Comment by oooyay
7 months ago
> I would love if someone could chime in with actual statistics here, but I've always heard that table saws are the most dangerous common power tool in the US by raw injury count alone.
I don't have data, but there are various threats with a table saw.
1. Overconfidence / complacency. Things like reaching across the blade, not using push sticks, etc.
2. Kickback. It happens because you pinch the workpiece between the blade and the fence. Knowing how to properly configure a fench, featherboards, and how to use the kerf and ribbing knife is important.
3. Shop clutter. People tripping and/or slipping around their saw.
SawStop style tech vastly improves most of these scenarios. Kickback, though, turns a workpiece into a very large projectile. Where you stand matters a lot.
To be clear: I was asking for data about relative frequencies of accidents with varying tools, not about risks from table saws.
But yes, those are all risks. Additionally, like most tools a poorly maintained table saw is more dangerous.
The table saw I grew up using was from the 1940s, so was about 50 years old by the time I started using it in the late 90s. Its fence was always around 1-3° out of alignment. Absolutely no safety features whatsoever. The motor was fairly weak too, and the surface was rough, so you needed to use a bit of force while cutting, which obviously increases the risk of slipping into the blade.
I got a SawStop last year for my new house's shop and was pleasantly surprised by how little force I needed to use to guide workpieces along it while cutting.
See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39982822
I tried to give the data you asked for.
(I moved from a sawstop to a sliding table saw so i'm nowhere near the blade in the first place)
I try to stand away from the plane of rotation of the blade.
Yeah, you should never stand in line with it.