Table Saw Safety

Image Gallery Basic hearing and eye protection is step one. ERIC O'CONNELL

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In my shop, the table saw is the most essential tool. I need it almost as much as I need my thumbs, but I never forget which is more important. And I never forget which one could potentially remove the other.

A table saw is arguably the most dangerous tool in the woodshop, but a basic understanding of the machine and a few simple precautions will keep you from harm. Most table saw injuries are caused by a phenomenon known as kickback — surrendering control of the material to the machine. When kickback occurs, two things can happen: 1) you can be struck, hard, by flying wood; or 2) as the wood takes off, it can pull portions of your anatomy into the spinning blade.

When a saw blade is spinning, its teeth rise up out of the table at the farthest end and travel towards you, reaching a peak at the center of their rotation; then they plunge back down below the surface of the tabletop. After they reach the peak, their forces are downward, meeting the resistance of the table. At the back of the blade, however, the forces are upward; the blade wants to lift the wood up and fling it toward you. If the vibration of the machine causes a cutoff piece to contact the back of the blade, it will throw it. Thus, rule number one: Stand to one side of the blade; stay out of the path of fire. More important, though, is to keep material from coming in contact with the back of the blade.

A Binding Contact

The wood between the fence and the blade has no room to move. The fence holds it snug against the blade, and at the back this can mean kickback. You have to be sure to push the material between the fence and the blade all the way past the blade to avoid this.

I make my hands into compact little pushing units, with the fingers tucked safely away from the spinning blade. My left thumb lays over the first knuckle of my left index finger, creating a notch which I use to press the board against the fence (see photo above). My right hand is open, the thumb hooked over the end of the board to push it along and the index finger applying downward pressure, while the other fingers are wrapped over the top of the fence, out of harm's way. As I feed the material through the cut, my left hand moves along with it, often getting close to the front of the blade, keeping the wood firmly against the fence.

If the strip I'm cutting off is less than 1 1/2-inches wide, I use a push stick in my left hand to apply pressure against the fence, as shown in photo 2 (see Image Gallery). If the fence is set to less than 3 inches, I use a push stick in my right hand to push the material all the way past the blade. A push stick can be as simple as a piece of scrap wood with a notch to fit over the corner of a board.

You never want your left hand to go past the center of the blade and apply pressure that would pinch on those teeth rising up out of the table. It is essential to keep the kerf (the gap created by the cutting blade) from binding on the back of the blade. In some boards, stresses caused by irregular growth of the tree can cause the kerf to close as the wood is being cut. If you notice this happening, hold the board in place, switch off the saw, then fit a wedge into the kerf to hold it open as you finish the cut. A splitter can help prevent this problem as well; see "A Word About Guards," below, for more on this device.

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