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W1677/W1711 10" Table Saw
OPERATIONS
Shop-Made Safety
Accessories
Shop-made safety accessories are another source of
devices to use to increase your safety while oper
-
ating the table saw. When care is taken with the
setup and design, shop-made tools can be an invalu
-
able resource for making the safest cuts possible.
Here are some of the basic items you may want
to consider:
• Push Sticks made from the shop are very popu
-
lar among table saw owners because they are
inexpensive and easy to make. Particularly
good are those that keep your hand a safe
distance away from the blade, offer stable
support and grip, and are comfortable in the
hand. Figure 59 shows an illustration of a sim-
ple push stick.
• Featherboards similar to the one in
Figure
60 make good anti-kickback devices. To use
these, they must be clamped to the table or
fence. The angled ends and flexibility of the
fingers allow the workpiece to move in one
direction and lock up if the workpiece moves
backwards.
• Zero-Clearance Table Inserts can be pur
-
chased or made from wood and substituted
for the factory inserts. The advantage in these
devices is that there will only be as much
space between the blade and the insert as the
blade requires. Many woodworkers have a dif-
ferent insert for different heights and blades.
Zero-clearance table inserts result in clean
cuts with less tear-out and a reduced chance
that a small piece of stock will be pulled down
inside the saw or will be kicked back. Figure
61 shows an example of a “blank” zero-clear-
ance insert. When making a zero-clearance
table insert, never hold the insert in place
with your hands or try to lower the insert onto
a moving blade. Hold or clamp the insert to
the table with a sacrificial board, and use a
smaller diameter blade to plunge the initial
cut through the insert.
Figure 60. Anti-kickback featherboard.
Figure 59. Illustration of a simple push stick.
Figure 61. Zero-clearance table insert.