Thirty years of teaching woodworking has convinced me that woodworkers will use a push stick consistently—if it’s convenient. If not, they’ll often go without, finishing cuts by squeezing a few fingers past the blade. To make the tablesaw safer I designed a simple holder that keeps your favorite push stick upright on the rip fence. With the push stick nearby and poised for action, you hold a workpiece securely in both hands as you start a cut, and scoop up the stick as your hand passes by, finishing the cut safely. The small magnetic block lets you pull the push stick off the rip fence at any angle. If the block moves in the process, you can just push it back against the stick when you return it to the ready position.

The holder is a small wood block that attaches to the rip fence with rare-earth magnets, and squeezes almost any type of push stick against the edge of the fence face to keep it vertical. You can epoxy rare-earth magnets into the bottom of the holding block, but I used the type held with a screw (Lee Valley no. 99K39.04).

—Barry Thalheimer, Prince Albert , Sask., Canada

Illustrations by Dan Thornton
From Fine Woodworking issue #271

 

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