Saw Safety Law Stops  A California table saw safety law by assemblyman Das Williams passed the assembly but the senate adjourned before voting, putting it on hold. In a video Williams wore a tie as he showed SawStop flesh-sensing blade safety brakes.

“Gass [inventor of SawStop] told the Times that he was more concerned about preventing table saw-related accidents than in profiting from a table saw safety mandate. If he really meant that he wouldn’t have patented everything he could. I am pleased to see this bill go no further. Maybe safety related features shouldn’t be patentable. Governments aren’t really interested in safety, only taxes. — Trevor, Canada

Not only is Das Williams not wearing safety glasses or goggles, he has the blade at full height which is breaking a main safety rule in that the blade should only be high enough through the material to make the cut — approximately 1/4´´. I am all for safety, but do not like the path that Mr. Gass has taken. It is not all about safety, it is about dollars. — Jeff, Illinois

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When custom woodworker Jared Patchin delivered a project, he found he had brought enough pieces for another cabinet. Since the job was fully installed, Patchin asked, ‘Who should pay?’ He ate the $280 cost.

This sort of thing doesn’t happen to us much, but here is how we would handle it: First, it is important to note we do not have a published catalog — we build up our prices for each and every piece on each and every job. We would acquiesce to the customer and smile gracefully, then we would assess (to ourselves) about how many orders this customer was likely to make over the next year. Next we would assess how much higher we could charge them without losing the next orders. Then we take all that information and add a small portion of the lost revenue to each of the following jobs for that customer until we had recovered the amount in full (or as much as we can— if this slight, temporary price increase is overdone, you do lose the customer and will never recover the money). We do the same thing with pricing errors our own salespeople make, too. In truth, all costs have to be recovered in some form eventually for a company to remain profitable and in business. — Carl, Washington

Be glad it was only $280. It does not pay to argue. You may have bought yourself some good advertising by not making an issue. I would still use caution when dealing with that particular customer in the future. — Dave, Wisconsin

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