If like me, you’re tired of chopping your fingers off while trying to build that custom rocking chair with your traditional, unsafe table saw then feast your eyes on what could save your remaining phalanges. The SawStop:

The SawStop is pretty amazing when you think about it. Just watching the videos you’d swear it was a pre-tiger act by Siegfried and Roy. The saw blade basically detects when it comes in contact with the human finger based on the conduction of electricity through the human body, which is greater than that of wood. When it detects the surge in current, a brake is applied and stops and retracts the blade into the housing.

The result is not a missing finger, but rather (hopefully) a minor gash on the skin.

A couple videos are available from the website:
http://www.sawstop.com/media/Table%20Saw%20-%20WMV%20high.wmv
http://www.sawstop.com/media/high_speed_demo_WMV.wmv

I could definitely see something like this being used for shop class, or tech ed in school. Though, I don’t remember ever using a table saw myself I’m pretty sure there were certain parts that used one. Looking for numbers of saw-related injuries in schools I found a pretty in-depth article on Inc.com regarding the SawStop and its creator: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050701/disruptor-gass.html, though I winced a bit when the article said, “Miraculously, the instant the blade made contact with the wiener, the saw shut down and the blade retracted.”

Reminds me a bit of the recent “Chuck Klosterman’s America” article in Esquire, where he talks about how most things that are necessity have already been invented and the things we’re coming up with now are being invented to solve non-existent problems. Though the SawStop seems much more practical and does put a damper on a multi-billion dollar injury category.

So again, how will I cut my hotdogs? (If you don’t get it, watch the video)