Great Thread from rec.woodworking on Table Saw Saftey
Some good advice from Eric L posted in rec.woodworking as a response to a table saw injury post
Before I turn the motor on, I put the wood in place, think through the cut
I'm about to make, make sure all the safety equipment is in place (including
guard, splitter, and pushstick or pushblocks (where needed)), and look at
where my hands will be in relation to the blade. I always pick the spot on
the table that my hands won't go beyond. Once I turn on the power, I focus
on the job, but that doesn't mean I focus on the workpiece. Yes I keep
track of the movement of the workpiece, but my eyes keep moving, looking
also at where the blade is and where my hands are. In fact, that may be the
most important safety tip, don't become so focused on one thing that you
lose track of what is important. After all, you now definitely know it's a
good thing to have the guard in place. I hope you have also figured out
that if the blade mangles a pushstick, the worst that can happen is you get
caught with a sheepish look on your face.
Better luck next time (but please don't leave it to luck)
Russ E
1 - Never, ever, ever place your soft fleshy little digits close to the hard, sharp
spinning blade. I am reminded of this most basic and important rule every time I
use my scarred and nerve-impaired left thumb.
Phil A
1. Never use the miter gauge and fence for crosscutting, at the same time. You'd be
asking for kickback, IMO.
2. Never crosscut a piece of wood, using the fence, unless it is wider than the exposed
part of the blade. IOW, if you have the blade raised about an inch above the table to cut
through 3/4" stock, you've got about seven inches of the blade exposed. I wouldn't crosscut
a piece, in this instance, that was less than about 10".
3. Set your blade so the gullets just clear the top of your stock. This is safest, IMO, and
allows for the teeth to do their work.
Mike P
When ripping narrow pieces, I stand off to the side so the fence is between me and the
blade, hook my thumbs on my side of the fence, and use my fingertips to guide the piece
along.
For pieces less than about 3 inches wide, I use a featherboard and two pushsticks, one to
push the piece, the other to keep the piece down flat on the table.
When I have a piece showing signs that it's warping as it's cut (a danger - it might pinch the
back of the blade and kickback), I stop and clamp a small board so it holds the piece down as
it passes the blade, and I cut slowly so the blade can cut the back side where the pinch is.
I also stand waaaayyyy off to the side, just in case.
I know this is what a splitter is supposed to be for, but my splitter is narrower than my blades,
so...
Steve
Looks like alot of the safety tips have been covered..but I don't think I saw (no pun intended)
these......
DO's:
(1) Spend time understanding how to tune your saw to ensure you get smooth, accurate cuts
(and reduce risk of kickback/binding the blade). A blade parallel to the miter slot and a parallel
fence are key.
(2) Make sure you have a top quality (that doesn't mean high priced) blade that is sharp. Also make
sure you are using the right type of blade for what you are cutting. there are alot of good combination
blades that will either rip or crosscut.
(3) Make sure you have supports (tables, rollers, etc..) when cutting larger or longer stock. It keeps
you from being in an awkward, unbalanced position while making these cuts.
(4) Spend time upfront either buying or making the following: push sticks, feather boards, cross cut /
panel sled. These are easy and inexpensive to make and using these correctly reduces your chance of
injury. I find that these 3 are used often...there are a host of others such as miter sled, hold downs, etc...
depending on the type of work you do.
(5) Use zero clearance inserts (especially when cutting narrow stock). Again..you can make your own
or buy them relatively inexpensively.
(6) Get a blade guard and splitter that you will actually use. The one that came with mine never even
made it on the saw. I am seriously looking at an overarm type model now (I know they are expensive..
but peanuts if it saves a finger).
I also highly recommend some sort of dust control/dust collection or clean up frequently. When I do a
bunch of sawing..there gets to be alot of sawdust on the floor. Not usually a big deal..but why have
anything in the way of your footing that doesn't need to be.
DON'Ts: (I'll try not to repeat ones others have already stated).
(1) Never try a freehand cut
(2) When cross-cutting multiple pieces..never use your hands to remove small cuttoffs. I've seen so many
people do this (actually did it myself once and felt the wind from the blade). Either the next cut will move
them anyway..or if it really bothers you..use a push stick or shut the saw off first.
(3) Remember..even when you shut the power off..that blade is still spinning! Keep hands away!
(4) When cutting wood with knows...watch out for loose knots flying back at you. This can happen with
any wood..but I've had it happen to me twice with knotty wood. Thankfully I had a face shield on the one time.
Hope this helps.
MSgeek
I dont agree on the blade paralell to the fence. In fact I think it is dagerous. I think the fence should be kicked
out away from the back of the blade. Why cut on the upstroke of the blade if you dont have to?
David L
Also look at -
The Table Saw Book
by Kelly Mehler
Taunton Publishers
About $28.00
Mike G
Tip one
Stay a little scared of it and any other tool with a motor that spins sharp pieces of metal.
Tip two
Except when doing dado's or rabbets do not inhibit the stocks movement on both sides of the blade at the same
time. I. E. using the fence as a length of cut gauge with the miter gauge on the other side. Wood binds and kicks
back.
Tip Three
No matter what you do you will occasionally get kick back. Never stand directly behind the stock you are feeding
into the saw.
Tip Four
People make a big deal about not using a blade guard because they can't see the blade. I don't particularly care
whether you use a blade guard or not, but, trust me, the blade will cut the wood whether you watch it or not..
Concentrate your attention on how the stock is riding along the fence or sitting against the miter gauge. This is
especially important when doing sheet goods. It's also result in better cuts.
Tip five
Before you start feeding the wood get a good picture in your mind of what your hand will look like if you screw up.
John O’B
> Tip one
>
> Stay a little scared of it and any other tool with a motor that spins sharp pieces of metal.
Absolutely tip number one.
It's almost never the new roofers who fall off the roof.
If you're a little intimidated by the saw, don't think of that as a bad thing, or as something you hope to lose once
you gain more experience. That sense of caution is your best friend.
It's much more dangerous to have no fear at all.
John
If you're careful and if you don't get hurt, the rest will take care of itself. You will make mistakes. You'll cut
things wrong. You'll measure wrong. You'll get annoyed, angry at yourself for stupid mistakes. Try to see the
positives in those errors. Don't just use those mistakes as reasons to get down on yourself, and don't get angry and
try to make the replacement piece in half the time to catch up to where you would have been had you not cut the
piece wrong. If you get pissed, and then allow yourself to laugh at your own stupidity, you can digest what you did
wrong and learn. I'm convinced that the people who are the best at what they do (and not just woodworkers) are not
the best because they make the least mistakes, but are best because they learn the most from the mistakes that they
do make.
Some of the most valuable projects I've done came out horribly. They are the ones that I still remember though--the
ones that vividly pop into mind just before I hit the "on" switch on the saw--the ones that had mistakes so stupid that
I swore I'd never do *that* again.
Noel
Great book or try the other usual suspects:
Tablesaw Techniques / Roger Cliffe
Tablesaw Book / Kelly Mehler
Tablesaw Bench Guide / Roger Cliffe
No doubt there are many others.
Joe D R
The best tip I can think of is this:
Don't second guess yourself. If you feel hesitant about making a certain cut then TURN THE SAW OFF IMMEDIATELY! Re-think what you are trying to accomplish -- there is a safer way to make the cut!
Also, don't get complacent in the shop. When things become too routine you wind up doing before thinking.
Larry L’H
The accidents occur when you finish or abort your cut and your attention is diverted to finding the on/off switch. I can turn off my saw with a knee bump and BOTH my hands and attention stay on my work. If you have relatively new Unisaw, making such a safety switch is easy. For other saws, some modification and expense will be necessary. In any event, you will not regret making such a modification for your saw or router table.
Doug
There are too many situations to list....experience is what you need and that's only gained one way...and it's not by reading... Too much fear will make you do something not so bright (stand too far away, having to reach past the blade etc..), a healthy respect at ALL times will allow you to keep your fingers, over confidence can lead to carelessness and the saw will put respect back into you.....My younger brother has recently gotten into woodworking but he still has some fear of my tablesaw....when he is pushing stuff through he tends to stand too far back from the saw...reaching as he pushes stuff through.....with my instruction and encouragement and after 100 bf of ripping black walnut he was edging more towards the healthy respect zone....think about what you're doing and feel confident that the cut you're making is correct....after awhile you'll learn that if it doesn't feel safe it probably isn't...keep cutting....the more you do it the better you will become..
Thomas K
Having relied on the RAS for everything for years, I find the table saw to be a very safe tool by comparison. Already good posts on standing to the side during rip cuts, avoid binding the cut with miter guage and fence at the same time and use of push sticks to keep the fingers from the blade.
I'll add a few more...good safety glasses...short sleeves if possible (or tight fitting wrists on long sleeves if not). Keep the blades sharp (dull blades mean trouble as you fight the saw to make cuts that a good blade would do for you). Keep the fence tuned to the blade (learned that with the RAS...out-of-aligned fence can cause a pinch situation where anything can happen). Keep the table well conditioned with paste-wax or commercial products meant for the job. Buy or make a miter guage extension to get greater control on crosscuts (or buy a CMS and forget it). Make/buy a side table to assist on wide rips and do the same for a back table to handle the wood as it leaves the blade (if you look at any commercial table saw there is amazing little table behind the blade...I have built rather inexpensive benches with castors that work well, can be moved in/out of position easily when not needed and serve as additional work space for finishing).
Fowlow
There's an excellent short piece on kickback here:
http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/w00066.asp
One lesson from that: only fence-rip pieces that are *much* longer than they are wide. One of the nasty kickback risks is with wide shorter pieces (that can decieve you because they seem so easy to handle) that can slingshot back really really fast and really really hard, spinning so they don't conveniently follow the exact cut line.
Another lesson, just in case you missed it the first 1000 times: use a guard and splitter. Blaming the manufacturer because you bought a device whose splitter and guard are a bit inconvenient to replace after a dado isn't going to sound like such a convincing rationalization after the fact.
There are lots of guys with 10 fingers who don't use guards. There are very few guys with nine fingers who don't use guards.
CapeCodBob
Don't operate ANY sharp tool, especially a table saw or a router when-
... you're in a hurry
....you're angry
....you're tired
....you're unable to give 100% clear-headed attention.
BennyH
1. Don't use this tool if you're tired/fatigued/etc. You need to be 100% alert. If you want to continue doing work after you're tired than choose something boring and safe like sanding.
2. Plan each cut in advance and do a dry run.
3. A push stick, feather board, sharp blade, properly aligned saw are far more important for safety than a blade guard.
I've never used blade guards. They're not effective for the small stuff and that's when your at greatest risk. They're OK for large pieces but those cuts are relatively safe. I personally want to know exactly where the blade is at all times. Now for a jointer, I'd never use one without the guard. Whether you choose to use the guard or not is your personal choice. You can be safe without a guard and in harms way with the guard. Your brain is your best safety tool.
John M C
Don't count on the next cut moving the offcut away, if it's tapered and the pointy end is facing you. I had an offcut manage to wedge itself into the next cut - fortunately I saw it happening and stopped feeding & shut the saw off before anything interesting happened.
Johnny D
I've heard that the majority of all table saw injuries occur between the time the saw has been powered off and the blade stops moving. People automatically think that when they hit the OFF switch everything is safe. I've even caught myself reaching for a piece of wood after I turn my saw off. The best way to avoid this type of injury is to wait for the blade to spin down completel before you move a muscle.
Steve
I should have been more clear and stated that it is critical that the fence is not angled in toward the back of the blade. It should be parallel at the very least and a very slight angle out at the back of the blade is even safer.Links to other info on Kickback (will add more as I find or get them)
Mark's Woodshop - good safety info -it's not just the table saw than can hurt you
Andy Rae's WoodCentral Article "Preventing Tablesaw Kickback
Barb Siddiqui and Richard Jones WoodCentral Article "Ripping Long Boards on the Table Saw"
That's about all I've got. If you have any comments, suggestions or constructive criticism, please e-mail me
or send e-mail to charlieb@accesscom.com