wrote in message
...

By your rule it's unsafe to rip a 20x20 piece of ply to 19x20, which
is nonsense.

Not my rule, just a common sence approach of how to gauge safe from unsafe.
You do have to admit that 20 x 20 is more likely to cause a problem than say
20 x 80, but what we are talking about here is 5"x5" and 20 x 20 would be
much safer than that. There is no black and white, all or none safe
approach. There are always varing degrees of danger.


Length has something to do with it. At some point it's
long enough to not make much difference, until it's big enough that
the fence not being long enough and being too awkward to maneuver
takes over. At some point it's too short to not be safe regardless.
I totally agree with the instinct of the OP to say this is in my gray
area, stop and ask questions.


How long have you been using a TS????

Never fails. Keep on doing what works for you. Don't assume I'm an
idiot because I do it in a way outside your experience.


I am not assuming anything here, nor do I think you sound like an idiot.
Where did you get that idea? You simply sound inexperienced whether you are
or not. I do things quite often that are not necessarily considered safe
but I deal with those situations as they come up. The OP sounds
inexperienced and the best approach here is to warn against an unsafe
procedure rather than give him a false sense of security and risk being
injured. With time he will learn through close calls and hopefully only
close calls that the unexpected can happen at any moment. Experience will
help him recognize those times and how to better deal with the task.