I am lucky enough to own a lot of tools.
All of them are dangerous in their own way – but, I have a long held philosophy that anything with a spinning blade tends to be at the VERY dangerous end – and with that in mind any cut (no matter how good or bad the end result is) that you finish with the same amount of fingers / limbs that you started with is a successful cut!
However, for me personally there is one tool with a spinning blade that stands out amongst all others as the Alpha Dog of potentially disastrous cutting maniacs due to its unpredictable nature.
This, is of course the table saw!
Don’t get me wrong – the same rules that apply to other saws apply to a table – for me these are:
- Secure your material – ensure that it is secured it against a fence or use a mitre gauge (more on this later).
- Support your material – ensure that it can’t ‘bite‘ the blade during or towards the end of the cut that you’re making.
- Practice ‘Blade Discipline’ – e.g. don’t just keep your hands away from the blade, think about where they might land if you do end up with your material jumping! This is a different thought process between hand held blades (plunge, jig, circular) and fixed blades (table, mitre, ban). With hand held saws the material can bite and throw the saw in any direction – which could include your hand / fingers / other body part. With fixed blades you have a slightly different problem as they tend to throw parts of the material right at you!However something that remains the same no matter what kind of saw you’re using is that when things go wrong your human instinct is the try and grab the material to save what you can – DON’T – let it get ruined or fall, or fly off and smash – because it is in these moments you lose a finger or worse.
Every table saw has its own unique functionality and features. I personally have a DeWalt DCS7485N 54V XR FLEXVOLT Brushless 210mm Table Saw which is a 210mm job site model. Given that I am familiar with it from here on in the focus of this article will be about my own experiences with that tool, which for the most part will be similar to other brands / models – but it is important to note that other brands will have other feature particularly in the safety space so some of the thing that I highlight may not apply to you.
What height should a table saw be at?
One of the first things that I noticed when I purchased the tool was getting it stable and secure at the right height was a challenge.
It is designed to be as a portable as possible due to it’s primary use is for jobbing carpenters / trades on building sites. This is a real strength – but, that also means that it is comparably smaller in terms of length and width – but it is a chubby bugger in terms of height.
This means that just whacking it on top of a pair of saw horses means that you’re almost lifting material onto the table to in-feed to the blade. I found this cumbersome and I didn’t feel that I was in control of the cutting process – which is a serious issue with any table saw.
My solution to this was ultimately to purchase a dedicated stand for the tool which when mounted is the perfect height to cut at. The stand itself also doubles up as both storage and easy transport for the tool.
If I had my own wood shop, I would in all likelihood make my own enclosure for the saw where I would also increase its out-feed capacity – but I don’t so I can’t.
My overall point here is that if you feel that you don’t have control of the material when feeding it towards the blade – because the saw is either to high or too low, then stop work until you do feel in control.
The basic operation of a table saw at it most simple level is being able to feed your piece in a controlled way into the blade either against the saw (rip) fence – or – with the mitre gauge. If the material is wobbling, lifting or you cannot get your body into a position where you can feed easily but out of the way of the path of the material as it progresses through the blade then bad things are going to happen.
The following is a simple (if a little crude) mock up of the ideal height for feeding a table saw:
Basically anything above the waist isn’t a good idea – anything that is below the waist or at ground level you can do it – but just bear in mind how level and stable the ground is – and if you are crouching / kneeling down to feed the material you won’t be as in control as you would be if the position was at mid-rift height.
How do I safely feed material into the blade of a table saw?
This is a billion dollar (pound) question. To answer I would guess it is first better to establish what, in the main causes accidents with table saws?
To my mind these can be broken down into the following categories:
- The material biting the blade.
- Incorrect positioning of your hands in relation to the blade.
- Poor maintenance of the tool.
So lets have a look at these individually.
The material biting the blade
This happens typically when you have cut through far enough where the two different pieces are free enough to move – think of it as a pinching action.
One of the most important pieces of a table saw is the riving knife – this sits at the back of the blade and is typically a few millimetres wider. What it does is keeps the cut parts of the material far enough away from the blade as you run it through – but – isn’t sufficiently wide enough to cause any damage.
Below I have put together a little picture of how this works in practice:
So one of the most important points is never run a table saw without a riving knife … ever ….
Of course, whilst the riving knife is one of the most important first lines of defence against the blade binding – it doesn’t stop if from happening in it’s entirety.
There are other scenarios where it can happen:
- Using both a rip fence and mitre gauge together.
- Feeding the material against the rip fence when it is not square and you try and correct it.
- The material is too large for the table and lifts during cutting – or – drops off the end of the table before the cut is completed.
- Dense material is too much for the motor.
Let’s look at these a little closer:
Using a rip fence and a mitre gauge together
On face value – this seems both logical and safe. But it isn’t – use one or the other.
Before we get into this it is probably worth understanding what each table component does.
Rip Fence
The idea of a rip fence is that you run your material against it as it goes through the blade. Typically you can adjust it so it is the exact measurement away from the blade that you need your cut to be.
It is designed to ensure the material is square to the fence so you get a perfectly straight rip cut on the blade side. Most table saws will also allow you to cut angles into the edge of the timber.
Mitre Gauge
A table saw mitre gauge is used to guide wood through the saw blade at a precise, repeatable angle for cross-cuts and mitre cuts.
You can run your wood through the blade using a range of different angles / mitres – or use it at 90 degrees for cross cutting material – not to be confused with rip cuts along the length of the board where you would use the rip fence.
Why you shouldn’t use them together
You should not use a mitre gauge and rip fence simultaneously during through-cuts because it traps the cut-off piece between the spinning blade and the fence, which can cause a dangerous bind because the material (off-cut) will get trapped against the blade and fence.
The following diagram shows how this can during use:
Feeding the material against the rip fence when it is not square and you try and correct it.
So, imagine that you are running a rip cut through your saw and can see that the edge which is against the fence isn’t square (e.g. there is a gap from at the top of the wood where the bottom is flush against the fence).
You decide that you will try and correct this by pressing the material at the top into the fence. DON’T do this as it will (you guessed it) bind the blade and best case you will get an almighty kick back – OR – worst case the material will jump and your hand could end up in the blade.
If you realise that your material is not square and it has some length on it – square it up using something like a Circular or Plunge saw and then take it back to the table to run your rips.
The material is too large for the table and lifts during cutting – or – drops off the end of the table before the cut is completed
This will sounds obvious but the maximum cutting length on your table saw is limited by both the length and width of the table.
You can afford to go a little beyond the edges – but not to the point where the material will tip and lift up on the blade whilst it was running as it could move over onto the spinning top edge of the cutting edge and I cannot tell you how much of a world of pain you could be in.
Remember that at all times your material should remain flat to the surface of the table and if it isn’t then stop and re-evaluate your cut.
If you do need to cut beyond the capacity of the table – invest in either an out-feed table or out-feed rollers.
Dense material is too much for the motor
One of the most important things that you can do when using any power tool is listen to the sound that it is making.
You will know the sound when things are going well – if that sound changes at any point STOP – as something isn’t right.
This is particularly important with saws. If the sound of the motor changes significantly during the cut then the blade is under too much pressure, often indicating that the material is going to bind.
This could be because you are cutting too fast on the edge of the maximum depth that the saw can make – or – the cut ends aren’t supported enough and are coming together through the blade and therefore pinching.
When cutting a denser material (this could be down to thickness – or -if it is a hard wood) go slow and steady.
Incorrect positioning of your hands in relation to the blade
This will sound obvious. But you’d be surprised how easy it is to lose track of where the blade will emerge on your piece in proximity to where you have placed your hand!
Keep your hands away from the blade at all times and feed the wood through with each push with your hand moving away from the danger areas.
If you are doing rip cuts along the fence use a Push Stick (usually supplied with the saw) or even better something like a MicroJig GRR-RIPPER which allows for you to sustain both forward and side pressure and allow for the blade to move under it.
There are, of course even more safe approaches – for example you can make a table saw sled (Usually used for larger pieces which require close cuts towards the blade where any sort of hand proximity is dangerous).
When you need to retrieve cut material from the saw and the blade is still spinning (not advised) never, ever reach across it and use a “wax on, wax off” motion where the motion takes you and that material in the opposite direction.
Poor maintenance of the tool
Any and every tool needs looking after and table saws are no exception – you should visually inspect your table saw before and after every single use.
- The first, most obvious thing is making sure that your blade is in good condition. Every blade will dull over time depending on the amount of use and the materials that you’re cutting – for example; hardwoods will dull blades quicker then softwoods.If you notice that the material that you are working on is coming out of the cut with tear out (e.g. the cut isn’t clean and splintered) – or – it just isn’t cutting without a lot of effort the chances are that you need to change the blade.If you notice that your cuts are out from the blade there’s a chance:
- The blade is out of alignment – you can check this with the use of a set square.
- After each cutting session make sure that you clear as much sawdust from the tool as you possibly can.Most saw dust tends to get extracted out of the tool through the exhaust – however, depending on the material – especially MDF it can will settle within the internal workings of the tool – including the motor. Over time it will harden (for want of a better term) and begin to impact the performance of the saw and, ultimately can stop it from working.
Getting to certain areas to clean (such as the the blade enclosure) can be tricky so I recommend buying a high powered air blower – this is the one that I use: WolfBox MF100 which is brilliant get clearing out even the most difficult to reach areas.Occasionally during a cut, pieces of material will drop down into the blade enclosure. These you need to remove immediately – on the next run, when you fire up the tool there is a risk that the blade could catch a piece and launch it at you like a bullet (this has happened to me).
In order to clear such debris, you will often need to remove the plate that the blade emerges from so you can access the waste wood. If you need to do this ensure that any power source is removed from the tool and you need to be really careful of not catching your hands or fingers on the blade.Above all, though – don’t let waste material accumulate in the enclosure.
- Every 3rd use or so, check all the bolts and screws on the saw to ensure that they are tightened appropriately. It is rare for them to come loose – but through vibration it is possible so checking the fitting is a very good idea.You do not want a screw or bolt to be launched at you by a blade spinning 5 thousand RPM – you also don’t want one to get jammed in either the blade or the motor as the consequences of that can be very bad.
Well, that’s about all I have for now – if you have any tips or pointers in your own experience about the mighty and scary table saw – feel free to share in the comments!
