I cut made a 5/16" cut in 6/4 cherry this morning. The cut piece actually shot through the wall and hit a couch 8' away in the next room; it was quite impressive.
I understand the principle, but how can it be prevented? My guard (which I obviously was not using) has the pawl on it to prevent it, but the cut was too thin to let me use the guard even if I wanted to.
Here's a write up on a jig.
One thing you should have on your saw is a splitter behind the blade as well.
You are certainly right about that in general, but how would a splitter have helped here?
I have a push stick made from 1/4" plywood for ripping something like that.
Splitter prevents the cut piece pushing back into the saw blade and becoming a dangerous projectile.
John V
The splitter might have made the whole less energetic by minimizing the depth of grab, but if the teeth extend wider than the splitter, you'd better have some clearance elsewhere.
Physics types know how to get the clearance.
The missile became a missile BECAUSE of the teeth at the back of the cut that came in contact with the wood. A splitter may - and I say may for a reason - keep the kerf open and the wood away from the back teeth. A riving knife would more than likely prevented missiling.
A "splitter" sticks UP behind the blade, close to it at full height but farther and farther from the teeth actually contacting the wood as the blade is lowered. A riving knife, on the other hand, wraps around the read quarter of the blade and thus stays close to the rear teeth regardless of the depth of cut. In this case, cutting 2 inch thick stock, the distance between the thing keeping the kerf open and therefore away from the upward moving saw teeth would be about the same, splitter or riving knife.
In addition to a splitter or better yet a riving knife the push stick thing would've also helped. There is something better - at least for shorter rips - less than a foot and a half - called The GRRRRIPPER that holds the stock - on both sides of the cut. Really a "must have" if you do a lot of short rips, especially narrow ones.
I don't like to get hit with flying wood - I have enough trouble with sharp chisels and only so much blood. For that reason I researched the subject a bit, thought about the physics even more and put together some web pages about kickback, what it is, why it happens and what I could do to minimize getting hit by wood missiles.
Worth a look and may save you some grief. Knowledge is power. Whether you use that power ...
charlie b
Feather board would have took some of the energy from it, I almost got neutered that way once.
Ouch. I feel for you, guy.
-JBB
Another thing that could cause a kickback is not having your fence properly aligned with the blade, although that's probably not the cause of this one.
I wouldn't rely on the pawl to stop a kickback. Use your head first, but in combination with other safety devices. I've seen a few kickbacks, and I've learned to think about each cut before I make it.
Ed
When cutting small strips of oak last summer, I did have the larger piece near the fence, but I still had kick-back. Lucky for me I was in the driveway with the TS, and the kick-back piece shattered the fence board behind me.
Similar problem today, while straight lining the rough edge of a cherry board, the rough edge tapered to nothing and the nothing edge went down in the not so zero clearance insert and stopped the saw dead. The motor kept going but the belt slipped, thought I'd buggered up the linkbelt but it seems fine. The hardest part was removing that wedge of wood jammed between the blade and insert. The insert is zero clearance for my regular blade but I was using a thin kerf, just hope it didn't bend the blade, gotta check it tomorrow. :-(
-- "Shut up and keep diggen" Jerry
Using your head to stop a kickback? Ouch, that'll leave a mark!
codepath
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