Not if you use two.
You press down (and in towards the fence) with the one in your left hand further up the workpiece, whilst you push with the right hand one at the near end of the workpiece. With variations of course.
Yes4. No distractions . Don't listen to the radio and ban children from the workshop !
I don't have a tablesaw, always fought shy of them but still use circular saws and a bandsawI'm 30 years using a tablesaw and no injuries so far. A few danger points are :
1 Cutting thick boards over 2" especially Iroko. The twisted grain can pinch the blade and kickback. You will feel resistance and possibly see burning. Stop immediately and take shallow cuts instead..
2 . Cutting narrow strips when you can't use a pushstick. Get a jig and cut on the left side of the piece moving the fence for each cut .You get a better result with no burning.
3. A birdsmouth pushstick is not ideal as the wood can lift as you push it into the cut. A homemade 'L' shaped ply jig with a notch at the end is better as you can apply downward pressure.
4. No distractions . Don't listen to the radio and ban children from the workshop !
. But, I've always wondered, what is the actual mechanism that causes kickback? Surely if the front of the blade is always pressing down on the front edge of the workpiece it will keep it pressed onto the table?Don't forget the back of the blade is rising and while not actually cutting it can pinch the sides of the cut and kick it up .Most kickbacks are however caused by short pieces twisting in the cut allowing the back of the blade to grab it. I have an American saw with accessories and it is the the most valuable tool in the shop.I don't have a tablesaw, always fought shy of them but still use circular saws and a bandsaw
Having the riving knife in place helps prevent the workpiece gripping the blade and getting lifted/thrown. Having the crown guard in place further helps prevent it lifting. If it does it gets thrown out horizontally rather than up and dangerously.I don't have a tablesaw, always fought shy of them but still use circular saws and a bandsaw
Makes a lot of sense. I have never seen a fence like this. Sounds if it is an after market item.
It depends on the saw, most larger ones do, but you could probably bolt a piece of ply ( in long grooves for the adjustment) onto the face of your fence.
On old construction sites, here in Scotland, you used to come up against site saws, which were dragged from site to site. Often these were diesel generated units, 22" blades approx (which were seldom sharpened) and relied on brute force to push the wood through. Now the point...they had a cast iron fence which was not adjustable through it's length, only side to side, and they were never longer than the centreline of the blade, why, because construction timbers are often full of tension(s) this allowed the timber to splay away from the rear of the blade, where it could catch in it's upward motion. The rule is try to never cut timber shorter than 150mm longer than the saw table, this allows you to keep downward pressure via the rear of the timber being fed into the saw blade, and if possible, pull the wood back toward you after the first half of the cut is done, flip it toe to tail, and proceed to finish the second half, whilst still having hold of the rear of the wood.
Totally agree. Even on 'golden oldies' like Wadkin, Sagar, Robinson, Dominion, a full length table saw fence always had a subsidiary fence fixed to the face of the long fence, such that the subsidiary never went beyond either the saw blade edge or (less frequently) the blade centreline.
In preference I'd say stress or stresses rather than tension because tension, a stretching force, is just one form of stress, others being, for example, compression, shear, bending, torsion, and fatigue. I've no comment on the rest of your post which is good. Slainte.
