Safety: Kick back can be seriously destructive. Oh yeah, and dangerous.

Don -

I don't own a TS, so when I first saw your pics of what you were trying to do with those short pieces I thought that either the bandsaw or the jointer would be the best tool. I have done some very short work on my radial arm saw, but the work was either clamped to the fence or I used a long stick to hold the wood to the fence and kept my precious little fingers far, far away.

Even if your TS is your absolutely favorite tool to use, always keep in mind there might be a safer way to do something using a different tool.

Mark,

Thanks for your comments, and I partially agree with your assessment. A jointer would not have accomplished what I was trying to do though which was cut very thin shims. Jointers do not like short pieces of wood either, but they love fingers as Carol Reed's friend can testify.

My first stationary power tool was a radial arm saw. It was my only big power tool, and I thought I could do anything with it. I did some VERY scary things with it. Ripping, molding with a molding cutter, and I even built a jig to cut raised panels with it that involved pushing the wood and both of my hands directly toward the blade turned horizontally. I used it to remodel the kitchen of our first house. I was much younger, stronger, and more foolish than I am now. A radial arm may be able to be configured to do things that a table saw can do, but with much greater danger. Be safe with that saw.

Don

Don:

I missed the making shims part - it looked like you were ripping a small piece to size.

Regarding my radial arm saw- I'm very attached to having my fingers attached and do carefully think through what I'm about to do. My saw is a nice solid Delta 33-890. I don't know that I'd be comfortable using some of the lower priced models out there. I figure that if my not quite 300 lb body can make it move while "locked" who knows what could happen with a 3000 rpm blade and stressed wood?

The RAS is my first stationary tool also. Whenever setting up to use it (or anything else really) I try to think, "What can go wrong? What happens if I sneeze during the operation?" so as to be prepared and/or use some sort of holding / pushing jig / stick to make things safer.

Anyhow, glad you weren't hurt!

Hi,

Thanks for the words and the pics.

I try to always think safety when I use a tool (table saw, chisel, etc.). You have raised my "Try" quotent by many multiples.

Thanks again and

Enjoy everything including all of your fingers, innerds, eyes, etc.

Jim

Sorry to be a little late to this thread, but I cut all of my small dimension cuts with using a gripper.

Everyone is selling them now. They are a little high, but you can watch for sales.

I have 4 of them which I keep in various configurations so I will NOT hesitate top pick one up.

Here is one source, one of my favorite vendors....

http://www.woodpeck.com/gripper.html

Believe it or not I have two of them.

Bartee,

I actually have two of them, and I use them all the time. The piece of wood was skinny enough that I would have needed to put the "bridge" on one of them for it to be stable. I didn't take the time to set it up. From now on the bridge stays on one of them. Perhaps I will buy another. Add that to my lessons learned.

Don