Kickback up close !

[Tundra_Man]

Occasionally I hear people say (or type) something like, "if a kickback happens I'll just jump out of the way." These people are either Superman, or they've never actually seen a kickback.

I had a small offcut piece fly back and pop me in the nose a few years ago. A little blood and a big dance of pain, but other than that I was unscathed. Never saw it coming.

I've been lucky enough to never have a kickback with a table saw, but I am one of the rare individuals to have a kickback on a band saw. Twice in fact. The first one clobbered me in the ear, the second one thankfully whizzed under my arm. Both of them destroyed the blade, and the second time it took the guide bearings with it.

Kickback is nasty and should be avoided at all cost.

[zootroy]

I can understand running w/out a guard, but no splitter or pawls? Every time I make a cut I breath a little bit easier when the wood hits those pawls.

[stewchi]

When I first started using the saw I cut myself on the paws, and would get my work piece caught in it, or damaged etc. So when I needed to take it off for a dado I never put it back on. That’s when ol spear chucker showed it’s true nature. I was lucky enough to always stand well to the side when making a cut, because the first few weekends I had a kickback in about 1 in 5 cuts. I had the saw pointed at the wall and always stood to the side, I kinda figured that was an annoying side effect of the tool. This forum showed my how to adjust my rip fence and the problem went away. Since then I have had 1 kickback involving a 1’ square piece of plywood that I took in the gut. I had finished the cut and was removing a piece of cutoff when I bumped the work piece into the blade and it knocked the wind out of me. This was one of those situation were normally you turn the saw off after a cut but this time I didn’t. Well now the blade has to be completely stopped before I doing anything the with the cut-off or remove the work piece.

[leehljp]

quote:Originally posted by stewchi
This was one of those situation were normally you turn the saw off after a cut but this time I didn’t. Well now the blade has to be completely stopped before I doing anything the with the cut-off or remove the work piece.

I do this all the time. Sometimes I think it is a time waster, but then I remember WHY it is a time waster. It saves my bacon. To not cut it off each time is like playing Russian roulette.[B)][:0]

[scorrpio]

There are things in this world that teach you to respect powertools. TS kickback is one. Another one was ducking under a table when someone turned on a heavy metalworking lathe without removing the chuck key. The 4-pound hunk of metal zipped across entire classroom and got embedded into a concrete wall. Funny thing is, the classroom had a warning poster of a chuck key in flight, depicted with teeth and claws, right above the lathe...

[mdutch]

My solution has been similarly bad till now. I removed the guard and avoid standing behind the stock. (I know, I know... and my Dad lost half his thumb, too.) So I'm looking for more suggestions:

Are pawls REALLY necessary?
How about a featherboard on the fence?
Is there a quicker change-out for pawls?
Anyone a big sharkguard fan and if so, why?

The issue for me is, safety for those 99% of the cuts, but being able to have a pawl-free zone when working with expensive exotics.

[leehljp]

mdutch,
The primary preventer of kickbacks is the riving knife/splitter. Most people remove the pawls. Some remove the stock guard and use the riving knife only.

Just about everyone that owns a Shark Guard is a BIG fan. The SG allows you to take the guard off and put it back on in about 10 seconds flat. The supposed saftey of normal guards is defeated by the clumsiness and difficulty in taking it off and putting it on again. 2 to 3 minutes. That is OK for a couple of times, but if one has to do it several times a day, it becomes a pain and it is just left off. The SG eliminates that painful step, making it truely a saftety guard.
Then there is the SG's dust collection system. Great!

[stewchi]

I improved my situation tremendously by installing the Shark Guard and using the Gripper. My hands don’t go anywhere near the blade. Couple other advantages of the shark is you don’t have to remove the splitter for non through cuts or dados etc. In fact I am not sure if I have ever removed the splitter since I installed it. Plus the splitter was dead on, I had trouble with the stock splitter catching. I would have to pull the cut back put some side pressure on it and continue, this actually led to some kickbacks. The shark also has a smaller cross section so you can keep the guard on for more cuts than the stock guard. If you need to make a cut were the fence needs to be closer to the blade but the guard is in the way. The stock guards you have to raise the blade and tilt it, then bang you knuckles up and hope you don’t loosen the screw to much and have it fall into the DC belly pan. Were are the shark has 2 knobs that you loosen and lift right off it take 2 seconds and you can keep you saw settings, IE you don’t have to move the blade.

[Tom Miller]

Until you're ready for a sharkguard, you can just cut down your own riving knife. The part that you're cutting can be replaced for $10-15. The riving knife is the biggest safety bang for your buck, and by cutting it down, you can keep it on for all cuts you make with the stock blade. This is my version, with a Tage Frid-style guard:







Regards,
Tom

[scorrpio]

Hey, Tom - that's a nice looking piece. An idea, though - if you 'open' the holes on top of the splitter so that they are 'notches' instead of holes, you should be able to mount/remove the guard a lot faster...

[LarryG]

Very nice, Tom. I need to do this with my splitter, and build a guard like that. How far below the top of the blade is the top of the splitter? How much clearance between the blade and underside of the plywood?

How much usable blade depth do you lose? If you're ripping stock thick enough to encroach on the aluminum angles, I presume you simply remove the guard.

scorrpio: Hooked-shaped notches would be okay but I wouldn't do straight notches, since a whack on top of the guard could force it down into the blade.

[Tom Miller]

It wasn't long after I made this that I upgraded to the Shark for it's DC capability. Otherwise, I would have either gone the "notch" route, or maybe used spring-loaded pins with rounded heads instead of the screws. That was definitely the fiddly part.

Larry, I'd guess I probably lost ~1/2" of blade height with this. The top of the riving knife is probably <1/16" under the blade top, the hole is under 1/4", and you probably need about 1/8" material between the holes and the edges of Al and steel.

In addition to helping keep your hands off the blade, this helps keep the stock from riding up, too.

Regards,
Tom

[gimpy]

Thanks to the pawls and splitter, I did not have a kickback this weekend while cutting some plywood. I was ripping several identical lengths. I turned the board over for the final cut and did not notice/realize the uneven (snakelike) edge was against the fence. It bound the saw enough that it quit turning/cutting. Took me just a second to realize that something was wrong. Almost couldn't get the piece loose from the blade. If not for the pawls, I think that this would have been a major kickback. It really scared me to think what could have happened. They will stay on my saw (the stock Ryobi guards).
regards, Frank

[Stytooner]

No doubt about it. If you use the stock guard and riving knife with or without pawls, it will save you more times than you will ever know. As far as OEM guards go, Ryobi's is actually one of the better ones. They all have quirks and non are painless to attach, but all are well worth the effort, no matter how much effort that is. One moment in time can ruin you for life.
Cutting without any protection is a gamble. You may never get hurt, but if your number comes up.......you got to know when to hold em (fingers). Know when to fold em (up in an ice pack). Know when to walk away(just a scratch). Know when to run (to the emergency room). You never count you fingers till the cuttings done.

[paulstenlund]

Do you lose any blade hieght with the Shark Guard?

Paul