Painful kickback

[Brian Penning]

Had a bad one last night. Was making a bevel cut on the piece below. Used a pushstick to feed the piece through and I think the mistake I made was due to the blade being tilted over 12.5 degrees my pushing from the left to keep it against the fence caused it to ride up on the blade sooner than normal and come flying back at me.
Somehow I sliced my 2 middle fingertips of my left hand rather badly -I think this was from contact with the blade. The piece came flying back at me, went through my sweatshirt and T-shirt and into my stomach hard enough to cut me.
Apparently I was quite a sight -blood dripping off my hand and a red patch coming through my shirt.
Just walked back into the kitchen to run the water over my fingers.
Anyway decided it wasn't worth the trip to the hospital(They're asking us to stay away these days).
Cut in my stomach wasn't that bad(helluva bruise already) and I got some loose flaps of skin on my fingers/nails.
Hmmmm...I gotta make the same cut on another piece.

[Jon Farley]

Board Buddies would be a good investment before you make that next cut. I've had mine about six months and love them. Hope you're ok...Jon

[Bob Oswin]

Had a bad one last night. Was making a bevel cut on the piece below. Used a pushstick to feed the piece through and I think the mistake I made was due to the blade being tilted over 12.5 degrees my pushing from the left to keep it against the fence caused it to ride up on the blade sooner than normal and come flying back at me.

]

I make that cut occasionally and I use a piece of 1 x 3 clamped to the fence and just snugged to the board to prevent lift off. I push the piece thru the saw with a sacrifical piece of 1 x 3 and then stop the blade.

Bob

[Aaron Beaver]

Is your saw a right tilt?

What did you mean "pushing from the left", I am just trying to picture your setup.

Anyway, I hope your fingers are okay and I am glad it wasn't worse.

[Ken Milhinch]

You had the blade tilted toward the fence
I am not surprised you got a kickback. Just be grateful it wasn't worse.
I would suggest you invest in a Gripper or two and put your fence on the other side of the blade.

[Brian Penning]

By "pushing from the left" I meant I was keeping the whole 6" wide board against the fence initially. It's the scrap cutoff piece on the left that hit me. I had no problem with the good piece that was between the blade and fence.
A Gripper will be on it's way to me soon.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, hope you are OK.

Were you using a splitter during the rip operation?

Regards, Rod.

[glenn bradley]

I'm glad that wasn't worse. Heal up quick.

I always have my waste fall away from the blade. You may want to consider making that cut with the fence to the right of the blade. That way gravity doesn't drop the waste onto the blade once the cut is complete. With a Grr-Ripper, in that situation, you would only be applying more pressure onto the blade with the waste piece which might be worse. IMHO.

P.s. This is a good reminder for me as I do not have a good method of running a splitter when doing bevel cuts.

[Brian Penning]

I always use a splitter(built into my insert) but for a bevel cut I have to switch to my standard insert.
Glen>> on the Gripper website they show using it for the exact cut I made...er...didn't make.

[Tim Lynch]

I think that if you are pushing stock from the waste side, applying pressure to the right and ahead, you are basically aiming your hands at the blade. If the piece moves out of the way, as it did here, your hands continue toward the blade.

This is the type of operation that should cause one's hair to stand up on the back of their neck and give them pause.

Yes, it's easy for us to sit in judgement in hindsight, but it seems like a number of fundamental things done wrong here that we can all learn from.

• No guard, anti-kickback pawls or other device, and no splitter.
• Blade tilted toward fence, trapping piece, which can result in it being fired straight back.
• Pushing on waste piece toward blade (results as demonstrated unfortunately).
• Standing in the path of a potential waste piece kickback (left side), although it's no guarantee where it will fly.

I wish you a speedy recovery and hope that you may have saved someone from this or worse by posting.

[Dan Gill]

This was a little scary, too:

Anyway decided it wasn't worth the trip to the hospital(They're asking us to stay away these days).

[frank shic]

brian, glad that you're not seriously injured. where's your blade guard?

[glenn bradley]

"on the Gripper website they show using it for the exact cut I made...er...didn't make."

Thanks Brian. I can see now that I wasn't picturing that quite right. I have a pair of Grr-Rippers, you'd think I'd know. . .doh.

[Brian Penning]

brian, glad that you're not seriously injured. where's your blade guard?

Bladeguard??

[Alex Berkovsky]

Brian,
Sorry to hear about your accident; have a speedy recovery. I am surprised at the picture you linked to showing the blade tilted towards the fence. I am no expert, but everywhere I have read, always tilt the blade away from the fence and for right-tilt saws, move the fence to the left of the blade.

Anyway decided it wasn't worth the trip to the hospital (They're asking us to stay away these days).

Anybody else wants Canada's health care system in US?