# Be ALERT ... not a "LERT"



## odie (Nov 20, 2007)

I'm coining a new word here boys and girls. *LERT* = someone that is not alert. And I are one too !










We all know when "IT" happens, we're usually doing something repetitive and get hypnotized by the moment. I was cutting pieces for a tiled bowl. They're always cut at 22.5 degrees and these were 40 in number at 5 1/8" in length. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how "IT" happened, but the piece passed the table saw blade and went flying in two pieces. I usually grab the pieces after they pass the blade then pull the meter gauge back to the starting position. I think I may have tried to do both at the same time. The result was all hell done broke lose.

The aftermath was a bent blade, a meter gauge that had to be completely re-calibrated, a piece of a project in two pieces, and a wife that came running in shock to see if I was alright. The noise of the action and me yelling Robbi's favorite word brought Sue very quickly. And yes, I still have all my fingers.

So, be ALERT out there … not a "LERT" like me.


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

Holy IT!

Still having all 10 fingers makes you a lucky other trucker in my book!


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## odie (Nov 20, 2007)

I knew I could count on you Charlie !


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

OH LORD ODIE! Please tell me you didn't scream Yadahooty!!!!!!!!!

Wash your mouth with soap!


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## Mario (Apr 23, 2007)

Have you recovered your witts yet. That kind of ordeal can get your blood pumping can't it.

Good to hear that you can still count to ten with your fingers.


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## North40 (Oct 17, 2007)

A good reminder for the rest of us.

A recent client of mine is anesthesiologist and hobby woodworker. He asks people about their tool injuries in an attempt to avoid making the same mistakes, and he said that almost invariably the accidents happen when people are doing repetitive tasks or operations they have done many times before and feel very comfortable with.


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## woodworm (Jul 27, 2008)

Thanks God you still have all your fingers.
I experienced once while I was ripping thin strip. The blade sent both the stock and the push stick flying.
Now I use simple sled equiped with a hold-down clamp for cutting small (short) piece. I know it is slow but at least it reduces my nervousness!


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## kjwoodworking (Oct 4, 2007)

All it takes is a split second of lertness and all *he double hockey sticks* broke loose and fingers are missing!!

I'm glad as $#!+ you didn't get hurt!!


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## Kindlingmaker (Sep 29, 2008)

Thanks odie. I love my TS but still scares that dickens out of me, too many pictures of others red stained TS's. Glad you have all your fingers but reading many of your posts I am in doubt about the counting part ; )


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## Woodchuck1957 (Feb 4, 2008)

Yeah, imagine if you had done that with a more powerful saw. I think crosscuting or mitering something that short on a tablesaw is just asking for trouble, Judgeing by the first picture I would never put my hand that close to the blade, and I think the miter gauge should be 22.5 degrees the other direction. Buy yourself a good miter saw. I've never really understood why people spend alot of money on a miter gauge for a table saw, how many professional trim carpenters do you know that use a table saw for miters ? None that I know of.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

Manure! that was a close call. where is that splitter/riving knife at?!?


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

woodchuck - we are not all trim-carpenter, and no- we dont all have ~$600 for a good mitersaw that will crosscut 12" wide boards - but with a crosscut sled, or a good miter gauge - that is something that is very easy to do on the table saw.

I find the table saw a very versatile machine when setup properly with accessories - something that a mitersaw just isn't and will never be.

I do agree with you however that this cut seems to be unsafe and somewhat dangerous- I'd opt to do the same cut differently, having my hands further from the blade, with a splitter of some sort at least - best way to do it , esp. if you have the same angle cut over and over again - would be with a sled, setup for repetitive cuts at a specific angle. safest way to go.


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## majeagle1 (Oct 29, 2008)

Thanks for another heads up Odie…....... I have already been guilty of being a "lert" and fortunately, like you, I still have all my fingers. I do all of these kind of cuts with a sled now. Glad you are o.k…..............


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## ND2ELK (Jan 25, 2008)

Glad to hear you are alright! Kind of makes you rear end tight, doesn't it. The best one I did is when I was cutting 1/8" wide strips from a 4" wide board with a 45 degree cut on the end. I was using a home made push block and did not realize that the part hanging over the back of the board between the blade and fence was missing. The strip came flying out of there and stuck 2" into my leg.


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## GaryC (Dec 31, 2008)

OH…(well known commodity) Glad you're ok Odie. You need to keep those fingers for your satire. Maybe you could blame it on the unknown dude distracting you. Stay dusty - and safe
gary


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## Woodchuck1957 (Feb 4, 2008)

Purp, comeon now. For one, the board he cut isn't anywhere near 12" wide, plus what he spent on the miter gauge setup he has would of put a good dent in the price of a new miter saw and would be safer. I'm not saying anyone has to spend $600 on a miter saw, my DeWalt 10" and 12" compound miters saws combined didn't cost $600, and material stops are usually available from the manufacturer of the saw. Miter saws are more versitile than I think you know, some sliders you can set the depth of cut and do multiple passes for a dado cut, it beats the heck out of seting up a dado blade in the table saw for only one or two quick dadoes and then haveing to put the regular blade back in when your done. Every tool has it's correct application. Work smarter, not harder my friend. Be one with the tool Grasshopper.


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## Rustic (Jul 21, 2008)

I think it's time to check your shorts Odie. That would have made me make a mess in my pants. Glad you are ok though.


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## 8iowa (Feb 7, 2008)

Last year I made this miter sled strictly for the purpose of cutting bowl segments. The sled has four fences; one each, for six, eight, ten, and 12 sided segments. The angles are absolutely precision perfect. In the upper corner of each fence I placed a toggle clamp. This eliminates the necessity of getting your fingers close to the blade, as some segments are rather small. Ill be glad to share information on how to build this sled for anyone who is interested. I can't think of a safer way to do this task.







This last picture shows the four test wedge assemblies to check the accuracy of my angles.


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## woodworm (Jul 27, 2008)

This looks better!
Thanks Biowa for sharing.


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## Woodchuck1957 (Feb 4, 2008)

I give up, whatever blows your hair back folks.


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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

Nice one 8iowa! thats exactly what I meant.

Woodchuck, it's really hard to converse with your messages when you keep editing them every few minutes…

yes, mitersaws have their place, but usually when I do dadoes, I do them in cabinet carcasses - mostly 22"-24" wide- I'm really curious how you'd do that with a mitersaw? and multiple runs… like you said, each tool has it's purposes and uses. I find the table saw capable of doing more than ripping jointed stock. but um - thats just me.


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## Allison (Dec 31, 2007)

Wow, I am sooo glad to hear you are alright. Now get back in the shop and do it again so that you do not end up too scared to go back there. At least as a lot know that's what happened to me. So glad to hear you are okay. "Those" kind of accidents can be life changing if you let them.
P.S. you are lucky to have Sue come running to see if you were alright.
PEACE!!!


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## dusty2 (Jan 4, 2009)

Yadahooty! That's about all I can say! Yadahooty, ya'll.

Nice sled 8iowa. How come we haven't seen this before?


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## 8iowa (Feb 7, 2008)

Actually dusty, I did have it up about a year ago, but as forums roll on, a year old is almost like oblivion.

By-the-way. Happy birthday to you - from another old dog.


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## odie (Nov 20, 2007)

Dusty, yadahooty to you too. Just for the record, I didn't start that "yadahooty" stuff. I'm the one that wore it out.

Whats this crap, "I'll be glad to share the information on how to build this sled for anyone who's interested." You think it's great …. post it as a "how to build" blog or project. Don't tease us … just do it *AGAIN*. You know … copy and paste your old blog if you have to.

Well, when was the brain surgeon going to ask me if I checked to see if my trunnion was still true. Well the darn thing was also out of whack. So, today was spent aligning that to speck and testing on of course more segments. Yes, I did get right back on that horse. This all happened a couple of days ago, and I had been using it all along. The darn trunnion thing made me do it all over again though.

Thank you all who have been wishing me well as to my health. And all of your suggestions for improvements have not gone unnoticed.

*UPDATE* ... Dennis started "yadahooty".


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## kiwi1969 (Dec 22, 2008)

I,m with woodchuck on this one. I would never use a table saw to do this job. Then you don,t need to frig around with a jig, you just make the cut and it,s done. If you need a jig to make it safe then it,s a bad idea in the first place. glad you got away with it odie.


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## Bureaucrat (May 26, 2008)

What I want to know is if the Unknown Woodworkers' fingers are all intact too?


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## odie (Nov 20, 2007)

Good news, the unknownwoodworker is doing just fine. The PMs have been rolling in and most are of concern. And again, I want to thank you ALL for that concern. There have been many suggestions as to improvements as to how I preform this task. Believe me, they are ALL appreciated and again they have not gone unnoticed. I have a few ideas in my head right now as to fixing this yadahooty thing.

Thanks again !


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## ajosephg (Aug 25, 2008)

I think the unknownwoodworker must have distracted you. So in addition to the rule that we shouldn't be talking to or being talked to while we are working, we must add another rule of not talking to ourselves.


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## dennis (Aug 3, 2006)

From one "lert" to another glad to see you just got off with a warning this time. Doing this every day it is real easy to go into Lert mode. For the record I can't take credit for Yadahooty. Robbi started it!


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

Odie I said before be careful.LOL still your in one piece that's what counts.I had a bad deal with my big bandsaw when I treied to saw a round piece I knew I shouldn't have done it but I went on anyway and it snagged and caught inder the blade and jammed up the works it was abig piece and took me an hour to free the blade up myn hnadsawing the jammed piece and hammering it til it was free had to replace the throat and a small vision window with new perspex.Alistair Ps Odie didn't I tell you to be careful.LOLAlistair


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## unknownwoodworker (Apr 5, 2008)

Oh Odie, your such a putz … Dude !


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## cabinetmaster (Aug 28, 2008)

OH NO…............the unknownwoodworker has a halo like Odie and is following Odie around the site…..........LOL

Glad you still have your fingers Odie.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

Odie: Glad everything is all well. A good teaching lesson keeps us aware of what can happen, and happen very-very fast.


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## Grumpy (Nov 9, 2007)

Sounds like a close call Odie.


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## jockmike2 (Oct 10, 2006)

I know what you're talking about, I used to run a press in a drop forge and you could easily fall into a trance or even sleep, and not even realize your mind went somewhere else. I saw a lot of press accidents before they made us wear arm guards that would jerk your arms back when the press was tripped. My brother lost 3 and a 1/2 fingers in a press accident a Motor Wheel Corp. in 65 but it would'nt have mattered if he had the straps, the top die fell out of the press and fell on a piece he was taking out and slammed his hand against the side of the press. They did'nt have re-attachment technology back then.


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## SnowyRiver (Nov 14, 2008)

Glad you werent hurt Odie. My suggestion, like others have said is to install a riving knife on the table saw. I had a kickback with my saw last November. I wasnt quite as lucky…I got hit in the chest and stomach so hard it almost knocked me out…I still have a scar from my chest to belt line where I got cut by the flying board. I have since installed the riving knife to keep the wood from crossing over the back side of the blade during or after the cut. I feel much better and safer now.


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