Concur. At my retired from employer, Ford (they were very big on 
safety), there was a carpenter with a wood shop that included table saw, 
joiner, radial arm saw, etc. To use some of that equipment in particular 
instances with the full guards in place was next to impossible. When 
OSHA went into effect, there was real battles between maintenance 
(carpenter), and the plant safety people. But for the most part, OSHA 
has helped prevent injuries, and when you read of injuries or 
fatalities, it is usually as a result of not following the rules. The 
common one is trench collapses during construction. OSHA says any 
excavation deeper than 5 foot requires either protection (a trench box) 
or bench (cut) back the sides in a specified manner. And several times a 
year, locally, I hear of someone buried when a trench wall collapses.

On 7/12/2010 3:22 AM, Vitaliy wrote:
> RussellMc wrote:
>    
>> http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Table_Saws_and_Safety.html
>>      
> I found this comment interesting:
>
> "At the wood shop I am the safety manager at, we use the Brettguard system.
> It is a fixed clear guard covering the entire blade that you crank up and
> down, so you can get it to about 1/16 above the material being cut. It will
> not raise up if you run your hand into it like some of the other guards. It
> also helps hold the material down - works great with laminate. We had a
> Sawstop as well, but sold it. It was an amazing product. However, OSHA does
> not see the Sawstop as a guard, so you will still be fined for not having a
> guard in place, since an injury has to take place for the system to work. "
>
> OSHA's mission is to make workers safer, but in this case it looks like they
> made them less safe because they followed the regulations, instead of common
> sense.
>
> Vitaliy
>
>    
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist