What kind of saw is this? Looks very dangerous, but useful

[Charles Eaton]

What kind of saw is this? Looks very dangerous, but useful. Its in this video at the 50 second mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ZRrf-43R8

[Justin Ludwig]

It's a shaper with a saw blade.

[Patrick McCarthy]

looks like a shaper with a sawblade mounted rather than a cutter.

No safety guards on anything, and no apparent respect for the machines, a little too cavalier on the jointer, . . . . . . . . gonna see blood one of these days

[Tom Ewell]

I believe the music played is done by the same guys, figure they respect their fingers quite a bit

[Matt Day]

By the looks of it, they've been doing this for a while and I'm sure they are familiar with their machines. But it sure looked like they were a bit to nonchalant and could easily get a hand sucked into a jointer or that shaper/blade contraption.

It was neat to see their methods though, like resawing on the shaper. Thanks for posting.

[Peter Kelly]

Interesting wooden bed jointer.

Saw blade in the shaper always makes me wince. Also commonly used to remove flashing from vacuum-formed plastic parts.

[Ellery Becnel]

The shaper/saw blade setup scares the hell out of me, but the simple all thread clamps are a great idea.

[Charles Eaton]

Nice looking wood they use, but doesn't it seem like their product is going to split when it dries? Perhaps the wood has been drying a few years?

[Keith Hankins]

WOW that was dangerous.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Hearing protection: Check
Safety glasses: Check
Respirators while spray painting: Check

Machine guards: Missing

[Rod Sheridan]

looks like a shaper with a sawblade mounted rather than a cutter.

No safety guards on anything, and no apparent respect for the machines, a little too cavalier on the jointer, . . . . . . . . gonna see blood one of these days

Yes, sheer stupidity............Rod.

P.S. I use a saw blade in the shaper often, nothing wrong with that if you use proper guards.

[Prashun Patel]

It seems like gravity would cause the top piece to pinch the back of the blade, but that piece is unconstrained, so will it kick back? The bottom, constrained piece actually has gravity working in the right direction to reduce the tendency to have adverse blade contact.

If it does kickback, then I can see there's no way to get out of the path of the wood.

[Peter Kelly]

I think the underside piece could kick back pretty fiercly if as the internal stresses of the wood release unpredictably while being re-sawn. Any bowing/pinching would be disasturous.

Certainly wouldn't be possible to get out of the way of that board.

[Brian Henderson]

Hearing protection: Check
Safety glasses: Check
Respirators while spray painting: Check

Machine guards: Missing

But that's ridiculously common on YouTube, the overwhelming majority of woodworking videos feature zero guards on anything. Safety is a thing of the past.

[Ben Rivel]

Looks like they badly need a good band saw for several of the tasks they show in that video.

[Anthony Whitesell]

But that's ridiculously common on YouTube, the overwhelming majority of woodworking videos feature zero guards on anything. Safety is a thing of the past.

I would disagree. It is ridiculously common on youtube to not see any safety equipment (safety glasses, hearing protection or guards).

[Harvey Miller]

I remember seeing a table saw in a Mexican resort twenty years ago that consisted of a 4' by 8' plywood sheet on some legs with a blade sticking though it (an arbor and pulley was mounted to the underneath). It was belt driven from an electric motor, no guards, no fences, and nothing else. Based on that I'd say the fact they had a fence in the video is a major improvement!

[brian noel]

I remember back in the day when I was doing construction I had to cut some door casing in place. I didn't have a Japanese pull saw, so I hooked a saw blade up to my angle grinder. The blade was too big so I removed the guard. It worked great, but it gave me the same feeling of dread as this. Wow.

[J.R. Rutter]

But that's ridiculously common on YouTube, the overwhelming majority of woodworking videos feature zero guards on anything. Safety is a thing of the past.


I would disagree. It is ridiculously common on youtube to not see any safety equipment (safety glasses, hearing protection or guards).

It is uncommon to not see people not using safety equipment on youtube. ;-)

[Martin Wasner]

I run an 1¼" dado stack in a shaper. Everyone who sees it freaks out because there's ½" sticking out post the dust hood. Don't put your hands in the sharp spinning thing and it won't get cut. Pretty simple. And for what I use it for, my hands are never in danger.

That shaper/resaw mess is a little freaky, not sure I'd let the average idiot run it

[John Sincerbeaux]

But that's ridiculously common on YouTube, the overwhelming majority of woodworking videos feature zero guards on anything. Safety is a thing of the past.


What surprises me is the overwhelming majority of woodworkers who can't fathom the thought of woodworking without a guard, a splitter, or an instant blade stop?

Here is a video of a couple of craftsmen who are making due with what they have. They probably learned from their fathers who learned from their fathers.

Who is really safer, these guys or the hobbyist who goes out and buys a table saw with all the guards and whistles, but hasn't a clue of how to push a board past a blade?

No guard will protect against a lack of experience, or lack of situational awareness.

[Ian Moone]

Had a tungsten tipped blade set up in the old Robland K26 shaper like that for 20 years!
Used to cut all my tenon cheeks that way, BUT I did it from the sliding table with timber clamps, so hands etc were always more than a couple feet away from the exposed blade.
It's what you get used too & sometimes you "make do" with what you have and it works so surprisingly well that you end up sticking with it.
Still have all 10 of my 0nkararinga's. Did manage to break one tho - sawing glazing beads on the panel saw!. Had sawn miles of the damn things in hardwood not an issue - then sawn some in pine and hit a knot that broke and the bead kicked back off the rear of the blade.... broke R index finger on way thru.
Bandaid and keep working - had a job to finish and a deadline to meet! Fingers a bit wonky these days... break was thru the first knuckle of the right index!.
All part of the game...