SafeSaw

Discussion of all things technological and/or gadgety
MarkD
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Re: SafeSaw

Post by MarkD »

Aesop wrote:
John_in_Longview wrote:
rightisright wrote:What are you looking to do w. the saw? Cabinet work, trim work, heavy ripping? What kind/type of wood?
I will mainly be building bookshelves and canned food cabinets for the house. Nothing too fancy and I don't plan to use dense woods. This is for weekend, DIY stuff.
Unless you're going for Norm Abrams' level of beauty and quality, as opposed to pure functionality, there's nothing in that you can't accomplish with a cordless handheld 18V DeWalt or equivalent. As my library and DVD collections' resting places will attest.

A contractor saw will obviously give you more power for bigger projects, more stability for more critical cuts, and the ability to use dado blades for stacked cuts, but at the risk of greater injury in case of a screw-up.
For simply making short straight cuts in 1"x (mostly pine/plywood) material for shelves and such, get a good handheld, and a spare battery to alternate charging one while working with the other, and you can work it all day long, with little more risk to your fingers or other body parts than if using scissors (presuming you aren't cutting boards braced against your femoral artery), using nothing but a small worktable or even a pair of sturdy sawhorses. (If needs be, you can construct those yourself first, using the same saw.)

The sound impact on the household and neighbors is also commensurately less than a contractor or table saw, if that's a factor.
If you have a shop on a lonely acre, you can test missiles.
If you're putting something together in an apartment or a condo, the pounding on the door will soon outdo the noise of the saw.

And you can take the thing where you need it for other projects.

The other $1200 you didn't spend on the Smart Saw will buy a lot of project lumber.
This, unless you're building bookshelves for a library of course, or canned food shelves for a big-box store. Even a corded circular saw would do you fine. If you're concerned about, for instance, ripping shelves from plywood sheets, most lumber sellers will make cuts for nominal, if any, cost. Then all you need to do is cut to length.
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MiddleAgedKen
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Location: Flyover Country

Re: SafeSaw

Post by MiddleAgedKen »

Netpackrat wrote:
MiddleAgedKen wrote:Perzackly. How do you think child-seat laws got to be ubiquitous?
Or mandatory insurance laws.
Yeah, they're even better -- antitrust exemption thrown in just for laughs. :|
Shop at Traitor Joe's: Just 10% to the Big Guy gets you the whole store and everything in it!
John_in_Longview
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Re: SafeSaw

Post by John_in_Longview »

Thanks for the additional replies. Some random comments on some of your comments above:

I should have mentioned that I already have a corded circular saw and a 10' single bevel miter saw.
Noise isn't an issue.
I'll probably build a (another) workbench for it and the miter saw to live on when not in use.
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Termite
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Re: SafeSaw

Post by Termite »

Get one with a 24" fence. It makes life much easier when ripping 4'x8' sheets of plywood.
"Life is a bitch. Shit happens. Adapt, improvise, and overcome. Acknowledge it, and move on."
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JAG2955
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Re: SafeSaw

Post by JAG2955 »

The last time I had a big-box store make cuts for me, they weren't anywhere close to square. They also ruined the hardwood face on the plywood by the cut because "they're not allowed to change blades", and it was very dull.

I hope my next house will have room for a large cabinet saw.
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HTRN
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Re: SafeSaw

Post by HTRN »

JAG2955 wrote:I hope my next house will have room for a large cabinet saw.
If I had the money and the space, I'd grab my buddys panel saw..
HTRN, I would tell you that you are an evil fucker, but you probably get that a lot ~ Netpackrat

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NVGdude
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Re: SafeSaw

Post by NVGdude »

PawPaw wrote:If it works for you, then it works. Though, I've been using table saws for years, and I have my all my fingers. Actually, with most table saws today, accidents are pretty rare, and if you're counting on the safety features of a saw to keep your fingers out of the blade, you probably won't be counting with all your fingers for long.

Table saws are dangerous, so you've got to keep your head in the game so that your fingers don't fall on the floor.

This. My father is a professional cabinetmaker and has been since 1968 or so. Managed to put his thumb into his table-saw blade anyway about 3 years back. (got lucky, opened it up like a burst hotdog but didn't actually sever anything important)

Complacency is always a bigger issue than safety gee-gaws.
morsetaper
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Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 1:56 am

Re: SafeSaw

Post by morsetaper »

If crosscuts in the middle of long boards isn't an issue, then a good bandsaw will handle just about anything else. Just not as quickly. A bandsaw will also do things that a tablesaw can't. And it's inherently less dangerous.

About the only time I turn on the tablesaw anymore is if I'm faced with a long ripping session on 8/4 maple.
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