Abstract: Methods to detect when a human body contacts a predetermined portion of a machine are disclosed. The methods distinguish contact with a person from contact with other materials. The methods are particularly applicable in woodworking equipment such as table saws to distinguish contact between a person and the blade of the saw from contact between the blade and wet or green wood. The methods and woodworking equipment may include predictive blade stop algorithms that prevent unnecessary activations of a safety brake during coast down of a blade and continued protection in the event a main power switch is turned off.

Abstract: A pencil sharpener that facilitates the sharpening of pencils by any one or more of the following: preventing injury; automatically sharpening pencils without manual manipulation; providing status indicators during sharpening; and/or allowing varying degrees of sharpness to be selected.

Abstract: A machining unit, typically for wood panels, features a work table afforded by a body of prismatic geometry having at least two faces and rotatable about an axis which is also its instantaneous center, in such a way as to establish at least two movable and tiltable work surfaces; the prismatic body is carried within a frame encompassing the tool and combining with the two faces to create respective independent work areas, one in which panels are fed to and from the unit, the other coinciding with a station at which machining takes place, and where the waste and chips generated by machining are cleared from the table and the work. The prismatic body also functions as the main barrier separating two work environments, the one an open external space occupied by the operator, the other an enclosure disallowing access to the operator while machining is in progress.