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Saw that shows you where you’re going...

06 October 2008

 

It’s a simple idea. Put a low-cost laser into the handle of an ordinary saw and it becomes a precision tool that shows you where it is going to cut.

They call it the Predator, and this latest product from tool manufacture Spear & Jackson is now in the shops. With no fancy fixing and no power leads, this revolutionary product is a basic handsaw with a laser concealed in its plastic handle.

With a beam to show you where the saw will go, you can start your very first stroke certain that you know where the last one will end.

And for Brian Wilson, Director of the University’s D-Lab and leader of the team that created the Predator, it is no accident that the idea came from a university.

‘Perhaps unlike commercial product designers, we are not embarrassed as academics to go back and ask the most fundamental questions’, he says. ‘In this case we asked ourselves what a saw really has to be. This made us realise it has to be more than simply sharp and straight: to work well it also has to be accurate. Until now this accuracy has been located in the experience and skill of the user; now it’s in the saw,’ he says.

Revolutionise the market ‘It seems a simple idea, but it is not just a question of marrying a laser with a handsaw. It has to be manufacturable, cost-effective and marketable in an incredibly-competitive business environment. By working closely with Spear & Jackson we were able to create a product which we all believe will revolutionise the market for this simplest-of-all woodworking tools.’

Even the most hopeless DIYer will see any deviation from the right line. And in difficult situations, such as working with rough or wet timber or when cutting two angles simultaneously, it will enhance the skills of even a master carpenter. While lasers are sometimes included in expensive precision power-tools, no one before seems to have considered using the technology to enhance the performance of one of the most basic tools going.

D-Lab team can bring a fresh pair of eyes to product design ‘The real benefit to us is that the D-Lab team can bring a fresh pair of eyes to product design’, agrees Tim Hearn, Marketing Manager of Spear & Jackson.

‘Where we might innovate by changing the teeth profile or making a minor ergonomic adjustment to the handle, they can go back to basics and ask the simplest of questions without their minds being clouded by years of experience. And, while we did talk to other universities and to independent product-design agencies, what set D-Lab apart was the enthusiasm and passion they showed for what they are doing.’

The actual inventor of the Predator was 26-year-old D-Lab designer Gordon McWilliam. ‘It was the idea of accuracy that really set me thinking. I realised that to gain accuracy you usually put down the handsaw and move to a laser-guided power tool. I jumped on that thought and within an hour I had strapped a couple of batteries and an off-the-shelf laser onto one of the company’s saws. This is the first time I have seen a product go from the crudest prototype to a fully-marketed and manufactured product and it is such an amazing feeling. What’s more, we are working with Spear & Jackson on other products which we hope will have a similar impact.’


 
 
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