My stupid accident & tablesaw blade guard question

[Tom Hoffman]

Yesterday I placed my left index finger straight into a turning tablesaw blade. I was ripping 40" x 6" pieces of maple down to 1" strips to make "NK" runners for my tool cabinet drawers. After I had produced about 25 such 1" strips, I reached with my left hand to push the last offcut piece away from the blade. The index finger went lengthwise straight into the blade about 1/2" requiring 6 stitches. In my wildest dreams I cannot explain why I would do such a stupid thing. Having pondered this for a while now, I can recall a feeling of complacency with so many repetitive motions after 25 rips. Somehow my brain froze. I always thought that it would be kickback or a slip with my right hand that would get me, but poking my left finger directly into the blade? Go figure! Never thought it would happen to me.

No, I didn’t have a splitter or blade guard, but guess what? Now, I’m gunna get ‘em. Always thought the guards were too much money. Been doing some research on SMC and have settled on the Biesemeyer splitter, but undecided on which over arm guard. Right now it’s between Biesemeyer and Excalibur. Kelly Mehler’s review (FFW Nov/Dec 2001) was helpful. He liked the Biesemeyer, but complained about not being able to move the guard horizontally easily (required walking around the saw to adjust).

I have a Powermatic 66 with the 54" table on the right side on the factory mobile base.

Question: Is the Biesemeyer adjustment "problem" really a big deal? I read one post that said the Biesemeyer always floats and doesn’t lock. Is that a problem?

Anyone have suggestions as to Biesemeyer vs. Excalibur? (price is not a consideration).

[Tyler Howell]

Bad Tom, Bad!:mad:

Sorry for your pain. Haven't felt it and don't care to.
Very happy with the Excal guard. keeps fingers out and chips in. Heavy!!!

Just now I was installing the Bies splitter. More to follow.

Heal fast!! Glad it wasn't more involved.;)

[Bob_Hammond]

I have the Bies splitter and guard. I am very happy with the splitter. Easy to use, goes on and off in about 30 secs and works fine.

I am not as happy with the guard, and I find myself not using it a lot. It is well built, install is straight forward, and it does what it is supposed to do. However, when ripping anything narrower then about 3" the guard gets in the way, and I move it off to the right. Then I often don't bother to move it back. It also doesn't have dust collection (may be an option). To make it easier to move right and left, I disengaged the set screw so that I can just push it from in front of the saw.


Bob

[David LaRue]

Tom,

I have a Bies overarm guard. Here is a link to my review. Bies Overarm (http://home.comcast.net/~mywoodshop/html/overarm_guard.html)

All you need to do is remove the crank arm from the guard. You them slide it from the front, and use the knob to lock it into place.

Dave

[Chris Padilla]

The recent Saw Stop thread might be of interest to you, Tom! It most likely would have only be a superficial cut with that technology!

[Jim Becker]

Sorry to hear about your accident, Tom. Ouch!! As to guards, I have a review of the Excalibur on my site as well as a review of the Biesemeyer snap-in splitter. I'm very pleased with both.

[Frank Pellow]

Sorry to hear about your accident Tom. I would say that you are lucky to get away with only 6 stiches.

I agree with you that one does get complacement with repetative actions. Right now I don't have a guard on my (ancient) table saw either and I am doing a lot of repetative work what with ripping 3" battens for my workshop from from 1" x 12" s. I will keep your accident in mind and it should help to save me from a similar fate.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Tom,

Sorry to hear about your accident.

I have the Bies. gaurd and I really like it. I use it alot. I do not find it in the way. It is high enough that when I use my SmartMiter it just locks up out of the way. When I'm done I just levae it down.

The Dust collection is an extra $100. I'm in the process of adding it my self. I'm going to just cut in an adapter for my Fein turbo III to the gaurd rather than trying to tie it into my DC.

[John Miliunas]

Yowza', Tom! Glad it wasn't worse and hope you heal fast! I certainly do NOT mean to downplay it, but it could've been a lot worse than 6 stitches! :eek: Still a valuable lesson learned! :o

And with that, another vote for the Biesy splitter. Almost a "no-brainer", really. Sure, it's a lot of money, but it works great and the easy-on/off, really encourages its regular use. For the overhead guard, Excalibur gets my vote. Easy to install, easy to use and really, REALLY helps with dust collection. Also, though it's not designed as such, the guard can assist in holding down material, which mainly helps in preventing the material being sawed from creeping back up on the blade on the outfeed side. If you like the idea of it doing "hold-down" work, another option is the Brett Guard by HTC. Never used one, so I can't comment on its effectiveness, but I've read where folks mention that it does a nice job of that function. Heel quickly and stay safe! :cool:

[aurelio alarcon]

Sorry about your accident!

[Ian MacDonald]

Sorry to hear about your accident Tom. I hope you get well soon.

I have an anecdotal story related to safety gear: I play recreational hockey. Helmets are required where we play but face shields are not. I've been playing with a full face shield since the beginning because I can't take the chance on losing an eye (I don't get paid to play hockey). A lot of guys don't wear any face protection. Most say it's because a shield obstructs their vision. I've lost count of the number of times where a guy will get a stick or a puck in the face, lose a tooth, break a nose or come close to some serious eye injury. In almost all the cases, the damage was due to some fluke unintentional action that no one would have anticipated. Most of the guys will show up the next game with a face shield saying that they wished they had been using one all along. It takes them a while to get used to playing with the face shield, but most end up keeping them.

I'm glad you're looking into getting a blade guard.

I use an HTC over-arm guard. It's heavy, rigid and locks into place. It will keep your hands away from the blade and with a splitter prevents kickback by keeping the stock down on the table. I use it for almost all my tablesaw cuts: ripping, crosscutting, dados.

Regards,

-- Ian

[Ian Barley]

Tom

Sorry to hear of your incident. I cannot help much with your product selection as they are not available over here in the UK.

I do think that the complacency aspect is real but avoidable. I try and rehearse each cut in my head and try not to do anything in the real performance that wasn't in the rehearsal. If an offcut is gonna fall let it fall. Don't depart from the script until the blade has stopped. If you play it that way and the first cut was safe then the hundred and first cut should also be safe. It sounds elaborate but when you do it all the time it becomes second nature and you just do it.

Give yourself visual reminders. I have drawn an "exclusion zone" about four inches around the blade on my TS in thick black marker pen. This serves as a reminder to not put my fingers in that area when the blade is running. Do I always respect it? No, but on the occasions that I do break it, it reminds me to be extra cautious with what I am doing.

I think you got lucky by having a scary event that was nowhere near as damaging as it could have been. Now use it to your advantage.

[Tom Hintz]

Tom,
I'm glad the injury wasn't any worse than it was and I hope you heal quickly.
As for the reason it happened, I think you hit it on the head about losing concentration. I did a safety survey a couple of years ago that drew a huge number of responses. The jist of the report is that nearly all of the reported injuries were caused by a lapse in concentration, complacency and similar occurances. See the report at the link below. It is revealing, and should make all of us pay more attention when using tools of all kinds.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/safesurvy.html

[Kurt Aebi]

Tom,

I am glad you are going to be alright - as the others have said, it could have been much worse. I too have felt your pain, I split my left thumb parallel to the thumbnail clear to the first joint last October while ripping 2" x 6" in half. I was using a push-stick and featherboard, but reached for the cutoff piece and "whappo!" contact with the blade. Surgery, 22 stitches and 12 weeks of physical therapy later, I still cannot use the thumb joint - but I still have my thumb as a constant reminder for table saw (any cutting tool for that matter - check the websites for router table accidents) safety. I am lucky that I actually have feeling at the tip of the thumb. Take heed to your warning - I was lucky - you were EXTREMELY Lucky. I think we both have used up our luck and must now rely on our brains as Ian suggests. Think, plan and then cut and then Turn OFF the machine before reaching near the blade!

I decided to build my own and followed plans from Woodcentral for the guard itself and followed examples from Terry Hatfield for the gantry and dust collection aspects (Thanks for the pictures Terry, they were a big help).

As far as purchased units, don't discount Penn State Industries overarm guard - it looks every bit as good as Beismyer or Excalabur and for quite a bit less money.

Again - Glad to hear you are alright!

[Matt Meiser]

Tom,

Sorry to hear about your accident and I'm glad to hear it wasn't worse. I've had the Biesemeyer guard for about 2 years now. Like Dave said, you can remove the screw to solve the problem of having to walk around. I'm really not even sure why they have it, as it seems to lock very securely without it. I was originally going to purchase the Excalibur, but couldn't get one at the time. I got mine as a "second" from Redmond Machinery (http://www.redmond-machinery.com/biesemeyer_%20prices.htm). I later added the dust collection option. I found that because of the small 2" hose, It worked much better hooked to a small dedicated shop vac. I wired the vac into the starter for my saw so that both turn on together. I use the Delta "Anti-kickback" splitter which came with the guard, also available separately. It only takes a few seconds to install or remove the splitter by turning a small knob a few turns.

I am very happy with all three pieces and I rarely find myself not using them. Usually the piece I forget is to add the splitter back after removing it for a non-through cut where it can't be used.

[Tom Hoffman]

Thanks to all who replied. I hope others can learn from my stupidity and indifference regarding the installation of a splitter and guard.

Yes, it could have been a lot worse, and in a weird sort of way I feel lucky to have had this wake up call without major injury. I always thought, "I’ve studied kickback and I understand the causes of accidents – therefore I’m careful and it won’t happen to me ." Let me tell you, until it happens to you, you can’t truly appreciate the fact that the brain can fade at the most inopportune time.

Looks like it’s a push between the Biesemeyer and Excalibur.

[Chris DeHut]

As you may have noticed, years ago these were called blade guards, more recently many mfgs, are now calling them blade covers. Don't know the exact details why, but it something of interest.

While I advocate the use of ALL safety devices you can muster up, there is one area of concern about most of the blade covers we see available. Most of them, (and if I recall correctly - mandatory by OSHA) require the blade cover/guard to automatically float up on top of the material being cut. This feature is common on all of the covers I have seen.

This creates a unique and dangerous situation. As we all know, when feeding stock, our force is with our hand pushing towards the blade. Obviously you don't want your hand in-line with the blade while cutting, however, the direction of motion is towards that blade.

Now consider what might happen if there is either a kickback or your hand slips over the stock. The direction your hand will travel is towards the blade. Now if your hand ends up in-line with the blade at this moment AND if your hand is low enough, it can slide right under that blade guard / cover.

Very strange series of events, but the potential is there. There is a blade that I have seen once in a while called the Brett guard [Sp?]. This is a rigid mount blade guard that you adjust in height for the material being cut. I don't know if they are still available, but I have used them on other saws and found them to be rather useful.

You may want to try a search for this guard and see if it may meet your needs as well.

Chris DeHut

[Kurt Aebi]

Chris,

I'll bet they have adopted the term "cover" rather than "guard" for that very reason, that you can still come in contact with the blade if you have your hand in line with the ramped front of the cover and still get cut. I bet the lawyer-types are responsible for that verbage change.

I still believe that you cannot make any piece of cutting equipment 100% safe, even by removing the blade and motor, there are still the exposed corners, heavy castings, etc. . No matter what, our brains and the use of them is still the #1 most important safety tool we posses.

[Steven Wilson]

I had an Exaktor blade guard (similar to Excalibur but better IMNHO) on my PM66 and a beis splitter. There are a few hokey things about using these guards but it was easy to adjust horizontaly as the need arose.

[Matt Woodworth]

I wrote a review for the excalibur that might interest you: http://www.just4fun.org/woodworking/tool_reviews/overhead_guard

Like others have said, you might also want to consider the sawstop: http://www.sawstop.com

[Ian MacDonald]

There is a blade that I have seen once in a while called the Brett guard [Sp?]. This is a rigid mount blade guard that you adjust in height for the material being cut. I don't know if they are still available, but I have used them on other saws and found them to be rather useful.

You may want to try a search for this guard and see if it may meet your needs as well.
Chris DeHut

The Brett-Guard can be found here:
http://www.tablesawguards.com/

The overhead model is the guard that I use. It's main feature (that's unique amongst all the the other guards/covers out there) is that its height, once adjusted for the stock thickness, is rigidly fixed. It's very difficult for your hand to get underneath the guard since the guard cannot move upwards. Adjusting the height is very easy and takes only a couple of turns of a hand crank. The other benefit of this guard is that, since the guard does not move, kick-back events are not easily started since the stock can't climb the back of the blade. You'd still want to use a splitter though.

Ian Kirby wrote a book a while back titled "The Accurate Table Saw". There was an interesting passage in it that stated that we are all used to hearing TV WW personalities say they were "removing the guards for better visibility" when instead should be saying "we are _exposing_ the blade for better visibility". I try to keep this in mind whenever I'm working without a net (guard).

Regards,

-- Ian

[Ronald DeWeese Sr.]

Tom

Sorry to hear of this acident as this reminds me of mine, although I will not forget. This happened in Feb. this year, I have been woodworking for over 30 years. My cabinet saw is located beside my central vacuum system. I turned the vacuum system on before I ripped a piece of pine about 2" wide. I turned the cabinet saw off and proceeded to my radial arm saw to cut serveral short pieces for spacers. I turned the saw off and returned to my cabinet saw, as the central vacuum system was still running. I noticed there was some saw dust on top of the cabinet saw not picked up by the vacuum system. As I had done before I scooped up the saw dust with my left hand and threw it up my vacuum system over the blade. Needless to say the cabinet saw was running. I did not here the cabinet saw running. It cut my middle finger off above the middle joint and my index finger to the bone below the finger nail. Luckily my middle finger was attached by two leaders and one blood vessel which kept it alive and they reattached it! I can not bend the middle joint of that finger, but hey at least I have it. After running this through my mine hundreds of times I had thought the noise of the central vacuum system was the blame. It turned out to be my saw blade on my radial arm. For years I had bought what I call throw-a-way carbide blades since most of my cutting was pine. Some of these 60 and 80 tooth blades have had a high pitched wane to them,even if you sharpen them. I did a reenactment in front of my fellow woodworker and as I turned the radial arm on for about a minute and returned to the cabinet saw, I nor my friend could not heard the cabinet saw running. It was about 30 to 45 seconds before we both heard the cabinet saw running but could still heard the vacuum system running. My moral...DO NOT RUN A HIGH PITCHED SOUNDING SAW BLADE, IT WILL COST YOU MORE THAN A GOOD QUALITY BLADE! I know ear protection should have been used but we all do things in a hurry and do not take time to do it right. So a blade guard is good most of the time but if I could of saw the blade turning I might not have put my hand over it. I have since been advised to keep a brush hanging over my saw on the dust arm to keep the rest of my fingers! Hope yours heals good.

[Dino Makropoulos]

Tom, I'am happy for you.
Consider your self a VERY LUCKY MAN.
And the fact that you're talking about it, makes me even happier.
Because if we all come out from our TABLE SAW MENTALITY closet,
85.000 (people like us,) don't have to visit the hospitals every year

Few months ago when I was demonstrating some tool to a builders show
in Atlantic city NJ, I notice a teenager (from a technical school) with his right hand at his pocket. And I can see that something was.... missing.
I look . at his teacher and I ask him ..Table saw?
Yes, table saw, but not at the school, he was fast to reply.

Then the kid dit something amazing.
He pull out his hand and he show me what was left from it..

And I was not even using the table saw he said.
I was moving a piece of wood and the blade grab my hand.
It was my father tablesaw.

Looks like the kit was helping his father.
Maybee we should ask them about blade guards and saw stops.

I'am happy for you Tom.

[aurelio alarcon]

I wouldn't call it stupidity. We all make mistakes from time to time. What is important is that we learn from our, and others, mistakes and improve upon them. Don't be too hard on yourself! You may have brought the importance of this to someone who didn't give it enough attention. I know that I will try harder not to be complacent now that you have posted this thread. Thanks, and get well!