On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 06:54:27 -0400, "J. Clarke"
wrote:

If you have a radial arm saw that is the tool to use for just about any kind
of cross-cut. The likelihood of the cutoffs getting jammed between the
blade and the stop is small--they'd have to move after cutting and
something would have to fall between the end and the stop to keep the piece
from moving back and even if they do then they get thrown away from you so
there's no real safety issue unless someone is standing behind the saw in
the line of fire. Do, however, tune the saw before you do this--if the
blade is skewed then the teeth at the back are going to engage the stock
and lift it.

Good points. I have to install the Sears retro kit (which I have), so
tune-up is mandatory anyway.

I once had mine throw the entire fence across the shop (yes,
I did do something stupid)--the only damage was to the fence and I never
had the feel of a "close call".

Wow!

If you want to be double safe you could
make a clamping arrangement with a handle that you hold down to hold the
cutoffs in place--hinge a piece of stock to the top of the fence with a
floating shoe to bear on the workpiece and maybe a little foam on the shoe
to account for slight irregularities in thickness would be one way to do
it, then move the stock, pull down the handle, and while holding it down
move the blade--that will also keep both your hands out of harm's way.

Good idea.

Someone suggested a jig that drops the cutoffs--this also wouldn't be
difficult to do--just use an auxiliary table and let the ends drop off the
edge. You might be able to arrange a dust collection port underneath the
aux table with a piece of screening and use the dust collector to keep the
slot clear so you could do repeated cuts without having to stop every time
to remove the pieces.

Definitely, there will be some auto-clearance means. Right now, doing
single cut-offs on the TS, I have a sharp triangle attached to the table
and just up to the blade so that each piece gets pushed along and away from
the blade (before the center of the blade is reached) by the next one and
eventually off the back of the table into a box. I picked that idea up
from someone here, earlier.

Thanks to you and the others here for the suggestions and, as always,
safety tips. I'll post pics when I get a working version built. -- Igor