In the last issue, we followed up on what some print magazine readers had to say about their use of the guards on their table saws, and how that may have changed over the years. Here’s what some Weekly readers had to say on that topic – along with some other safety issues. – Editor
“Seems like the old adage of ‘with age comes wisdom’ is true. After using my Craftsman contractor saw without the guard in place for the better part of 25 years, I recently invested in a SawStop cabinet saw with overhead dust collection. I was fortunate to never have an accident or even a near-miss, but having a neighbor lose several fingers in a table saw accident made me recognize the importance of safety. Just like me, he was always careful, but in one unfortunate moment he was maimed for life.” – Tom Atha
“Some while back, I got tired of putting the guard on and taking the guard off. Hassle, so I left it off. Then, after a while, I got too confident or comfortable or stupid and slipped – luckily, only a bit. Another half inch and I’d be missing my right thumb, instead of just a piece, which healed and is now all right.” – Pete Moffitt
“I still have my 1980s Shopsmith, but I will never, ever use it again in its table saw mode. I now own and operate a SawStop table saw. In table saw mode, the Shopsmith’s blade did come loose and, had I not had the saw blade guard installed in its correct place, the blade would have come off the spindle. In my case, the headstock needed maintenance that I couldn’t do myself, and it was vibrating more than it should have. This vibration is what caused the saw blade arbor (with the blade secured to the arbor) to come loose.” – José E. Martinez
“When my daughter was young, she and her friends would play in my basement. My shop is in a portion of the basement, so to keep her and her friends safe, I added a switch that controls all the equipment in my shop. The switch is set very high, high enough the she could not reach it. As a matter of fact, my wife had a difficult time reaching it. The only thing that could easily be turned on were the lights. All machinery was off with the switch off. The only live outlet was to my tool chargers and that was also out of reach to small ones. Safety was critical to me.” – Gerry Anger
