Table saws are great, but watch for the dreaded kickback

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/07/2005 (7554 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — As the price of high-quality portable table saws continues to inch downward, more and more handy homeowners are opting to buy one of these tools for their own projects.

And that’s a good thing — but only if safety awareness keeps pace. That’s why maintaining a sound working relationship with this machine depends on understanding where the worst table saw danger comes from, anticipating the conditions that give those dangers a foothold, and making sure they never get their chance.

There are many ways to get hurt with a table saw, but the worst directs the full force of the tool against you. It’s called kickback, and you won’t be involved with wood for long before hearing stories about its effects.

Kickback occurs when a spinning blade ceases to cut the piece of wood its moving through, grabbing and throwing it toward you instead. Imagine a sharp, wooden spear heading your way at the speed of a Major League Baseball pitch. That’s kickback, and there are two strategies to avoid it.

The first is equipment-based. Start by making sure your saw’s rip fence is parallel to the saw blade. This keeps the work piece free from the rising saw teeth at the back of the blade, an area that could grab wood, lift it up, and fling it your way.

Another strategy involves correct blade choice. It doesn’t make sense to install a different blade every time you need to rip, then crosscut, then slice some plywood. This is why combination blades were invented. They are designed to operate safely in most cutting conditions, but there’s more to maximizing safety than simply using them. You must buy the right version of a combination blade, too.

Safety legislation originally drafted in Germany has led to blade designs that greatly reduce the likelihood of kickbacks. But because these blades aren’t required in Canada, you have to know what you’re looking for.

The critical feature is small humps of metal in front of each tooth, or each group of teeth on combination blades. This hump is slightly lower than the tip of the tooth behind it, and this seemingly insignificant detail makes all the difference. It limits the amount of bite that a tooth can take, thereby reducing the chance that the blade will grab and hurl a work piece toward you instead of slicing through it. Anti-kickback blades don’t guarantee complete safety, but they’re much, much safer.

The second strategy is cutting technique. Start by forming the habit of adjusting blade height to 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch above the top of the wood you’re working with. This places the top of the blade — the area with the most kickback propensity — up and out of the wood, without exposing too much blade area to your hands.

Next, always avoid using both the rip fence and the crosscutting mitre gauge at the same time. While it’s convenient to slide the rip fence over and use it as a stop for repetitive crosscuts, this practice is a time bomb.

— CanWest News Service