"jtpr" wrote in message ...

standing at my table saw discussing safety. He said he always stands in
front of the piece of wood he is feeding into the table saw and feeds it
through by holding his push stick on top of the wood between the blade and
the fence. I said I always stand to the left of the blade and feed it
through by holding the wood on the outside of the blade. He felt he had
better control his way, I felt it was dangerous to stand directly behind
it. We both use those long notched push sticks.

You will get various opinions ... the below works for me.

Most feel standing to the left of the blade is safer ... being right handed,
that works for me. As a rule, do not stand directly behind the piece if you
can avoid it ... sometimes you can't.

Make yourself a push "block" on the design of the old "shoe" style bush
block. There is a picture of the kind I use on my website on the Jigs and
Fixtures page. Make them in various sized out of 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4"
plywood.

This design will allow you to put downward pressure on the board just by
flexing your wrist, without having to actually push down. It is a lot safer,
IMO, than a notched push stick as it give you more control all the way
through the cut.

Use the push block between the fence and blade, on the piece you are
keeping.

Do not push on the offcut with the push stick or push block, particularly as
you go past the blade.

Also, he cuts thin strips with the waste side between the fence and the
blade. So if he wanted to rip a 1" piece off a 6" board, he would have
the
5" side between the fence and the blade. I do it in reverse. I never
really thought about it. How do you guys do it? Which is safer/better?

Try to keep the piece you're keeping between the fence and the blade (that's
what the fence gauge is for) ... normally the offcut (the piece you're not
keeping) should be on the outside of the blade. This can change for some
operations.

Once again, you will get various opinions on this.

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Last update: 7/10/04