Bad enough to go to emerg room! I was not told til this weekend when they were visiting. He did it at home. Bothers me.
I have a table saw too and plan to discuss table saw safety with him. Plan to cover.
-heigth of blade to match ht of wood
-dont cut small pieces between blade and fence (jamming)
-dull blades
– fingers no closer than 6 inches to blade
– use of push sticks
Any others ? I have a left tilt Powermatic table saw
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Replies
Dont be in-line with the saw cut.
AND ... this is how I cut my thumb 50+ years ago..
DO NOT use a 3" high blade to do free hand carving.
Pain Hurts!
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"After the laws of Physics, everything else is opinion"
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
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If Pasta and Antipasta meet is it the end of the Universe???
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according to statistical analysis, "for some time now, bears apparently have been going to the bathroom in the woods."
Get a Sawstop.
Edited 9/21/2009 7:19 am ET by ted
Unless he has a very cavalier attitude, I don't think you should lecture to him, and it sounds like that's the direction you're taking. He's been cut, now he knows it can happen. Maybe better to just have a in-depth discussion, ask him to tell you in detail what happened. Structure the conversation like he's one of your buddies and you're interested in the gory details.
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
No I was not going to get on his case. just tell him what I know - hopefully he will not have a repeat. He has a real good attitude- I dont know how it happenned yet.
I'd add (1) using a splitter to keep boards from squeezing onto the blade during rips, and (2) use the blade guard, when and if you can (it's a PITA, but so's going to the emergency room--I'm guilty of not using it, too).
Hope it heals up well,
Pete
Consider a splitter/riving knife. Consider some of the new blade guards, some are pretty unobtrusive.
Scott.
Add an outfeed table/extension so the piece has somewhere to sit after it's cut.
Never reach over the blade with the left hand to grab the board.
After turning the saw off, freeze, don't move until the blade stops.
Here's another: position the switch so that you can easily turn the saw off with your knee. This lets you steady your work with both hands while the saw stops.
I've often said that power tools have no respect for humans, so we've got to have double for them. All material looks the same to a saw...flesh, wood, fabric,bone...they don't discriminate.
I remember something from high school shop along the lines of "don't crosscut anyting shorter than it is wide" or something like that. I do it all the time, but I have a pretty good "feel" and an escape plan.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
"I've often said that power tools have no respect for humans, so we've got to have double for them. All material looks the same to a saw...flesh, wood, fabric,bone...they don't discriminate."
this is great, and i will use this on my own kids in the shop.
Sell the saw and invest in a sawstop, no more worries.
Hi Ed:
Personally, I don't like having the teeth crest at the thickness of the wood. The teeth should clear the top of the piece by the "height" of the tooth in order to clear chips effectively. Maybe that's what you meant, it wasn't clear either way.
I'm very sorry to hear about the grandson's injury. I have a toddler that will need to learn these things in a few years, so this is something on my own radar.
For me, the biggest concerns are:
1. Pay attention - no distractions
2. Solid footing, good leverage.
3. A clear workspace - nothing on the working side of the fence, and no non-essentials stacked up on the fence
To be honest, I think these three things are why so many people get injured by portable tablesaws on work sites.
#2 is really tough if you're short. Imagine how you'd feel trying to accomplish a tough cut (say ripping a 8' long, 12" wide board of 5/4 maple if you were a foot shorter (or more!) than you are now.
-t
Agree wholeheartedly on the higher tooth postion. The blade's force is more down than back at you, I'd prefer even higher often, having seen one of the worst kick backs imaginable.
20" tannewitz 7.5 HP saw, 60" long 5x5" laminated billet of maple and rosewood, caught a guy in the hip bone..drove him back like a linebacker. Drove the levi's rivet INTO his hip bone, through his longjohns and BVD's waist bands.
A higher blade my have helped that from happening.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
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One of the reasons that bandsaws don't kickback is that all the force of the blade is down against the table. "Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
'zactly. Same physics.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
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>>>20" tannewitz 7.5 HP saw, 60" long 5x5" laminated billet of maple and rosewoodThat oughta be registered as a weapon. Sheesh.
And it was in a guitar shop. We laminated the bass necks 2 to a billet that size. Thru the body necks.
After jointing and ripping square they got rough bandsawn, then clamped to a shaper jig for cleanup profile.
It took a saw that stout to rip em.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
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That's funny - the strike angle never occurred to me. I like the blade up high to keep it from gumming up and to give a cleaner cut, plus fewer teeth buried in the wood at the same time. Makes perfect sense, though. Kind of all fits when I think about it that way. A big Tannewitz... geez... I can't remember what saw I was using when I was in high school shop class, but that's about the set up when I had one of the two kickback incidents in my life. A small offcut rattled over, caught the back tooth and went for a ride(I think I was ripping little strips to make mommy a laminated cutting board). It hit me on the right hip bone - knocked me flat on my a$$ and as I looked up, I saw the wood hit the wall about 20 feet away from me at least 10 feet up. A "good" accident for a kid to have - no damage, and I walked around the TS like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockers for at least 10 years... To this day I'm always real good about staying out of the line of fire. I still worry more about the router than anything else in the shop. Even though the utility knife has probably drawn more blood than all of the rest put together.I'm reminded of some of those old shop safety posters for square head jointers... Yowch! Lots of guys named "Stubs" or "Lefty" could tell you about those...-t
No eye protection or face shield? This IS a tough crowd.
How can I rub my eyes when I get wood chips in them if I'm wearing eye protection? C'mon buddy, you need to think these things through!
How can I rub my eyes when I get wood chips in them if I'm wearing eye protection?
Rub? You mean you aren't using a compressor to blow them out???
Thanks to you all with the suggestions- I will spend some time with the Grandson, my powermatic is the same as my son -in laws
thanks
"Rub? You mean you aren't using a compressor to blow them out??? "I remember seeing that demonstrated in the "Marty Feldman Teaches Shop Safety" video that they showed back in 8th grade shop class.
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remember : if you rub your eyes in the middle of a cut, keep one hand on the board!!.
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"After the laws of Physics, everything else is opinion" -Neil deGrasse Tyson
.
.
.
If Pasta and Antipasta meet is it the end of the Universe???
.
.
.
according to statistical analysis, "for some time now, bears apparently have been going to the bathroom in the woods."
I just finished watching a video on table saw safety.
Some like to have the blade high because it means less teeth in the wood at any one time which means less friction. On the other hand I tend to keep the blade low because to me a high blade vs. a low blade could mean the difference between a laceration and an amputation.
Most kick-backs occur because the material catches the blade on the back side.
So either the fence is toed in on the back side or the user is feeding material that is warped, twisted or bowed and doesn't ride on the table or fence flat. Or the user loses control of the material and lets the it get away from the fence. In any case it seems to me a high blade during a kickback greatly increases the chance of amputation.
I know a lot of older guys with 10 fingers and lousy heaing from not wearing hearing protection. I also notice that I'm a lot more focused on my hands when wearing my ear muffs.
If he doesn't already have them, get him some good hearing protection.
If he doesn't already have them, get him some good hearing protection
Great advise!!!
Grandsons' love to watch chips fly out the 15" planer, Have 5 sets of ear muffs hanging in the shops. The kids are the first to want the hearing protection, planer, dozer, backhoe, even air compressor (to see how high they can loft a soap bubble) on they want ear protection.
Blade tilt versus saw fence. Offcuts can be caught between the tilted blade and the fence when the blade it tilted towards the fence. Depends on which way your blade tilts...and if you have a fence that can be moved to the other side of the blade.
And regarding kickback, I don't stand behind the piece between the blade and the fence that can kick back, I'm always slightly off to the side.
I've had a couple of kickbacks over the years, one resulted in blood which I never cleaned up. When I go in and out of my shop, I see the dried blood on the floor, the stairs, the door. It's a reminder.
Another was when I was cutting a small sheet of thin plywood into small panels. The ply was warped (no surprise, eh?). As I was feeding it through the saw I was pushing the sheet flat on the table saw top to remove the warp. When I repositioned my hands, the ply curved up, caught the blade, and pinwheeled into my crotch. I estimated the speed of the spinning panel to be in the vicinity of 3,320 mph. I heard a loud bang somewhere in there, it was either a sonic boom from the panel breaking the sound barrier, or the sound of the panel imploding my genitals, or a combination of the two.
I barely made it into the house to collapse on the sofa. Fortunately my private tool was only bruised and not broken.
Understand the physics of what's going on and pay attention.
No earbuds, music or podcasts.
Rule #1: Don't stick your hand into the spinning blade