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

[Michael Yadfar]

A planer is capable of horrible kick back if the conditions are right.

A band saw is often called one of the safest saws in an an average shop but I assume the people who say that are referring to fairly small saws with narrow and fine tooth blades. If a 1 1/4 inch blade with 7/8 tooth spacing breaks in the wrong spot you don't want to be any where near it. (Usually the blade stays in the saw but it can come shooting out)

A lathe is a a fairly safe but you can get tangled in one, the piece you are turning could explode, you could leave the key in the chuck or have a tool grab in the work.

A drill press can become very dangerous if drilling through sheet metal. If the bit grabs the metal can start spinning and most peoples first reaction is to grab the metal to stop it.

The table saw probably is involved in more accidents than any other power tool but is that because it is more dangerous or just more used?

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...

Lathes I've heard of peoples hair getting caught, my teacher witnessed a girls hair get ripped out of her head in college on one (ouch). And I can definetely see a drill press as dangerously fine metal.

One I forgot about is the jointer, I know people who have cut their finger pushing the back of the wood, and same can be done with a router

[Bruce Volden]

My "worst" injury came from learning to use a Japanese pullsaw. My 2nd worst injury came from using a Japanese pullsaw.
Guess I'm a little slow on the uptake of things despite having 7 years of high school!

Bruce

[Larry Frank]

I think that the statistics show that the table saw is the most dangerous. But, as others have mentioned, you have a shop full of tools designed to cut, plane, drill, route wood and these tools are more than capable of doing the same to you. There is little doubt that the table saw has the potential of doing great damage and has cut off many fingers, bruised many arms and such with kick backs.

The most important thing is to always be aware of the dangers and think through what you are doing. The best safety item is your brain and keeping yourself safe. If you are concerned that something might be hazardous, then it is time to find another way.

Training is important but not 100%. Everyone has a moment or time or day when there mind goes elsewhere and that is all that it takes.

[Shawn Pixley]

Dangerous power tools:

Table Saw, drill press (I have witnessed a number of close calls by others), lathe (people have died from these), chainsaw, jointer (also witnessed close calls), power press, press break (know people who lost fingers in it), shear, triphammer, bandsaw (witnessed a close call because guard was not down at all), nailgun (said to be the leading cause of injuries in doit yourselfers), and skill saw.

For me personally, I tend to nick myself on chisels most often. Luckly these are very clean cuts and they heal quickly. Closest call I ever had was when a 24" breaker bar broke when loosening a nut on a tie rod end. I should have used the nutbreaker but was impressed by my own strength and tried something stupid. My forearm slammed into the frame. Still have the bump on the bone. This coild have been much worse.

[Kevin Jenness]

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 main safety feature of the Sawstop saws is the electronic brake triggered by flesh contact. It will not prevent kickback due to faulty technique, though the riving knife should help prevent twisting the workpiece into the blade. The guard won't do much to prevent a kickback injury. Was it the riving knife that you failed to reattach? Sawstops are not miraculously injury free and shouldn't be expected to be so.

[Pat Barry]

To me, scariest tool is the jointer, by far. It will be the last power tool that I think I will ever buy for my shop. Tool I got hurt the worst with was a hand held Greenlee hole punch. I was trying to punch a hole in a piece of sheet metal and it wouldn't go. Really squeezed that sucker - it popped thru and crushed my pinkie between the handles. That was 30 years ago and my fingernail never grew back right.

[scott vroom]

Most dangerous tool in the shop:

[Michael Liechty]

my left index finger which is 3mm shorter than the right says the shaper can be the most dangerous. I don't recommend letting a raised panel get away from you and get your hand pulled into the shaper bit.

[Wade Lippman]

The main safety feature of the Sawstop saws is the electronic brake triggered by flesh contact. It will not prevent kickback due to faulty technique, though the riving knife should help prevent twisting the workpiece into the blade. The guard won't do much to prevent a kickback injury. Was it the riving knife that you failed to reattach? Sawstops are not miraculously injury free and shouldn't be expected to be so.

I was joking. Not about the kickback, that was real enough and hurt like crazy, but about expecting SS stopping it.

[Wade Lippman]

press break (know people who lost fingers in it),

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.

[Lornie McCullough]

I think the table saw can be dangerous if it is the only saw you have in the shop, and you try to make every kind of cut with that one saw.

However, if you also have other saws: perhaps a radial arm saw, a band saw, a chop saw (sliding compound miter saw), hand-held skil saw, and hand-saws, then the table saw only gets used for what it does best, and it becomes one of the safest saws.

Lornie

[Loren Woirhaye]

Lathes can be dangerous. There was a prominent turner killed last year in the USA and a graduate student was killed by a metal lathe at a university a year or two back. Spindle turning is probably pretty safe if you're attentive but burls and other things like that can blow up.

[Peter Quinn]

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...

To me the danger with a BS isn't "Not paying attention" Its paying too much attention to one thing and not enough to another. If you are cutting patterns or curves close to a line for plush trimming, especially curves that change direction, its real easy to be so focused on the work you lose track of the the hands. The BS was the first shop tools I was allowed to use as a kid and it came with a good lesson on where to stand, and how to "look" in a manner that my eyes never come off that giant spinning thing with the hundred or more razor blades attached. I've caught myself a few times headed into the blade with my hands, bad place to lose focus on safety. I've seen a dozen or more blades brakes and never seen one come flying out of the machine. Scary sounding, always makes me jump, but not particularly explosive IME.

Most dangerous tool? The one you fail to understand or under estimate. The table saw has great potential for injury with the double whammy of large exposed cutter and kick back potential. When they quote the statistics on TS injury, its never done as a percentage of cuts resulting in injury, because they don't have that information. Of the possibly millions of TS operations performed weekly across the country, how many result in injury? That information might put the numbers in perspective. I'd say when averaged for volume of use the TS is probably still a bit more dangerous than some tools because its dangers are not always understood by users.

The worst injuries seem to come from shapers and routers. Put your finger in a TS, lose a finger. Come into contact with a shaper, it can take all you fingers and most of your hand. There is a lot more potential for steel hitting wood on a shaper, the injury numbers are probably lower because the units in use are lower and more users are trained professionals (theoretically anyway).

Just a few years back a girl at Yale was killed in a metal shop when here hair became entangled in a metal lathe. Shocking and horrible, but completely avoidable. Still, the danger is every where. I'm not a gambler so I don't play the odds and treat them all with respect.

[Justin Ludwig]

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

I've knocked out a window in my vehicle with a push mower in a well manicured yard. I've been hit in the top of the head (among numerous other place) from debris off my riding lawn mower. Maybe it's all the scare tactics and safety stand-downs during my Naval career, but I don't do anything in my shop or around the house without eye and ear protection.

As irony would have it, my worst injury came at the hand of my steel toe boots. They got caught in between 2 moving pieces of steel and I now have a pinky toe that is without a nail and a bit shorter than the other. The steel toe hit my pinky toe as it was ripped from my boot.

The most dangerous tool in your shop? The one you're most comfortable using. Complacency...

[Jesse Busenitz]

The shaper is the tool I really watch..... as in I'm paying 150% attention, but as everybody said the table saw is the most popular tool hence more accidents...