Layout looks nice. You can bend the Masonite, if that is the hardboard you are referring to) by spraying window cleaner on it as the 'DCC GUY' explains here... ... I recently used his method on some really tight radius bends and it worked perfectly and it pretty much holds the bend once it dries out, Sumner
Yeah, getting the hard board wet is one method to bend it at sharp angles but didn't feel comfortable doing it so I decided to us vinyl flashing instead and will wrap it around those curves that I I put the strips up to support it. IAISfan at another forum has done it that way. Here isa link: IAIS's 4th Sub - Easy backdrop coving (thanks Bernie Halloran!) - the MRH Forum (mrhmag.com)
Very, very sorry to read this. It's a very good thing you got checked out, though. Every time I hear or read something like this, I think of Liam Neeson's wife - Natasha Richardson, a member of the Redgrave family. She fell (and did hit her head) taking a beginner's ski lesson, refused to get looked at, then was hospitalized after complaining about a headache. She died two days later.
Mine is the Dewalt jobsite table saw on a fold-up, wheeled stand. It folds up against the garage wall, about two feet wide and sticks out from the wall even less than that - plenty of room to park my truck on that side of the wall. It takes me about 30 seconds to wheel it out, unfold the stand, and plug it in. I'm still scared of it, though. I keep buying different push sticks to help. Got a Grabber on order, too.
being scared of a whirling blade is a healthy idea. Never get complacent! Push sticks are also a VERY GOOD idea. Never try to use miter gauge and rip fence together unless you use a space off the rip fence for a measure stop that will clear what is being cut with the miter gauge or you may get a gut full of kickback. Let me tell, it hurts for a while.
Being scared of, and having a very healthy respect for, a whirling table saw blade are too different things. Scared makes you nervous and mistake prone. A healthy respect keeps you aware of what could happen, and reminds you to take steps to avoid that. For example, being scared of a table saw blade makes you want to watch the blade. Respect makes you aware of where the blade is, and keeping your limbs a safe distance from it, while listening to it, but watching the stock at the rip fence or miter gauge, where a problem will start.
respect, scared, whatever. I want to keep my fingers and hands away from it. Respect might get you complacent too. And there is no room for complacency.
Try cutting wood with a 3 1/5 foot diameter circular saw. With no guards. I did a lot of that in my youth. My brothers has a conveyor to catch the cut off. The one we had back then we had to catch the cut off by hand and through it away.
True, but the blade itself is not the only, or even the most common thing that can/will seriously injure you if you don't pay attention to the stock you are cutting with it, and how it is behaving relative to the fence, miter gauge, table, etc., in addition to the blade. Lots of users are injured due to kick-back on table saws, probably more than actually being cut by the blade. Unfortunately, even the latest electronic flesh-detection, instantaneous-blade-stopping systems don't stop kickback. A stock-feeder will do it (or at least keep you out of harms way), but those generally only work for ripping and shaping, not cross-cutting, and the hassle of setting them up makes them useful only in commercial production settings, with lots of lumber to process with the same machine setup. I also completely agree about complacency, and would add fatigue to that list.
My grandfather had a flat-belt-driven version of one of those saws. I remember seeing it, but never in use. It was already in the junk pile at the farm by the time I saw it. He sold it and several other old implements, along with a junked tractor with the drive pulley for it. I remember seeing a kit for making/mending the flat-belts in an old hardware store in town near where my grandparents lived. By dad had to tell me what it was, and how it was used. That old hardware store would make a wonderful archeological site some day... if it were still there. I was always amazed at the ingenuity in all the attachments for tractors in those days. A tractor was not just for crops! And it quit eating when it was not used!
+1. This past summer, participated in a Cumbres and Toltec work session where one of the tasks was to cut shiplap planks for the deck of a flatcar. We had to think it through carefully, as we couldn't use the guard. The process was pretty straightforward, run one cut, turn the board over and around, run the other cut. However, it was at this point we had a detached piece of wood between the fence and spinning blade, surrounded by the plank we were guiding with pushers. We had to make sure the space in front of the saw was clear before doing the second cut, then if the detached piece stayed behind as we ran the second cut, make sure the space stayed clear until we powered down the saw and the blade came to a complete stop. We didn't throw any, but I think that was because one of us tended the stock after the cut was finished and made sure it didn't move until the saw was stopped.
Yep. The nice thing is that the blade doesn't move locations with a table saw. It stays where it is. Unfortunately, that's not the big issue. Figuring out what causes kickback and how to stop it ... that's the scary part. I've watched so many youtube videos that I'm completely confused. I saw one guy demonstrate how to make paper thin cuts on a small block. He was supposedly demonstrating his own "safe" technique, never once mentioning how contorted he made his body so that it wasn't directly in front of the blade. I decided he was total BS. I like the saw, but the Dewalt manual sucks. It was good to show how to put it together and attach all the various accessories, etc., but there was nothing but a bunch of "DONT DO THIS" statements all over the manual for anything else. That's not really a method for teaching and encourages someone like myself to simply ignore it all. After all, we're bombarded with similar treatment in instructions manuals for the most rudimentary devices these days. You really need to read a book about operating a table saw, instead. As a total newbie, I made the mistake one day of cross-cutting a 2x4 against the fence. There's a reason I'm scared, now. ;-)
Some updates: So that section with not track in the above picture has been filled in - had to cut out the wood for a bridge to go in: Went around the corner and added some cork roadbed for a crossover into a track leading into a coal tipple.
