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[♪ INTRO]
When you’re using a table saw, there are just milliseconds
between you having all your fingers and… not.
In fact, every year, tens of thousands of people in the U.S.
are maimed by these tools.
Human reflexes are just not fast enough to snatch a hand out of the way
if something goes wrong.
Which is why some incredible safety mechanisms have been invented
to help you remain one with your body parts.
Now, all sorts of saws and other tools come with significant risks,
but table saws are especially dangerous.
Like, they’re responsible for more accidental amputations than any other consumer product.
And it’s easy to see why, when you consider that the average table saw
rotates around 70 times a second, and it has enough teeth
to make a fresh cut every 370 microseconds.
But these tools are still really popular because they’re extremely useful for woodworking.
So, saw manufacturers have gone to great lengths to make them safer.
One of the greatest advances came in the year 1999, with the invention of a
system called SawStop that can actually detect human flesh, sort of.
Basically, it’s a safety system that can tell the difference between flesh and wood.
And it works thanks to one key fact:
Your body conducts electricity, but dry wood does not.
So, the flesh-sensing technology consists of a weak current that runs through the
saw blade, plus a sensor that registers the amount of current flowing through it.
As the blade cuts into something like wood,
which doesn’t conduct electricity, the current flows uninterrupted.
But the moment it encounters something like a finger,
the flesh absorbs some of the electrical signal.
When that happens, the sensor detects a change in current,
and in under a thousandth of a second, it stops the blade.
It does that by triggering a spring, which shoves a brake into the blade.
It’s not like slamming the brakes on a car, where friction brings the wheels to a stop.
There’s no time for that.
It’s been described as stopping a speeding car by dropping a wall in front of it.
Which wouldn’t be safe if this was a car, but you get the idea.
It’s an extremely violent maneuver, but it stops the blade within microseconds.
If you were the one with a finger on the blade,
you wouldn’t even be able to see this incredible feature kick in.
But afterwards, you would still see your finger attached to the rest of you…
So, that’s a plus.
In the process, the brake cartridge gets crushed like the crumple zone of a car.
The blade gets ruined too.
But the finger gets saved. This technology has been tested plenty of times,
on hot dogs and even the company founder’s own fingers.
But, and I cannot emphasize this enough, the vast majority of saws
still don’t have this feature, because it remains proprietary.
So if you’re around one of these saws, please assume it does not stop this way.
Seriously, do not stick your hand in a saw because you saw some man
on the internet saying that it might be safe.
And of course, no matter what safety features your tools might have,
nothing can take the place of basic caution and a little common sense.
But what’s amazing about this technology is that if you relied on your reflexes
to stop a table saw from doing damage, it would be too late.
Fortunately, some simple physics principles can fill that gap… and save some limbs.
And then you can use those limbs to eat Munk Pack bars!
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[♪ OUTRO]