# California Table Saw Safety Act dies in Senate - Article I saw today



## scrollgirl (May 28, 2010)

For those of you who were following this. I didn't see this mentioned in the forums yet. I am just providing the information that I read because I thought it would interest some of you.

http://www.cabinetmakerfdm.com/87234.html

Sheila

PS - if this is 'old news' just let me know. The article was dated today, but it says the decision was made in August.


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## IsaacH (Aug 29, 2012)

I love safety, but this is why the rest of the country makes fun of California.


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## REK (Aug 30, 2009)

Well how did the nanny state let this one slip thru  It is sorta funny, I heard on the news that New York, city has passed an ordinance to prohibit restaurants to sell soda in containers larger than 16 oz. so no American will die a gruesome death by the evil hands of Dr. Pepper.


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## ronbuhg (Jul 8, 2012)

this is UNBELIEVEABLE !!I am not even going to ask what in the world they are thinking…because they are NOT thinking about the safety of wood workers and the industry as a whole…SHAME ON THEM !!


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

even though he admid he is a big idiot of doing as a demostration 
its also shows why its nessesery to get all the safty devices that can be build in to mashinery´s 
as well as use them all the time …. even though an operation takes one minut more with them

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/41591

its a realy scary vidio to watch speciel the slowmotions seequenses (no blod )
please see the reminder to us why safty always have to bee on the top of our list 
before doing something

take care
Dennis


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## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

*"..."Right now, we can't continue because what I really want to do is make sure that people know that this is not a one company bill," Williams said…."*

This was the 4th sentence in the article. The entire rest of the article was all about Steve Gass and SawStop technology.

Not yelling at Sheila here, but only in general TERMS about SS:

GIVE ME A Friggin' BREAK ALREADY!!


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## bdjohns1 (Jan 11, 2011)

Agreed. While I think SS is a clever idea, I think that the idea of building SS's market share by legislative fiat at best stinks.

Yes, Gass deserves to be fairly compensated for his invention, but if he can't get the technology cost down to where it's reasonably transparent to the consumers, I can't fault the consumer/contractor saw manufacturers for balking at being forced to include technology covered by his patents. If there is a lower-cost way to ensure TS safety that the manufacturers are sitting on, shame on them, though.

The fact that he's having to buy influence doesn't help his case. It's a sad reality that there's usually a price of admission, but the simple fact is that a scenario that's a win/win for all involved parties and consumers wouldn't need to have Gass and the PTI and other groups shoveling money into legislators' pockets. Everyone who buys a SawStop has some amount of that $46,400 he spent on legislators embedded into the cost of their saw.

Personally, I'm a couple hours of work away from putting my little TS either on a shelf or on Craigslist to be replaced by a EurekaZone / 80/20 hybrid setup.


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## Bagtown (Mar 9, 2008)

oh no.
not
again


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## HorizontalMike (Jun 3, 2010)

Bagtown,... precisely.

End of story.


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## OnlyJustME (Nov 22, 2011)

Can california wipe my butt too? I'm afraid i will not do it safely and fall off the toilet.


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## 47phord (Apr 10, 2012)

What I love about the whole SS debate is that it's proponents act like it's technology makes it so safe that a 5-year old can use it with no fears of injury. Flesh sensing tech. or no, you can still hurt yourself badly-maybe not as badly as with a regular TS-but bad enough. I'm glad this one died, we don't need any more nanny laws.


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## EEngineer (Jul 4, 2008)

Yes, Gass deserves to be fairly compensated for his invention, but if he can't get the technology cost down to where it's reasonably transparent to the consumers

The problem has never been the technology cost. The problem is Gass's licensing fees. He wants 8% of the retail cost of any saw sold using his technology. The cost of the technology itself pales in comparison.

For comparison, similar inventions work on licensing fees that are related to manufacturing cost and rarely exceed 5% even then.

All of this is verifiable on the Web. I did it, you can too.


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

Kind of makes you want to go back to hand saws.


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## Kelby (Oct 19, 2011)

Thank goodness the State of California is in such good shape that our legislature has nothing better to do but tell us what tablesaws to buy.


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## DrTebi (Jun 16, 2009)

The problem has never been the technology cost. The problem is Gass's licensing fees. He wants 8% of the retail cost of any saw sold using his technology. The cost of the technology itself pales in comparison.
That is the problem in my view.

*What happened to invention for the common good?*

If California wants the common good, then they should oppose the 8% SawStop licensing fee as well.

I happen to own a SawStop, made the future wife happy and made me feel a little safer. However, I find it sad that the company is putting 99% of their marketing efforts into the break mechanism-it actually is a great saw as well, so please SawStop, skip politics, reduce the horror stories and images on your homepage and tell people something about the quality of the saw instead.


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## lumberjoe (Mar 30, 2012)

At least California legislators had sense enough not to pass it. I think our friends in NY are worse. They just banned large sodas (seriously)

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/13/health/new-york-soda-ban/index.html


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## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

What happens after several the mechanism has several false trips from water or sweat on the wood so contact is made.. My bet is the device gets deactivated in short order. I've had one table saw accident. But since I raise or lower the blade each and every time I make a cut, my index finger and thumb only had a cut about 1/16" wide and 1/16" deep. I had just cut a 2X4 before I needed to cut a 3/4" board. If I had been lax about dropping the saw blade, I would have cut off the tip of my thumb and about 1/2 my index finger. What shop procedure did I change after my accident??? Nothing about how I operate my table saw, I quit listening to talk radio while I'm working… Audio books are out too! Both of them take up way too much brain power and I'm short on that already. I still listen to music while I work… The Zac Brown Band is going to power my finish sander today. The first song in my play list is: "Natural Disaster" Click the link and enjoy!


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