Shopsmith Forums

Check out this video posted by Newwoodworker.com.
It is posted at the bottom of the page.
Look what can happen even if you use a push block. Be sure to view the whole video and see how close his hand comes to the blade.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/basic/kickback2012.html

cincinnati wrote:Check out this video posted by Newwoodworker.com.
It is posted at the bottom of the page.
Look what can happen even if you use a push block. Be sure to view the whole video and see how close his hand comes to the blade.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/basic/kickback2012.html

Pretty scarey but what is really scarey is my belief that there are probably several of us that will cut wood today without the safety devices.

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Cincinnati, I can see how those young folks in the other video might not have enough sense about the existing dangers around a a powerful tool. They have no real experience and like most folks their age they think that they know more than the instructor. I don't know what was going on there, but the one kid looked like he though he might be stronger than the machine, while the other guy looked like he was taking pictures on his cell phone. Some of life's lessons come the hard way.

The guy on the table saw is just too stupid for words. I'd expect this guy never tries to demonstrate a kickback using that same technique. If he does, he's really dumber than I think.

Even if you have a riving knife or splitter installed, you likely could have the same result if you don't have positive control of your stock and twist the wood before it reaches either "safety" feature. Cutting short pieces of wood on a table saw is dangerous in and of itself.

Yeah. That guy was lucky. The other thing I noticed was how he ran his hand up between the fence and the saw blade. I learned not to do that a long time ago back in shop class. My shop teacher was very adamant about that also (push pad or no push pad). You never place your hands in a position where you could be obstructed from pulling back away from the blade. In fact, everytime we used the table saw we were required to stand opposite side of the fence from the blade when making a cut.

Cutting short pieces of wood on a table saw is dangerous in and of itself.

I only got a blade for my SS because cutting small pieces with a Festool circular saw and track is a pita.

Does using a crosscut sled make it safer?

Wisdom comes when one can learn from the mistakes of others. I'm much wiser than before watching the video. Although I have heard about kick-back and other hazards to avoid, seeing this was an eye opener to say the least.

Cross cutting wood generally isn't a problem because the wood is held firmly against a miter gauge (or the fence on a sled) so you have good control of the stock when it's pushed past the blade. So, if you maintain control of the stock when cross cutting, you shouldn't have any trouble. On the other hand, it's when you're ripping stock that you run into the kickback problem and short pieces increase the possibility of losing control of the stock.

For ripping, the general rule I've seen is that pieces shorter than 12" (300mm) shouldn't be ripped on the table saw. Use the band saw. If you REALLY know what you're doing, you probably can get by with a somewhat shorter piece. But, if you're ripping 6" (150mm) pieces on a table saw, you're cruising for trouble, as that guy on the video found out some years back.

I got the surprise of my life about 25 years ago when I thought I could hold a piece of would I was cutting the corners off of to make a plaque. I did not hold the board against the rear fence, but figured I could go slow and hold onto the board and just cut off the corners... The first tooth hit that board, about the same size in this video and it shot back so fast I never saw it fly back and hit the rear wall & bounce another 30 feet or so across the wood hobby shop I was in on a military base. I not only could of hurt not only myself, but someone else as there were a half dozen people in the shop. Know how your equipment operates or else you might get a surprise or far, far worse.

backhertz wrote:I got the surprise of my life about 25 years ago when I thought I could hold a piece of would I was cutting the corners off of to make a plaque. I did not hold the board against the rear fence, but figured I could go slow and hold onto the board and just cut off the corners... The first tooth hit that board, about the same size in this video and it shot back so fast I never saw it fly back and hit the rear wall & bounce another 30 feet or so across the wood hobby shop I was in on a military base. I not only could of hurt not only myself, but someone else as there were a half dozen people in the shop. Know how your equipment operates or else you might get a surprise or far, far worse.

Many years ago, I had started to rip a some what wrapped and wet PT 2x4 in my shop when my wife came in to complain to me about something. Lucky, she had just closed the door and being pissed and not paying attention to what I was doing, I somehow forced the 2X4 into the 3 HP 220 VAC radial arm saw blade. Instantly the saw blade shot the 2X4 across the room just missing me and through a 8" concrete block wall. It actually bent the saw blade.

I have always been super careful after that experience if I had to rip any wood. I try to used additional feather boards and other kick back rollers and attachments. Also, I never stand in front of any saw blade after that day. I was very lucky that day as I had been standing behind the 2X4 to better feed the board into the saw blade prior to that action.