Now and then the wood wins, or be careful out there

[cody]

Last night I had an interesting problem with a seemingly good sheet of oak veneered plywood, while running it thru a table saw it shattered. I thought it had bound up but this morning I checked it closer and the plys had separated casing the bind. End result was that it caught the blade and a piece about 2ft square fired back at me nailing my forearm, my arm is purple and scraped pretty badly but luckily the piece of plywood I needed is in good shape and now resting comfortably on a drawer base I built for a guys bus.  The gist of this is be careful, it happens fast and dosn't seem to care if your experienced or not.

[kyle4501]

Yep, & there ain't a 'undo' command available either

[jjrbus]

Gald to hear you were not seriously injured. I have had 2 trips to the emergency room while converting my bus. I was lucky also to have a Paramedic handy while I worked.

[Len Silva]

A table saw that I owned and loved for 32 years turned on me a few month ago.  Caught a 3' piece of 1 x4 and hit me right between the eyes.  Just about ruined my day.

Be careful out there!

[FloridaCliff]

Cody,

First, glad your OK.

Thanks for sharing a good reminder to all of us to be safe in our shops and around these coaches.

It does happen fast!

I have been tempted several times to disconnect the anti-kick back pieces on my saw, as they can be a real pain sometimes if they get misaligned with the cut. 

Thanks for the reminder......

Cliff

[Christyhicks]

Hahaha, I was reading and it reminded me how I about nailed my good husband when using one of my radial arm saws.   

I'm big on guards and safety equipment. . .guess it's the "girl thing", but I prefer my ugly mug to stay this way, rather than having stitches or chunks of wood protruding out of it.  Well, I've got one saw set up for dadoing, and I was in "production mode", building drawers for our new kitchen, when Larry came down to observe the action.  I really wasn't paying that close of attention where he was standing, which started out just to the right of my shoulder.  Well, I guess he shifted a little forward to see what I was doing, and about that time, one of the small pieces I was feeding kicked up and slung itself right out of the saw.  It smacked my right forefinger pretty hard and also left bruises on my pinkie, but the scary part was it went whizzing right past his ear!  Man, I about died and snapped. ..DON'T EVER stand in FRONT of that saw!   I knew that he knew better, it was just bad timing and bad positioning I guess, but it got BOTH of our attention for sure.

A few weeks later, when my knuckle was still swollen, and sore, we reallky looked it over and realized that as crooked as it was, I must have broken the top knuckle on that forefinger.  As it was, well, I was right in the middle of building cabinets and Thanksgiving family dinners were right around the corner, and it wasn't like a doctor was going to do anything to fix it anyway. .. pretty much they'd have just splinted it and sent me on my way, to the tune of several hundred dollars, ha ha.  I kind of think about it once in awhile as a reminder of just how fast something can happen and how powerful those tools really are. 


Len, you crack me up!   Hope you're ok though!  I have had a 10" Craftsman table saw, my first "big" wood tool since 1983, so I know how you feel about your saw.   Mine has lived in several states, lived outdoors under a tarp for several years, has run dado's, molding heads. . you name it, he's cut it!  Still all original, even the motor. 

Well, there was always one drawback to that saw, and that is because I'm not a big girl, when I try to shove a 3/4" 4x8 through it, well, let's just say it was a wrestling match to wrap one leg around the saw stand to hold it in place while I shoved the wood through, ha ha.  This Winter, I fell into a good deal on a Delta Unisaw, with extension tables, Biesemeyer, the works. .. so, well, "Old Faithful" will get a much needed rest and will take care of small jobs from here on out.  Life is just too good!

Well, Cody, I'm glad your injury wasn't worse than it was.  Thanks for sharing and reminding us to be careful each and every time we use our equipment!  Christy Hicks

[cody]

Delta makes some nice saws, mine is a ryobi 3000 cabientry saw, it has the sliding table and the air lock system for either floating plywood or holding it in place, depending on which way you switch the air valve.  The thing I like about it is the accuracy, it'll adjust to .005 of a degree on the scale, the 72 inch tables on both sides and outfeed tables make it about as safe as it can be for large wood but stuff still can happen.

[Sojourner]

Thank goodness...so far it healing or headed from saw accident. Praise the Lord!

I've had few kick back...one lower stomach hard....other near miss and hit the wall behind me.

Any loose wood in between blade & fence is like a missile chamber. Radial saw ripping with dato or molder wheel with narrow wood is like a missile chamber. In both cases one must stand away from possible missile passway.

I love the Biesemeyer fence at work.

[Christyhicks]

The thing I like about it is the accuracy, it'll adjust to .005 of a degree on the scale,

Now if they could just come up with an accuracy adjustment for me!   Christy

[jackhartjr]

I hope everone is wearing safety glasses when they are working with these power tools??

I will reapeat here what I have said before; in 1994 I am pretty sure, John Deere made a corporate decision that EVERYONE walking into one of their plants worldwide would wear safety glasses.  A year later...not one eye injury!
You only have two, please protect them!
Thanks for putting up with my rant!
Jack

[Runcutter]

A few years ago, I got hit in the face with a piece that kicked back from my Delta tablesaw.  My fault, for not thinking through the cut before I made it.  A half-inch made the difference, or I might have lost some teeth (and really gotten yelled at).  Had a scar on my cheek for a while.  I didn't put a square on it, but it was somewhere between 89 and 91 degrees - don't know if it was a perfect 90 or not.  Went out and bought some Board Buddies, and now use the holddowns and feather boards - that I used to think were unnecessary.

Had a weird one with 3/4 Red Oak plywood (the good stuff).  Four of us were building old-world style tool cabinets in a class at the local woodworking store - kind of production, with individuals or teams assigned to tasks (one person routing/rounding trim while another bandsawed the handles, etc.).  Heard something, and the fellow using the handsaw to complete certain cuts on the good plywood had just ruined a handsaw blade.  The instructor found an X-acto knife blade sandwiched between the plies of the piece.  I don't want to think what would have happened if it had been discovered on the tablesaw.

Another place to watch is the bandsaw, of all things.  About 3-4 weeks ago, a friend working at another wood supplier was cutting blanks on their big bandsaw - about 1 inch blade, 2 TPI.  Apparently he rolled a log into the blade without thinking all the way through, blade slammed it down on the table, kicked back, and launched him a reported 17 feet, through the lumber cart behind him. A number of internal and external stitches to his forehead.

Arthur 

[H3Jim]

I was using my table saw in my garage to cut narrow down a 1 by 3.  Just at the end of the cut, it bound and launched it at about 100 mph.  I was standing to the side and was toally unharmed although a little taken aback.  However when I turned around to look where the piece had flown like a javalin, it had sailed out of the garage, and into the front end of my Mercedes whcidh was parked in the driveway.  Fortunatley, it only hit the license plate and put a  2" dent in it.  Could have been a lot worse. So not only do I still stand to the side a bit, but I now aim the saw so it will miss other things in the area. Only happened once, but damn....