3067: SawStart

2025-03-24T14:49:49Z

VioletZCato: grammar

{{comic
| number = 3067
| date = March 24, 2025
| title = SawStart
| image = sawstart.png
| imagesize = 290x313px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Unfortunately, SawStart is one-use-only. Once started, the blade cannot be stopped, and must be replaced with a fresh blade while the running one is carefully disposed of.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a SawBOT who is hungry for hotdog fingers - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

{{w|SawStop}} is an American {{w|table saw}} manufacturer whose product is designed to increase safety. Table saws can be highly dangerous if not used properly, because they feature a rapidly spinning {{w|circular saw}} protruding from the surface. If any part of someone's body come into contact with the blade while it's spinning, it can cause severe injury or death. SawStop products feature an automatic brake, designed to detect when flesh comes into contact with the blade. According to manufacturer claims, the brake will stop the blade within 5 milliseconds of detecting contact, and cause the blade to retract into the table. This is intended to prevent major injuries in the event of contact.

Black Hat here takes the notion of a product designed to increase safety, and changes the design to do the opposite, making it much more dangerous. Like the SawStop design, his product ostensibly detects contact with skin and reacts within milliseconds, but rather than stopping the blade, his product uses an explosive charge to ''start'' a stationary blade. It's unknown whether the blade would be faster than normal, and actually make it more dangerous (ordinary speeds of a table saw are more than capable of destroying living tissue), but setting of an explosive charge while in contact with such a blade is probably not a particularly good idea. It is not wise, in general, to touch even a normal stopped blade (without being absolutely certain that the power cannot be turned on, or even just through the stationary sharpness), but in this case it specifically is designed to make one that theoretically could be touched run up to significantly damaging speeds the moment it is. There is no benefit to such a system, and it exists solely to be malicious (which is likely why it's "less popular").

The title text refers to the fact that the braking feature on the SawStop is single use. Because of the very fast response time, both the braking cartridge and the saw blade will be badly damaged in the process, and both with need to be replaced (this being considered preferable to the kinds of permanent injuries that can result from a spinning blade). The SawStart is also single use, but in its case, it somehow makes the blade impossible to stop. Hence, the SawStart blade must also be replaced, but this apparently has to be done while the blade is spinning. To attempt to remove a spinning blade is obviously incredibly dangerous, and this simply adds to the unnecessary harm this product could do.

==Transcript==

:[Black Hat gestures to a table saw called SawStart, facing Megan and Cueball. The SawStart label depicts a circular saw blade behind the word Saw]:
:Black Hat: When the saw detects contact with skin, an explosive charge starts the blade spinning at full speed within a few milliseconds.

:[Caption below the panel:]
:SawStop's less-popular competitor

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]

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3067: SawStart