whiterivr2002

I just turned 40 on Saturday. I have been woodworking since I was 14. In high school, I was good enough and enjoyed it enough I decided I needed to find a way to make a living doing it. So I became a shop teacher. Through all these years, I have never heard ANYONE tell me that the blade should be raised as high as possible. To have that much animal raised above the table is suicide. I will take a 200mph kickback to whole hand amputation ANYDAY. The irony is, that (knock on wood) I have all ten fingers and I have NEVER ONCE been hit by a kickback. I have taught hundreds of 14 to 18 year old students, who I teach to use the tablesaw independently (I don't hold their hands). Not once have I had a single injury involving the loss of blood on the tablesaw, and to memory I can only think of 1 student who was hit by a kickback (and he wasn't doing as he was taught). I teach my students that kickbacks WILL happen. The key is to not be standing where they will be hit by them. I still don't get many kickbacks by students anyway.

Well planned cuts, on properly adjusted equipment, is the BEST way to avoid a kickback.

Granted, I teach out of a full woodshop, so I probably have better and more equipment than the average hobbyist shop. I recommend to my students that if the piece is long enough, that they should leave 1/16 when they cut on the tablesaw so that they can run a pass on the jointer. This eliminates any burn (which we don't see much anyway) and it also provides a cleaner edge that requires less sanding.

The moral of this story? I teach my students that the blade should be set above the material to the depth of the shortest gullets.

Sounds like a great book that I could use to help my cub scout den to make some great toys.