Workshop Safety

reible · Post by **reible** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:00 pm

How about another take on this.

I started woodworking as a kid. We had a 10" table saw, an 8" tilting table/jointer almost shopsmith like saw. If they ever came with guards I never saw them... not even on the jointer. Other people I knew that had shops were the same.

It was not until highschool I even knew you should be using guards, yea I saw them in pictures but even the stories in the magazines had the guards off.... no doubt because it was necessary for us to see the blade cutting or some such reason.

After highschool I worked for a while as a carpenters helper. On the site we had a RAS... no guards. The circular saws had the guards removed or wired open... so much for what shop class safety rules.

Then I worked as a machinest for a small company and they for insurance and other reasons actually made sure we were doing things the safest ways we could... that was nice of them.

When I had returned from Viet Nam and used my GI bill for some education... and managed to land a good job, when we rented a house with basement I knew it was time to get some new tools and get back to woodworking. I got a Rockwell saw as my first purchase. It came with a blade guard and it was the worst contraptions for taking on and off they could have come up with... or at least is was nearlly that bad. Wanting to be a safe responsible person I tried to use the guard as best I could but to be honest... I fell back to my old ways in a hurry.

As money began to come in and shopsmith came back on the market my old desires came back to own one. It took a couple of more years but there it was... garage sale took care of the old Rockwell. However the shopsmith had this metal guard system, while better still left a lot to be desired. And no it did not get used all that much.

But along came the guard upgrade with the plastic top! OK they messed that up too but a second upgrade took case of the sawdust collection fix. This system was much easier to use and I found I was OK with using it. Now that would have been maybe the late 70's or early 80's.

So from when ever that design came out I have been a guard user. In the early years I guess I was lucky, and never got hurt but that was clearly not a very good way to work. I know I was to blame but not having very good systems sure did not help me change my ways, well not until shopsmith did. Not every one is going to be so lucky.... use the guards.

Ed

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:25 pm

Yesterday I needed to cut a single dado as part of a repair project. I elected to use the saw function but could not use the saw guard due to the deminsion of the stock. I was very careful to mount four featherboards and used a push stick. Well actually I used two push sticks. The first one I managed to destroy. I even managed to nick the corner of the second one. The dado came out perfectly and all digits are still in place on all ten fingers. I am so thankful I learned all of the safety points form Doug Reed and Spike in the traveling academy's. Jim:)

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:01 pm

fjimp wrote:Yesterday I needed to cut a single dado as part of a repair project. I elected to use the saw function but could not use the saw guard due to the deminsion of the stock. I was very careful to mount four featherboards and used a push stick. Well actually I used two push sticks. The first one I managed to destroy. I even managed to nick the corner of the second one. The dado came out perfectly and all digits are still in place on all ten fingers. I am so thankful I learned all of the safety points form Doug Reed and Spike in the traveling academy's. Jim:)

Cutting a dado is one of those times that it is impossible to use the guard, so I am confused by the highlighted statement. fjimp, will you please clarify?

stryker1313 · Post by **stryker1313** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:36 am

Great link Dusty, thanks! Hey, I was watching the mitre saw video and they had a very handy clamp that came from behind the fence to clamp small pieces on. Anyone have any idea where to get one of those. I have a Dewalt and work with small pieces of baseboard sometimes, would be nice to have that feature.

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:24 am

stryker1313 wrote:Great link Dusty, thanks! Hey, I was watching the mitre saw video and they had a very handy clamp that came from behind the fence to clamp small pieces on. Anyone have any idea where to get one of those. I have a Dewalt and work with small pieces of baseboard sometimes, would be nice to have that feature.

I went and watched for that clamp. It does look handy. It was on a Bosch saw, so I went to the Bosch web site. I did not see it. To me, it looks like it is part of the saw. Maybe a Bosch dealer could help you?

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 3:42 am

stryker1313 wrote:Great link Dusty, thanks! Hey, I was watching the mitre saw video and they had a very handy clamp that came from behind the fence to clamp small pieces on. Anyone have any idea where to get one of those. I have a Dewalt and work with small pieces of baseboard sometimes, would be nice to have that feature.

I also have a DeWalt and it is an accessory available from the DeWalt repair centers, we have one locally. There should be two holes behind your fence and the holddown goes in the hole and rotates 180 degrees to hold the work.

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:30 pm

I have a Makita LS 1013 compound slide miter and have been looking for one of those hold downs ever since I got it two years ago. So far no luck

. In any event, I'm betting it will cost an arm and a leg, if/when you find one.

Edit: Ureka! I found one for my Makita here: http://www.toolpartsdirect.com/toolparts.html
It's like I thought, they aren't cheap ($68 for mine). You can do a search for your particular saw on this site. Good luck!

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:10 pm

Tim asked,
Cutting a dado is one of those times that it is impossible to use the guard, so I am confused by the highlighted statement. fjimp, will you please clarify?
__________________
Tim

Tim,
In that I am not the brightest fellow around I tend to get a bit carried away with my explanations. I alway take the position that the more information I offer, the lower the chance of leaving somone confused by not having enough information. Sorry I confused you. Jim

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:19 pm

fjimp wrote:
Tim,
In that I am not the brightest fellow around I tend to get a bit carried away with my explanations. I alway take the position that the more information I offer, the lower the chance of leaving somone confused by not having enough information. Sorry I confused you. Jim

Now, that is a mouthful!

chrispitude · Post by **chrispitude** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 7:04 am

When I bought my used 500 back around 2000, it came with no guards. I didn't even know it could have a guard until I signed up for a Shopsmith catalog a few years later, and saw the guards in the pictures. The guard and the dust collection were big motivators to upgrade to the 520 and get serious.

- Chris

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