Is there really a technique for free handing on a table saw?

[Bradley Gray]

OK - not to recommend this to anyone else -full disclaimer. I have most of my lumber boule sawn (through and through) because I do a lot of live-edge work and I daily need to edge boards and although I have a large band saw (32") the table is small relative to my PM66 with a 6' x 8' table. So I regularly edge slabs freehand on the table saw because I get good results and less back strain. I keep the fence far away from the stock and my hands far away from the blade.

[Justin Ludwig]

I free hand all my custom shaped roll-out sides. I've don't too many to count. I occasionally free hand other things in plywood as well: 1/4", 1/2", 3/4", whatever. Too lazy to build a jig I guess. I wouldn't free hand solid wood if you paid me though.

The trick? Stay on line, don't get in a hurry or distracted. Say what you will...

[Peter Quinn]

I've seen it done regularly on job sites , I personally don't do it. Its not usually the cleanest cut quality, and while it may be expeditious if a TS is sitting there, I play guitar and prefer not to test the laws of probability with my metacarpal phalangies. Technique? Well first you put on a dusty cowboy hat...then deposit chew in your lower lip.....strap on big boots.......yell "yipee, git er done" a few times. I think Bradley's method above is more common in much of the world, particularly the less developed parts of it, with large slabs and cants. And these may actually be a bit safer given the mass of the lumber involved.

I can remember having a friend in my shop few years back, good carpenter with 25yrs experience, decided to freehand scribe a poplar base molding on the cabinet saw. The look on his face when that board hit him in the gut and took him down was priceless. I told him don't do it, he gave me the usual line about him being a professional and doing this all the time, etc, take my skirt off, etc.....that sort of thing works better apparently on a little job site saw where you can actually slow the motor down and control a cut as you follow a scribe line or taper.....not so much on a 5HP cabinet saw with a full kerf blade. Irony was there was a 20" BS sitting right next to him set up. He went from smug to bludgeoned in just 10ths of a second. Left a good welt and rose the most peculiar little blood drops to the skins surface without actually breaking it. Thank god it was winter, cold shop, he had a vest and heavy sweatshirt to soften the blow. Drove him back about 2 feet and he's an easy 6'1 240LBS. Sound like fun?

[Michael Yadfar]

I've seen it done regularly on job sites , I personally don't do it. Its not usually the cleanest cut quality, and while it may be expeditious if a TS is sitting there, I play guitar and prefer not to test the laws of probability with my metacarpal phalangies. Technique? Well first you put on a dusty cowboy hat...then deposit chew in your lower lip.....strap on big boots.......yell "yipee, git er done" a few times. I think Bradley's method above is more common in much of the world, particularly the less developed parts of it, with large slabs and cants. And these may actually be a bit safer given the mass of the lumber involved.

I can remember having a friend in my shop few years back, good carpenter with 25yrs experience, decided to freehand scribe a poplar base molding on the cabinet saw. The look on his face when that board hit him in the gut and took him down was priceless. I told him don't do it, he gave me the usual line about him being a professional and doing this all the time, etc, take my skirt off, etc.....that sort of thing works better apparently on a little job site saw where you can actually slow the motor down and control a cut as you follow a scribe line or taper.....not so much on a 5HP cabinet saw with a full kerf blade. Irony was there was a 20" BS sitting right next to him set up. He went from smug to bludgeoned in just 10ths of a second. Left a good welt and rose the most peculiar little blood drops to the skins surface without actually breaking it. Thank god it was winter, cold shop, he had a vest and heavy sweatshirt to soften the blow. Drove him back about 2 feet and he's an easy 6'1 240LBS. Sound like fun?

Eh, atleast he's not singing sopranos, that's what would happen to me if I was in the way of a kickback, I'm the right height for that. Sometimes it's good to get a nice friendly lesson like that without being seriously injured. I already told the story of the "know it all" shop student in the 80s. The teacher told him not to free hand the cut, the guy flexed his muscle then proceeded to cut, and the teacher let him. Guy was hit in the head somehow, which is physics I don't understand, and he was never an issue again.

God Bless you guys with all these years of experience, I got about 7 under my belt, and maybe about 3 doing serious woodworking, and I'm just about to finish up the first shop I'll ever own. Never planned on trying to do anything fancy, but I definetely want to stick to proper use for now!

[Loren Woirhaye]

Yeah, I was thinking it might be more forgiving on less powerful table saws. In my installation stuff I have a little belt drive KITY tilt top table saw that runs a 7.25" blade and I think it doesn't have the power to kick back with much vigor.

I had some INCA band saws over the years I would take on jobs. I think this Rockwell Bladerunner thing looks a bit silly for shop use but for a portable scribing and tapering machine I think it might be a handy tool.

[Rick Potter]

I was stupid enough to do it a few times years ago. I was also lucky that I only owned an 8" Atlas table saw with a 1/2HP motor. I was cutting plywood sheeting for a room addition, later paneling.

When the saw started to bind, it would stall rather than kick me, thank goodness.

The things I got away with when I was young........

Rick P

[Mike Cutler]

I've done it, which doesn't make it right, but now that I have the track saw option I probably wouldn't do it again.
It's fast, no doubt about that, so I can see why someone whose time is money would do it. For a hobbiest, there really is no reason not to set up the fence, or fabricate a jig.

[Pat Barry]

I've seen Tommy do it on This Old House. Small, oddball cross-cuts, like trimming (knocking off) a corner. If the fence would do the job it would be senseless not to use it. On the other hand, there are times when things aren't all that regular and a guy has to get a job done.

[Lee Schierer]

I do not recommend that anyone else do it because you will get kickbacks unless you do it just right. There are always other ways to get the job done, although it might turn a 30 second cut into 20 minutes of setup and execution.

There in lies the problem. Any time you have to do something "just right" is a sure formula for something to go wrong. The 30 second cut could turn into a multi-hour trip to the E.R. and a lifetime of pain and regret.

Work safe, don't free hand cut on a TS.

Added thoughts: As an employer, I would rather pay for the small increases in time to set up a fence or use a miter bar than a single lost time accident and workman's comp payments until the injured individual can return to work. I also wouldn't care for the sloppy cuts that would result.

The problem arises when the new employee, apprentice or inexperienced hobbyist with less experience tries it and hurts himself or someone else. We have a responsibility here to advocate safe practices since many new woodworkers visit this forum and depend upon our advice to tailor their skills and habits.

[Justin Ludwig]

This was well discussed in another thread (which I'm too lazy to search for) and someone post an amazing Japanese produced video of an old carpenter speedily ripping 6ft boards free hand on a TS. I was fascinated, but not to the point where I'd attempt what he was doing. Tensions released in hardwoods are troublesome enough with a short fence sometimes.

[Art Mann]

There in lies the problem. Any time you have to do something "just right" is a sure formula for something to go wrong. The 30 second cut could turn into a multi-hour trip to the E.R. and a lifetime of pain and regret.

Work safe, don't free hand cut on a TS.

As I said, I don't recommend anyone try to learn how to do this. Unless you are in a line of work that requires it, it isn't worth the risk. On the other hand, I don't think you grasp just how commonplace the practice is in the building trades or what a miniscule percentage of professionals are hurt doing it. There are many other activities in the building trades that are more dangerous. The people who do these jobs every day are not taking a very big risk because they have the skills necessary to do it safely and have done so for decades without incident.

[Frank Drew]

In addition to the obvious safety issues, I don't think that this is very good for the saw blade.

[Mark Bolton]

There in lies the problem. Any time you have to do something "just right" is a sure formula for something to go wrong. The 30 second cut could turn into a multi-hour trip to the E.R. and a lifetime of pain and regret.

Work safe, don't free hand cut on a TS.

Its pretty clear whenever these threads pop up (archives are full of them) that there are those who simply say it never should be done and those who clearly feel its a cautious but accepted practice in the professional arena. It may be fine to insinuate that everyone should simply take the longer path but at whose expense? This forum, and society as a whole, is full of people who are going out and getting 3, 5, 10, or more bids for work. Pitting each bid against each other all to save a nickel. And then something like this comes up and a task which I can complete in a mere fraction of the time it would take in comparison to the longer path (and I will argue endlessly that its safe) is suddenly off the table. That's perfectly fine with me but in a professional environment that course of action must be compensated and in an extreme competitive environment (nearly every job nowadays) that simply isn't going to happen. So yes, if compensated, I would take the longer route.

It will still go over like a lead balloon for the uber safety folks but the simple fact is the professional world and the hobby world are two completely different animals and if one is unwilling to acknowledge that that's fine but its wrong and lacks objectivity. In every one of these threads the overwhelming theme is not to do it, and more specifically for the hobbyist not to ever do it. That's always crystal clear.

To that end, it's clear that many of the people who accept free hand rips are speaking to field work, and yes the vast majority of times this is done on small underpowered saws. I honestly cant imagine why one would have the need to do it regularly in a shop environment given there is a band saw handy as well as quick access to other hand tool options. This isn't the case in the field. I can only think of a couple times in my career that Ive ever had a band saw on the job and I, and I'm sure others, have done jobs where entire rooms were dedicated to a pretty well equipped shop. Further, even if there were one there for many of the free hand rips I do I still would use the option for the reason Scott mentioned about a larger table surface as well as the fact that to back bevel on a BS you have to angle the table as opposed to the blade. This would be a nightmare with a long piece of base or any large piece.

Most of my freehand rips would be scribes. Fillers, baseboard, casing that terminates against a wall, and so on. For these kicking the blade to 5-10 degrees, freehanding a cut leaving the scribe line, and then slicking it in with a block plane takes a fraction of the time. Additionally if you're working with pre-finished material, the back face of the board is riding on the table as opposed to a jigsaw potentially scratching the finished face, and so on. My hands are never near enough to the blade for an issue, the off cut from the rip is a very small piece so the possibility of pinch/kickback is virtually zero. If the off cut is a wider piece I will rip with the fence as close to the scribe as possible getting rid of the bulk of the material and then come back and back bevel to the scribe line. Its completely safe if you're smart.

I can imagine in Peter's scenario the guy got a little bravado and wound up making a fool of himself. Again, one of two criteria, something stoopid... or taking the tool for granted. Sounds like a combination of both.

[Larry Edgerton]

Mark about summed it up....

I can do a lot of things on a motorcycle that many of you can't do as well. Its not a problem with the motorcycle........

[Wayne Hendrix]

When I installed cabinets we did it to cut the scribe strip to match the wall. The "trick" if you will was first ripping the waste area with the fence and the only trimming off less than the thickness of the blade freehand to match the angle. This significantly reduced the chance of kickback. We also didn't cut the full thing in one pass, you trimmed one half and then flipped it around and trimmed the other half from the other end this way your hands never hand got close to the blade and were always on the side such if it did catch and kickback they would be pushed away from the blade not pulled into it.

Not saying it was the best way or safest way but that's how we did it.