Hey
I am new to woodworking and I have found my self avaoiding using my table saw. I have a delta 10 inch saw and it is vibration free. However, I think that my early experiences have scarred me. ( luckily only mentally).
When I first got the saw, one of my friends related a story to me about kickback that is burned into my mind. This friend had a professor (this story sounds fake already) who saw a kid ripping a long board that was warped. The board binded in the saw, kick back and hit him in the sac and burst one of his testicles.
Obviously, this has had an affect on my sawing technique.
When I was in junior high shop classes, I received very poor grades and although I was saftey conscience I never thought I would be using those skills again so my effort was poor. ( Being a teacher now I can only sympathize with Mr. Newton)
So basically I knew nothing about the table saw and for my first thing I crosscut 8 ft 2x4s. After putting them through with the miter guide I could feel the wood binding and my testicles immediately called for me to turn off the saw. After doing some research I learned a lot about crosscut sleds and why you shouldn't cut long things the narrow way.
So then I am cutting some poplar 1X8 and I am standing off to the left side and on the side of the fence I hear the saw start to have some trouble on the cut and all of a sudden I see the cut off piece shoot across the garage and hit a metal sheet propped up against the side. It was like a missle. I think it hit the sheet metal at about the tables height!
So I do a little research and I find that my saw blade ws up too high. I think that I was also pushing the wood toward the fence at the height of the blade and behind the blade.
Since then I have lowered my blade and been aware of where I am putting pressure on the wood in relation to the blade so I have not had any more kickbacks.
However, I am still standing at the back left side of the saw with the fence on the right. What can I do so I can actually feel comfortable ripping a board and not having a 10 ft push stick? I feel like less of a man!!
FYI I bought the saw off of craigslist and the guy told me 8 times that it wasn't stolen. But then he also tried to sell me a 18v dewalt and a router out of his trunk. He also wouldn't meet me in the orange borg parking lot (He says they like him and everything, but there are some legal issues.)
He claims he only used the saw twice, but one of the bolt holes connecting it to the stand is broken.
Maybe my table saw wants to kill me for the bad karma of buying a saw that was obviously stolen (in reterospect)
Sorry for the long post but it is definitely a kind of therapy. I wsa surprised when so many people talk of how they never see kickback and I have seen it at least three times. Hope this was at least entertaining.