The essential guide to using your tablesaw safely

All the pro tricks and tips to set up your tablesaw for maximum safety

By Scott Hood

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There are two other devices that prevent kickback. The first is a featherboard. Featherboards are the fingered devices that attach to the saw to hold the board against the fence while ripping. These can either be purchased or shopmade. It is important to ensure that you place the featherboard so that it will not cause the wood to bind against the blade. The second device is a hold-down, which could be a featherboard that is attached to the saw’s fence. The purpose of the hold-down is to ensure that the wood does not ride up as the blade makes its cut.

Guards will not make a tablesaw completely safe. It is critical that you are always aware of how close your hand is to the blade. Even the best saw guard could allow a finger to slip under and get badly injured.

Manufacturers of tablesaws typically colour the area immediately surrounding the blade a bright red, yellow or green. The colour indicates that if you are in this area, then you are way too close to the blade. Most people refer to this area as the “danger zone.”

Most experts agree that if the distance between the blade and the fence is less than 6″, then a pushstick or a pushblock must be used. There are a wide variety of pushsticks available. Some of these devices straddle the fence, while others look like modified saw handles with a small lip to push the wood through the blade.

If the space is sufficient to push the wood with your hand, hook your thumb over the edge of the board, then place your baby finger on the fence. Be sure it remains in contact with the fence throughout the entire cut. This manoeuvre keeps your hand a safe distance from the saw blade. However, if you are not sure or feel uncomfortable, use a pushstick.

Sizing things up

You should never freehand a tablesaw cut. The chance of the wood binding and kicking back is just too great. When you are ripping a board, always use your fence, featherboards and hold-downs. When cross cutting a board, use a stop block along with your mitre gauge. As you use the mitre gauge, the stop block provides a gap that keeps the cut portion of the board from binding up against the blade and the fence.

If you attempt to cut small slices off the edge of a board, you may soon discover that the space between the edge of the blade and the width of the slot in the insert is too large. This situation results in either the piece of wood dropping through the slot of the insert or the wood binding as it passes along the insert. To eliminate this problem, you need a zero-clearance insert, which has an opening just big enough to accommodate the width of the blade. In fact, you create an exact fit by cutting the slot in the zero-clearance insert yourself on your tablesaw.

 

 



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