Please be more careful than me!

[LinuxRandal]

Lee, why did you stop making those? Didn't sell enough, found a better design, or what?

I am wondering because I thought I saw them the last time I looked at your website (considering ordering the last two upgrades).

[JimD]

I do not regret every time I ignore the little voice in my head telling me to do things a different way but nearly every time I've had somthing be unsafe, I had the little voice telling me to do it a different way. I think that is the best safety lesson - listen to the little voice and take the extra time.

Crosscuts against the rip fence on a table saw are iffy at best. I like to avoid if the width of the piece is not a foot or so and the length isn't less than the width (the part against the fence). I also use my RAS or CMS. Or I use a sled.

Jim

[Stytooner]

Lee, why did you stop making those? Didn't sell enough, found a better design, or what?

I am wondering because I thought I saw them the last time I looked at your website (considering ordering the last two upgrades).

They got to be too much of a drag for me to make. Pretty time consuming for the price. Then I asked Thom if he would like to make them. He did for maybe a year or so and then they got to be too much for him. I had no cnc machines then, so I just dropped them. There were a lot of them sold though. I say alot, but likely in the 500 range.
As I mentioned, I too would like to hear more about what the setup was and how it all progressed.

This kind of stuff is good to know, especially for newcomers to woodworking.

[Bruce Cohen]

Hey Rick,

I just went back and read your first post again (twice, to make sure I got it).

Are you saying that you made a cross cut against the rip fence!!!

Even I know better, and I'm on a first name basis with thhe nurses in the ER by me.

Hope you're feeling better and IMO, nothing in the world would have prevented the kickback.
Been there, done that, mmore than once.


Bruce

[LinuxRandal]

Crosscuts against the rip fence are alright AS LONG AS, your using a fence crown (can be a stop block for spacing, or a true crown), or you have a short fence that ends before the blade.

Otherwise, listen to that voice next time, there is a reason you have it.

[SwingKing]

Unfortunately, the same basic thing happened to me a couple months ago. I was ripping some thin strips, using my shark push stick, when it must have slipped just as I was pushing the stock past the blade. As you can see, the shark took one for the team



Fortunately, when the kickback happened the butt of the push stick hit my hand instead of the business end. The damage was limited to a sore hand and scaring 10 years off my life .

I've gone back to my wooden push stick and I'm going to start using my gripper again. The thing can be a little bit of a hassle, but much better than a trip to the ER.

-- Ken

[ragswl4]

Hey Rick,

I just went back and read your first post again (twice, to make sure I got it).

Are you saying that you made a cross cut against the rip fence!!!

Even I know better, and I'm on a first name basis with thhe nurses in the ER by me.

Hope you're feeling better and IMO, nothing in the world would have prevented the kickback.
Been there, done that, mmore than once.


Bruce

Absolutely correct. I would say that crosscuts against a rip fence are a NO-NO anytime. Sleds, miter gauges, CMS, RAS or SCMS is the only way anyone should ever crosscut. Crosscutting against a rip fence is a recipe for disaster as has been proven time and again. I have personally never seen or read anywhere that one is advised to crosscut against the rip fence. Quite the contrary in fact.

Folks new to woodworking should take this thread to heart and avoid a similiar injury or worse.

RSLaugh,

Hope you heal quickly.

[Shipwreck]

Glad to hear that your OK! I have done a couple foolish things on the TS myself over the past year or so. I had a kick back a couple months back that stunned me pretty good for about 10 minutes, and it was all due to cockiness. I was doing a rip cut on a small piece of stock ( one handed no less!) and it ended up twisting on me. Nuff said.......I thought Mike Tyson had just layed one on my chest. Just plain stupid on my part.

I am in no way trying being judmental here, but the picture of a pointed (steel ?) push stick scares the pants off of me. I would not allow one of those things in my shop. Some where, or some how, ....some one is going to be seriously injured using one of those.

As far as cross cutting with a rip fence? I was taught years ago that only the fence or miter should be on the table saw, .......never both. I guess I should have remembered some of the other safety things I learned.


Heres a link to the piece I got hit by.http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...n/DSC02184.jpg

[Rslaugh]

I had ripped some 4" wide lengths from a 1" thick pine stair tread (actual thickness = 1"). I had a piece about 18" long that I was trying to cut off about a 4" piece from so the piece being cut was approx 4x4x1. None of the rest of the details really matter. relying on pawls or a riving knife to mitigate a bad setup is just askiing for trouble. As a number of people have said - crosscutting against a rip fence is asking for trouble. Just don't do it. I knew that before. I tried to take a shortcut. I was lucky.

When I was learning to fly my instructor always used to say a schedule will kill you meaning if you try to fly at a time when you probably shouldn't (weather, fatigue, equipment issues etc) something bad is more likely to happen. The same applies to woodworking. Trying to finish something in some imaginary time frame can be deadly. When you're done you're done. Enjoy the journey.

[Gator95]

Thanks for the details. Very clear what you did now. For some reason the mental picture I had from the earlier posts was more like the dimensions in shipwreck's pic, but a little bigger.

Heal quick.

[Pappy]

A relatively minor injury that will serve as a major wake up call! Glad it wasn't worse.