Is the table saw (non sawstop) the most dangerous tool in the shop?

[Anthony Whitesell]

What I might ask is, "What tool has the highest serious accident rate per hour of use?" I can't answer that but the tools that really scare me are the shaper and probably the jointer.

I would like to know that as well. I was only able to find accidents by machine per year and number of machines in use per year. Nothing on how much run time each machine type was in use per year. That might be difficult since table saws don't have hour meters. If they did it might be dangerous ammo for the LOML to know exactly how long I was in the shop. LOL.

[Tai Fu]

However bandsaws do not kick back, unless you touch the blade, nothing else should happen. I guess there's the blade shooting out the side after it breaks too

What makes me cringe is those contraptions that you put a skilsaw under a table to turn it into a tablesaw. As if they are not dangerous enough.

[Curt Harms]

It seems like anything that can cause a kickback would rank pretty high on the list. The one thing I can think of that can move your hand from several inches away from a cutter into the cutter in less than the blink of an eye not to mention wham! into the gut (or head or ............). A bandsaw doesn't normally kick back, you have to feed your extremities into it at normal feed rate.

[Prashun Patel]

Bad things happen when I have to exert any kind of pressure into the cutter. It's a sign that something can bind, kick, roll, or shatter.

[Ellen Benkin]

I have never had a table saw injury because I always stop and review what I am doing before I use it. My worst injury was on the bandsaw when I pushed a piece through and sliced my thumb. I didn't cut anything off but it gave me new respect for the bandsaw. I think the bandsaw is dangerous because you don't see the blade moving and, because you can push or pull material through it people become casual while using it.

[Joe Hillmann]

Just yesterday I took the guard off my SS to run a little dado, and then cut a small sheet of plywood without putting it back on. Twisted the darned thing and took it in the gut. Isn't the SS supposed to prevent that?!

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No, the sawstop is not designed to prevent that, and the fact that you thought it did and didn't take proper precautions to prevent it probably made it more likely to happen. I would recommended reading through the users manual that came with your saw to see what types of cuts are unsafe to make with it. And also to understand the safety features it has.

[Joe Hillmann]

I've heard about planer kickbacks, but they are extremely rare and I've never seen one.

As far as bandsaws are concerned, back when I was in high school we used a Delta Rockwell 17" bandsaw with atleast a half inch blade. My teacher worked there for 35 years and he said he only saw a broken blade shoot out once, and he said it can only come out the side of the machine. If you did get your finger in their it is dangerous; on our safety lesson every year he would show is how quickly it can cut a pencil, and a finger can be cut just as quickly. I feel that's due to carelessness though, but then again if you aren't paying attention...

My stepdad had a planer kick back at him once when doing beams. It kicked back, hit him hard enough to knock him out for a few seconds. When he came to the planner had tipped towards him with the end of the beam preventing it from tipping all the way over but it was still running and pulling the beam in. Had he not been able to shut it off it would have ended up on top of him pinning him down once the beam had run all the way through. Of course this was a large planner, a small lunch box planner won't be able to produce those kinds of forces.

[Joe Hillmann]

Band saws can kick back and throw your hand into the blade if the edge being cut is above and forward of where it is supported such as cutting off a cylinder. I have also seen it happen with other odd shaped pieces.

[Shawn Pixley]

I know someone who lost a finger to a printing press! He used to put his cigarette on the rack, and one day misjudged his timing. Incredible thing is that he just doing it that way.

I also know someone who lost an eye to a stone shooting out of his lawnmower. I wouldn't have thought that was possible.

My best friend lost his eye splitting firewood. Splinter driven into the eye. The world is unsafe.

[Tai Fu]

Or you could get into a plane that crashes for whatever reason, be it snakes, missiles, weather, or UFO...

[Michael Yadfar]

My best friend lost his eye splitting firewood. Splinter driven into the eye. The world is unsafe.

Back in high school the only injuries I saw people go to the nurse for was splinters, but nothing serious like that. I once had a one inch splinter go into my hand but it was buried so I didn't know what it was. I was wondering why my hand hurt so bad for a few days, so I started to dig out what I though was a tiny splinter. That sucker was nearly an inch long and hurt like hell taking out.

[Michael Yadfar]

Now that I think about it, the least expected may be the most dangerous. I've never had any injuries in the shop, but at work I use a box cutter and I have about 3 or 4 scars on my arm from that thing. My most serious injury actually occurred in my shed before it was a shop, when I was standing on a metal storage bin inspecting a leak in the roof. Corner sliced my knee open and required 130 stitches

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Just yesterday I took the guard off my SS to run a little dado, and then cut a small sheet of plywood without putting it back on. Twisted the darned thing and took it in the gut. Isn't the SS supposed to prevent that?!

Only tool I have hurt myself on was a bandsaw (50/50 chance of losing a fingertip, but got lucky), but the one that scares me the most is the router table. Lots of way that can get you.

The SS has safety features to prevent that, but so do all newer saws. In this case (running a dado), you removed those safety features (since you can't use them while cutting a dado). I took one to the gut while cutting a piece of plywood, but, the saw did not have a splitter, riven knife, etc.

That said, the most dangerous things in my shop...

1. Me, and the stupid things that I do such as removing the safety equipment or not paying attention.
2. Router. I have only had a few incidents with the router. Paranoia (leading to attempts at attention and good technique) avoided injury to myself (a piece of wood might have been harmed). Yesterday, I was routing many pieces of wood with a round-over bit... You get in a pattern and disengage your brain. Two potential incidents. First, a piece of wood fell off something. I instinctively went to grab for it.... and it was right next to that spinning bit. Also, I realized that I was starting to get a little sloppy in my attention. Did not get close to the blade, but, realized that I was not paying sufficient attention to the bit while I was putting up one piece of wood and grabbing another.
3. Angle Grinder. Do we really use all the safety gear that we should? Always put on those safety glasses?
4. Table Saw. I really should hold that small piece better while cutting it.

[Mike Ontko]

I once read that any dull tool is the most potentially dangerous piece of equipment in a shop.

This thread reminds me of my 9th grade woodshop teacher, who implemented a particularly effective method for helping adolescent boys (not many girls were taking woodshop in the early '70s) remember the safety rules and to pay attention during the safety lectures. If you were caught violating a safety rule or operating equipment in a non-safe way, you were subjected to a "hot-hand"--a quick slap of a 12" steel rule across your open palm, which you had to offer voluntarily or else drop the class. I had one once, as the result of a near kickback situation I'd created on the tablesaw (through improper use of a miter gauge). There was one kid in class who was famous for getting the ol' hot-hand on a regular basis--once deep enough that you could read the eighth-inch markings--ha ha. He was eventually "voluntarily" dropped from the class. I seriously doubt that today's shop teachers (for those schools that are still fortunate enough to have a shop class) would be applauded for using such a method. But it was definitely effective for its time.

[Pat Barry]

sliced my knee open and required 130 stitches

Yikes - that's one helluva lot of stitches. It sounds gruesome