British Woodworking Tablesaw safety

[Halo Jones]

I've just been browsing issue 33 of British woodworking. Given all that has been said about American tablesaw safety (which I totally agree with) I felt compelled to bring up the apparent bad practise in the picture at the top of page 19 of the above issue. Now the picture may be misleading but it seems that a large piece of plywood is being fed freehand throughout the saw and the operator is directly behind the blade and stooping down to see where is cut is going. If there were any kickback this operator is likely going to be feeling very sore if not not badly injured.

Please feel free to correct me if I have mis-interpreted but as a relative newbie this picture seemed to jar with everything I have read and been taught.

H.

 

[promhandicam]

Not saying that the practice is good but kickback is highly unlikely from cutting plywood as there are no internal stresses in the material. Kickback is even more unlikely if there is a riving knife fitted.

 

[Losos]

Ply sheets are relatively thin, no stresses (as mentioned above) and because of the size it's hard to see how you could do it safely without being behind the sheet.

 

[Halo Jones]

I always thought that if beyond the capacity of the table saw that large sheet goods should be broken down using a circular saw and guide rail?

 

[houtslager]

plywood DOES HAVE INTERNAL STRESSES so that is a technique I would NOT do, even MDF can have some if incorrectly stored daft as it sounds but I have seen this in action when MDF has gripped the riving knife.

hth

K