I was taught an important lesson regarding table saw safety from my Dad about 20 years ago and yesterday “Life†kicked me in the square up my arse and retaught me that lesson. It’s amazing how Life will biff you in the back of the head every time if you get sloppy. I guarantee Life will never have to teach me this lesson a 3rd time.
<!—-> <!—-><!—->
I was ripping a 2x 4 and got about ¾ the way thru the rip when I got distracted with the outfeed roller I had set up on the other side of the saw. It didn’t have a good footing (my fault for rushing the setup) and started to tip a bit. Now for the stupidity and the resulting lesson.
<!—-> <!—->
With the blade running and the board in the saw I let go of the board to walk around to reposition the out feed roller. I bet most of you know what happened next. I was about half way around the saw when I realized the danger and just at that moment the spinning blade caught the board and shot that thing like an arrow across the room, punching a hole in the wall. Somehow Life felt that was enough of a lesson because this 2 x 4x 8 arrow just missed a set of windows stacked against the wall by at most 6 inches.
<!—-> <!—->
I was very grateful to be doing a quick patch at the end of the day rather than ordering new windows. I’m even more grateful that the arrow found a home in the wall and not someone’s gut.
<!—-> <!—->
Ironically, the top story on FH home page is titled “Avoiding Accidents on the Tablesawâ€. I think I’ll mossy on over there and take a refresher.
<!—-> <!—->
Replies
You were indeed lucky. My ex-partner had his arm broken in a similar incident.
Andy
"Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig." Robert A. Heinlein
"Get off your dead #### and on your dying feet." Mom
Thank you for sharing. (I am not being sarcastic.)
I had a close call myself today WingNut.
I had to make a cut on a vertical surface about two feet off the ground. This necessitated me to have my power saw in a less than secure position. As I started to plunge the saw into the osb, the wrap grabbed the blade and forced the saw to run backwards toward the ground. Even though I had a reasonably good grasp of the saw, it still jumped in a significant way toward my foot. Instictively and probably because of phsyics, my finger left the trigger and the saw really never got spinning.
A tooth on the blade grabbed my shoe and tore it slightly.
I'm not a big fan of housewrap and now I have another reason to distrust this particular product.
I don't know if a guard would have helped because I surely would have had to have been holding it manually back to make this particular cut.
blue
makes me glad I kicked in the extra 10 bucks for the brake on my PC mag
WingNut, Blue,
Thanks for the reminders! It's way too easy to get complacent, even when safety is top of mind! And... I'm really glad it was just gentle reminders for both of you!!
Wayne
Glad it turned out alright. I would have left part of the arrow in the wall as a reminder.
Rock the Tipi!
That happened to me once and Igotit square in the family jewels. I couldn't even reach up to turn off the saw for a goo 4-5 min.