Sorry, I wrote this a little later at night. I will reiterate a little.
You are mostly correct, in the example given I would say you are 99% correct
(I never say 100%). It is VERY unlikely given the fact that the operator in
the original post was in any danger. Considering he used feather boards to
hold the piece in and down it would be unlikely to get kickback in the first
place. The only real 'danger' is when he lets go of the board to move into
his new position behind the table saw.
I agree too that you would have no chance to be pulled into the blade, I
however carefully used the word 'move' rather than pull. If you were
pulling through a smaller board (I left this out and it is an important
point), a kickback could bring your hands in contact with the blade. The
twisting and the lifting would have the effect of pushing the board into
your hands, while at the same point you would have in your mind to push
down. This is a case of looking beyond physics and looking at the body
reaction.
With a longer board, with your hands off the table you are correct and the
danger is small.
However I will maintain this is not a safe way to use the table saw.
1. There is no safe way to start a cut by pulling, which mean the board
will be unattended at some point.
2. Without a featherboard there is no way to maintain pressure against the
fence without reaching over the blade. If your were to apply pressure on
the back you'd be pinching the blade (or splitter) which would not be good.
Plus putting pressure when the end of the board is off the table would
essentially be levering it against the fence. Judgeing by the number of
posters who don't use splitters, I doubt many people use faetherboards.
3. Why bother when you can just use a pushstick.
"LRod" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 04:18:13 GMT, "Buster" wrote:
I have seen the example of the Table cloth magic trick used many times in
this discussion. Has anyone seen it done wrong, ever try it and sent
mom's
tuperware all over the kitchen? The cloth has to be pulled straight back
for this to work. Your example of the jointer 'kickback' is the same, the
jointer will push the board directly back. So the tablecloth analogy is
applicable. In a tablesaw the board is also lifted and twisted during
kickback (as compared to an ejection, where the board shoots back out of
the
saw). So the neither anolgy is really applicable.
I used the tablecloth example, not to illustrate that the cloth needs
to be pulled just right--that's irrelevant in the analogy. The real
analogue in this situation has to do with inertia. The fingers
gripping the wood and the wood suddenly and swiftly pulled away.
Twisting and lifting has nothing to do with it. It is utterly
impossible in the pulling scenario postulated to grip a piece of wood
in such a way that one could hang onto it if it was suddenly and
swiftly jerked away. Try it, away from the saw.
--
LRod
Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite
Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999
http://www.woodbutcher.net
Proud participant of rec.woodworking since February, 1997