Table Saw Safety, Lesson 1

Hi Backskin

Sorry but I must disagree with you…

Every book about the table saw will tell you, NEVER use the miter gauge with the rip fence as a stop block.

It’s enough that the miter gauge is not 100% square with the rip fence and you will have not one missile but all the Iraq war…

If you want to use the rip fence as stop block, clamp a stop block to the rip fence, at the side near to you so, when you crosscut, the off-cut piece will not have any contact with the rip fence.

Sorry, my English is not so good enough to explain it by words. If you cannot understand, please let me know and I’ll take a few pictures.

Regards
niki

phew… glad you are ok!
and good lesson Buckskin and Niki

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

A good topic. The best bet I’ve found is a cut off box. Take the tiime to build one and you will have more time to have fun. Mine is big enough that I can fit a 30 inch wide glue up in it and trim the ends. It has a stop block that can be adjusted out to about 36 inches or one can be stuck on the floor with double sided tape.I also use an Incra miter gauge with a stop gauge and a Kreg system on the fence of my miter saw. I almost never make a cut by just measuring. I measure the stop block then measure the sample piece. My wife won’t use the table because of being scared of flying missles. And after you have a cut off box don’t be too lazy to use it. sorta like glasses and earmuffs.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Schwwing-ting. Look, new additions to the back wall of the garage!

The safer way. Be careful out there!

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

I do what Doug shows, except the block should be thick enough, so the cutoff piece can’t jam diagonally with the blade.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Thanks everyone.

Niki and Doug, I had not thought about adding a block and moving the fence over. You can bet I will now.

I have a lenght of 3/4 inch birch plywood attached to my miter gage. I then use a framing square to make any adjustments so that I stay square. The extrushions on my table saw are beveled and I have not yet found a way to safely cut runners to fit and then make an acceptabel cross cut sled.

Good tip Dick.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

I need more pix.
I almost have no idea what you are talking about .. but then, I don’t use a table saw

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Doug,
Nice job on the diagram. A picture IS worth a thousand words…

-- Tom, Surfside Beach, SC - Romans 8:28

Doug
Thank you for the nice drawing…you saved me the pictures.

Buckskin
I assume that your blade is aligned with the miter slot and the rip fence is aligned to the miter slot…

Lower the blade below the table level…

Push the rip fence as close as you can to almost touch the miter gauge (or your miter gauge fence) and lock it.

Take one of those plastic drawing triangles (the bigger, the better) and check/adjust your miter gauge to be square with the rip fence…and lock the miter gauge…

Framing square is not so accurate sometimes and can lead to small mistakes that can end-up in off 90° cross-cut.
You will be surprised (at least I am) how accurate are those plastic triangles.

Another thing that I do is, clamp the work to the miter gauge fence as in the picture below…(I use the clamp handles as push/pull handle)

You can also glue #100 sanding paper to the miter gauge fence so you can hold it firmly and prevent the work from moving during the cut or when you pull back.

have a safe work
niki

Anything I can do for you Niki is an honor. You are one of my LumberJock heroes.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Thank you all for the tips. I applied some of them when I made the pet stairs. So much easier and SAFER!

The little suckers hurt when they hit, not that I’d know, errr or anything like that…...

-- Dan in Central Oklahoma, Able to turn good wood into saw dust in the blink of an eye!