Thread: Felder Table Saw stopping technology

Some details are on the Felder website:
https://www.felder-group.com/fg-en/pcs.html

"patent pending" so I guess we will see if Festool are as litigious as Gass was before he sold Sawstop.

Altendorf is apparently also developing a system similar to Felder.

Originally Posted by RossM

Some details are on the Felder website:
https://www.felder-group.com/fg-en/pcs.html

"patent pending" so I guess we will see if Festool are as litigious as Gass was before he sold Sawstop.

Altendorf is apparently also developing a system similar to Felder.

The SS patent is only good for the US so the rest of the world is their oyster. I recall someone saying that the SS patent has not got a lot of years to go and I guess that was the reason it was sold to Festool. Patent or not Festool did not have to finance a long R&D program so I guess they took a pragmatic view and coughed up the dollars.

I have no idea why the original inventor didn’t licence the technology, seems like it would have been a much better business to be in. It makes a lot more sense to go to market as a $3k extra on a $30k saw used by employees than it does as a selling feature on a $3k cabinet saw used occasionally in a garage.

Originally Posted by Austin_Turner

I have no idea why the original inventor didn’t licence the technology, seems like it would have been a much better business to be in. It makes a lot more sense to go to market as a $3k extra on a $30k saw used by employees than it does as a selling feature on a $3k cabinet saw used occasionally in a garage.

The back story is that the original developer wanted to license the idea but the manufacturers did not want to play ball so he made his own saws. He was a patent lawyer I believe and made the patent unbreakable as Bosch found out to their cost. What got a lot of people upset was he lobbied the politicians in the US to make it illegal to sell a saw without his technology in it IIRC. I may be corrected on that as I am only relating from memory and what I have read and the internet is always right.

Any Idea what a Felder will cost, it wont per a personnel purchase but I could see the schools making something like this mandatory, we have to upgrade soon thus I could easily push for the $$ due to WHS.

Originally Posted by WillyInBris

Any Idea what a Felder will cost, it wont per a personnel purchase but I could see the schools making something like this mandatory, we have to upgrade soon thus I could easily push for the $$ due to WHS.

The Format4 is top of the range. I don't thing you would buy one for less than $40,000 and probably more than that!

Originally Posted by RossM

The Format4 is top of the range. I don't thing you would buy one for less than $40,000 and probably more than that!

Ouch 20-30k I could get but yeah 40k I guess I will spend the next couple of years on the TS for the kids lol, will be an interesting convo with the WHS committee though.

I was in the white board kitchen business for more than 16 years and have had my own bench saws at my own shed for even more than that. In all that experience, thankfully, I have never seen a blood producing "accident" using bench saws. In the kitchen building workshop we had a total ban on apprentices using the saws until they were at the end of their second year. Up until this time they would have been "tailing out" with a tradesman operating the cutting end. This system obviously worked because we never had any thing that turned out badly for the operator.

When initiating the apprentice to be operating these saws I made a point to tell them that the 5Hp motor driving the saw was a whole lot stronger than them, so trying to "correct" a cut was a no-no. As I have said earlier we never had a problem.

Even in my own experience the bench saws and I never had a terse word with each other. I suppose what I am saying is that to be ever mindful of the damage to self these machines are capable of proper training is the key and not to rely on a piece of technology that may or may not work when the critical time comes. Just think about it.....an electronic piece of equipment waiting to be activated while spending years, may be, living in a totally hostile environment with years of saw dust covering it......will it work????

If the Saw Stop has been turned off and the blade speed winding down does the blade touching technology still work?

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

If the Saw Stop has been turned off and the blade speed winding down does the blade touching technology still work?

I believe it does

Originally Posted by Albert

If I am to have technology like this in my workshop. it will need to be on ALL of my machines, not just panel saw/table saw, if not, I rather not to have any at all.

Are you being a dinosaur?
Seriously, if you need PCS technology available on ALL your machines before you will consider upgrading it will be a very long wait before you need to consider an upgrade.

More to the point, most workshops have a table saw of some description. Much fewer workshops have any one of a thicky, jointer, table mounted router, etc.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

The back story is that the original developer wanted to license the idea but the manufacturers did not want to play ball so he made his own saws. He was a patent lawyer I believe and made the patent unbreakable as Bosch found out to their cost. What got a lot of people upset was he lobbied the politicians in the US to make it illegal to sell a saw without his technology in it IIRC. I may be corrected on that as I am only relating from memory and what I have read and the internet is always right.

two main issues here.
1. the if I cut my fingers or hand off that's my problem brigade -- so "p1ss off" and take your technology with you.
2. mandating SS technology would remove the "plastic fantastic" saws, i.e. the sub $1000 saws (Ozito, Ryobi, Bosch, DeWalt, et al) from the market. The killer is the extra mass (metal) required to properly mount the SS technology.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

If the Saw Stop has been turned off and the blade speed winding down does the blade touching technology still work?

Yes it will. There is a big sign and a Red and Green light above the SS at my local Mens Shed. You are not allowed to remove your timber or scraps etc until the Green light is on for this very reason.

Originally Posted by chambezio

thankfully, I have never seen a blood producing "accident" using bench saws.
As I have said earlier we never had a problem.

Either have I but there is always a first, I showed my wife the SS last night and then told her the price and I was surprised when she said well 5k how much are your fingers and hands worth, now with my nine year old spending time in the shed with me I may just end up with one for xmas (I am not allowed a motor bike)

I fell of a old ladder in Jan and fractured my wrist in three places bloody terrible, never broken a bone in my body before, been up and down from heights all my life this was only from a meter and due to the way I fell ( happens.

I should say my wife is a Theater nurse and does a lot of emergency and some plastics so I guess she has seen the value straight away.

I would think schools would see the value as well in a Saw like the Felder etc as we do a crap load of prep work for the kids on a daily basis. WHS is a whole new level in the school I am working at.