A production company, which is creating a television show in Philadelphia, insisted we use what we in the business call a hot dog saw. Its real name is a Safe Stop saw, it’s a table saw. Excuse me for getting caught up in details here, as I write I’m realizing that perhaps a lot of my readers might not be involved in the trades. A tablesaw is a table with an electrically driven circular saw blade mounted perpendicular to the table, making long consistent parallel cuts in wood and other materials very simple, also a ferocious machine to be treated with the utmost of respect. Since the speculated invention of the tablesaw in the 1890’s many fingers have been traded in exchange for quick and efficient milling of material. Hence today’s essay.

You might take a wander around U tube at this point and watch some Safe Stop videos and you’ll get some idea why its coined a Hot Dog saw. Still I will explain for my own literary exercise. The Safe Stop Saw, invented a few years ago, has a blade which can sense your body’s electrical current, upon sensing said current the saw activates a very powerful spring which drives a chunk of aluminum into the saw blade spinning at around 3400 RPM and releasing the mechanism holding the blade above the table, thus stopping the blade and dropping it out of harm to the user. As could be imagined while not removing or mangling any fingers this action in itself must be quite violent, destroying your saw blade and requiring a replacement brake kit, this could cost anywhere from 800 bucks to 1500(a guess) depending on your taste in blades. Sure you saved your finger, now you gotta tell the boss, yes our fingers are priceless, still just saying.

Something to be aware of about our miraculous new companion because it senses your body’s electrical current anything conducting electricity that you are touching which also touches the blade whilst blade is moving will set our safety plan in action. This changes things a bit; no more plowing through that piece of green oak to make some rustic piece of timber, cutting aluminum, no, the cavalier practice of just ripping through staples or sheet rock screws, which your just to lazy to remove anyway, no, an old shop teacher while telling us never to try this as he would squeeze the slowing blade to a stop with his thumbs unh-unh, be aware that steel tape measure you use to measure from the fence to blade, I don’t know one carp who trusts that scale built to the fence, it conducts your body’s current also, so make sure that blade is stopped before you measure, Plexiglas or acrylic plastic I have no idea but they can carry quite a static charge, definitely no hot dogs.  All in addition to ciphering out how not to waste any of that $300.00 piece of walnut veneer ply and still addressing all ten of your fingers before you push that green button.

While my experience with the tablesaw is not as far reaching as many craftsmen/people my first physical introduction to a saw was around 1989-90 when as a freshman in art school a shop tech taught me how to cut Styrofoam on a 5hp gold and green Powermatic, me and that saw developed quite a relationship over the next 4 years. My understanding of what a saw could do extends back to the mid eighties when my Grandfather removed three of his fingers using a saw in his garage shop. Since my introduction to Goldie my career has been dependent on use of the tablesaw in one way or other. Thanks be to whatever, I still have all my fingers though, I have lost part of a thumb and rip cut about 5/8 of an inch of my right index, shit happens whether out pure stupidity or just plain freak accident. I don’t wish any kind of injury on anyone but sort of feel that my own injuries have prepared me to have a very acute sense of watching out for both the scenario of stupid accident and freak accident both my own and other peoples. Picking a friend’s or coworker’s finger up off the ground is something I don’t want to do as much as I would not like to pick up my own.

Hello Mr. Saw, hello digits ten, check path of material, look around, address fingers again and use one to start that blade spinning and off we go minding fingers, spinning blade and material even after you push that red button with your thigh and still minding that blade and your fingers until the blade stops spinning. Ok, there are many scenarios which emphasize awareness, but come on this one ranks pretty high.

Rumor has it, when the Safe Saw was released sales were mediocre even though the hot dog video in essence proved the safety of the saw. It was not until the creator Stephen F. Gass touched the blade of his saw with his finger on the discovery channel did the saw finally gain the recognition it deserved. When I heard this I think I said, to touch a moving table saw blade is to go against everything I’ve ever believed in. Granted this is still fresh in my mind, but I think it will remain as a moment in which I truly understand what faith is.