My stupid accident & tablesaw blade guard question

[Tom Hoffman]

Yesterday I placed my left index finger straight into a turning tablesaw blade. I was ripping 40" x 6" pieces of maple down to 1" strips to make "NK" runners for my tool cabinet drawers. After I had produced about 25 such 1" strips, I reached with my left hand to push the last offcut piece away from the blade. The index finger went lengthwise straight into the blade about 1/2" requiring 6 stitches. In my wildest dreams I cannot explain why I would do such a stupid thing. Having pondered this for a while now, I can recall a feeling of complacency with so many repetitive motions after 25 rips. Somehow my brain froze. I always thought that it would be kickback or a slip with my right hand that would get me, but poking my left finger directly into the blade? Go figure! Never thought it would happen to me.

No, I didn’t have a splitter or blade guard, but guess what? Now, I’m gunna get ‘em. Always thought the guards were too much money. Been doing some research on SMC and have settled on the Biesemeyer splitter, but undecided on which over arm guard. Right now it’s between Biesemeyer and Excalibur. Kelly Mehler’s review (FFW Nov/Dec 2001) was helpful. He liked the Biesemeyer, but complained about not being able to move the guard horizontally easily (required walking around the saw to adjust).

I have a Powermatic 66 with the 54" table on the right side on the factory mobile base.

Question: Is the Biesemeyer adjustment "problem" really a big deal? I read one post that said the Biesemeyer always floats and doesn’t lock. Is that a problem?

Anyone have suggestions as to Biesemeyer vs. Excalibur? (price is not a consideration).

[Tyler Howell]

Bad Tom, Bad!

Sorry for your pain. Haven't felt it and don't care to.
Very happy with the Excal guard. keeps fingers out and chips in. Heavy!!!

Just now I was installing the Bies splitter. More to follow.

Heal fast!! Glad it wasn't more involved.

[Bob_Hammond]

I have the Bies splitter and guard. I am very happy with the splitter. Easy to use, goes on and off in about 30 secs and works fine.

I am not as happy with the guard, and I find myself not using it a lot. It is well built, install is straight forward, and it does what it is supposed to do. However, when ripping anything narrower then about 3" the guard gets in the way, and I move it off to the right. Then I often don't bother to move it back. It also doesn't have dust collection (may be an option). To make it easier to move right and left, I disengaged the set screw so that I can just push it from in front of the saw.


Bob

[David LaRue]

Tom,

I have a Bies overarm guard. Here is a link to my review. Bies Overarm

All you need to do is remove the crank arm from the guard. You them slide it from the front, and use the knob to lock it into place.

Dave

[Chris Padilla]

The recent Saw Stop thread might be of interest to you, Tom! It most likely would have only be a superficial cut with that technology!

[Jim Becker]

Sorry to hear about your accident, Tom. Ouch!! As to guards, I have a review of the Excalibur on my site as well as a review of the Biesemeyer snap-in splitter. I'm very pleased with both.

[Frank Pellow]

Sorry to hear about your accident Tom. I would say that you are lucky to get away with only 6 stiches.

I agree with you that one does get complacement with repetative actions. Right now I don't have a guard on my (ancient) table saw either and I am doing a lot of repetative work what with ripping 3" battens for my workshop from from 1" x 12" s. I will keep your accident in mind and it should help to save me from a similar fate.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Tom,

Sorry to hear about your accident.

I have the Bies. gaurd and I really like it. I use it alot. I do not find it in the way. It is high enough that when I use my SmartMiter it just locks up out of the way. When I'm done I just levae it down.

The Dust collection is an extra $100. I'm in the process of adding it my self. I'm going to just cut in an adapter for my Fein turbo III to the gaurd rather than trying to tie it into my DC.

[John Miliunas]

Yowza', Tom! Glad it wasn't worse and hope you heal fast! I certainly do NOT mean to downplay it, but it could've been a lot worse than 6 stitches! Still a valuable lesson learned!

And with that, another vote for the Biesy splitter. Almost a "no-brainer", really. Sure, it's a lot of money, but it works great and the easy-on/off, really encourages its regular use. For the overhead guard, Excalibur gets my vote. Easy to install, easy to use and really, REALLY helps with dust collection. Also, though it's not designed as such, the guard can assist in holding down material, which mainly helps in preventing the material being sawed from creeping back up on the blade on the outfeed side. If you like the idea of it doing "hold-down" work, another option is the Brett Guard by HTC. Never used one, so I can't comment on its effectiveness, but I've read where folks mention that it does a nice job of that function. Heel quickly and stay safe!

[aurelio alarcon]

Sorry about your accident!

[Ian MacDonald]

Sorry to hear about your accident Tom. I hope you get well soon.

I have an anecdotal story related to safety gear: I play recreational hockey. Helmets are required where we play but face shields are not. I've been playing with a full face shield since the beginning because I can't take the chance on losing an eye (I don't get paid to play hockey). A lot of guys don't wear any face protection. Most say it's because a shield obstructs their vision. I've lost count of the number of times where a guy will get a stick or a puck in the face, lose a tooth, break a nose or come close to some serious eye injury. In almost all the cases, the damage was due to some fluke unintentional action that no one would have anticipated. Most of the guys will show up the next game with a face shield saying that they wished they had been using one all along. It takes them a while to get used to playing with the face shield, but most end up keeping them.

I'm glad you're looking into getting a blade guard.

I use an HTC over-arm guard. It's heavy, rigid and locks into place. It will keep your hands away from the blade and with a splitter prevents kickback by keeping the stock down on the table. I use it for almost all my tablesaw cuts: ripping, crosscutting, dados.

Regards,

-- Ian

[Ian Barley]

Tom

Sorry to hear of your incident. I cannot help much with your product selection as they are not available over here in the UK.

I do think that the complacency aspect is real but avoidable. I try and rehearse each cut in my head and try not to do anything in the real performance that wasn't in the rehearsal. If an offcut is gonna fall let it fall. Don't depart from the script until the blade has stopped. If you play it that way and the first cut was safe then the hundred and first cut should also be safe. It sounds elaborate but when you do it all the time it becomes second nature and you just do it.

Give yourself visual reminders. I have drawn an "exclusion zone" about four inches around the blade on my TS in thick black marker pen. This serves as a reminder to not put my fingers in that area when the blade is running. Do I always respect it? No, but on the occasions that I do break it, it reminds me to be extra cautious with what I am doing.

I think you got lucky by having a scary event that was nowhere near as damaging as it could have been. Now use it to your advantage.

[Tom Hintz]

Tom,
I'm glad the injury wasn't any worse than it was and I hope you heal quickly.
As for the reason it happened, I think you hit it on the head about losing concentration. I did a safety survey a couple of years ago that drew a huge number of responses. The jist of the report is that nearly all of the reported injuries were caused by a lapse in concentration, complacency and similar occurances. See the report at the link below. It is revealing, and should make all of us pay more attention when using tools of all kinds.

http://www.newwoodworker.com/safesurvy.html

[Kurt Aebi]

Tom,

I am glad you are going to be alright - as the others have said, it could have been much worse. I too have felt your pain, I split my left thumb parallel to the thumbnail clear to the first joint last October while ripping 2" x 6" in half. I was using a push-stick and featherboard, but reached for the cutoff piece and "whappo!" contact with the blade. Surgery, 22 stitches and 12 weeks of physical therapy later, I still cannot use the thumb joint - but I still have my thumb as a constant reminder for table saw (any cutting tool for that matter - check the websites for router table accidents) safety. I am lucky that I actually have feeling at the tip of the thumb. Take heed to your warning - I was lucky - you were EXTREMELY Lucky. I think we both have used up our luck and must now rely on our brains as Ian suggests. Think, plan and then cut and then Turn OFF the machine before reaching near the blade!

I decided to build my own and followed plans from Woodcentral for the guard itself and followed examples from Terry Hatfield for the gantry and dust collection aspects (Thanks for the pictures Terry, they were a big help).

As far as purchased units, don't discount Penn State Industries overarm guard - it looks every bit as good as Beismyer or Excalabur and for quite a bit less money.

Again - Glad to hear you are alright!

[Matt Meiser]

Tom,

Sorry to hear about your accident and I'm glad to hear it wasn't worse. I've had the Biesemeyer guard for about 2 years now. Like Dave said, you can remove the screw to solve the problem of having to walk around. I'm really not even sure why they have it, as it seems to lock very securely without it. I was originally going to purchase the Excalibur, but couldn't get one at the time. I got mine as a "second" from Redmond Machinery. I later added the dust collection option. I found that because of the small 2" hose, It worked much better hooked to a small dedicated shop vac. I wired the vac into the starter for my saw so that both turn on together. I use the Delta "Anti-kickback" splitter which came with the guard, also available separately. It only takes a few seconds to install or remove the splitter by turning a small knob a few turns.

I am very happy with all three pieces and I rarely find myself not using them. Usually the piece I forget is to add the splitter back after removing it for a non-through cut where it can't be used.