Originally Posted by
Tim M Tuttle
A few in this thread have mentioned not running your hands over the cutter. Do you all mean you never have your hands over the cutter at all? My left hand moves over the cutter in the beginning to get the piece to the outfeed side. I just can't see any other way to do the operation without having one of your hands over the cutter at some point. I always use push pads when face jointing regardless of the thickness of the stock but it is a little unnerving having your hand an inch or two away from the cutter.
In regards to kickback, I always pay really close attention to the grain and try and joint downhill as much as possible and I always take pretty light cuts.
Tim
Yes, your left hand will pass over the cutter head on the first motion for edge jointing, but after that the left hand should come to just in front of the cutter head.
I typically like to move my fence to expose as little blade as practical, and then rely on the spring loaded guard to keep my hands away from the cutter head. If the guard is on place, and working properly, my hand never gets within 2" of the spinning cutter head.
For face jointing, no, my hand does not pass over the cutter head. I will feed it through about 6 inches and then put my left hand down on the material on the out feed table. I'll sacrifice a few inches of board, instead of risking that board braking, or splitting with my hand directly over the cutter head.
I do not wear gloves in the shop, and as a general rule while operating any machine. I have used them for working with Wenge and Shedua, because of the splinters,but rarely, very rarely, for anything else. No gloves around rotating machinery.
Last edited by Mike Cutler; 10-18-2019 at 9:17 AM.
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