I have been around power tools and machinery most my life and I have learned to respect them. Woodworking is a new venture for me and I have been doing crash courses researching and reading everything I can.
This research paid off yesterday. I know that I would be in the hospital right now or worse. A square 1"x1" flat ended 2 foot section of board would have went completely through me with the possibility of cutting my Spine in half.
Friends, this is a serious reminder to always be safe when working around the power tools we use in our lives. I know this has probably been posted before but sometimes it just does not happen to the other guy. All within a few seconds time space.
This board had to going a 100 MPH with tremendous force.
I went to a Estate sale a couple weeks ago, the man had been a Woodworker and had a full shop. Picked up some various wood in the 2-5 foot range most 6" wide. I have no idea what kind of wood some of it is but a few pieces are very hard.
Since I am still learning so my projects are small in scale. I am working on making some boxes currently. I ripped down a few boards into 1/2" to 2" strips about 24" long. I do not own a Jointer so have been using the Router with a straight bit to get my edges ready to glue, this has worked fine for me. On a few strips of this wood I could not stop Chatter and a rough edge in places.
So I decided to use my Table saw to just shave the edge on the pieces that were rough. I had the Fence set to the right of the blade and the waste cut to the left of the blade. Ran about 5 strips through the blade and had a nice clean edge. On the last strip that was about 7/8 x 7/8 with about 2" left to pass the blade the board grabbed.
This is what happened next. My saw (Bosch 4100) was setup on my patio due to shop size. In a split second after I felt the board grab, this strip of wood shot back and it was over in seconds.
The results were, the board hit a portable radio sitting on a shelf 20 feet away from the TS and 6" higher than the TS top, it dented in the speaker grill. From there it deflected up about 3 feet still flying like an arrow and went through the window screen and a double pane window. From there it traveled another 15 feet and hit a pantry shelf displacing several items and then bounced off the shelf and hit the side of the Kitchen cabinet. From there it deflected again and landed about 10 feet away into the laundry room.
There was glass spread all over a 300 square foot area, on counter tops, pantry shelves etc... It was a giant mess.
My entire point to this is the research and things I have learned.
I was standing to the Side (left) of the TS Blade, a good thing.
Use the proper equipment when working with small stock, I was NOT using a proper Push Stick.
Keep focused until the board has completely passed the saw blade, I momentarily took my eyes off the board being cut.
I never let people into the patio area when I am cutting. Now I will move the TS and make sure no one can be in harms way.
Thanks for reading and sorry so drawn out, I think some of this is for my benefit by writing it down.