An English Shop

Oh boy, Doug!

This is about the biggest can of worms you can open when discussing shop safety in Europe. Many hours have been wasted on woodworking forums over here arguing about dado blades.

Basically, in a trade environment throughout Europe it is unlawful to fit dado blades in a table saw, and has been for many years. It is nigh on impossible to buy a table saw with a long enough spindle to take them anyway.

For a hobby woodworker in his garage the rule doesn't apply, and one or two importers market saws and dado sets specifically to this sector. However, they cannot be used commercially, even by a one-man band.

It is legal to use dado blades in a radial arm saw, but again all machines marketed in the last decade or so have short spindles which will only take a single blade. This goes for American brands such as DeWalt. The only solution is to buy an old machine, such as my Wadkin, which will take a dado set.

I think that we have a far greater degree of health and safety legislation in Europe generally than you guys do; it is a cultural difference - Europeans make laws to make things safer while Americans pay higher insurance premiums!

For myself, I'd rather keep all my fingers than get an insurance payout...

Cheers
Brad

Interesting laws! I would think pushing a board through the dado would be safer (blade is buried in the wood!) than a RAS (exposed blade, wanting to drive the head toward the operator). I assume it is standard practice to push the blade stack back through the wood, instead of pulling through the wood? It is generally accepted that using a RAS to do rip cuts is not a good idea, but what do you do if you have to cut a long dado, go to the router instead? You said it was a can of worms, so there is obviously some disagreement regarding the topic!
 
Interesting laws! I would think pushing a board through the dado would be safer (blade is buried in the wood!) than a RAS (exposed blade, wanting to drive the head toward the operator). I assume it is standard practice to push the blade stack back through the wood, instead of pulling through the wood? It is generally accepted that using a RAS to do rip cuts is not a good idea, but what do you do if you have to cut a long dado, go to the router instead? You said it was a can of worms, so there is obviously some disagreement regarding the topic!

You said it Ed!

I would tend to agree with you that if properly guarded then using dado cutters in a table saw should be at least as safe as in a RAS. The guarding issue is a problem though. Pretty well all small-to-medium sized table saws in Europe have a crown guard over the blade supported on a riving knife fixed behind the blade. The riving knife is there to prevent the wood binding behind the blade resulting in kick-back. Removal of either the guard or the riving knife breaches health and safety regulations.

This prevents all sorts of techniques being practiced on table saws in Europe which are standard procedures in America; tenoning jigs, panel raising, making coving and the use of dado cutters are all impossible within the law this side of the pond in a commercial shop.

Unfortunately we have Norm on TV three times a day doing all of them! You can imagine the confusion and frustration this causes a lot of woodworkers.

As far as the use of dado cutters in the RAS are concerned, I pull the saw through the wood towards me. The thought of pulling the saw out, holding it there while I line the work up, and then pushing it back to make the cut scares the doodah out of me! Wouldn't it tend to lift the wood off the bench?

For long dados there is not much alternative to a router and guide rail.

Cheers
Duncan
 
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Welcome

Brad,

Thanks much for finding us. :eek:

Isn't the internet just fantastic. Here i am in across the pond and I don't know a sole in the UK. Now thanks to this forum I get to see a top notch shop in the UK and learn that WW'ers in europe also find themselves in situations where debate can go on for a long time.

So now along with seeing your shop and Stuarts dungeon in Japan I am beginning to feel like a world traveler.

Again, welcome aboard please show us some of your work as well.
 
I've just been sorting through my photos on my home PC and found another couple of shots of the shop;
b71e4a9d.jpg


This is my spindle moulder (or shaper). It's only a basic model but has revolutionised the way I work. It came with a home-made sliding attachment which is really neat for cutting tenons.

99ecd522.jpg


And here is a view of the shop from outside. The previous tenant had bricked up all the windows as a security measure which gives us loads of wall space inside and no distractions when the girls walk by to the dance school next door! Luckily we've got a glass roof & lots of natural light. It ain't pretty but hey, it's home! (and it's cheap and it's 1 min from the freeway)

The lower building to the left is our finishing shop. I was going to knock through but actually it has proved better to keep the two units seperate. Fortunately it doesn't rain that much in Manchester - like the wind never blows in Chicago!

The car tows a 10' x 5' x 6' trailer for deliveries and as a mobile worksop on installations. Tip - don't buy a car with a black interior if you're a woodworker. Dust!!!!

Cheers
Duncan aka Brad
 
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