There are lots of useful power tools in the shop. The band saw. The router. The thickness planer. The drill press.

But, as far as versatility is concerned, there are few multi-taskers as capable as the table saw.

Rip. Crosscut. Angle cut. Cut joinery. If you can dream it, a well-tuned table saw can get you there.

But, the major concern about this useful tool is safety. A quick visit to the Table Saw Accidents site shows that table saws cause the most injuries of any stationary power saw. A blade with carbide teeth whirring at between 5,000 and 9,000 RPMs can get your attention in a hurry.

Many of the accidents involved contact with the blade or some kind of kickback, but a significant number of injuries occur when an off cut is caught and thrown back toward the operator or the operator reaches across the blade to retrieve an off cut. With the saw blade’s teeth arranged on a circular blade body, it’s easy to see that the the teeth that do the cutting at the front of the blade push the work down to the table. The problem comes in when something contacts the teeth rising out of the back of the table.  Should a workpiece his that, it could be sent flying back toward you.

And, I know you know the safety rule about keeping your hands at least three inches away from the blade at all times, but  there’s always that moment during repetitive cutting where I find myself reaching across the top of the blade reflexively to knock an off cut away. It’s always a bad idea, and I know I have to remind myself to stop doing that.

But, what about those pesky offcuts?  How can you corral them safely to keep them away from the blade and keep them from interfering with your work?

Some of the tips I’ve seen out there include:

Zero Clearance Inserts. These insert plates allow for a very tight opening around the table saw blade, preventing thinner offcuts from falling into the saw’s body. Not only do they prevent these issues, they also allow for cleaner cuts with little tear out where the blade exits the bottom of the work piece. They are very easy to make, so keep a few on hand if you change your blade or for different dado blade widths.

Use your splitter. Splitters and riving knives help to prevent contact with the back side of the saw blade. Working without a splitter could allow the wood you are cutting to do just that. Riving knives, since they raise and lower with the blade, rarely have to be removed.  Splitters do have to be removed for non-through cuts.  So, if you need to take it off for an operation, be sure to return it when you are done.

Support your crosscut. If you have to do a lot of crosscutting, a crosscut jig can help you get better control.  By building a version that straddles the blade, your work will be supported on both sides of the cut. Also, if you build the sled properly, you can clamp  a piece of scrap wood as a hold down clamp, holding both the keeper and offcut piece safely in place.

Watch the side space. It’s tempting to use both the miter gauge (to hold the piece at 90 degrees) and the rip fence (as a stop block to cut consistent lengths) to make crosscuts, but that’s a very bad idea. By not allowing enough room for the off cut to fall away, it could pinch between the blade and fence and fly back at you. It’s a great idea to use a stop block clamped to the rip fence as a gauge and setting that gauge behind the point where the blade contacts the wood. This way, once the piece clears the blade, it’s free to fall away.

Support your pieces. The table saw makes quick work of ripping, but you have got to exercise care when doing that. For long pieces, set up an outfeed table slightly lower than the height of the table saw’s top. This way, when the board clears the saw and the weight tips the board toward the outfeed side, you still have support under the board, preventing it from pivoting away from you.

Clear those offcuts. Sure, they seem innocent enough, just sitting there on the left side of the blade. Those little offcut pieces don’t normally cause issues… but  they can vibrate into the blade and be flung at you.  I’ve seen lots of jigs out there to steer those scraps away from the blade. I’ve seen people try to hook up compressed air systems to blow them away.  And, it always seems like such a great idea to push them away from the spinning blade with a stick and keep on cutting. But, so far, the safest way I’ve seen to remove them from the saw is to turn the darned thing off between cuts, wait until the blade comes to a stop and then pull them away.

Needless to say, you should also wear all of the obligatory safety gear, never operate the saw after drinking or on certain prescription drugs and always listen to that little voice in your head. That way, you can spend more time fuming about your offcuts and less time nursing a pretty gruesome injury.

It’s not often that when we think of shop safety that our thoughts turn to our feet, but think about it for a minute.  Do you hand plane? You probably stand to do that. Rip boards on the table saw? Probably standing. Rout mortises with a plunge router?  Up on your feet. Gotta walk across the shop to get the only chisel in your set that you really REALLY need to use to precisely trim a joint, but  you forgot in your tool box.  Feet, don’t fail me now!

Yet, still, we often think about the puppies after everything else has been considered.

Well, my job today is to get your feet to the top of your mind… so to speak. Let’s take a look at some of the footwear options in the shop.

Barefoot. I’m sure this was the footwear of choice of woodworkers for millenia. And, I’m also willing to bet that this level of footwear served its owner well.  Of course, there are a few downsides to this option. There’s no protection from temperature extremes, stuff laying on the ground you could step on or things dropping onto your foot. Also, it’s absolutely miserable to stand on a concrete shop floor for a long time with no sort of cushioning. This may not be the best option in today’s shop.

Socks. Not as silly as it seems. In the Japanese woodworking tradition, special socks with split toes are worn by woodworkers. This gives them the flexibility to use their bodies as weights to hold boards down as they work on their projects. It also helps that the traditional Japanese woodworking is done on the floor or at low trestles.This reduces the likelihood that something could be dropped onto your feet.

Sandals. I’m sure they were popular in places such as the Roman Empire (where many western woodworking traditions began) as well as Florida.  They are a step up from bare feet, but still offers no protection from the occasional gravity test.

Athletic shoes. Super comfortable and supportive, these babies make standing for a long time very easy on the feet. They also have skid resistant soles, which can prevent an unexpected slip. Of course, the only issue is if something gets dropped onto your feet from a bench.

Boots. This is what I prefer to work in when I’m in the shop. I use some gel insoles in them for added comfort. My boots have steel toes and are made of thick leather, which gives me a lot of confidence that should anything fall, my feet will be protected.  They also have slip resistant soles. Now, they are heavier that any of the other options, so they can make my legs tired, but I’m willing to deal with that.

Gosh, it seems as if I’m spending a lot of time worrying about something falling off the bench onto my foot.  Sure, I might be overreacting… but this video shows what happens when a 27 pound cast block of iron falls on a steel toed boot.

No, I’m not likely to drop cast blocks of iron onto my feet, but, hey, ya never know what else could fall.

And, protecting your feet can prevent the need to get back on your feet after an accident.

Woodworking is an awesome craft, hobby, profession and avocation. You can build family heirlooms, make your living area more functional or create a work of art. It’s something that can make your spirits soar or just provide you an opportunity to unwind after a hard day’s work.

But, it should never be something you get hurt doing.

That’s why a lot of research and development money is spent on safety equipment. Safety glasses, hearing protection, guards and jigs are developed and improved each year. And, they protect the users from risks such as eye or hand injuries.

When it comes to safety, another critical component to consider is dust collection. Keeping the dust out of your lungs and nose can prevent a number of problems such as nasal polyps, sinus infections and cancer.

“Besides the health concerns, there are far more practical things to consider,” said Tim Walter of Eagle America. “If you don’t like sweeping up mountains of sawdust, adequate dust collection is for you!”

Tim explained to me that when it comes to dust collection, defense in depth is a key. “Taking care of dust in your shop starts where it’s created with the big stuff and gets finer and finer.”

Tim pointed out that the big offenders in the shop need to be addressed first. “A bigger dust collector in your shop can pull in dust from your table saw, jointer, planer, band saw and other tools. You can have a portable hose that you move from tool to tool, or, if you have a powerful enough collector, you can set up a fixed dust collector system with piping in place from tool to tool.”

Some tools – such as cabinet table saws – make dust collection an easy proposition. They already have a dust collection port and handling built in to the design. “There are many other tools such as contractor table saws and router tables that are a lot tougher. That’s why we offer products such as the Dust Cutter which make these tools a lot easier to collect dust from.”

While fixed systems are great for stationary shop tools, those hand-held power tools can generate a blizzard of sawdust that needs to be handled as well. “Ever try collecting the dust from a session of routing into MDF? You’ll drive yourself nuts!” To help with these situations, you can rely on light flexible hoses that can plug into your larger system, or get a point of origin collector. “Any shop vacuum can serve well as a dust collector, but there’s definitely a step up with either a Fein or a Festool collector. They both come with a feature that will turn the collector on when the tool is activated. It makes using the collector a lot easier.” Added bonuses include portability, better filtration than your average shop vacuum and a whole lot less noise. Built in mufflers keep both the Fein and Festool at a more comfortable decibel level.

For the finer dust that gets into the air, filtration systems can help keep the airborne particles at bay. “These are not replacements for a dust collection system, but offer another layer of protection for your lungs.” While most tool manufacturers offer expensive systems that can be hung in the shop, Eagle offers the Demo AirNet. “It’s a very cool system that attaches to a normal fan. It will filter debris out down to five microns, making the air a whole lot easier to breathe.”

Finally, when working it a very dusty environment, there’s nothing quite like a personal air mask. “If you are working in dusty environments for a short time or not too frequently, disposable masks make a lot of sense. If you spend more time in the dust or haven’t yet gotten your dust collection system up to snuff, a respirator with replaceable filters is a sound investment in your health.”

While it may not be as glamorous as a new table saw or the latest router bit collection, dust collection is a sound investment in keeping your shop a safer, cleaner and more productive place.

Iggy the Trained Shop Monkey here, and, boy, do I have a howler for you today.

But, first, I wanted to share with you a quick definition that I found online:

i·ro·ny

/ˈaɪrəni, ˈaɪər-/ [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-]

noun,plural-nies.

1.the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.

2.Literature.

a.a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.

b.(esp. in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.

3.Socratic irony.

4.dramatic irony.

5.an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.

6.the incongruity of this.

7.an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing.

8.an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc.

Now that we have that out of the way, I want to share with you something that Tom, the supposedly more ‘advanced’ member of this pair, did over the weekend.

About 30 hours after posting his link of the week this past Friday – you remember, the one about what to put in your first aid kit – he was out playing around in the yard with his brand new spiffy hedge cutters.  This  was taking place after a busy morning of using a pole pruner (chainsaw on a stick, basically) to trim back some trees.  With that long and arduous task behind him and the pole pruner returned to the rental center, he moved  on to other  yard work.  While shearing back the suriname cherry hedge in front of the house with his new hedge trimmer, he proceeded to use his right hand to sweep some cuttings out of the way.

While his left finger was on the trigger.

An 8" x 10" glossy color photograph of the quote SCENE OF THE CRIME unquote...

Let’s see if you can fill in the blanks…

Since I was watching from the shop, I saw it all.  He dropped the trimmer and began the ‘Ouch this hurts’ dance universally performed by people across the globe when bad stuff happens.  With blood flowing freely from his finger, he pounded on the door for his poor, long suffering wife while I raced outside with the first aid kit from the shop.

No, we didn’t have to go looking in the shrubs for his missing digit.  It was – fortunately – still firmly attached to the rest of his hand. He said he had feeling in his fingertip and could still bend the joint.  Good boy.  So, with direct pressure on the injury and his two kids safely at the neighbor’s place, we took off for the immediate care clinic.

The doctor was a nice fellow and took some pity on poor Tom with a quick lidocane injection to dull the pain.  If I was the doc, I would have given him a stick to chew on, but that’s just me…  Six stitches and half a mile of gauze later, and the boy was on his way home.

All this at the end of Woodworker’s Safety Week, to boot.

How ironic, don’t you think?

This got me thinking.  After questioning the lovable galoot for a few minutes, I found a disturbing pattern developing.  All morning, he was hyper-vigilant about safety while using the pole saw.  A spinning chainsaw above your head dropping huge laurel oak limbs to the ground has this way of waking you up and paying attention.

But, later on in the day, this happened.  He said since this tool was a light-duty $40 model trimming a bush, he let his guard down.  If the trimmer had a little more oomph, it may have taken the whole finger with it.  He thought the worst he could get was a nip.

And, that’s exactly what he got.  A six-stitch nip.

Now, he’s been put on light duty for the rest of the week.  No woodworking.

I just hope that the big guy uses this time to think things over before he does any more work.  Even the tools that can’t hurt ‘too badly’ can really do a number on you.

What should my woodworking first aid kit contain?

It’s a piece of equipment we need to keep in our shops, but we hope we never have the opportunity to use it.  A well-stocked first aid kit is a necessity, and most woodworkers will dutifully go to the largest big box store and pick something up off the shelf.

But, do these pre-packed kits have everything you might need?

Accidents in the shop can be very severe, requiring more than a few band aids and an instant cold compress.  How about a bottle of Betadine wash, so you can sterilize deep cuts?  A bottle of sterilized water should you get something in your eye?  And, for the very worst case scenario, a one gallon zip top bag should you have to bring a severed body part with you to the hospital.

This comprehensive list goes into some incredible detail, but, hey, when you need it, you need it!

I guess I knew I was in trouble when I found myself on the emergency room gurney with the EKG sensors stuck to my chest.

After a hard day of planing in the shop a few years ago, my left shoulder was feeling a little uncomfortable. Through the night it went from uncomfortable to painful to downright unbearable.  My wife suggested that perhaps we pay a visit to the hospital.  So, she helped me pack my shoulder in ice and off we went.

When I got there, the triage nurse noted my situation – 38 year old male with a family history of heart disease presenting with pain in his left shoulder… well, they had to rule out a heart attack.  And, that’s what they did and later discovered that my great pain was due to bursitis caused by repetitive stress from the day of woodworking.  I was given pain killers, a shot  of cortisone and a prescription to see a physical therapist.

That’s where I learned a lot about one of the most vulnerable joints in the body.  The shoulder is an amazing structure.  Unlike a hip – a true ball in socket joint – the shoulder is kind of like a ball on a golf tee joint.  The cup of the shoulder is very shallow and relies on a very complex system of muscles, tendons and ligaments to hold everything together.  All of these parts are cushioned by little structures called bursa sacs.  This arrangement gives you tremendous flexibility, but makes the shoulder prone to all kinds of problems not seen in other joints.

To help build strength and flexibility in my shoulders, the physical therapist gave me a few exercises that have helped me avoid another visit to the hospital.

Now, I’m no doctor.  I don’t play one on TV. So, before you even consider doing anything, please consult with a doctor just to make sure you don’t do something terribly wrong and end up coming after me with an attorney.  Seriously…

However, I do own a Richard Simmons-esque sweatband, so I can look totally boss while showing my awesome skills.

To begin, you have to stretch the muscles, ligaments and tendons in the shoulder before you can do anything.  I do this quick exercise every time I head into the shop for a session.

First, you have to find something to hold on to that won’t move on you.  For me, I grab the handle on my bench’s vise.  The first thing I do is gently lean away from the bench until I feel a slight stretch in my shoulder and hold this for a count of ten.  The next thing I do is turn my body away from the bench while holding the handle counting to ten.  This stretches the front part of the joint.  I then turn my body toward the bench, which moves the stretch to the back part of the joint and hold this for a count of ten. I do all three moves a few times on each shoulder, which really feels good and gets me loose for a day in the shop.

The next two exercises help strengthen my shoulders and are very easy to do.

The first one involves a common bungee cord.  I hold it in my hands with my thumbs pointed out and my arms extended in front of me.  Keep them about shoulder’s width.  Then, I slowly stretch the band by moving both arms out, making the cord taut.  Hold that for ten seconds, then bring your arms back to the starting position.  I do this five times, but have since moved up to ten.

The next exercise involves a hand plane.  If you are doing this for the first time, you might want to start with a No. 4.  You can move up to a No. 7 jointer when you get a little more advanced.  Hold the plane at your side by the tote, then extend your arm until it is parallel to the floor.  Hold it there for ten seconds and then let the plane come back down to your side.  Again, do this five times for each arm to start, but move up from there.

No, I’m not trying to get you to build a beach body, but by doing some simple exercises, you may not have to make that trip I had to a few years ago to the emergency room.

There are three things most woodworkers never want to see happen in their shop.

One would be an accident where someone got seriously hurt.

Another would be a theft of tools.

And, probably the worst of all would be a shop fire. In most shops, you will find plenty of combustibles.  Wood, sawdust, planer shavings, finishes… the works.  Add to that the fact that many shops house a serious investment in tools and are also attached to the living area of a home, and, well, let’s just say that’s something no one wants to deal with.

To help prevent such a catastrophe, many woodworkers consider investing in a fire extinguisher… something to keep handy to extinguish a fire should the worst happen.  But, which ones are best on which fires?  When should you use one and when should you run to call for the fire department?  Where’s the best place to mount one?

To help make sense of fire extinguishers, I went to the best local source I could find – my local fire department.  The City of Largo, Florida’s fire department provides fire suppression, inspection and education services to the more than 75,000 residents who call my town home. I met with Deputy Chief James Warman, a fellow woodworker himself, who gave me the rundown on fires and their causes.

First, you have to know a little bit about fire.  It takes three things to get one going.  Heat, fuel and air – oxygen, to be specific.  If you cut one of these legs out from under any fire, it will be extinguished.

When it comes to what’s fueling the fire, you have to brush up on your ABC’s.  There are three main ‘classes’ of fires that can be faced in a typical workshop.

Class A fires are fueled by any combustible source that leaves an ash when burned. (Yes, think A for ash to remember this one)  This could include wood  (sawdust, planer shavings, etc), cardboard, cloth.. your basic fire that you think of most frequently.

Class B fires are fueled by flammable liquids.  (Think B for the barrels you might carry these liquids in) Finishes, thinners, oils and paints fall into this category.  Putting water on a class B fire is about the worst thing you could possibly do, as the water aresolizes the liquid, expanding the fire.  Don’t believe me? Watch as the Mythbusters show how it works.

Class C fires involve electricity, and have their own concerns…  you don’t want to use anything conductive (like water) to fight them.  So, if that overloaded circuit decides to ignite a fire, you have to use something that won’t hurt you to put it out. (Remember that C also stands for current…)

There are also class D fires which involve burning metals.  Since the average home workshop won’t have a ready supply of something like elemental sodium lying around in quantity, we’ll leave that for the industrial users.

Since you want to react quickly in the event of a fire, there’s no time to waste trying to determine what’s burning.  To make your decision easier, it’s best to select an ABC fire extinguisher for the shop.  One of the most effective is filled with dry chemicals.  Besides working on all commonly-seen fires, these are also some of the most economical choices out there on the market.

“An average 10 pound dry chemical ABC extinguisher is a great choice for a home workshop. It’s going to do a good job on the smaller fires you could see in a shop,” said Chief Warman.  Some of the other rules of thumb to keep in mind are to mount the extinguisher to a wall (if you just set it on a shelf, you will push it to the back and not be able to find it when you need it), mount it near a doorway leading out of your shop (this way, the fire can’t get behind you if you need to make a very hasty exit) and use the extinguisher on fires about as large as you would expect to find in a small wastepaper basket.  “Any larger, and you could be in a lot of trouble.  At that point, get everyone out of the structure and call for the fire department.”

And, no matter how large the fire, even if you are able to put it out with your extinguisher, you should still call the fire department just to make sure nothing is still smoldering. “We get called out to a lot of fires where the person thought they had put the fire out with an extinguisher, but it flares up again hours later.”

Learning how to properly use an extinguisher is a simple yet critical step in the process.  I met with Jeanine Green, the department’s public education specialist. She showed me the sophisticated Bullex laser based fire extinguisher training system and explained the process using a simple to remember word… PASS.

Pull the pin. Almost all fire extinguishers use a safety pin to prevent accidental discharge.  And, you would be surprised how many people – in a stressful moment – forget this first simple step.

Aim the extinguisher. Either your extinguisher will have some kind of hose or just a small nozzle right by the handle.  Be sure to point this at the base of the fire, not the flames.  “Remember,” Jeanine said, “the fuel for the fire is at the base.  You want to cool that down and cut off the air. Shooting at the flames isn’t going to do much.”

Squeeze the handles. Once you squeeze the handles, the canister of compressed air inside the extinguisher is punctured, and that pushes the dry chemical out of the extinguisher.  If you release the handle, the flow will be interrupted.

Sweep the base of the fire. Play the chemical across the base of the fire to ensure it is covered.  Use the extinguisher until it is empty, then go and call the fire department.  Preferably from a cell phone outside the building or from another building.

While this information is helpful, both Jeanine and Chief Warman were very clear about the most important point of all.  When it comes to fighting fires, the easiest ones are those that never burn.  Take the time to clean your shop, unplug tools when not in use and store your finishes and other chemicals securely. “We love when people come to visit us to learn about what we do,” said Jeanine, “but we don’t want to have to come to your home during an emergency if it can be prevented in the first place.”