Two foolish mistakes at table saw cost me, dearly - Graphic Photos!

[Simon MacGowen]

When the SawStop cartridge fired, I thought a gunshot went off and it was totally startling. It made me wonder whether anyone has ever gotten hurt on a whole other machine due to being startled by a SawStop being triggered elsewhere in the shop. Wouldn't that be ironic.

Edwin

It has been documented that someone injured his hand because he got startled by a light bulb popping as he was making some cut on the tablesaw. The incident report did not say if he was wearing any ear protection.

Simon

[Edwin Santos]

This is your delimiter. Paying attention to the fence relies on your reaction time which will never be fast enough. A pushblock is useless in overcoming the power an inertia of a dado stack or a single blade. Waxed table would simply have gotten you to the bloody conclusion faster. I sat for a period trying to conclude how a blade rotating counter to the feed could have back teeth that would throw the piece forward.. its impossible. The part got pinched and the operators imposed force on the part is what caused the part to move forward. A blade spinning in opposition the the force applied can only send the part back at the operator (kickback).

What likely happened (I have unfortunately seen it) is the dado kicked back, the part raised up and rode along the top of the blade like a tire, and the blade didnt throw the part forwards (against the blades rotation) the operators influence (shoving the part forward) pushed the part forward which firsbee'd the part forward and exposed the blade, and he fell into the blade. (nano-second). There is no way possible for a blade to throw a part forward. It may catch and whip or frisbee forward. But his influence was what caused the forward movement.

This is why the best advice is always to think of "if the part were to disappear... where is the force I am applying to my hands.. going to put my hands.. "

Mark B - Based on some of your response, I can see I was not clear enough in what I wrote.
When I say the workpiece was thrown forward, I meant forward in relation to the blade's spinning direction i.e. toward the operator. When the workpiece was thrown, it was not thrown straight, it rotated and because the operator's hand was a little past the blade when it happened, his hand was dragged into it. Pretty much as you describe with your frisbee example. Sorry for being unclear.

After all, they call it kickback, not kickforward. Looks like I need to go back to grammar school!
Edwin

[Simon MacGowen]

When I say the workpiece was thrown forward, I meant forward in relation to the blade's spinning direction i.e. toward the operator.
Edwin

That was the interpretation I made out of your first post.

I had seen two authors referring to the front and back of a tablesaw differently in their articles. One referred to the 'front' as the edge that was close to his body, while the other "front" being the far edge of the saw.

Simon

[Edwin Santos]

This is your delimiter. Paying attention to the fence relies on your reaction time which will never be fast enough. A pushblock is useless in overcoming the power an inertia of a dado stack or a single blade. Waxed table would simply have gotten you to the bloody conclusion faster."

Mark B -
I'm not sure what you're saying here. If you are dismissing the use of pushblocks, waxing tables and paying attention to the fence, then I respectfully disagree.

If all you're saying is that these practices were not the cause of the incident I described, you might be right, but I still would disagree with the notion of abandoning them. The fact that the operator wasn't doing any of these things did not help.

I personally believe reducing friction on all machine tables where a workpiece is moving, is quite important. When there is too much drag, it forces to operator to push harder than should be necessary, which itself is unsafe. Same reason any chef will tell you a blunt knife is far more dangerous than a sharp one.

Of course, anyone is free to do as they please in their own shop. I admit to being belt/suspenders conservative when it comes to safety.
Edwin

[Simon MacGowen]

Mark B -
I'm not sure what you're saying here. If you are dismissing the use of pushblocks, waxing tables and paying attention to the fence, then I respectfully disagree.


Edwin

I am not so sure about the wax thing simply because I never wax my table, and use something else for rust prevention. However, paying attention to keeping stock tight to the fence is what I do EVERY single time I use the saw. I suspect that could be a reason, among other things, why kickback has never happen (so far) in my shop.

Simon

[Mark Bolton]

I wax everything. And use pushblocks when needed. I guess I didnt comprehend forward progression of workflow as.pushing a part forward through the saw as if to move forward in the progression of your workflow or to move a part forward into the blade and then somehow related that a blade that is resisting your forward progression somehow had some wierd back teeth that could throw the work forward which actually meant backwards. But whatever.

I use wax with reckless abandon. All sliding surfaces are liberally and regularly waxed. If the event ever is to happen (avoided at all costs) I use pushblocks and feeders to keep my hands (again employees) as far away from the sharp stuff as possible.

If your aim is to be argumentative you failed. As I said... the pushblock would have failed your dude. The wax would have failed your dude. He ran a part through the saw against the fence that was wider than it was long. If he was teaching.. he publicly learned a humiliating lesson that it sounds like he then tried to recover from.

We all make mistakes

[Bruce Day]

Sorry to hear about this. Hope it heals well for you. Question,how did you contact blade with your LEFT hand ?

I was holding the table with my right hand and pushing with left, it was spitting shavings like mad and I was standing to the right, took a couple thick shavings from a previous leg I was trimming. I am right handed and used my grripper on previous leg. I turned off ts to clean top off and when I started on last leg I grabbed push stick instead. Can't give you honest answer why except to say big mistake.

[Bruce Day]

You don't have to tell me about cold, scooping first snow and found out hard way, even after my physical therapist warned me!

[Bruce Day]

Not much to show. Was a hot day and I had my saw at the edge of garage door but in shade. Had my wet vac beside saw so it would be easy to turn on/off and that's why I had the cord laying behind me.

[Bruce Day]

Couldn't agree more about hand going over the blade, hell, I got a little nervous in my own way doing dado cuts, I think about wider blades and something weird happens.

[Bruce Day]

I've been looking at some of the different kinds of pushing methods. Trying not to put myself in a overly too cautious frame of mind.

[Bruce Day]

Finding out it's going to take some time. First time I turned ts on turned it right back off and did something else. Done it a couple times, in fact when I got home from hospital it was 8 days before I went into my little shop.

[Bruce Day]

I would settle for Mr. Dewalt to just slap me around a little. He didn't play nice

[Bruce Day]

No, the guard wasn't on at the time but I feel 100% sure that it would have prevented it, not a doubt in my mind. Not trying to be graphic, but I watched it happen.

[Bruce Day]

When I get enough saved up, and I can promise you I'm saving like mad. In fact, that's one on the questions I'm going to be asking the guys here on the Creek for some pointers on what to look for in one!