TABLE SAW SAFETY - 11 tips to avoid death!

I can't put it off any longer I'm gonna have to do this table saw safety video this has been on my to-do list for a long time and it is probably the hardest video I've ever had to make for the simple reason that I don't want to get anything wrong in this video because it's one of these tools in the shop that can cause a lot of damage very easily and there's a lot of videos already out there some of them are very good what I want to do is try and give you my viewpoint on how I use my table saw and hopefully you can pick up some tips from it and not injure yourself horrific aliy on what is the most dangerous tool in your workshop a big welcome to the goth handyman channel if you're new if you're an existing subscriber thank you for coming along and watching this video I'm hoping it's gonna be of some use for you I run a joinery business and I use my trusty Dewalt dw7 for five jobsite table saw on pretty much a daily basis and I've been using this for a long time it's an amazing piece of kit it's a very powerful piece of kit and it's a sort of tool that when things are going right everything's just magical and you can get a lot of work done very efficiently especially when you start using jigs and all sorts of other things such as my trusty tenoning jig it can make a lot of the jobs in the workshop very quick and very efficient but when things go wrong with a table saw they generally go wrong in fairly catastrophic way and that's why there's no more dangerous tool in your shop than the table saw it's a statistical fact so this series is all about safety in a small workshop in the last couple of episodes we talked about some of the basics that you need to do and understand I'm not going to cover those off again in this video links in the description below but we covered off having a decent first aid kit and we talked about some of the basics in terms of health and safety gear and just basic considerations for using any tool in a workshop but today and in some of the subsequent videos I'm going to take you through some of the mistakes I've made while using these sort of tools and how you can hopefully learn from the stupid things that I've done in the past a couple of years ago I was using my table saw for a customer project everything was going kind of normal and then I had an accident that luckily it wasn't serious but it could easily have been fatal luckily I had the camera rolling at the time and here's a shot of what happened did you get that I'll show you it again okay here it is frame by frame I find this quite difficult to talk about or to even look at the footage because it's like a lesson in how not to use a table saw here's the usual list of excuses I was tired I was up against it timewise I was rushing and had to get the project finished I couldn't find my riving knife obviously all of those are ridiculous excuses but it's what goes through your head at the time when you're trying to justify yourself all of the mistakes that you're making and you know you're making while using such a dangerous tool so I'm gonna step you through everything that I did wrong and also we're going to talk later on about why if you're using a push stick that looks anything like that you may want to seriously consider changing the design of it so we'll start with the good points there's not many good points I am at least wearing safety glasses I do at least have a short sleeved shirt on other than that we've got a whole load of things here that I'm doing wrong the most obvious one wears a Brian knife I have literally no idea why I'm not using a reiben knife I think it's because I was using a crosscut jig at some point and then I've not put the riving knife back on and I'm being cocky you can see the floor is an absolute disaster zone in terms of trip hazards and of course I'm not using a push stick and the result of all that is well I'm happily pushing the peace through leaning right over the blade which is just terrible and then the worst part is I've got to this point and really this is where everything goes horribly wrong you can see I haven't pushed the piece properly past the blade because I can't reach and and because there's a roller stand in my road I'm having to lean a horribly precarious angle over the blade and putting more attention into supporting the waist piece on the left-hand side then what happens next the piece of wood caught on the blade and shot back like a bullet luckily you can see my hand stayed where it is if I just step back a frame there it is before the kick back one frame forwards there it is after the kick back and you can actually see on this next shot grabbing my groin in the hope that I haven't caused some permanent damage you can see this curve on the underside of the board classic kick back curve that you get when a board has been fired towards your body at a hundred miles an hour or so the really lucky thing in all of this is that if I'd been putting more weight on the board at the point that the board kicked back because bearing in mind the board hasn't kicked back like that its kicked back around like that you see the path of the board so it's gone from this position all the way around here up to this position and if I'd been putting any extra weight on the blade my hand would have got pulled straight into the path of the blade and that's a big danger of kickback is that the item that's being kicked back drags a part of your body into the blade so quickly that you you don't have time to think yeah young got time to even blink and it's happened we'll just scroll a little bit further through this me grabbing my crotch I'm bent over and doubled up because I've been winded by the board I'm now reaching to switch the table saw off and then I'll not let you experience this but I dropped my pants because I honestly thought the board had gone right through my trousers and caused potentially a life-threatening injury luckily it was just a bad bruise right across my groin area if it had been a couple of inches lower it would have hit me in the nether regions the really scary thing is so if we just rewind as this board was getting shot back if the waist board had been pointing upwards at an angle it would have fired the board I was cutting either into my arm or into man neck and the only thing that stopped this board penetrating my skin was the fact that it had three layers of trousers so it had mount map site pants and two layers of pockets over the top if this had hit my arm or my neck it easily would have cut through my skin five and a half mil board traveling a hundred mile an hour no prom please remember this image next time you think you don't need to bother putting the riving knife on your table saw now I know there are going to be people watching this video who think I'm being paranoid mistakes happen I got out of it all right everything was fine it's nothing to worry about and a lot of these people will think that they're immune to having serious accidents with their tools and all I can say is I hope you are immune to injury because as I've mentioned before complacency is the number one thing that's going to get you with tools like this before we start with anything else you wouldn't drive a car or fly a plane without having an element of training first and exactly the same applies to using a table saw I see a lot of people who just came to buy them get it out the box and just kind of make it up as they're going along if nothing else please read the instruction manual that came with the saw and make sure you've understood it all in the UK we have this thing called the Health and Safety Executive and they've released quite a good guide for safe working practices with circular saw benches as they call it far from comprehensive but it covers a lot of really important topics so I'll link to this in the description and I would advise you have a read of it and just learn as much as you can possibly learn about table saw safety but do be careful because there are as I say old videos out there on YouTube that really either need to be taken down or updated because a lot of the information is old and out-of-date for example there are videos saying that you don't need to use a push stick for three inch cuts or above a three inch cut if I can actually find an imperial tape measure three inches is less than what this is set out in the minute that's a three inch cut and there are guides telling you that you can make those cuts without using a push stick no no no just no don't ever put your hand that close to a running blade I'll put some links in the description below to some of the best table saw safety videos that are found on YouTube if you've found some particularly good ones as well pop a link in the comments along with any links to good website articles all about table saw safety any links will get quarantined but I will release them when I get the chance no because this is YouTube and I can't possibly squeeze every bit of safety information about the table-saw into a single 10 or 15 minute video go and visit the goth handyman comm website and there's a link in the description to an article on goth handyman comm where I'll go into a bit more detail about safety tips on the table saw just arm yourself with as much information as you possibly can the more good information that you follow the better but you've got to take an element of your own responsibility for using tools like this so let's crack on I'm going to give you a list of a few of the tips that I think are the most important things to consider when using a piece of equipment like this first of all my top tip is don't use a table saw okay I'm saying a little bit tongue-in-cheek but is there a more appropriate tool for the job the table saw is an amazingly versatile tool that can be used for all sorts of different things but there's certain things that it's just it's not really designed to be a big chop saw for example I see people using table saws with cross cutting jigs for just cutting bits of stub timber and stuff like that it's a terrible choice of tool for doing that sort of cut think about what else you could use anything else I know a lot of people harp on about this being the center of your workshop in the hub of your workshop and don't get it wrong it is the workhorse of my workshop but I always try and keep it as a last resort you know whether or not you can use a track saw or a router table or just a handheld router these are all much safer tools than a table saw don't get it wrong it and still have riff Utley injure yourself with those tools but it's a table saw that's going to cause the real catastrophic damage so pick something more appropriate my second and this should be pretty obvious but I'm guilty of this as much as anyone elses as you've seen on the video always have the riving knife in place the only problem with this particular saw is that the guard the safety guard attaches onto the riving knife and there are cuts that you can't make with the safety guard in place and you certainly can't use a crosscut jig on this with the riving knife in place because it's too tall so you either need to cut down the riving knife and not use the safety guard anymore or buy a second riving knife that is the same height as a blade either way no excuses the riving knife genuinely is probably the biggest life-saving thing on a table saw it single-handedly not 100% but pretty much prevents kickback similarly the blade guard try and keep that in place at all times not only does it stop you from face-planting on to the big spinny blade but it also can prevent wood from being chucked up in your face because it ends up hitting the blade guard my third tip is to make sure you've got the blade height no higher than it needs to be I generally say about a tooth's height above the workpiece or about five mil or there abouts but again I often see people using table saws with the blade way up here here sometimes arguments about getting a better cut on the wood because the blades higher and the angle of the teeth it's not worth the risk you know use some sandpaper afterwards or something just don't set the blade higher than it needs to be as per usual make sure you've always got safety glasses on dust masks if necessary really most of the time hearing protection if possible as well I've covered that off in the last video I'm not going to go into it in detail today the next thing that always go through my mind when I'm using a table so on this is my fifth tip is always rehearse your cut now you don't have to physically rehearse a cut but at least mentally rehearse the cut in other words where are you going to start and where are you gonna end up and are you gonna crash into anything on the way for example if I was making a long cut here let me find a long ish piece of wood not a very good example but you'll get the point so it's our feeds it through the table saw and imagine this is a big wide panel you know as I'll get to here two things are gonna happen I've run out a roller and it's gonna want to do that and it's gonna hit my bandsaw so I either need to move my banks or out the road or I need to move the table saw out into the middle of the room but what you don't want to do is get halfway through the cut and realize that your workpiece isn't getting supported properly and you can't complete the cut because you're hitting something or you can't start the cut properly because you're hitting something at that end so just whether you do it physically or mentally rehearse that could make sure the workpiece is going to get supported both at the start and at the end of the cut if possible on a proper outfeed table but if you don't have that at least have Rolo's or something like that that you can use that'll touch the piece of wood obviously you're not gonna be feeding it from this side but it's just so I'm sure you so you can complete the cut and make sure the work is supported once the cut is complete one thing to watch out for though with these roller stands imagine we've just cut this part off this piece of wood be really careful when you're then picking up the scrap piece because sometimes what can happen is you pick up the scrap and it feeds your cut piece back into the danger zone of the blade so just be really careful if you are using roller stands that you don't accidentally when you pick up your scrap you don't accidentally cause your cut piece to go backwards my next tip and again we've covered this off before you don't want any distractions while you're cutting on a table saw my music goes off or podcasts go off my phone will be on silent and it will be sitting in my pocket as we've discussed on previous safety videos so that if something does go wrong you can at least get to your phone so while I'm making a cut the phone is in my pocket and on silent and as I say you can't hear the music or podcasts anyway so they just go off you don't want any distractions while you're using the table saw also there's a good reason why my workshop door has a window in it and that's because my family know not to disturb me while the tools are running and they can see into the workshop and see what I'm doing so just make sure anyone you're working with or family members are aware while the tools are running no distractions my seventh thing that I look out for is that you need to always push the piece of wood past the blade and this comes back to using a push stick so what I mean by that is you don't stop pushing this until it's past the end of the blade so at the moment where I've got that blade height the end of the blade is about there or about there so you don't stop pushing that with a push stick until it's past that point coming back to my video where things went wrong I'll release the piece too early and it was still about there when I released it and that was enough for the saw to grip it and kick it back straight at me you don't stop pushing until it's past the end of the blade and one of the things that'll come up on one of the later tips is that you should never be leaning over the blade because that's where things start going wrong and if you bear that in mind then how can you possibly use a push stick like this and push the piece past the blade without leaning over the blade it's physically impossible your hand is way past the end of the blade your whole body is leaning over it to put weight on the piece that's now over here so these sort of push sticks this stop if you are going to use a push stick like this fit the stop further up or fit the handle longer like make it further back but generally this is why these sort of push sticks are designed like this and the work really well because look you cut once you're past the end of the blade my hand still isn't overhanging the front of the blade that's why they're designed like that another really good push stick idea is just using a great big block of wood with stop on it but designing it in such a way that if anything does go wrong it's a big block of wood that'll get the brunt of it and not your hands so don't get me wrong there are definitely situations where for example if you're doing grooving cuts and stuff like that and I would advise that you try and do that on a router table instead of on the table saw but you know if you're in your dado cutting which were not really in the UK because they'd already sets are generally banned over here but there are situations where you need to put force on the piece of wood to keep it flatten in contact with the table so just make sure that if something does go wrong bearing in mind that as you're pushing this piece of wood through your putting force forwards and downwards if that piece of wood kicks back and flies out the road your hand will go straight into the path of the blade even if you've got a push a stick or a push pad your hand can get really scary close to the blade so think about what will happen when things go wrong and for that reason I generally prefer the bird's mouth style push stick and by the way always keep your push stick to hand next to your dominant hand or the hand that's going to be using your push sticks so if you've got a push stick make sure it's not kept like over here because then you're gonna have to cross over mid cut to get the push stick mine fits in there neatly leads on to the next thing that goes through my mind and that is never cut a piece that's wider than it is long at least not without using something like the miter fence but remember if you use an ax mite offense you don't use this fine to use a stop block so you can set your width and clomp a block onto your fence say up here but that block should be in front of the blade this would obviously be clamped on to the fence at the point where your workpiece is coming into contact the blade there should be a gap here because otherwise the thing that you're cutting can easily snag between the blade and the fence and it will kick back into your face now there's a common misconception in all of this which I'll cover off because it has come up in the comment so I've just said never make a cut wider than it is long so can I make this cut safely on a table saw not that way can I cut that you absolutely fine completely safe as long as the cut is anything up to probably making it square and no more so that would make it up to about there it's still narrower than it is the length of the piece of wood the waste piece on this side don't worry about that that almost sit I've never seen a waste piece kickback I'm not saying it's not possible but the bit that's going to kickback is the bit that's been cut so yes this cuts fine that cuts not fine fine not fine and this neatly leads on to my ninth tip when using a table saw and that is to make the cut when you're pushing with the push stick there's an often an inclination to have the push stick way over by the fence because you're terrified of the big spinning blade but actually what that ends up doing is it ends up when you push a piece left from that end it tries to make the piece do that it tries to make it rotate and if you haven't got a riving knife in place that will almost certainly kick back and that was blatantly illustrated when I got kicked back when I was using the sword to cut a piece like this to avoid that push more towards the left hand side or more towards the blade side not too close to the blade although you should be relatively safe if you've got a push stick I'll just lower the blade you'll see if the woods got an angle like that and then I'll push towards the blade side look it just automatically snugs it up against the fence whereas if if I'm like that and I push towards the fence side it's trying to make it turn into the path of the blade so just do your pushing more towards the blade side not crazily close to the blade but just more towards the blade side one of the more obvious tips but man there's so much conflicting information out there stay away from the big spinny blade yeah there's so many guides have seen and just wrong information that tell for example telling you never to lean over the blade and never have any part of your body over the blade but then they go and tell you that you can make a 3-inch cut without a quarter stick how can you possibly make a 3-inch cut without a push stick without leaning over the blade possibly the two most important things to ever go through your mind when using a table saw use a push stick all the time unless there's a really really good reason not to use one and never lean over the blade simple if there's a chance that if something goes wrong on the cut that your hand or arm could end up in the path of the blade and remember we're thinking about what happens when things go wrong not when things are going right then you should be using the push stick and finally on this list of tips anyway not si I can't fit everything into a YouTube video and I dread to think how long this video is now if something doesn't sound right or doesn't feel right stop the cut switch the power off hold everything firmly in the position that it's in don't try and continue through the cut I would generally advise not backing out of the cut keep everything where it is switch the power off let the blade come to a stop and then work out what's going wrong so there you go far from a comprehensive list but hopefully you'll pick up some of the more salient points from that and hopefully you've made it this far through the video without drifting off well haven't even covered things like making sure the powers unplugged when you're making any major changes to the saw never use a table saw free hand don't lick or eat the blade while the sword running one thing I'd love to know your opinion on actually and I haven't seen many videos about this but maybe they are out there but I see no problem with using a table saw sideways or side on like this so for certain types of cut to me this is a perfectly safe way of doing the cut and in fact a lot safer than standing in the path of the blade by making these sort of cuts you're not standing directly behind the blade so if something does kick back it's less likely to hit you you're in a position where you can hold a piece against defense nice and comfortably you can feed it all the way through in one nice clean movement and if anything goes wrong the likelihood of getting pulled into the blade is much much lower because you're on this side of the saw now I know with big panel saws and stuff that's not going to be possible but with jobsites ORS I don't see using its side on as being a problem in fact I think it's a safer way of using the saw post in the comments below and let me know what you think my final point in all of this is don't fear this or respect this or if you make sure you're not complacent and you're not stupid and you're not rushing and you're not tired and all the other things that we've talked about it's as safe as you know you can't wrap yourself up and cotton wool in this world and just regulate yourself out of every potential safety hazard on the planet because if we do that it's going to be a really rubbish place to live I would prefer that people just operate an element of common sense and as I say respect the saw don't fear the saw you're in charge of what goes on here I'm sure as well it'll come up in the comments about source top type sores and sores with skin sensing technology pulsed in the comments below what you think about that sort of technology don't get me wrong sore stop sores are beautiful devices and I think the skin sensing technology is probably a wise move but I do have concerns over what happens when the patents expire and cheap copies start getting made all over the planet that may or may not work as well as a source stop sores work pause below and let me know your thoughts on it thank you once again for watching I hope you've made it this far through the video in the next part of this series when we're talking about safety in a small workshop I'm going to tell you about when I nearly killed myself using my chop saw so don't forget to hit subscribe and I shall see you next time boy

Channel: Gosforth Handyman

Views: 371,611

Rating: 4.9068251 out of 5

Keywords: table saw, table saw safety, rip saw safety, circular saw bench safety, workshop safety, small workshop safety, how to use a table saw, table saw kickback, table saw safety and techniques, table saw safety video, table saw safety tips, saw safety video, kickback, saw kickback, table saw kickback injuries, table saw kickback prevention

Id: eUx8oTIALmg

Length: 33min 0sec (1980 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2019