# How scrapwood saves fingers



## howarddavidp (Jun 12, 2012)

I had a close call a few days ago, but nothing happened b/c I used scraps instead of my hand to hold a board that I was cutting.

On my 10" mitre, I was making regular 90 ' cuts on a 3/4 trim piece, not a big deal, nothing hard. When I got down to my last few pcs were only 4 inches long. While I could have held the piece and easily braced it w/o being too close, I was a little scared and decided to use some scrap wood and a clamp to hold the wood down to the mitre base.

Glad I did this, b/c for no reason whatsoever, the saw balked and chucked the piece to the right, hard and fast, and the scrap and the clamp went and hit the blade. If I did not do this, it most likely would have been my hand hitting the blade, and chances are it would have been a trip to the ER.

For this reason, I keep many, very many, pieces of scrap. Whenever I am in doubt, or a little scared or nervous, I get out a cheap'o HF clamp and some scraps. I have even gone as far as making little 1-time-use jigs to make cuts I don't want to attempt freehand. I would rather nick a clamp, or spend a few extra minutes making something to hold a piece than risk my digits. I have a few orange buckets full of scraps near each saw for this purpose alone, figuring the more accessable the scraps, the more likely I will be to use them when needed. If it is not easy, people don't usually do something, so...

Just my thoughts, better a nick in a clamp and scraps than a nick or worse in my hand.

Dave


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## Wood4Brains (Jul 25, 2012)

Thanks for the reminder about the safety.

did you ever figure out what could have caused the saw to throw the workpiece like that?

thanks again.


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## BernieL (Oct 28, 2011)

When ripping, I always use push sticks and not the commercial plastic ones that simply fit on the end of the board. I make my own with scrap pieces of wood, not because it's cheaper, but because they're better and safer to use. My sticks have a long neck on them to keep the boards down on the table.

If making small cross cuts, I use a hand saw, band saw or sled for my table saw. 

A couple of things come to mind as to why this happened. First of all, the wood might have been warped. I always try to rock the wood on my table saw surface before cutting it. If it rocks, it's warped and I try flipping it over. The second reason may be a wood chip from previous work. The chip can be on the table or against the fence. I always keep my work area clean for safety concerns and accurate joints. If a chip gets under your wood, your work, accuracy is out the window.


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