Safety rules... and then their deliberate ignoring...

[venkatbo]

All,

Like many folks here, I intend be a WW hobbyist, with a regular day job... So, was trying to pay a lot of attention to safety by reading up on it... I joined a class at a local vocational school with the hope that I could learn the best/safest practices, by watching/learning from the instructor...

Well, they do teach us about safety a lot and show us many videos... but when it comes to practice - say on the TS - the first thing they do is remove all protections for the blade - blade-cover, kerf-splitter ;!) While cutting 1 5/8" stiles/drawer-supports for our model, we were in such close quarters to the blade - next to and on top of it... 'am rather disappointed that 'am unable to learn to this thing safely :-(

Is anyone aware of training videos/DVDs on the safe use of each of the major power tools... If they don't teach/practice it, I'd rather learn it myself... I've ordered myself the GRR-ripper & Shark ad-ons and waiting to install/use them... Though $wise these seem to make less sense (together they cost as much as the saw itself :-), there's no price to put on the long-term ill-effects of losing the tools of my real trade - me fingers ;!)

Thanks,
/venkat

[scorrpio]

While having all the safety doo-dads is great if you have the money, the only real way to insure safety is by having cool head and examining your setup before making each cut. Even expensive gimmicks like SawStop will do zilch if the piece you are cutting kicks back and takes a piece of you with it.

[sacherjj]

While I don't have an answer to your question, I do have a comment on your ordering of the GRRR-ripper and Shark Guard. I don't believe those work together. You need the top of the blade exposed to use the GRRR-ripper. The shark splitter would work fine with it, but not the whole guard.

I'm trying to decide what I want to use now too. There has been a good bit of talk about the GRRR-ripper lately, but I can't get past having the blade fully open. The Shark guard just seems safter.

The bottom line is that scorrpio is right. Think about what you are doing before you do it. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. Think of a better way.

[LarryG]

Different devices for different needs.

I'm trying to decide what I want to use now too. There has been a good bit of talk about the GRRR-ripper lately, but I can't get past having the blade fully open. The Shark guard just seems safter.

They're not mutually exclusive. By design, the GRR-Ripper can only be used for cuts when the blade guard should be removed anyway, in order to properly control the workpiece -- if not with the GRR-Ripper, then with pushsticks and featherboards. And vice-versa: on cuts for which you'd leave the guard in place, you don't need the GRR-Ripper.

[Russianwolf]

From my experiences, the one safty devise I use on the saw nearly all the time is the riving knife. Other than the obvious glasses and hearing that is. The Riving knife doesn't impede me usually and povides a positive impact in preventing kickback. Otherwise, my main safty devise is setting up the saw in such a way as to limit the exposed blade as much as possible. If you can do that, you ar fairly safe.

[sacherjj]

Larry, that is a good point. Although any non-guard setup is a non-through cut and therefore really only needs a jointer type push block, I would think. But I haven't really seen demos or video of the full uses of the GRR-ripper, so I could be missing some advantages of the system.

[JimD]

I will admit I've never used a Gripper and this comment is thus somewhat under informed but I've used a table saw for over 20 years now without incident without one. It looks like an awfully expensive push stick to me. I think the shark guard is clearly a higher priority. One of it's key advantages is it goes on and off easily. Without this feature, guards tend to come off and stay off (at least on my saw). For approximately 10 years of my experience, my table saw had no guard or splitter. I am not recommending this - I always use the splitter unless the dado blade is on - I am just pointing out that it is possible to work safely without. I prefer to work safely with.

I was awhile ago but somebody posted a web address for a safety series that included a decent piece on the table saw. You could try searching for it or maybe somebody will remember what I am talking about.

Jim