Shopsmith Forums

I assume this was a relatively small cutoff. If that was the case, place a representative piece on the table top and turn on the saw. If yours is any thing like mine, that piece will move a little due to vibration. If close to the blade, there is also some air movement created by the blade that tends to move small pieces.

If you allow one of these pieces to dance around for a while, you just may get a real live demonstration of how a kick back happens.
I don't recommend this!

However, seeing those pieces move on their own toward the blade does make my point. Control the work piece and the cutoff.

I have done the same thing in the early days. I have been SOOO lucky a couple times. The worst was surviving a 4x8 timber kickback, on a 12" PowerMatic 3 phase monster at my friends shop, only to have a lone tooth of the blade to barely dust off my wrist. Not a drop of blood! Just a perfect track on my left wrist, as if you had lightly drug it over the skin. I felt it and thought "This is BAD!" Sharp teeth, spinning at 1700 RPM are scarey to this day. I respect what the saw can do FOR me, as well as TO me. Gives me a rush just posting it! jimsjinx

Ah so! Much different than I envisioned.

I gotta agree with Dusty! IMHO all parts of the workpiece need to be controlled both during cutting and after cut through. If they be small pieces, clamping to a larger piece may reduce this, but a sled with clamps is better.

As far as 'reaching' over the blade(unguarded) that is a personal thing. Absolutely if you are uneasy about doing so, then do not! I feel more comfortable holding on to things than just letting them go wherever they want.

Folks will tell you to power down and wait for the blade to stop prior to clearing a cutoff. IMHO that is when Dusty's scenario occurs. The vibration will change as the blade etc. slows down.

Myself I want that scrap away from the blade ASAP. A piece of scrap will flip it away quite quickly, but you better be co-ordinated when you do that so you do not 'flip' it into the blade! Probably a good idea to not be standing directly in front of the blade when 'flipping'!:D

I prefer to just hold on to both parts if they be large enough!

heathicus wrote: Reaching over the blade with my left hand to control and pull the cut off away from the blade still scares me. Actually, having any part of my body cross the path of the blade makes me nervous. Is that really safe?

It probably is as long as it scares you...
And... You are not reaching into the blade zone...
A sled is a great tool.
For some reason we (yeah, me too) tend to get locked into this thought process of using the table saw for all cutting that it will do. Sometimes it "will" do the cut but really "shouldn't". Maybe a bandsaw would do it safer.
I just checked again and they still have not passed any legislation against using hand tools on smaller cuts...


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Hi Heathicus, for what it is worth build you a sled with two runners
in the miter slots to crosscut small pieces on your table saw
.this is very accurate and safe.make the back of the sled a least
4 to 6" high and you can miter also.and clamp the waste piece

JPG40504 wrote:I gotta agree with Dusty! IMHO all parts of the workpiece need to be controlled both during cutting and after cut through.

Absolutely. If I've learned nothing else from this experience, I've learned that. But what I had "learned" previously from reading and demonstrations on YouTube and Woodworking TV shows and other web sites is that, as long as the piece can't be wedged against the blade, then you're safe. That knowledge had to be corrected.

heathicus wrote:Absolutely. If I've learned nothing else from this experience, I've learned that. But what I had "learned" previously from reading and demonstrations on YouTube and Woodworking TV shows and other web sites is that, as long as the piece can't be wedged against the blade, then you're safe. That knowledge had to be corrected.

When working with power tools, you are never "safe". There is always a certain level of danger; that danger level increases exponentially if you are ignorant of those hazards.

I did not read all the posts so maybe this has been said before but.... Like oil and water. Fence+ crosscut do not mix. Miter gauge only.

cincinnati wrote:I did not read all the posts so maybe this has been said before but.... Like oil and water. Fence+ crosscut do not mix. Miter gauge only.

Good Advice, but the kickback he encountered was apparently by the piece on the opposite side of the blade from the fence.

Had he been using a miter gauge, the free cutoff would have done the same thing!