Safety Manual: Jointer

Back to List

Safety Manual: Woodworking Lathe

Safety Manual: Tablesaw

Fine Woodworking Editors, 

19 users recommend

Wrong Way, Right Way: Use a push stick to keep your hands away from the blade, and a splitter or riving knife (visible just behind blade) to help prevent kickback.

Gerald LaStarza

Add Comment
Print

The tablesaw is the center of most woodworking shops. If set up correctly, this powerful machine can make a wide variety of clean and accurate cuts.

On its own the tablesaw rips boards to width, cuts them to precise length, and makes a variety of angled cuts. With a bit of help, it can also cut joinery. Add a dado set (an adjustable stack of blades) and you can cut dadoes, rabbets, and box joints. Make or buy a tenoning jig for precise tenons of any size. Another popular jig is a crosscut sled, used for pieces that are too large for the tablesaw's miter gauge.

If not used properly, the tablesaw can be very dangerous. We recommend using a splitter or riving knife whenever possible, to prevent violent kickback, and push sticks to keep hands away from the exposed blade. The following is a list of all the safety precautions for using a tablesaw.

1. Avoid loose fitting clothing

2. Roll long sleeves up above elbows

3. Wear non-skid shoes

4. Keep shirt pockets free of items

5. Wear ear and eye protection.

6. Don't operate while tired or under the influence

7. Do a visual check with the machine unplugged before using

8. Make sure portable tablesaws are securely fastened to a stand

9. Be sure the power switch is off before saw is plugged in

10. Check blade guard and anti-kickback pawls for proper operation, and check the alignment of the splitter.

11. Check blade for tightness

General rules for use

1. Keep a splitter or riving knife in place whenever possible, to prevent dangerous kickback.

2. The tablesaw blade height should be set so that the top of the teeth extend no more than 3/8 in. above the surface of the workpiece.

3. Use a tablesaw blade guard whenever possible.

4. Always have additional outfeed support in place at the back of the saw table.

5. Don't stack workpieces when cutting.

6. Never position your hands or fingers in the path of the tablesaw blade.

7. Don't reach behind the tablesaw blade and pull the stock.

8. Don't release the workpiece until it is all the way past the back of the tablesaw blade.

9. Turn the tablesaw off and allow the blade to stop spinning before you pick up stock or scrap.

10. Unplug the saw when you are changing the blade.

11. Keep the tablesaw blade clean and sharp and the tablesaw well tuned. This includes aligning the miter slots and the rip fence with the blade.

12. If the tablesaw motor slows down when cutting, slow the feed rate.

13. Never back a board out of a cut.

Crosscutting and Ripping

1. Don't use the miter gauge and the rip fence together.

2. Use the miter gauge or a sled for all crosscutting and the rip fence for ripping.

3. Don't saw a piece freehand.

4. If crosscutting a long workpiece, use a long miter gauge fence or a sled and support the far end of the board hanging off the table.

5. Don't use the miter gauge for wide workpieces that force the miter gauge off the front of the table. Use a sled instead.

6. Never rip wood that is twisted, warped or doesn't have a straight edge. Joint at least one face and one edge. Run the flat face on the table and the straight edge against the rip fence.

7. When making ripcuts, stand to the left of the blade. UPDATE: This rule depends on the location of the blade. The key is to stand out of the way of the path of the blade and workpiece.

8. Use a push stick when making rip cuts narrower than 6 in.

9. When ripping, apply feed force to the workpiece between blade and fence.

10. When cutting a bevel, place the rip fence on the side opposite of the bevel cut.

Specialty Cuts

1. Use a sled or jig to control the workpieces when the miter gauge or rip fence do not offer enough support, such as when cutting tenons or very small pieces.

2. To make a plunge cut, clamp down the workpiece and raise the blade. Don't place the workpiece on top of a moving blade.

Do you have more tablesaw safety advice to share or a scary tablesaw story? Post a comment below and help your fellow woodworkers stay safe.

The Table Saw Book 2nd Edition and Mastering Your Table Saw DVD
by Kelly Mehler Everything you need to choose, use and master this essential tool $39.90 more info...

posted in: blogs

Add Comment Print

---

Comments (11)

Tolpin writes: Basically, the point is to stand out of the line of fire (which is the line between the blade and the fence. If your saw has the switch on the right, then move is to the left. Also put a paddle of some sort over the switch so you can hit the paddle with your foot or hip to turn off the saw--that way, you can keep your hands on the board or panel if it starts to shift and you want to turn off the saw. If you are mostly cutting solid stock for making small furniture for the fun of it, you actually don't need a table saw--but that's a whole 'nuther story! Posted: 11:38 pm on June 28th

lw3957 writes: Seems that a lot of old timers were called idiot, and lived longer than those by some other name.
Case in point, when I was much younger one of my friends walked into a sawmill as the saw grabbed the flitch and removed his head from eyebrows up. Granted it was not a 10 inch blade that threw it, but the principle still applies if you don't want pieces of timber bouncing around the room, with or without riving knife and short or long fence. The cutting force of a high blade is nearly perpendicular to the direction of the travel, this makes it difficult to throw the timber but may lift the rear of the board.
If the contact area of the carbide on a shallow blade is compared with that of one set high, it is fairly obvious that the carbide contacts for a much shorter time, hence less heat build up. Unfortunately a rougher cut results as is to be expected.
On friendly timber, that behaves nicely, I keep the blade with bottom of gullet clear for waste clearance. On our dense hardwoods the blade goes to near full height unless it is under 3/4" thick using a 12" saw.
Every piece of timber is different, therefore no one position is right for all.
If you don't use saw a guard where ever possible, I recommend Russian roulette, you won't bleed as long that way, unless you have your U-Beaut saw stop. Posted: 8:43 pm on May 14th

glescomor writes: Freud recommends that the blade be raised so that the bottom of the carbide tooth doesn't clear the cut. Who should you believe?
I would like to know who recommended raising the blade to full height. One word "idiot" Posted: 12:25 pm on May 12th

ahg writes: Like the first poster, I don't understand why one stands to the left of the blade when ripping. If that is the case then why is the power switch on the right side? In case of an emergency I would then have to cross directly behind the blade to shut down. Also, it seems to me that one's right arm will always be at risk unless the point of contact of the board is also on the right which I would think is a no-no since that could in principle cause the blade to bind. Posted: 11:51 am on May 7th

dafus writes: "7. When making ripcuts, stand to the left of the blade."
That one surprises me. Regardless of which side of the fence you are using for the rip? Regardless of whether you are right or left-handed? Posted: 7:05 pm on May 6th

Curteshelman writes: I have been in lots of shops and never seen anyone using a blade guard on a table saw. My Powermatic 66 came with one. But it interferes with the sight line to the cut, especially when the plastic gets scratched or dirty. It also has all this distracting extra motion so it is harder to see the work piece. So I have never used it after some initial tries.

The splitter is attached to the guard which is a problem until I recently made splitters attached to throat plates. I like that a lot. But not the guard.

I would be interested in some folks discussing the issue who have successfully used their guards and how they got past the issues that have stopped me.

Maybe Fine Woodworking can review guards. I would be interested in a survey of how many of us really use them. Posted: 6:26 pm on May 6th

kjhart0133 writes: Lots of good advice here. Re: setting blade height, I learned to raise the blade so the gullets just clear the workpiece. This allows all the waste to clear the blade and helps prevent heating. I certainly would not have three inches of blade exposed while cutting a 3/4" board. Posted: 1:49 pm on May 6th

Fine Woodworking Editors writes: Set the blade height to about 3/8 in. above the workpiece. That happy medium will keep the blade cutting properly while not exposing too much of it to your precious fingers. As for offsetting the fence, don't do it. You are making the board travel in a crooked path over the blade, which is dangerous in my opinion. (Having a short fence that stops behind the blade, as the Europeans do, is a whole other story, and is fine.) Instead, be sure to keep the splitter in place. That will take care of kickback in almost all cases. Better yet, buy a saw with a riving knife. They hardly ever to come off the saw, even for angled cuts and cuts that don't go all the way through a board.
--Asa Christiana, editor, FWW Posted: 3:50 pm on May 5th

jsmorgan1 writes: I do have a question regarding blade height on a tablesaw. Being new to woodworking, I've read books, watched videos and received advice from experienced woodworkers and have received the same answer: "blade should be no more than 1/4 inch above workpiece and fence and blade set at 90 degrees. Here is the kicker:

While at my favorite woodworking supply shop, there were 3 or 4 representatives from a named blade mfg. I watched and they asked me if I had any questions. Well, that was the opening. I told them I was working on a project and was using red oak and was getting a lot of "burn" when I cut. They asked to show them on the saw they were using as a demo how I was making the cuts. I showed them and indicated I made sure the blade was set to 90 degrees. When I first lined up a piece to cut for them, I set the blade about 1/4 " above the workpiece. They indicated that was my first mistake. They said the blade should be raised as high as it could go! The reason being, the carbide tip blades get hot when not raised therefore expanding and causing burn. Secondly, they said to "off-set" the fence about 1/16 or so away at the end of the fence. Now, all of this is in direct contradiction with everything I've read or heard. I've tried raising the blade (only as far as I felt comfortable with as a spinning saw blade high enough to feel the wind from it makes you think twice) and it does stop the burn. And, they said most "Eurpoean" saws only have fences running just pass the blade. The reason for the offset was the blade is only cutting at the front, not the back. Thus reducing the cahnce of kickback, which I've been injured by.

Now, does anyone here have any comments on this? I've sent the question to FWW but have not received a response as of yet.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jerry Posted: 1:53 pm on May 3rd

MBerger writes: You can use the online Tool Guide to browse all the tablesaws we've reviewed in the magazine. Click on the "Tool Guide" link in the top navigation then navigate to the section on tablesaws. Whatever you buy, make sure it has a splitter or even better a riving knife! Posted: 2:52 pm on April 29th

winston49 writes: Great stuff, thanks for posting this. Any thoughts out there on top models? My craftsman is done and I'm looking for a new on. Posted: 4:21 pm on April 28th

You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.