Why I always wear safety gear, even for that "one little cut"

[John Moorhead]

Folks -

Well, good safety habits pay off. Tonight I have been working on a small lap tray and a keepsake box - both of them have mitered corners that I've been cutting on the tablesaw sled.

I was cutting the last section of surround for the lap tray out of black walnut. The saw sled that I built has an inverted "U" plastic guard, about

3" wide, that runs the depth of the sled, above the blade path. I usually wear a face shield as well. Anyway, I was trimming the end of the board and heard this LOUD pop and felt my right hand sting - nothing serious... I turned off the saw to see WTF happened and somehow the offcut of walnut had ricocheted off of the side of the plastic blade guard, breaking about 9" off - the plastic knicked the knuckle of my index finger at the first joint. I was VERY suprised that it had that much force - the offcut was only slightly larger than about a 2" chunk of pencil in size.

Each of my hands were well away from the path of the cut. I can't see how this upset could have been prevented, short of using a backsaw and doing it by hand. So, accidents DO happen - don your safety gear, especially for that "one little cut".

John Moorhead

[Silvan]

Same thing goes for that one time you're tempted to fire up the DP and drill one li'l ol' hole without finding your eyes.

Getting that sick "I shouldn't be doing this" feeling when you're about to hit the switch is a GOOD sign. :)

[Greg]

One good thing about living in the sunbelt is you get in the habit of having your sunglasses on a "croakie". Mine are ANSI Z.87.1/CSA Z.94.3 I slip them on whenever I get that queezy feeling about anything anyone is doing and certainly anytime I am doing any thing that could loose a projectile (drilling, sawing. hammering or even squeezing something with pliers).

[RKG]

I guess that's one advantage of needing prescription glasses.. Have the safety glasses on at all times in the shop or else I wouldn't see anything.

Rick

[Doug Miller]

Those won't protect your eyes from everything that might come flying at you. And there are other things on your face worth protecting besides your eyes. Teeth, for instance. That's why I use a full-face shield.

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[Silvan]

I don't always use a full face shield, but I do whenever there's a high airborn content. On the lathe, say, or certain operations that spew rooster tails of dust off the TS.

Safety glasses will *not* protect you all the time, and regular prescription glasses especially not. Last time I went to the ophthalmologist to deal with a scratched cornea (the second time) it was over some piece of debris the weed eater kicked up under my big oversized bugeye safety glasses. (The first time was a low branch on a pine tree when I went after a lost baseball as a boy.) Face shields are good. I wish I had discovered them sooner.

[SonomaProducts.com]

I think non-off us realize how dangerous kick-back really can be. This was just a piece of cutoff that found its way over the top of the blade. Trust me, that blade can toss several board feet at the same velocity, given a chance.

I recall reading one of the wood mags saying how this month one of their usual contributing editors was not contributing as she recovered from the two fingers she was now missing due to some kick back. I don't know how many times I had piece with some tension in the wood start to close up on the back side of the TS blade and start to lift and chatter. That's whene I remind myself I really should get a splitter and I move my head a bit tho the left.

BW

[Leuf]

While I agree that taking as many safety precautions as reasonable is the way to go, it sounds like this is one of those rare situations where your safety precautions made the situation *worse* rather than a shining example of why you should always take them. It sounds to me like the off cut got wedged between the blade and guard somehow and then ejected. Pieces just don't come flying off a crosscut at high velocity unless there's some binding somewhere. If the guard isn't there that doesn't happen. And even if it wasn't caused by the guard, if the guard isn't there it gets launched harmlessly off to the side. And if you had one finger or a clamp holding down the off cut it never gets off the sled in the first place. Those little pieces can get themselves into all sorts of places if you let them flop around.

I have one sled for cutting 3/4" material, what I work with the vast majority of the time, that has a lip at the front that the work piece slips under. I don't even have to touch it to keep it where it belongs, but with my hand on there it's held in place on all 4 sides, and I can't get it out without waiting for the blade to stop.

-Leuf

[fredfighter]

There are safety glasses and there are safety glasses. When I worked in a lab we were being constantly reminded that the safety glasses sold to consumers did NOT meet the OSHA safety specs for what we were doing. Still, 'ordinary' safety glasses will probably be better than nothing in most woodworking situations. I generally use a face shield.

Moreover I have never found any optician dealing in ordinary consumer glasses who acknowledged that any such difference in OSHA vs consumer safety standards existed. Maybe they no longer exist, it has been a long time since I worked in a lab.

Once at Pearle the salesidiots told me they offered quartz lenses. After a bit of inquiry it became clear that they were talking about polycarbonate lenses. Their sales literature said that polycarbonate was the material used for the tranparent cover (what do they call that?) on Seiko quartx watches. A classic example of confabulation.

[SonomaProducts.com]

I think non-off us realize how dangerous kick-back really can be. This was just a piece of cutoff that found its way over the top of the blade. Trust me, that blade can toss several board feet at the same velocity, given a chance.

I recall reading one of the wood mags saying how this month one of their usual contributing editors was not contributing as she recovered from the two fingers she was now missing due to some kick back. I don't know how many times I had piece with some tension in the wood start to close up on the back side of the TS blade and start to lift and chatter. That's whene I remind myself I really should get a splitter and I move my head a bit tho the left.

[RKG]

Got these at work about a month before I retired, they meet all the safety standards including side shields which on these are removeable, I don't really like them but have had a small piece of wire from someone else bounce off them while at work so they stay on.

Rick

[Greg]

My wife is a builder. (about as close as it gets to what we do here) When the OSHA man shows up on a job site he wants to see Z 87.1 stamped or molded on safety glasses. That will stop a 1/4" steel ball coming at 150 FPS It must provide frontal and side protection. Other activities (acids, chemicals, welding etc) may require more extensive protection.

As an electrical inspector I choose non-conductive (all plastic) Crews glasses that also provide UV-a, UV-b and IR protection. If you buy them by the box they are pretty cheap (~$5) and my eye doctor gives them a good optical distortion rating.

[mac davis]

for sure.. seems like someone here mentioned cutting wedges or something and one got sucked into the DC hood... They weren't using a cyclone and the piece hit the DC impeller..

After reading that, I built a cyclone for my 2 day old DC..lol

[John Moorhead]

Leuf -

The offcut didn't get wedged - at less than 2" long, it wasn't long enough to jam between the crosscut table and the guard - appx 4"... As for clamping the offcut - it was less than 1/2" wide - don't see how I could have done it... a more substantial piece, yes...That sucker sure did zing somewhere though...

As for the solution being worse than the cure, I'll take my chances with guards, clamps and face shields.

John