Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you
Image: screenshot via Discovery Channel/Youtube
Image: screenshot via Discovery Channel/Youtube
- Australia's largest state hits record-high COVID-19 cases despite weeks of strict lockdown. 'It's a tinderbox ready to explode,' one official said.
- eToro says crypto made up 73% of trading commissions in the last quarter, as retail customers dived in
- A flight attendant says she was too exhausted to report a passenger who shoved her when a flight was overbooked: report
- US jobless claims climb for first time in 5 weeks, to 353,000
LOSING A FINGER to a table saw sounds like a living nightmare, but it happens nearly all the time.
So inventor and amateur woodworker Steve Gass came up with a safety mechanism that can distinguish flesh from wood, stopping the saw blade within one-hundreth of a second when it senses that a finger may be in harms way.
Gass’ system, called the SawStop, can be installed into table saws or other woodworking equipment. It works by sending an electrical current through the blade into the material that is being sliced.
Dry wood does not conduct electricity, but the human body does. Once the machine detects a conductive surface, the blade immediately stops (You can deactivate the system to cut conductive materials, like aluminum).
The one drawback is that the safety system, when deployed, completely destroys the machine. Still, there’s no price tag you can place on holding onto all of your digits.
Gass is so confident in his system that he was even willing to stick his own finger into the saw to prove that it works. The daring experiment starts around the 3:50 mark in the video below:
Your contributions will help us continue
to deliver the stories that are important to you
#Open journalism
No news is bad news
Support The Journal
Support us now
via John Presciutti/Youtube
- Robert Ferris
COMMENTS (52)