OK - I had a small piece. 3 1/2" X 4 1/2" X 3/4" that I wanted to cut a
45deg angle on the 4 1/2" side. Pretty strait forward. I was using Right tilt TS with the fence to the right of the blade. Using a push stick to cut the angle. The piece was already to size and I was just knocking off the corner. I encountered severe kickback. The piece shot toward me hit me so hard in the gut that it left a 3 1/2" bloody welt. Ouch! A heavy canvas apron would have been a good idea I suppose. The best idea is to learn a better technique for making this type of cut. Any suggestions? TIA.
What were you using to guide the wood, as you made this cut? From your description, it sounds like you had nothing to support it. If that's the case... that's the reason you had a kickback.
So...
First off, a heavy canvas apron isn't going to make *any* difference. On a typical 10" table saw, the tips of the teeth are moving at about 100 mph, and that's approximately the speed the wood will be moving too. That's going to hurt, even through an apron. So the first thing to remember is to make sure you're not standing in the line of fire.
Second, it is imperative to have the wood securely supported, in this case by a miter gauge _at_minimum_. Add an auxiliary fence to the face of the miter gauge, if necessary, so that the wood is supported all the way up to the blade.
Third, for cuts on small pieces such as this, it's safer to clamp the workpiece to a carrier board or a crosscut sled, so that you're not trying to guide such a tiny piece of wood. The longer the guide surface you have available, the less likely you'll have a mishap.
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
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Without seeing it, this most likely happened because you didn't control the piece and it got caught between the blade and fence. I'd almost be willing to bet you were using a notched push stick?
This is a cut that can be made providing you exert _control_ over the piece between the blade and fence _all the way_ through the cut.
A good push block that will allow you to CONTROL the piece between the fence and the blade by exerting sufficient pressure, downward and toward the fence, while keeping you hand well away from the blade, is a must ... as you've found out.
Don't stand directly behind the cut, use a well designed push block as above, and when using your right tilt to bevel an edge, move the fence to the left side of the blade if you can.
Thanks for your reply Doug. The piece was too smal to use a mitre guage to support without adding an extension, I added this extension for some later cuts. The Sled sounds like a good idea and I should have considered it.
Thanks for your reply George. I don't have a band saw. I was just making a simple set of breackets to support some curtain hardware. Shouldn't have been too involved. Butt joints would have sufficed here and thats where I ended up.
If I were going to design a disaster, I couldn't do a better job than what your scenario is. You cannot control a piece that small with a simple push stick.
Some possible safer solutions:
Use a cross cut sled with fixed 45 degree angle block and a hold down clamp. I think that would be one of the safest approaches.
You could also do it with hand tools - cut off with a hand saw, then finish up with a hand plane using a 45 degree shooting board. See this link
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and look at the picture labeled mitre trimming.
Make a quick and dirty mini-sled from a larger board that could be held against your miter fence. Make a simple hold down clamp using the principals shown on this taper jig:
Thanks for the reply Swingman. I didn't control the piece properly and that was the main problem. The push block was just a piece of scrap I had handy. I had limited downward pressure. Also, cutting from the left side seems to have been a better plan. I needed up using butt joints in the end. I was just making some brackets to hold up curtain hardware so I really didn't need the miter cut anyway.
After reading other replies and re-reading your post, I see I mis-interpreted what you were doing. My suggestions are not complete accurate because I thought you were cutting a 45 degree angle, as opposed to mitering and edge.
Make yourself a push device that adds some control to the workpiece when you rip stock and you'll go a long way to alleviating kick back when making that type of cut.
My modification of the old "shoe" style push block works well for me in this regard. You can see what it looks like on the Fixtures and Jigs page of my website below.
It is real easy to copy and cutout with a jig or band saw. Make some of different thickness plywood for when you're ripping narrow stock.
And remember ... mount and use a splitter on your table saw. A properly installed splitter is the first line of defense against kickback.
With small pieces, forget the fence and use the miter gauge and a method to clamp the wood to the miter gauge, OR use something liker a GRIPPER to support the wood on both sides of the sawblade
Only real injury I ever got with my tablesaw was cutting a small piece of wood like this, kicked back, and hit one of my fingers, ran up a $1000+ emergency room bill to get it fixed
Yeah right, Rumpty ... he'd probably lost a whole damn arm by now. Ya gotta be a smart, mean pit bull (sorry wrong thread) of a mutha to survive using a RAS for any length of time.
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