Stupid and lucky...this time.

[Mike Manning]

Pulled a real bonehead move yesterday and got away with it. This time. I consider myself still a novice woodworker. I'm working on building some drawers for my wife's bathroom vanity. I put my Freud Super Dado on my Delta Contractor's TS yesterday and realized the zero clearance dado insert I'd purchased used with the dado set needed to be "recut" for my TS. I'd just done this exercise last week with a zero clearance insert I bought at Woodcraft for my Diablo thin kerf GP blade. Performing that last week I put a piece of scrap wood on top of the insert and clamped it down before starting the saw and raising the blade. That went off without a hitch.

For some reason, yesterday, that experience completely slipped my mind. I just thought that since the zero clearance dado insert only needed a whisker trimmed on one side it would be easy to do. Never thinking about all the extra blade surface involved with a dado blade set versus the thin kerf blade. I grabbed an 8" piece of 2x4 scrap put it on top of the insert where the blade would come up. And I'd hold that down with an old Shopsmith rubber-faced push block with handle using my left hand while raising the dado blades with my right hand.

Yeah, yeah, how stupid can you get. Right? Well, it took about 1-2 seconds after the blades engaged the 2x4 for both the 2x4 and the push block to fly back and nail me before I could even blink. The 2x4 hit me in the stomach and the push block (this thing is heavy) nailed me high in the chest. I was freaked out to say the least. After I recovered my composure, I picked up the push block and could see that it has also gotten into the saw blades and was scored and cracked.

Before I decided to use the push block I'd picked up a 6" piece of 1x4 oak and put it on top of the 2x4 thinking maybe I'd hold that down with my hand. Lucky again that I decided at least to use the push block that ended up keeping my hand further away from the blades. I'm pretty sure had I used that 1x4 piece that my hand would have been into the blades and they wouldn't have held up nearly as well as the push block did.

Anyway, my chest and stomach are both sore as hell but I'm lucky as all get out I didn't get seriously hurt. That push block hits 6" or higher and I could have crushed my windpipe, knocked some teeth out, etc.

I don't particularly enjoy let everyone know how stupid I was but in the interest of maybe helping us all to think at least twice about what we're doing when using power tools I wanted to share my bad but lucky mistakes.

Be careful out there people!!!

[Peter Quinn]

Glad to hear you survived this with no permanent injury. I've run in lots of ZCI, I just move the fence over the ZCI, just right of where the blade will come up, lock it down, stand to the side and raise it up. There is no holding of down in my world, the fence does that job quite nicely. Works for me.

[Ben Rivel]

Dang, glad you werent hurt worse. Ive never had to cut in a ZCI the way you described as I use a plate for my SawStop that uses dovetailed in ZCI inserts. With a blank one in I just raise the blade and it cuts right through it. The insert is held in place via the dovetail in the plate. LINK (http://www.infinitytools.com/sawing/table-saw/table-saw-zero-clearance-inserts/sawstop-zero-clearance-throat-plate-with-two-inserts)

[Larry Frank]

Thank you for sharing your story and glad you were not hurt badly.

[Martin Wasner]

Yep, just put the fence over it.

[Dave Kelley]

Glad to hear you survived this with no permanent injury. I've run in lots of ZCI, I just move the fence over the ZCI, just right of where the blade will come up, lock it down, stand to the side and raise it up. There is no holding of down in my world, the fence does that job quite nicely. Works for me.

This is how I've always done it.

Glad you are ok.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike,

Glad to hear you weren't hurt any more than what you received!

Often those decisions we make in haste come back to bite us or hit us as the case may be.

Thanks for sharing so the rest of us get a reminder.

[Prashun Patel]

Thanks for the reminder. Glad u are healthy enuf to post about it.

[Lee Schierer]

Glad you are okay. I clamp a board across the back edge on my insert when making the first kerf to insure it stays in place. Even so I stand clear as I raise the blade.

[Dave Lehnert]

Looks like another save for the Shopsmith Push Block.
Had the same sort of thing happen to me when new to woodworking. I was cutting a Dado too deep in one pass.

342188

The Shopsmith push blocks are very well made and heavy. Good buy at $20 each.
The push blocks in my photo above are 27 years old.

[glenn bradley]

Glad you're OK and thanks for sharing. Those of us who have experience how quickly and unexpectedly powerful a kickback can be do well to share those experiences with others no matter how new or seasoned we may be. I really feel it is criminal when I see experienced users posting things like "just hold it with your hand", "you can overpower the saw" or my favorite "duck".

These folks are obviously speaking from a very limited experience as even a little a 1 HP contractor saw can take a piece of material from zero to gone faster than your brain can even acknowledge that it has happened. If you happen to be in between "zero" and "gone" . . . ouch!

[Phillip Mitchell]

I just cut into a fresh zero clearance insert a week or so ago and clamped a 2x4 on edge at both the front and back of the insert so that it was supported from both ends, but out of the way of the blade rising up. I'm glad that the accident wasn't worse. It sure could've been.

[Rick Potter]

Sometimes it is better to be lucky, than good.

OR

A lesson earned is a lesson learned.

Glad you weren't hurt badly.