Kick back question

[Alan S]

I think of that direction as moving the fence forward: the back of the fence is the last part the workpiece touches. That's the terminology I use below.

You must control the workpiece all the way through the cut. It sounds like you may have relinquished control too soon, while the piece was still between the fence and blade.

You are trying to avoid contact of the workpiece with the teeth at the back of the blade that are moving up and "forward" (toward you). The thought with a short fence is that release of stress in the wood might allow the kerf to widen, pushing against the fence to press the workpiece into those teeth. I think people who use a short fence usually stop it mid-blade before the back teeth to minimize this. If you cut something stable, a short fence is less important.

But in any case, your push block should hold the work down to the table and against the fence until it clears the blade entirely.

[Cooler]

I think of that direction as moving the fence forward: the back of the fence is the last part the workpiece touches.  That's the terminology I use below.

You must control the workpiece all the way through the cut.  It sounds like you may have relinquished control too soon, while the piece was still between the fence and blade.  

You are trying to avoid contact of the workpiece with the teeth at the back of the blade that are moving up and "forward" (toward you).  The thought with a short fence is that release of stress in the wood might allow the kerf to widen, pushing against the fence to press the workpiece into those teeth.  I think people who use a short fence usually stop it mid-blade before the back teeth to  minimize this.  If you cut something stable, a short fence is less important.  

But in any case, your push block should hold the work down to the table and against the fence until it clears the blade entirely.

I ordered a push block that should deal with this.  I'd like to avoid this in the future.  Very unpleasant, though the emergency room took me in less than 10 minutes and i was out in an hour.  So not so bad as down state where the waits can be measured in hours and not in minutes.

[Hank Knight]

Cooler, I had a similar thing happen to me using a Unisaw. I was ripping a short 2X4 and it kicked back striking me in the stomach/chest area. I had a very large, deep bruise for several weeks. The cause was my push stick. "Cause" is not the correct term. The push stick didn't cause the accident; it DIDN'T PREVENT it. When a workpiece isn't held down, flat on the table until it passes completely by the saw blade, the back teeth of the saw blade can lift it off the table, catch it and hurl it at the operator. It's the lifting of the workpiece that signals something bad is about to happen. Things happen very fast and once it starts it's hard to stop. With a push stick, the kind that simply has a notch on one end that catches the work piece at the back, all you can do is push the work piece forward, you can't hold it down on the table. I started using a push block or a push "shoe" that holds the work down on the saw table as well as pushes it through the blade. I haven't had a kickback issue since I started using the shoe. There must be a hundred different push block designs and they are simple and easy to make. Just Google "push block" or "push stick" and you will come up with many examples. (The Internet doesn't distinguish well between "push block" and "push stick", so you will find them lumped together.)

As a related matter, I have had three kickbacks in my 50+ years using a table saw; but, discounting having the cr*p scared out of me each time, only one resulted in an injury. That one convinced me that these kinds of accidents happen even when you are very careful. Most accidents that result in serious cuts or loss of fingers/hands, etc. don't happen because the operator absent mindedly pushes his hand through there saw blade. They happen when the workpiece goes awry and is violently twisted or thrown from the machine and the operators hand is forced into harms way in the process. My kickback was a wake-up call for me. I sold my Unisaw and bought a SawStop. I don't mean to sound like an advertisement for SawStop, and I certainly don't want to start the SawStop argument again; but I like my hands and fingers and intend to die with everything I came with. The SawStop was a personal decision and I'm happy I made the change.

[Cecil]

You are trying to avoid contact of the workpiece with the teeth at the back of the blade that are moving up and "forward" (toward you).  The thought with a short fence is that release of stress in the wood might allow the kerf to widen, pushing against the fence to press the workpiece into those teeth.  I think people who use a short fence usually stop it mid-blade before the back teeth to  minimize this.  If you cut something stable, a short fence is less important. 

This ^

Lets say your fence is to the right of the blade.  The idea, as stated above, is to prevent the pressure from stress relieve pushing against the right, rear of the blade, lifting the piece.   It sounds like your setup, allowed the exiting piece to rotate toward the fence, causing the left, rear of the blade to lift the piece.  I think setting the fence 1/4 to 1/2 way into the blade would help limit the rotation. A riving knife also helps greatly.  I used a saw without a riving knife for years, and I found the Micro Jig splitter system to work well.



However, as others said, hold the piece down.

[Cooler]

This ^

Lets say your fence is to the right of the blade.  The idea, as stated above, is to prevent the pressure from stress relieve pushing against the right, rear of the blade, lifting the piece.   It sounds like your setup, allowed the exiting piece to rotate toward the fence, causing the left, rear of the blade to lift the piece.  I think setting the fence 1/4 to 1/2 way into the blade would help limit the rotation. A riving knife also helps greatly.  I used a saw without a riving knife for years, and I found the Micro Jig splitter system to work well.



However, as others said, hold the piece down.

Locking the barn after the horse wandered off...

I ordered a Microjig splitter, a Gripper push block and Magswitch feather board.  

I think a lot of wood workers have had a mentor.  I just went and bought a table saw when I moved out of my apartment and into a house.  I read books, magazines and later on the Internet.  

Some of the books offered dubious advice.  One said to mount two rip blades with a spacer to make narrow slats.  That sounds like twice the chance of getting kickback.

I think a better education would have been beneficial.  Most of what I learned was by trial and error.  

The thing I disliked about the table saw was the constant switching of blades.  I just got a combination blade and I thought I was golden.

[Stwood_]

I ordered a Microjig splitter



I

The thing I disliked about the table saw was the constant switching of blades.  I just got a combination blade and I thought I was golden.

I run Microjigs splitters all time. Great products.

The thing I disliked about the table saw was the constant switching of blades. <------I don't understand this. Why? I hardly ever switch out from using a 24T blade.

[Cooler]

I run Microjigs splitters all time. Great products.

The thing I disliked about the table saw was the constant switching of blades. <------I don't understand this. Why? I hardly ever switch out from using a 24T blade.

I found that I could not get really clean cuts on plywood with my rip blades.

[AHill]

First of all, I'm glad you didn't suffer any more severe injury.  Eight stitches is serious enough to merit a big warning that you may have been doing something unsafe.

If I interpret your description correctly, you have no fence to guide your piece once the blade enters the cut.  That's a bad idea.  The workpiece needs to be in contact with the fence for the entire cut, which means there needs to be a fence beyond the blade guiding the workpiece.  Otherwise, you're essentially freehanding a cut for the majority of your cut.  Too many opportunities to have the piece rotate and for bad things to happen.

As Hank has mentioned, a pushstick needs to not only propel the piece forward, but it also needs to hold the piece down.  I do not like push sticks that just grab the back end of the piece and push forward.  I like something like the Grippr or a long push stick that has a hook on the back to push the piece forward and a landing on the front end to keep the piece down.

My advice:

Use as much fence as possible beyond the blade.
Use a push stick that pushes your work piece down as well as propels it forward.

[rwe2156]

This brings up the point that if a push block catches you can get injured.  I've had a few close calls over the years getting in a hurry and lifting the push block up too soon.  This risks the blade catching the push block and pulling the hand into the blade.

So remember to push the board ALL the way thru the cut before lifting the push block.

You can't do that with the fence retracted the way you described.  Once past the fence, there is nothing to keep the push block parallel to the blade.  If the push block has engaged the blade and it veers off to one side, it will catch.

The solution is use a splitter & keep the fence extended far enough back so the stock engages between the splitter and the fence.   And be sure the push block has cleared the blade before lifting!!

[Cooler]

There is lots of good information here.  The push block, the splitter and the magnet feather board are due to arrive today.  

The wound is healing nicely, so I think I will be up to install the splitter this weekend.

I do have a question about the feather board.  The magnetic version makes it easy to setup so I might be using it more often.  But I don't want to create more kick back situations by placing it incorrectly.  Any advice about the placing of the featherboard and when to use it?