dickgl

Our shop is comprised of two retired engineers that manufacture a variety of wood furniture and display cases used in museums and by private collectors. The tool that is the most important in our daily chores after the table saw and the jointer is the cnc bridgeport mill. I have never seen a bridgeport in another small wood shop but it makes our products better and faster.

Cheating: A wood snobs idea of how to discount his competition.

Perhaps we should toss the sandpaper as well. That would be cheating wouldn't it?

I have been using this technique for 40 years. I also do the same on my router table. The set up time can be a bit tricky for some. It never dawned on me that this was not a common practice until now. Of course it is a dangerous practice and I would hesitate to recommend it to a novice and I am not certain that I would publish it if I had liability issues to consider. I do far more dangerous tricks then this on my table saw every day. I can't even imagine keeping the safety guards on a table saw. If they had to be on I would have to change virtually every cost cutting and labor saving practice I have in my shop. One more note: I have never been injured using a table saw using this or any other short cut. Ya gotta watch what you are doing and where your fingers are!

I would hope that there is a continued evolution to this device. Truth is that if we had safety devices surrounding the blades on our table saws we would never be able to make half of the cuts that we need to make in our shop. After 40 or so years of custom working wood I understand the risks and have to take them in order to accomplish the tasks at hand.