A Cautionary Tale

[Scrit]

A lurker very kindly sent me this little story about dado blades in table saws this morning, so I thought I'd share it with you:

"I was at work when it happened...I've dado'd literally thousands of feet dado'ing but in my case this is what happened, the dado was about 1/4 deep by 3/8 wide and I was dadoing a drawer bottom, had the work piece 10 in. wide drawer and ran it between the fence and dado blades, well I would always reposition myself for the final push...but what happened is I didn't keep enough pressure on the board and the blades picked it up slug it back at me (kick back), hit me in my chest and my hand went into the blades all within 1 second happened before I knew it, it cut along my little finger in my palm and left the cresent moon shape..opposite of the blades...ripped out alot of meat, part of the nerve, didn't touch the tendon (got lucky there)..was in therepy for 8 months, had a second operation to cut the scare tissue away from the tendon so I could move my little finger (5 hr long operation) at one point I wanted the dr to just cut my little finger off cause it would move down or pull down...but in the end I got it moving and I"m covered for the rest of my life if it gives me grief..so far it hasn't ...I had a great hand dr. but my little finger is almost worthless...but I manage."

If you want to check out where it came from, then see here and scroll about 3/4 way down the page.

On a radial arm saw you couldn't have this accident - equally if there had been a down-pressure Shaw guard over the blade it wouldn't have happened.

Scrit

[cuttingsolutions]

Scrit
perhaps you mike to re-title it a cautionary tale ABOUT DADO HEADS...

Simple plain fact....I WILL NOT SELL THEM!

I still feel they are not allowed under any circumstances according to the HSE regs (EN847)...I am sure you have read this many times.

Dave.

[jaco]

Eish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



That means "O', Big sh*t!"

[mrgrimsdale]

Aug 10, 2008 11:36:01 GMT Scrit said:

snip
On a radial arm saw you couldn't have this accident - equally if there had been a down-pressure Shaw guard over the blade it wouldn't have happened.

Scrit

Never used a dado cutter but I wonder if a spindle is fundamentally safer doing much the same job:
1 your hands, if near at all (which they shouldn't be) are likely to be pressing down on the bed rather than towards the cutter.
2 springs, shaw guards, feathers etc are more or less essential and are a barrier,
3 Even if operated without guards (which you shouldn't) if it all goes wrong the workpiece will fall away from the cutters rather than on top of them.

I use a wobble-saw unit a lot on a spindle and it's pretty safe IMHO but in a saw table it'd be a bit scary - imagine it working up your palm and wrist as you accidently slip forwards

cheers
Jacob

[wizer]

I think Norm used a wobble saw on the tablesaw in the early years. Even I thought that looked scary.

[jonnyd]

I've got a wobble saw for my tablesaw but havent used it for years. It was scary to use and you couldn't guard it properly. I now do any work that i used it for in the past on the spindle or tenoner.

jon

[engineerone]

i have looked at the idea of dado heads when reading the american mags, and frankly wondered at their value.

apart from the safety aspect of not being able to use the standard guards, it seemed to me that whatever you did, the dado would basically unbalance the saw, so was inherently unsafe.

whilst i agree with scrit about the radial saw, the problem is they are not as available as they were, certainly not promoted as much. in part because unless you do panel work, rarely are you going to cut a piece of solid wood that is wider than 12inches/305mm so i look at the tools in my mini shop, and wonder what about using the rat, that seems ideal to give
me grooves in pieces that wide, and i can place them accurately and much more safely. on a normal router table, you would
need to remove the fence as it sits over the tool, but again
a top mounted router would work well.

but what about the scms in trenching mode, as far as i can see, this would be as safe as the radial saw, but i have found it a bit of trouble to accurately set the depth of cut, but it is easy to move the wood sideways a little to a stop.

and of course it is also a suitable place for a hand plough plane ;D

this tale is as terrifying as it seems, because it shows that you can get numbed to the risks, by constant usage.

paul

[mel]

this topic has been done to death.

its usually a topic brought up by an amature { or weekend} woodworker, who's got more time on their hands to watch the Yankee workshop than they have to actually get out there and practice the skills required to do the job.

once you realize that your hands are the most important tools in the workshop {hands and eyes, joint first place}. you might think twice about using something soooooo dangerous.

theres a thread on UKWS about accidents , some good story's on there if you like blood and Gore .

personally i wouldn't entertain one when there are other ways , and easier ways of doing the same job.

excuse me if it appears that i have something against power tools . I don't.

all of these tools are perfectly safe in the right hands . but even the pros amongst us don't like or use stacked dado cutters.

[Scrit]

Aug 11, 2008 19:51:29 GMT engineerone said:

it seemed to me that whatever you did, the dado would basically unbalance the saw

It may surprise you, Paul, but in fact they don't. Wobble or drunken saws are slightly less balanced that stackled head dado sets but the weight of a traditional cast iron machine was more than enough to damp that out

Aug 11, 2008 19:51:29 GMT engineerone said:

but what about the scms in trenching mode, as far as i can see, this would be as safe as the radial saw, but i have found it a bit of trouble to accurately set the depth of cut, but it is easy to move the wood sideways a little to a stop.

Well it does work, but it's a compromise, not to mention very laborious if you're doing hundreds of trenches. In that case it's often better to look at the work and figure out if there is another faster, safer way to do the job, such as biscuits or the Domino.

What is interesting is to note the comment of one pro, "all of these tools are perfectly safe in the right hands . but even the pros amongst us don't like or use stacked dado cutters"

Scrit