Painful kickback

[Greg Robbins]

I'm partial to Grip-tites myself. Been using them for 10 years and never had a kick back.

[Paul Johnstone]

Do you need both pieces that you are cutting?

It might be safer to do a regular rip and then put the bevel on the edge with a jointer?

I don't do a lot of beveled cuts, so I don't know.

[Dominique Dechene]

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

You want our health case system in US?! Never do that, or put your name on the wating list today and hope to be cure in the next 3 years..
And if Brian had decide to go to hospital for is cutting finger, he had a chance to exit with a more dangerous problem like Clostridium difficile.

[Brian Dormer]

Get Grripers! They work well (although sometimes they can be a bit tedious to set up). I've never had a kickback using them and I always feel that my hands are safe and I'm in control.

[Ron Hedrick]

Amen, on the Gripper. I love my grippers use them all the time. Ever since I lost that fight with the saw blade. I feel much more secure using them. An accident like that will install a sense of fear.

[Ole Anderson]

Brian,

When I saw you attached some pics, I thought they were of your red badge of courage, not the wood! Come on man, let's see some real pics of the damage. Did it look anything like this:

[Brian Penning]

When I take the finger bandages off tonight let me know if you want to see actual photos wilya?
As for the tummy I'll give it a day or 2 to achieve it's maximum foliage.
That is a beauty you got there though, I must admit.

[Al Willits]

Glad to hear ya didn't seriously hurt yourself.
In my short woodworking career I've managed to launch wood from my TS twice, and once from my router, luckily needing only a couple of band aids to stop the bleeding.

I did unfortunately do a bit more damage on a unplugged jointer I had just gotten and was cleaning the shipping grease off, should have had stitches for that, but lots and lots of band aids, a shop towel and tape stopped the bleeding fingers.

Does bring to mind what a dangerous endeavor wood working is, and each time we get by with out a trip to the emergency room it should be considered lucky, and a learning experience.

Thanks for posting.

Al

[Lee Schierer]

I'm partial to Grip-tites myself. Been using them for 10 years and never had a kick back.

Yep, same here. Never had a kickback when the grip tites were used. They go on and off in seconds, so they actually get used. Almost no set up required and even a cave man can do it!

[Blake Holton]

Brian:

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I would imagine that for every close call or accident posted here many, many more occur in our shops (formally referred to, in my case, a garage).

Be safe,

Blake

[Hoa Dinh]

This is mentioned several times in this thread:

- You had the blade tilted toward the fence.
- You may want to consider making that cut with the fence to the right of the blade.
- Blade tilted toward fence, trapping piece, which can result in it being fired straight back.
- ...always tilt the blade away from the fence and for right-tilt saws, move the fence to the left of the blade.

The fact that the blade is tilted toward the fence is NOT the cause of the kickback. From what I read, the piece being kicked back was the piece on the OTHER SIDE for the blade, not the piece between the blade and the fence.

When the blade is tilted toward the fence, there is less room for the hand. But that in itself does NOT increase the chance of kickback. In fact, the piece between the blade and the fence is trapped UNDER THE BLADE. If anything, that reduces the chance of it wandering into the trailing edge of the blade.

If the blade is tilted away from the fence, the piece between the blade and the fence is riding ABOVE the blade and can get picked up by the trailing edge of the blade. As in this case, without a splitter it is likely to cause kickback.

So, please don't say that the blade being tilted toward the fence is more likely to cause kickback.

The lesson to learn here is TO USE A SPLITTER WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

This is why I don't recommend the MJ Splitter. It can't be used in bevel cut, when is it most needed.

[Tim Martin]

Hi Brian, glad to hear you're injury's weren't too bad. Hope they heal well.

I have been ripping bevels/miters the same way you did for a decade in a professional shop with out kickback or any mishaps. Same setup, push sticks and blade tilted in to the fence, except I always use a permanently located riving knife.

The main reason your piece was thrown back at you was because you had no splitter/riving knife. Also a good blade guard will also help stop throwing something directly at your face.

I know Americans don't like splitters, or riving knifes much, but here in Aus, I would flat out refuse to use a table saw that had no riving knife. Who knows when you cut a piece of timber if it is loaded or not with internal tension, just waiting to grab onto the back of the blade and come back at you at a million miles an hour.

[glenn bradley]

"I did unfortunately do a bit more damage on a unplugged jointer "

Amen to that. My worst injury of late came from poking my finger on the tooth of an unplugged TS crosscut blade. I shudder to think what a spinning one could do. That sucker cut deep.

[Alex Berkovsky]

The lesson to learn here is TO USE A SPLITTER WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

This is why I don't recommend the MJ Splitter. It can't be used in bevel cut, when is it most needed.

Am I not understanding something here? How can a splitter, any splitter be used during a bevel cut? Whenever a blade is tilted, a splitter does not move with the blade.

[Hoa Dinh]

Am I not understanding something here? How can a splitter, any splitter be used during a bevel cut? Whenever a blade is tilted, a splitter does not move with the blade.

Most, if not all, stock splitters are attached to the trunion, and tilt with the blade.

Some of the problems of stock splitters are (0) they are too far from the blade, (1) they don't move up/down with the blade, so have to be taken out for non-through cut and (2) they are a pain to take out and to re-install.

My shop-made splitters, while not perfect, solve the problems above to some extend. The bladeguard needs to be over-arm, however.