Oops, I did it again

[Birdhunter]

BANG! Darn! I let my miter gauge kiss the SawStop blade thus triggering the safety. I’ve owned the saw for very long time and only once before triggered the safety. Both times, I was careless about judging the proximity of the miter gauge to the blade. Fortunately, the saw blade was an old one sharpened many times and I had a spare cartridge and saw blade. I tried without any luck to order a cartridge from the SawStop site so I turned to Amazon. The cartridge was delivered overnight!

 

[Packard]

I don’t have Saw Stop but I do have a miter gage on my table saw.  I added a sacrificial wood face that extends to the saw’s blade.  (I actually mounted an over-sized face and trimmed it to size on the saw.)

I know that anything that extends past the sacrificial face will be cut.  I use it as a guide for cut off length. 

It might give you enough warning to prevent triggering the Saw Stop.

If my description is not clear, I can post a picture.

 

[jeh]

I don’t have Saw Stop but I do have a miter gage on my table saw.  I added a sacrificial wood face that extends to the saw’s blade.  (I actually mounted an over-sized face and trimmed it to size on the saw.)

I know that anything that extends past the sacrificial face will be cut.  I use it as a guide for cut off length. 

It might give you enough warning to prevent triggering the Saw Stop.

If my description is not clear, I can post a picture.

The bonus of a sacrificial piece of wood is it also protects against chipping.

 

[Packard]

I don’t have Saw Stop but I do have a miter gage on my table saw.  I added a sacrificial wood face that extends to the saw’s blade.  (I actually mounted an over-sized face and trimmed it to size on the saw.)

I know that anything that extends past the sacrificial face will be cut.  I use it as a guide for cut off length. 

It might give you enough warning to prevent triggering the Saw Stop.

If my description is not clear, I can post a picture.

The bonus of a sacrificial piece of wood is it also protects against chipping.

Yes.  It works just like the sacrificial strip on the Festool tracks.  A little cleaner cut.  It is also a reminder of where not to put my fingers.  Saw stop for non-Saw Stop owner. [big grin]  Actually, I do use it for that same reminder.  I did not add any clamping mechanism to it, so I am holding the stock with my fingers.  I watch to make sure that my fingers are on the correct side of the cut.

No cost for this.  Just a bit of scrap and four screws.

I’m not sure it would have saved the blade in this instance.  It might.  But you’d have to be paying close attention, and that lack of attention is what Birdy is blaming the accident on.

 

[mwolczko]

I have scribed a line in the cast iron top from the left edge of the blade all the way out to the edge by the front rail.

 

[Birdhunter]

The thing that got me was I had the blade tilted to 45 degrees.

 

[jimbo51]

That title describes far too many aspects of my life.

 

[Michael Kellough]

The thing that got me was I had the blade tilted to 45 degrees.

An argument for right tilt arbor?

 

[smorgasbord]

The thing that got me was I had the blade tilted to 45 degrees.

An argument for right tilt arbor?

You know, I've always wondered by people insist on ripping to the right and crosscutting on the left. Can someone explain it to me?

I'm right handed with a right-tilting arbor tablesaw. I both rip and cross-cut on the left hand side, and have done so since the late 1980s. What am I missing?

A) You don't want to cut pieces with the blade tilted towards your work piece, for a few reasons: 1) the workpiece can get trapped between the blade and table, leading to kickback. 2) you don't want the blade tilting towards the piece you're holding. 3) you can cut into your rip fence or miter gauge fence (this thread).

B) You want to have as much table support for your workpiece as possible for both wide rips and long cross-cuts. Doing both on the same side of the blade means you only have to build out table extensions in one direction.

C) Doing both on the same side requires less space in your shop, see above about building out on one side.

The only time I can see doing rips on the right and crosscuts on the left is if you have a true sliding table tablesaw.

 

[Packard]

My table saw’s fence can be switched out so that it works on either side of the blade.  But the measurements on the left side amount to about 12” and on the right 49”.  So I am pretty locked in to cut with the measured dimension to the right.  There are times when I am concerned about trapping material between the fence and the blade (mostly when the blade is tipped over towards the fence), that I take the time to switch the fence so I can cut on the right of the blade.

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

The thing that got me was I had the blade tilted to 45 degrees.

An argument for right tilt arbor?

You know, I've always wondered by people insist on ripping to the right and crosscutting on the left. Can someone explain it to me?

I'm right handed with a right-tilting arbor tablesaw. I both rip and cross-cut on the left hand side, and have done so since the late 1980s. What am I missing?

A) You don't want to cut pieces with the blade tilted towards your work piece, for a few reasons: 1) the workpiece can get trapped between the blade and table, leading to kickback. 2) you don't want the blade tilting towards the piece you're holding. 3) you can cut into your rip fence or miter gauge fence (this thread).

B) You want to have as much table support for your workpiece as possible for both wide rips and long cross-cuts. Doing both on the same side of the blade means you only have to build out table extensions in one direction.

C) Doing both on the same side requires less space in your shop, see above about building out on one side.

The only time I can see doing rips on the right and crosscuts on the left is if you have a true sliding table tablesaw.

Hi smorgasboard,

You just described the best use of a sliding table saw  [big grin] I know that there are a handful of users out there who insist on ripping to the right, but most sliding saw users I'm aware of rip on the left side of the blade, with the rip fence usually only used for indexing. Of course, all crosscuts are on the left.

In terms of alignments, I have my rip fence set for a toe-in of ~ 0.2mm over 300mm for most of its length (the wood sees the descending teeth but not the ascending teeth), but have applied a few layers of shim tape to reverse the toe-in so as to match the direction of travel of the slider when the fence is fully retracted. In this way, the fence can be set for a particular dimension, bump the material against the fence, clamp to the slider, rip, retract, repeat. Since the fence stops well short of the blade, there's no longer a risk of the work getting trapped between the blade and the fence.

Process is shown from ~9:50-10:30 of this video:=tdiD2VaG1jNVM8Y3 I prefer to secure the material to the slider with pneumatic clamps....

My preferred ripping method (left of the blade) is shown at ~3:00 of the same video.

The other benefit of this working method is that you're necessarily working to the side of the machine, so if/when a piece gets thrown you're not standing in front of the blade. When working with my Erika saw, I treat the saw as if it were a sliding table, always making sure to stand off to the side of the machine....

 

[smorgasbord]

You just described the best use of a sliding table saw  [big grin] I know that there are a handful of users out there who insist on ripping to the right, but most sliding saw users I'm aware of rip on the left side of the blade, with the rip fence usually only used for indexing.
...

Well that assumes you have enough travel on your sliding table to do the rip. I've ripped 17' long solid wood stock, and even if there were such a sliding table saw capacity, it wouldn't fit in my shop.

But yeah, a sliding table saw is a whole different beast. Wish they had been more available in the US 45 years ago...

 

[Tom the Remodeler]

You just described the best use of a sliding table saw  [big grin] I know that there are a handful of users out there who insist on ripping to the right, but most sliding saw users I'm aware of rip on the left side of the blade, with the rip fence usually only used for indexing.
...

Well that assumes you have enough travel on your sliding table to do the rip. I've ripped 17' long solid wood stock, and even if there were such a sliding table saw capacity, it wouldn't fit in my shop.

But yeah, a sliding table saw is a whole different beast. Wish they had been more available in the US 45 years ago...

For what it's worth, many users with shorter sliders get a lot of utility out of fabricating a ripping sled, as demonstrated at 4:25  in this video:=SeVyFMC_KhN7lHFl

And, for really long rips, we always have our track saws  [big grin]

 

[smorgasbord]

For what it's worth, many users with shorter sliders get a lot of utility out of fabricating a ripping sled, as demonstrated at 4:25  in this video:=SeVyFMC_KhN7lHFl

And, for really long rips, we always have our track saws  [big grin]

That video says, "up to 3 meters long" - which wouldn't cover my 17' rips. I've only had to do that once, for 3 pieces of sold wood crown. I was very happy to find those long boards (also got a bunch of 12 footers, too).

A slider AND a track saw? Big bucks there - and for my 17' rip you'd need TWO 3000mm tracks joined, lol.

So, do people with sliders only use the slider and don't do ripping against the rip fence? I would have thought the rip fence better for guaranteeing parallel edges. That is use the slider as a cutting jointer, then rip to width with the actual rip fence. At least for solid wood - for sheet goods the slider eliminates scratching that can occur when sliding over a saw top.

 

[smorgasbord]

BTW, to the SawStop triggering situation, I've read that Colliflower switched their ZCI bodies from aluminum to micarta to avoid accidental triggering, which has happened at least once.

Perhaps actual contact isn't necessary, just something conductive close enough that a static shock, which can travel at least a cm in my experience. So, perhaps a miter fence close to the blade could trigger even without actual contact?

 

[Crazyraceguy]

You know, I've always wondered by people insist on ripping to the right and crosscutting on the left. Can someone explain it to me?

I'm right handed with a right-tilting arbor tablesaw. I both rip and cross-cut on the left hand side, and have done so since the late 1980s. What am I missing?

A) You don't want to cut pieces with the blade tilted towards your work piece, for a few reasons: 1) the workpiece can get trapped between the blade and table, leading to kickback. 2) you don't want the blade tilting towards the piece you're holding. 3) you can cut into your rip fence or miter gauge fence (this thread).

B) You want to have as much table support for your workpiece as possible for both wide rips and long cross-cuts. Doing both on the same side of the blade means you only have to build out table extensions in one direction.

C) Doing both on the same side requires less space in your shop, see above about building out on one side.

The only time I can see doing rips on the right and crosscuts on the left is if you have a true sliding table tablesaw.

The saw can be setup either way, but the vast majority of people do it with the rip fence on the right of the blade.
The thing is I am very left-handed and it feels totally natural to me, which I have always questioned?
Seems like guiding with the dominant hand is more normal, yet right-handed people do it the opposite?

The only times I have seen a saw setup to rip to the left were Youtubers, where the camera position works better that way. (Early April Wilkerson videos, in her home shop)

Only a lefty would even notice it [wink]

So, do people with sliders only use the slider and don't do ripping against the rip fence? I would have thought the rip fence better for guaranteeing parallel edges. That is use the slider as a cutting jointer, then rip to width with the actual rip fence. At least for solid wood - for sheet goods the slider eliminates scratching that can occur when sliding over a saw top.

That's what I do. Some of that barn wood I use can be a little crooked or have rough edges. They are skip-planed on the back, to somewhat standardize the thickness, but left raw otherwise.
Ripping parallel edges is done on another saw. There is virtually no support in front of the blade to rip from there, plus the base of the slider track is in the way.

 

[Steve1]

I don’t have Saw Stop but I do have a miter gage on my table saw.  I added a sacrificial wood face that extends to the saw’s blade.  (I actually mounted an over-sized face and trimmed it to size on the saw.)

I know that anything that extends past the sacrificial face will be cut.  I use it as a guide for cut off length. 

An excellent idea.  Thank you.
It'd already proven handy as a cut-off length indicator.

 

[Packard]

Very much as I have it. 

I did cut a relief at the bottom about 1/8” on the face and on the edge.  That so that saw dust accumulating in front of the sacrificial piece does not prevent the stock from kissing up to the miter gage. 

I just have the factory miter gage.  So the scrap goes in front of the gage and extends to the right and the left of the gage.

 

[smorgasbord]

Only a lefty would even notice it [wink]

I'm not a lefty, but I think I surprised a few woodworkers when I pointed out a few weeks ago that most track saws seem to be setup for lefties. My wife is a lefty, but she's actually pretty ambidextrous, which is helpful for those situations where things are setup for ease of right-handed use. 

Anyway, good to know that running both cross-cuts and rips to the left of the table saw blade doesn't make me a totally weird right-hander. Although I had to talk Barry Wixey into modifying his DRO firmware to handle that rip fence orientation.  [wink]

 

[Crazyraceguy]

Only a lefty would even notice it [wink]

I'm not a lefty, but I think I surprised a few woodworkers when I pointed out a few weeks ago that most track saws seem to be setup for lefties. My wife is a lefty, but she's actually pretty ambidextrous, which is helpful for those situations where things are setup for ease of right-handed use. 

I think the "set up for lefties" mentality comes from regular circular saw use, where you have to watch the cut line. With a track saw, that is not necessary, you know where the cut is going to be. Your mind might still think that way, it's hard to turn that off, but you don't have to see the cut.