Tablesaw Guidelines

[ncreefer]

With all of these stories that have been popping up about accidents with table saws, it has made me a little more cautious with using a tablesaw (I haven't made anything with mine yet, since it's fairly new). What are some tips/guides for safely using a tablesaw?

[Ozzie-x]

Another thing I will mention is that since I've added equipment, I now have other equipment that wiil perform the job easier (and safer) than the table saw. Particularly a good bandsaw has cut way down on my table saw use. I cut all of the small stuff on the bandsaw which is a lot safer, I've gotten in trouble several times cutting small stuff on the tablesaw. One other scary/dangerous tablesaw technique that went away with acquiring the first shaper was raising panel on the tablesaw. I guess the point is, to use the proper equipment for the job. Now, to avoid an outcry, you may only have a tablesaw and a few limited other pieces of equipment, which is the way I was for my first 8-10 years of woodworking. If so, see all of the above good safety suggestions. Another thing too is if the workpiece is too small, awkward, or scary to cut by conventional means on the tablesaw, spend a few minutes and make a jig. I have a gaggle of jigs in the shop that I have no idea what they were for, but my guess is the majority of them were made to safely hold some small "part(s)" so they could be safey cut. Hope this is of some value to someone.