: One of the awkward problems with this setup is turning the saw on and off.

somewhere on the net a few years ago (I've been looking for it for a while) someone converted a guitar petal to be a positive on switch, you had to keep steping on it inorder to keep it running, but you did not have to search for the off switch after cutting off part of your hand.
simmilar to what paul described.

kinkos used to have this machine that was used to cut large amounts of paper in one go. It was basicly a hydralic press attached to a blade, and would cut a whole ream of paper in one chomp. during off hours the staff would amuse themselves by cutting 2X4's in it. The reason that I bring this up it that it had three switches needed to make it go, one for the right hand, one for the left, and a foot switch to guide it.

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