Re: Small Pieces - Kickback
Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2022 6:46 pm
Dean,
Since you are new to the tablesaw, I would just say to be careful and take your time. You should know that making these small cutoffs as I believe you are doing is one of the more dangerous tasks at a tablesaw IMHO. A crosscut sled, particularly one with zero clearance would be ideal to make these cuts, but not a complete necessity. Below is a YT video showing one possible way to make these small cuts and how to do them safely. I skimmed the video and didn't watch every second of it, so if someone else finds something wrong in it please let me know. There are other ways to do it as well, e.g. Ed suggested setting up a stop block (in front of the sawblade) on the fence, then using this with the miter gauge to make the cut. The benefit of this method is that the stop block just sets your cut size and is out of the way when the board contacts the sawblade (because it is well in front of the sawblade and not used during the cut). Yeah, opinions vary on use of the above table saw guard or not. Some experienced woodworkers almost never use this guard and others wouldn't make a cut without it. In my opinion, I wouldn't make this kind of cut with the above table saw guard in place because it is more likely to trap the cutoff near the blade causing a kickback. Sure the piece is small, but when it comes into contact with the sawblade it will be shot at you with incredible speed. It may not hurt too bad if it gets you in the stomach or chest, but it could cause major eye damage, etc. I have only had a couple of kickbacks in many years of using my tablesaw and I hope I NEVER have another one again. This is why I suggested the Jessem guides to think about for rip cutting. I am much more confident and feel more in control when ripping on my Mark V because of the Jessem guides which is why I go out of my way to recommend them to anyone that will listen. Make sure you have the lower saw guard (below table) in place all the time. If your Mark V didn't come with it then buy one. Owners have unfortunately hurt their hands and even lost fingers in accidentally reaching under the table, e.g. to change speed or hit the power switch when the blade is spinning. So, please always make sure the lower saw guard is installed. Another option to make these kinds of cuts is with a chop saw (miter saw). It is an additional expense but if you are making a lot of these you may want to do all of your crosscuts on the miter saw and keep the tablesaw of the Mark V for ripping only. This is what I do most of the time in my shop. Lastly, please know that everyone here just wants you to be safe, but we also want you to enjoy using your Shopsmith and other woodworking equipment for a long, long time. Thus all of this is meant as constructive, positive feedback to help you on your journey. I hope everyone's advice has been helpful and I appreciate Steve taking the time to write such a thorough post to you. The only caveat I want to point out with what Steve said is for you to understand that YT is a great place to learn many skills, especially woodworking. However, it is possible to find yahoos on there that don't know what they are doing, so unfortunately you have to be able to sort out what is good advice from bad advice on YT. I don't know how many YT woodworkers I have seen that post videos of jointing a board and pushing it with their bare hands across the jointer. This should NEVER be done IMHO and risks losing fingers or worse. Always use push blocks/sticks when you can. Sometimes an experienced woodworker will not use these for a particular cut because they are over confident and for example the guard/push block gets in the way for filming. Not trying to be the safety police, but use your own judgement and know that YT has more than a few "bad" woodworking videos so keep that in mind.
P.S. I haven't done a lot of raw log crosscuts, so take this with a grain of salt. I think you might want to make a small crosscut sled just for this and design it so that you can readily clamp the log to it. Logs being round makes them more prone to spinning and getting out of control on you during the cut. This coupled with the ever changing grain direction (around the circumference) during the through cut means it could be a live wire. I am sure someone else on the forum has more experience with log cutting and might give their feedback here.
Since you are new to the tablesaw, I would just say to be careful and take your time. You should know that making these small cutoffs as I believe you are doing is one of the more dangerous tasks at a tablesaw IMHO. A crosscut sled, particularly one with zero clearance would be ideal to make these cuts, but not a complete necessity. Below is a YT video showing one possible way to make these small cuts and how to do them safely. I skimmed the video and didn't watch every second of it, so if someone else finds something wrong in it please let me know. There are other ways to do it as well, e.g. Ed suggested setting up a stop block (in front of the sawblade) on the fence, then using this with the miter gauge to make the cut. The benefit of this method is that the stop block just sets your cut size and is out of the way when the board contacts the sawblade (because it is well in front of the sawblade and not used during the cut). Yeah, opinions vary on use of the above table saw guard or not. Some experienced woodworkers almost never use this guard and others wouldn't make a cut without it. In my opinion, I wouldn't make this kind of cut with the above table saw guard in place because it is more likely to trap the cutoff near the blade causing a kickback. Sure the piece is small, but when it comes into contact with the sawblade it will be shot at you with incredible speed. It may not hurt too bad if it gets you in the stomach or chest, but it could cause major eye damage, etc. I have only had a couple of kickbacks in many years of using my tablesaw and I hope I NEVER have another one again. This is why I suggested the Jessem guides to think about for rip cutting. I am much more confident and feel more in control when ripping on my Mark V because of the Jessem guides which is why I go out of my way to recommend them to anyone that will listen. Make sure you have the lower saw guard (below table) in place all the time. If your Mark V didn't come with it then buy one. Owners have unfortunately hurt their hands and even lost fingers in accidentally reaching under the table, e.g. to change speed or hit the power switch when the blade is spinning. So, please always make sure the lower saw guard is installed. Another option to make these kinds of cuts is with a chop saw (miter saw). It is an additional expense but if you are making a lot of these you may want to do all of your crosscuts on the miter saw and keep the tablesaw of the Mark V for ripping only. This is what I do most of the time in my shop. Lastly, please know that everyone here just wants you to be safe, but we also want you to enjoy using your Shopsmith and other woodworking equipment for a long, long time. Thus all of this is meant as constructive, positive feedback to help you on your journey. I hope everyone's advice has been helpful and I appreciate Steve taking the time to write such a thorough post to you. The only caveat I want to point out with what Steve said is for you to understand that YT is a great place to learn many skills, especially woodworking. However, it is possible to find yahoos on there that don't know what they are doing, so unfortunately you have to be able to sort out what is good advice from bad advice on YT. I don't know how many YT woodworkers I have seen that post videos of jointing a board and pushing it with their bare hands across the jointer. This should NEVER be done IMHO and risks losing fingers or worse. Always use push blocks/sticks when you can. Sometimes an experienced woodworker will not use these for a particular cut because they are over confident and for example the guard/push block gets in the way for filming. Not trying to be the safety police, but use your own judgement and know that YT has more than a few "bad" woodworking videos so keep that in mind.
P.S. I haven't done a lot of raw log crosscuts, so take this with a grain of salt. I think you might want to make a small crosscut sled just for this and design it so that you can readily clamp the log to it. Logs being round makes them more prone to spinning and getting out of control on you during the cut. This coupled with the ever changing grain direction (around the circumference) during the through cut means it could be a live wire. I am sure someone else on the forum has more experience with log cutting and might give their feedback here.
