cd10036

My friend has a piece of 1/2" angle iron that he drilled his holes in "V" side up. To make a dowel he just chucks a length of wood in his drill and feeds it through the appropriate size hole. The hole in the angle iron acts more like a pencil sharpener and you get really nice looking dowels.

I would like to say to Carlos that I am sorry for his injuries, and hope he is doing better and can continue woodworking.

I own a portable Ryobi table saw; not the model shown in the photo, but the model previous, and I love it. It is lightweight, portable and easy to use, I can see why someone in the flooring business would own onwn one. I also own a very old 10" craftsman table saw that was my Grandfather's. It has no riving knife, splitter or blade guard of any kind. My grandfather used this saw for most of his life, and never so much as knicked himself.

Safety is a very important issue to all of us woodworkers, and I do not mean to belittle it or the importantce of it, but for 26 years Norm Abram fired up his Unisaw and he has all fingers and toes. Countless others before us have used equipment that was "unsafe" without injury.

SawStop makes a great product, but also an expensive product, and not everyone can afford such safety. I am enclined to believe that if Mr. Gass was more about keeping woodworkers safe than making a few dollars (my opinion), then there would be a retrofit for any model table saw available. In fact, Skill has come out with a new saw made just for flooring, and is worth checking out.

Bottom line is that accidents happen. I nearly lost my left thumb to my table saw, but I didn't file a suit with Ryobi, it was my own fault for not using the splitter and blade guard. Had that equipment been properly installed, I would not have injured myself.

Instead of suing a company for not developing it's own technology (as I'm sure that SawStop's safety mechanism it a patented technology) how about we all use a bit of common sense when going into the shop. Keep the radio off, don't wear loose fitting clothing, and focus on the cut at hand. Since my accident I always ask myself is the cut I am about to make is safe, and if I can keep the safety equipment that came with my saw attached, if not I choose a different method.

It shouldn't have taken me almost loosing a finger to practice safety though, I should have already been doing that on my own.

I have a Ryobi BTS20 portable table saw. Due to the fact that I work out of my garage, this is really the only practical option for me until i can build or rent a shop. This saw has worked extremely well for me right out of the box; cuts are accurate and it was adjusted near perfect. A great feature of this saw is that I can store everything on board the saw: the miter gauge, the rip fence, and the blade guard/splitter, as well as extra blades store neatly on the saw body, and add to its portability. My only fault was with the miter gauge; it was too sloppy in the track, but I just added a couple of setscrews to the bar, and it's dead on.

As with all saws of this size, you need to use care when ripping sheet goods, but outfit this saw with a good blade, and make a couple of zero clearance inserts for it, and it will perform just as good as any saw that costs 4x as much.

Remember that we are woodworkers, and previous generations had far less to work with. I have my grandfather's old 10" Craftsman saw that he made a stand for. It's small, underpowered and had no extension wings, but when I look at the furniture that he made with that saw, a router, and a jig saw, my table saw seems more than adequate.