Shopsmith Forums

I was watching Holmes or Homes last night on the DIY chanel.
I it he was saving a mess that some other contractor made as is his usual show.

In this one they took up incorrectly laid tile floor and replaced it with a manufactured wood floor. The floor layer was cutting wood to fit around a curved stair case.

The first thing I noticed was he smacked the side of a spinning saw blade to knock a small cutoff away from the blade. If you can picture this there as a small corner piece about 2 inch triangle against the right side of the blade. The blade was turning and the worker using another piece of wood smacked the left side of the blade. The triangle went flying. I went WOW!

Then Mike Holmes the star came over to the worker as the worker was cutting a circle into the wood. Mike said you know you are around craftsmen when you see one cutting a perfect circle with a table saw.

The guy was holding the wood and freehand cutting the circle.

As I watched I kept thinking of the Ryobi lawsuit that they lost to the guy that got hurt on their saw. I wondered how many circles he had cut on it like this guy was doing. Wow.

Talk about and accident waiting to happen but I suspect this is more the law than the exception in production floor installation scenarios.

Ed in Tampa wrote:I was watching Holmes or Homes last night on the DIY chanel.
I it he was saving a mess that some other contractor made as is his usual show.

In this one they took up incorrectly laid tile floor and replaced it with a manufactured wood floor. The floor layer was cutting wood to fit around a curved stair case.

The first thing I noticed was he smacked the side of a spinning saw blade to knock a small cutoff away from the blade. If you can picture this there as a small corner piece about 2 inch triangle against the right side of the blade. The blade was turning and the worker using another piece of wood smacked the left side of the blade. The triangle went flying. I went WOW!

Then Mike Holmes the star came over to the worker as the worker was cutting a circle into the wood. Mike said you know you are around craftsmen when you see one cutting a perfect circle with a table saw.

The guy was holding the wood and freehand cutting the circle.

As I watched I kept thinking of the Ryobi lawsuit that they lost to the guy that got hurt on their saw. I wondered how many circles he had cut on it like this guy was doing. Wow.

Talk about and accident waiting to happen but I suspect this is more the law than the exception in production floor installation scenarios.

We just replaced some carpet with wood floors yesterday. I was amazed to see the dewalt jobsite benchtop tablesaw with no fence. I didn't ask, but I also refrained from watching as they used that one

============================

=============================

in wood working shops, is a major contributor to the accident reports that are feeding into the Saw Safety (Saw Stop) law suits. This "professional contractor" on the Holmes on Holmes Show has probably been doing potentially dangerous things whack the running saw blade for years and getting away with it. This does not mean that it is safe for the DIYer to pick up as a procedure.

If we wood workers did not do these things, Steven Gass might still be practicing patent law.

We Shopsmithers may need to pay just a little bit more attention than others in order to remain safe in the shop.

Having made that comment - I am preparing to initiate a thread that will emphasize "Safety In and Around Your Shopsmith Equipment".

I hope you guys all realize just how blessed we are to have equipment that was designed by people who were safety conscience.

As an example: Look at the standard safety equipment that comes with a Mark V. Manufacturers are touting their riving knives, kick back pawls and saw guards; all standard equipment with a Shopsmith Mark V Model 510 or later.

judaspre1982 wrote:How is this for shocking?:eek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HBfj423cc

There was an episode on Dirty Jobs w/Mike Rowe where he visited a sawmill and they where making shingles like this.
Can't find the episode, but it was every bit as scary as the video above if not more scary.

Dave

Holy C&%P batman.

When my "Workshop in the Woods" was being built in '07 one of the carpenters was hand feeding a 16" angled cut on boards for the overhang on the gambral roof. He had about thirty of them to do. Not being able to stand there and watch mim do this, I said, "Eddie, give me those boards and I will cut them on my bandsaw." He didn't complain.

cincinnati wrote:Holy C&%P batman.

Boy, I thought things were bad with our carpenter shop in a major hospital in Denver. When we had our Joint Accreditation reviews, I had to send a maintenance man ahead of the inspection team to put the saw guards on the table saw & etc. Never could get the carpenters to work with them. Tried everything, even threaten to fire them! Nothing worked. Didn't want to fire them, because they could turn 4x8 sheets of birch plywood into just about anything the Docs or Nurses wanted like magic. Even with some missing finger tips! Keeping the Doc happy was all that counted. Maybe that was one of the reasons I got out of Human Resources!

Workplace safety always seems to take a backseat to production. And not always due to management. I worked at a place with big presses for cutting components. It had two buttons to make it press and they were at opposite sides of the machine so, theoretically, your hands had to be out of the press to make it work. So what did the girls do to make it work faster? Have one of their friends stand there and push one button while the operator fed it with one hand and pushed the button with the other. While doing this the two gals gassed with each other about their kids, husbands, boyfriends, etc.
Several were fired on the spot for this but it didn't seem to make any difference.

All you can do is try to be safe yourself. Most others are not going to do it.

magnaman wrote:Workplace safety always seems to take a backseat to production. And not always due to management. I worked at a place with big presses for cutting components. It had two buttons to make it press and they were at opposite sides of the machine so, theoretically, your hands had to be out of the press to make it work. So what did the girls do to make it work faster? Have one of their friends stand there and push one button while the operator fed it with one hand and pushed the button with the other. While doing this the two gals gassed with each other about their kids, husbands, boyfriends, etc.
Several were fired on the spot for this but it didn't seem to make any difference.

All you can do is try to be safe yourself. Most others are not going to do it.

I will bet the girls were paid by piece work. The more they made the more they got paid. And management wonders why they circumvent anything that slows them down.

Saw the same thing in a press that required two hands to activate the press.
Idea both hands would be on the buttons and out of the way of the press.
Everyone had one of the buttons taped down so they could feed and press in one motion. Made a real difference in their pay check.

Then one day the rescue squad had to come. Company shifted from piece work to flat rate and production fell like a rock. Company moved to Mexico where they tell me all the presses have one button taped.