Safer Saws

[sanddrag]

I should mention that I find it completely acceptable to cut aluminum with a carbide tipped wood blade. Sometimes a little WD40 helps a lot too. I do this all the time in miter and circular saws without any issue, so long as you go slow and wear proper safety gear. I've even cut aluminum box (and solid) with a 24 tooth blade, although something like an 80 tooth would be preferred.

[yash101]

Getting a little off topic, does it help to use a blade with more teeth to cut metal? Doesn't bigger teeth just end up tearing metal?

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by yash101

Actually, what I meant was to have a current, probably 12v, 2.5ma being conducted through you. Since this is an open circuit, nothing will flow through you. When you touch the blade, the circuit will be completed and fed into a multi-stage amplifier. This will be fed into a flip-flop that will shut down the motor and arm the brakes, immediately. The machine will shut down and will be "hard" to turn back on (Require that the fault is cleared, etc.)

However, the problem is: if you are machining aluminum, it would automatically trigger, meaning that you would need to measure resistance. I do not see how the SawStop works with metals!

The SawStop does not work with metals, nor Carbon Fiber. As mentioned there is a way to temporarily disable it. I've had to change a couple of cartridges from people attempting to use it for those materials.

Originally Posted by yash101

Getting a little off topic, does it help to use a blade with more teeth to cut metal? Doesn't bigger teeth just end up tearing metal?

The number of teeth that is optimum depends on the metal and the thickness of the metal. The harder the metal (steel) the more teeth, the thicker the material the lower the number of teeth.

[yash101]

That makes sense. Thanks for elaborating!