duke University, pursuing a multi-disciplinary course of study including engineering, forestry, and history and was subsequently awarded a Master of Forestry in 1977. At the birth of his first daughter, he approached the UNC Center for Public Television with an idea about a traditional woodworking show. Initially rejected, the idea was finally accepted; in 1979, filming began on The Woodwright's Shop at West Point on the Eno in Durham, N.C.^[3] Around the same time, he also took the job as master housewright and later director of interpretive development at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

More recently, Underhill also works as a communications consultant. He is the author of several books, including The Woodwright's Eclectic Workshop and Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft.

Underhill has started teaching traditional woodworking in a classroom environment he calls "The Woodwright's School". As of November 2011, his classroom is located in Pittsboro, North Carolina

Many hand tool aficionados hold Roy Underhill in extremely high regard and may refer to him with the shorthand "St. Roy".^[4]

Publications[link]

• Underhill, Roy (1981). The Woodwright's Shop: A Practical Guide to Traditional Woodcraft. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-4082-3. 
• Underhill, Roy (1983). The Woodwright's Companion: Exploring Traditional Woodcraft. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-4095-5. 
• Underhill, Roy (1986). The Woodwright's Workbook: Further Explorations in Traditional Woodcraft. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-4157-9. 
• Mullins, Lisa C.; Roy Underhill (1988). Styles of the Emerging Nation (Architectural Treasures of Early America, 13. Historical Times. ISBN 0-918678-35-8. 
• Underhill, Roy (1991). The Woodwright's Eclectic Workshop. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-4347-4. 
• Underhill, Roy (1996). The Woodwright's Apprentice:Twenty Favorite Projects from The Woodwright's Shop. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-4612-0. 
• Underhill, Roy (2000). Khrushchev's Shoe and Other Ways to Captivate an Audience of 1 to 1,000. Perseus Publishing. ISBN 0-7382-0672-5. 
• Underhill, Roy (2008). The Woodwright's Guide: Working Wood with Wedge and Edge. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-5914-1. 

References[link]

External links[link]

• PBS site for The Woodwright's Shop
• UNC Press – The Woodwright's Shop minisite
• Article from Woodworker's Journal
• Article from Syracuse New Times
• Mother Earth News interview from 1985
• A 1983 Mother Earth News article
• Woodwright's Shop 27th Season Announcement
• The Woodwright's School