Hi Folks,

I must start by saying that nothing I write hear should be intended to discourage anybody from following the directions on your power tools regarding safety.

Yesterday I had my first kick back on a table saw in over 30 years. Lucky for me I had just shut the saw off and stepped away. The small piece I was cutting was left too close to the blade and pinched against the fence shooting it into the shop door. I must say that It caused me to take pause and examine my shop safety. I have over 40 years of experience and grew up on construction sites. Our tools were moved from job to job and the factory safety guards never lasted long. Got used to working without them. Seems like even in a stationary shop the guards on tools are the first thing to break. I have no guards on anything right now. Even the blade guard on my 12" miter saw is on the shelf after it wore out. Going to fix that today. Probably wont put any guards on anything else as they seem to be more hassle that help, just not used to them. I think what has kept me safe for years is knowing how tools work and understanding how bad things happen with tools. So although I don't use safety guards Like Im supposed to heres some things that I do to keep safe.

I don't wear jewelry of any kind. I keep the floor clean and free of anything that might trip me. I never use tools to do something its not intended to do. Unplug tools when working on them. don't wear clothing with strings. Have large selection of push sticks. don't cut material to length with a table saw fence. Use sharp blades. Throw away old extension cords. Wear safety glasses. Set your blade only high enough to cut thru the material.

Sure that others will add more tips to stay safe.

hope everybody has a safe day out there,
Gimpy

Great topic Gimpy, thanks.

The old adage "measure twice and cut once" applies to safety too. If you get all excited about a project, you may find yourself rushing to get it done. But don't... Measure twice. That is before making your cut, or hole, or whatever, look over the situation. This will cost you all of ten seconds. Look with a safety minded eye, not a magic one. Think about what you are doing. Did you select the right tool for the right job? Did you clamp appropriately? Will your fingers be away from where they should not be? Are your eyes protected? Your ears too?

I have been an OSHA trained safety man for many years, and most accidents come down to two things, poor planning, or not paying attention.

Be safe.

I always cringe when I see someone using an X-Acto type knife without eye protection, especially when they are using it aggressively. More often than not, the tiny tip of the slender blade breaks off, and you don't even notice. A friend of mine had this happen and the blade piece went right into his eye. It was bad.

It also pays to use a quality blade. I once applied what I thought was a modest amount of side pressure to a cheap blade, and it shattered into several pieces.

Roger on the table saw. The few close calls I've had all involved a part binding between the fence and blade. Many years ago I had that happen on a short length of PVC pipe that I was stupidly trying to rip an oddball section out of. It turned into a missile that clipped me as it shot across the shop.

I should add, when I say never cut anything to length using a table saw fence I mean if the width of the board is not close enough to the length to keep it flat to the fence. I was watching American restoration a few years ago and they needed a way to cut 4x4 table legs to equal lengths. They set the blade as high as it would go, set the fence to 30" and ran the 4x4s thru. They got away with it but wonder how many people tried this at home and got all their teeth knocked out or worse.

I think about this constantly, one of my biggest fears is losing or damaging my sight. I deal with some pretty powerful lasers and other equipment at times. As a result there are literally safety glasses on EVERY working surface in my lab as well as laser safety glasses for every wavelength I deal with. They were not cheap, but then you only get two eyes, and I need those for depth perception when I play in virtual reality games.

I have had a few close calls in the past. One that was notable was a few years back I was running a type of flowing gas laser with a 400,000 volt at 36 mA power supply on it. I reached over to adjust the needle valve and got knocked on my ass. The voltage that was being used to excite the plasma had traveled down the long non conductive tube along the ionized gas particles and when I touched the needle valve leaped through the valve and into my hand. I was not wearing my usual safety gear of insulated gloves as it was early morning and a reporter was to be there soon to run a story on one of my projects. I got up and luckily the system had been killed, my safety measures had kicked in and shut it all down except the cooling jacket and a magnetic bottle. After that checklists went into place that were followed to the letter.

A second close call was when a chamber exploded during a prototype build, the cooling system absorbed the flying glass shards as there was, what I can guess, a defect in the glass used. I had just powered up the system when there was a brilliant flash of light as a plasma was discharged from the chamber and could be seen through the safety windows that were in place. This goes to show that even when everything is done right, stuff happens, so it is always best to be prepared.

My focus since then has changed to designing new technologies with some of the things that I learned, you may even see some of them go mainstream soon

oh ... speaking of shop safety, I came across a photo that made me cringe recently....



or this

That first photo... he didn't marry her for her brains. Ha!

FWIW - There are ways to cut length on a table saw. First, use a sled with a stop block. The other way is to attach a block to the rip fence just at the leading edge of the blade. Your workpiece measures against it, but by the time you push it into the blade (using a miter gauge with an auxiliary back fence) it will clear the block attached to the rip fence, leaving a relief space between the blade and the rip fence.

I have learned a few things over the years. My newest drill press is very powerful. Clamps, vices, and other securing jigs are an absolute must. I got careless a few months back when I needed to pop a quick hole in a small piece. The bit grabbed and ripped the piece from my fingers, and sliced me pretty good.

My very first experience on a wood lathe was making a giant wooden cannonball. The lathe tool caught, and the force broke the waste area of the workpiece, causing a six inch wooden cannonball to fly past my head. I quickly realized that being a pirate in the 18th century would suck.

Right Michael, by adding a spacer block to the fence you can safely cut to length. In fact for very small short cuts its more safe than a miter saw cut. In combination with a zero clearance insert you can safely duplicate identical small pieces.

You should know from my stuff that duplicating very small parts is a frequent task. I have made a variety of special sleds and jigs that serve that very purpose. I even add finger guards where the blade exits the backstop. That's usually the last place your eyes will be when cutting tiny parts.

I had to make a jig to route rabbets in parts for the Mystic Tubes that I recently released. Since the parts were 3/4" x 3", there is no way I was going to have my fingers that close to the bit. Later I will show that process.

Not long ago, someone posted a video (I think on Facebook) that showed a guy routing edges on tiny wooden wheels, using just his bare fingers to hold the parts. It was beyond scary and very stupid.

Miter saw is the tool I fear the most. Like you said, not for cutting small parts. It will sling them viciously.

Here is the rabbet jig for the small parts needed for Mystic Tube. This is 1/8" stock. The rabbets need to be 1/8" wide by 1/16" deep.

This shows the size of the part and the proximity of my fingers to the router bit. Of course the router was not turned on for this photo.



Next shows the jig. It is made from 4 pieces. A space is provided to hold the part.



The part fitting into the space...



The entire thing is turned so the part is on the underside and facing the bit...



The part after the rabbets have been cut...



The four parts of the tube are dry fit here to show how it goes together.

I found the video. You won't believe how stupid this is!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtIEK2emNmU

Whoa Nelly !!!!
As soon as that shaper or router table turned on and I saw him touch the bearing after he turned it off and while it was still turning I almost p**d myself

One of the first things I was told way back when I was a teenager about woodworking shop safety was that a shaper or router table which is more commonly used these days, is the most dangerous piece of equipment in the shop. I was told that the next most dangerous piece of equipment was the radial arm saw. I own both but every time I use either of them that long ago warning still pops into my mind.

I never have and never will own a radial arm saw. I know enough people who have hurt themselves on one.

I think most people have switched away from radial arm saws. I had one for a while but it never got used and became a storage shelf. Had to practicly give it away just to get rid of it. Used to be that everybody had one. The Delben blotters were made with one. The block was placed in a jig on its side and four cuts were made to begin to form the curve on the block. The rough curve was then put in a jig on an uprite belt sander and fed into the belt in a swinging motion to finish the curve. don't know why it was done this way, I would guess it was faster than a band saw.

Michael, Nice point on the router jig. If your trying to do something and it seems risky it is. Time to make a jig for the job.

Band saws tend to "walk" especially on wider stock. I'm sure Ben's technique gave a better result.

Though I don't build, I can relate to safety...or the lack there of. As a creative director I use few tools except for a computer. But back in college in the early '80s earning a graphic design degree, I used plenty. In addition to a lot of spray mount, rubber cement, and photo developing chemicals that I used improperly, I practically wore an X-Acto blade in a holster I used it so much. Unfortunately, most of the time was in the middle of the night working on complicated projects. No drinking involved...quite the opposite...a lot of coffee and shaky hands, led to many of a blade skipping across a metal ruler and peeling into flesh. I have had over 30 stitches in my left hand from my right hand slipping. Fortunately, I was in walking...or rather running...distance of an emergency room, and used it often.

The funny, or rather sad thing is, this was common place back then. Students would often turn their projects in with blood stains on them.

Oz, I did exactly the same thing prepping something for a lecture at a magic convention about 10 years ago. Sliced off the very tip of my finger... X-Acto blade and a metal ruler. It made for an interesting lecture, but I've been much more careful ever since.

BTW - a spare thumb tip make a great protector for a damaged finger. Better than banging it for the next few days after cutting it.

Right. Nice to know I'm in good company - I sliced off the tip of my finger with an X-Acto knife once while working on a model for a show. Didn't need stitches, but when the Band-Aid came off a couple of days later, my fingertip was flat and I could see down the layers of skin. It was weird. Of course, my co-workers at the architectural firm busted on me for days. This was back when that was pretty much expected.

The one that woke me up was back in Summer Stock when I was running a piece of Masonite thru the table saw and the blade kicked it back right into my stomach. Man, did that smart! I was lucky, all I got was a cut and a bruise, but it stayed there for days.

I guess ya gotta pay your dues...

Machines can catch you off guard in a split second... and they are much stronger than we are. My original career pursuit was as a chef. In one of the kitchens I worked, I had the fun task of cutting chicken on a band saw. I guess I tried to feed one of them too fast, and the blade grabbed the skin of the chicken and pulled it down without cutting it. Because I had a strong grip on the chicken, it pulled both my hands straight in toward the blade and both my thumbs hit either side of the blade, nicking them both. It could have been worse.

In another kitchen, and on another band saw, I was cutting some other kind of meat. I would cut the piece them step to the side to place it in a pan. Just as I stepped to the side, the blade broke and it flew out the lower housing and straight up where it stuck in the tile ceiling above. Had I been standing there, it would have hit me ground zero.

I could tell you some other horror stories of accidents with machines in kitchens, some involved injury, some did not, but could easily have killed someone.

A split second can lose you a finger, or worse.
Thirty odd years of no dust/vapour mask, can lose you your lungs.
Ten fingers... Two lungs... You work it out.

Anytime I use a table saw, I always make sure I'm very aware of where the off switch is. I position myself so that I can bump it with my leg/knee if I need to.