It's kick-back time

Fourleftpaws

Mike - I am also glad your okay - its amazing how fast those things happen. Never had a kick back until the other day. Was cutting a 8 x 12 piece of maple for a jewelry box - with one of those little plastic splitters. After getting the cut just started - I looked toward the splitter - and saw that a piece of wood was between the splitter and the board - knowing that I was about to run into a problem - I moved my right hand with the push pad to turn off the motor - the blade caught the lumber - threw it against my left hand - and went across the room and slammed into the wall where my cat was laying on my bench. Scared the crap out of him - I looked at my left hand - yup it was still there - the flat edge of the board caught the palm of my hand - no tear damage - but the palm began to swell and turn purple. I removed the plastic splitter - trash canned it - and replaced the factory splitter back on the machine. Sometimes those new items put out - really do not replace the factory set ups on your machines.

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Larry

"Have you hugged your pet today"

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RustyW

Mike, you should print that pic of the cabinet and hang it near the saw as a reminder. Glad you were not hurt. This past weekend I made some planter boxes out of some rough cedar fencing. About a third of the way through ripping a 5' long piece, there was a loud pop and the board split from one end to the other. Now on my saw, I removed the guard, but left the splitter and kickback pawls in place. They kept hold of the mess as I shut down the saw. On the next cut, I had a loose knot take off like a bullet, I heard it hit the wall but never found it. The guard may have caught that one. But, like you, I was following one rule - not standing inline with the cut.

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Rusty

If You Want It Bad, You Get It Bad The Worse You Want It, The Worse You Get It

RustyW

Larry, my Delta CS has the switch mounted so it can be turned off by bumping it with your leg. I usually always turn it off that way. Not sure what you have, but maybe you can set up something similar.

__________________
Rusty

If You Want It Bad, You Get It Bad The Worse You Want It, The Worse You Get It

FatFreddysCat

Kickback happens for one reason - the rising teeth of the saw blade (i.e. those at the rear of the blade when vioewed from the operator's position) come into contact and get a "bite" into the material. It happens for several reasons:

1. No riving knife/splitter deployed when cutting reaction timber where the saw kerf closes-up around the back of the blade. A common problem on saws in the USA which seem to have dreadful splitter/guard assemblies

2. Lack of outfeed support where the workpiece pivots on the rear edge of the saw table causing uncut timber to come into contact with the rising teeth. This can also occur when "deeping", i.e. making a without a blade guard where the blade does not pierce the upper surface of the timber. The solution is simply to build a run-off table. Even a fold-away table flap or old desk will do, although deeping needs an extra form of jig for safety

3. Side pinching of the blade caused when reaction timber bends away from the blade but is restrained by an overly long rip fence. The spring in the timber may eventually cause it to push back against the side of the blade. The solution is to add an auxilliary rip fence plate on your table saw which stops at the bottom of the gullet. This short rip fence is common in Europe where I work (and is mandatory in commercial shops) whilst most smaller American saws seem to have the through fence which is a primary cause of kickback

4. Lack of crown guard over the blade. Although a crown guard won't prevent a kickback it can reduce the consequences of material being thrown upwards and backwards towards you by taking away a lot of the energy in the kickback

It goes without saying that you should never stand in line with any piece of timber going through a machine.

My approach is unashamedly Euro-centric because I trained as a wood machinist in the UK and all the above are just common sense, at least to me. I still get kick backs from time to time, although they're normally just minor and a quick assessment of the situation normally reveals that I've broken my own rules somewhere

kefjens

I just happened to watch this video on youtube last night:

YouTube - How to Avoid a Table Saw Kickback

I'm new to woodworking and trying to educate myself as much as possible. It's been a few months since I got on the forum...new baby=no time!

CanuckGal

Great Video! Thanks!