Woodworker's Journal 1993-17-6, страница 27

Short pieces can he pushed through the entire cut with a single hand (Photo I ) Once the cut is complete, you can safely retrieve the piece by pushing it to the end of the table and moving it over and around the end of the rip fence—away from the blade I Photo F).

sideways pressure to keep fence and board in contact (Photo D). Passing between the blade and the fence (if the board is wide enough), the right hand disengages only when the board has cleared the blade. If you're working alone, turn the saw off and retrieve the boards from the other side—don't pull them back over the spinning blade.

Ripping Short Pieces

Short boards—between S in. and 60 in. long—account for most of the ripping in my shop. Drawer fronts, door rails, stiles, and panels: the majority of furniture parts fall in this range. These are easier to handle than long pieces and require less shuffling of hands to rip (or no shuffling at all), but otherwise the techniques described previously work well. At the end of a cut (Photo E). if the board can be easily lifted with one hand.

I slide it lo the end of the fence and to the right (away from the blade), then back on ihe tablelop to ihe right of the rip fence (Photo I ).

Ripping very short pieces can be dangerous. Once severed, they can too easily bind between the blade and fence and come shttoling back at you. This is particularly true of short, narrow pieces. If possible, rip short pieces on the band saw or use the miter gauge lo rip them off a comfortably wide piece of stock.

Ripping Narrow Pieces

Narrow boards, long or short, make it difficult or impossible to push the right hand safely between the blade and the fence. How narrow is too narrowFor years, I have hooked two lingers over the rip fence and pushed pieces through (he saw with just fractions of an inch between the blade and my thumb, fore and middle fingers. This is not smart: I figure I owe my intact fingers at least as much to luck as to skill.

A saw blade is like a spider's web-even the slightest contact ensnares the victim. Practically every account I've read of table saw accidents describes the victim's sensation of being pulled into ihe blade, by even glancing contact, and of how fast it all happens.

Rather than wait for my luck to run out. I've started using pushslicks to finish off narrow cuts. (I don't have a hard-and-fast width limit, but in general I use a stick where the distance between

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Please circle No. 203 on ihe Reader Sen ice Curd.

You can make a simple but effective pushstick by notching the end of a piece of scrap wood (Photo G). Orient the notch so you can hold the stick at a comfortable angle.

Nnveniber/Dixember 1993

Please circle No. /f on the Reader Service Curd.

27

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