Do you ever Free hand on the tablesaw?


Tpt life

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If you want to poop in your pants watch a flooring crew plunge cut and rip 2" wide oak flooring free hand. Commom practice unfortunately.

With that stack of festool boxes he looks pretty well equipped, I am sure a jig saw or circ was around somewhere.

The recent finewoodworking podcast had a good discussion of this.

 

I started in the flooring business and can confirm the scary things I've seen done on the ts. 

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No that goes against all safety rules. Would do it with a jig saw or bandsaw. That's Tom whatshisname isn't it? I thought he was billed as a master craftsman. People watching this would just think it was right to freehand rip on a TS. Looks like a recent vid too as there is Festool gear on the frame before.

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What cracks me up the most is the segment opens with a plug for their sponsor...an insurance company.  :lol:

 

But c'mon...it's Tom Silva...the man has forgotten more than most of us will ever know.  It's probably not the best thing to show on TV, but I ain't gonna judge him.  I wish he'd come over and remodel my house, freehand rips and all.

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Bear in mind that I'm 'hand tools only' but the thing that hits me is the way he is waggling the board side to side while holding it with one hand. Surely that majorly increases the danger of the blade just grabbing hold and making a plastic surgeon very happy.

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Well, it's clear to me the camera men and editors of this show and Ask This Old House have other ideas in mind.  How many people need to see Tommy's face when he's working or need to see a screw going into a board close-up?  I'm watching the show because I want to learn.  Ask this Old House is a how-to show.  I already know how a screw goes into a piece of wood.  Am I supposed to be a moron?

 

The original Holmes on Homes was fantastic.  The camera work and editing captured the work, not the people.  Then Mike went to other less successful formats, 'Holmes on Homes' and 'Holmes Makes it Right'.  These formats are more in line of what TOH and ATOH do... making it more about the people instead of about the projects being completed.  

 

And then there's Hometime...

 

 

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It is done in the field frequently and I am talking about jobs with 5 to 6 zeros in the bid numbers, industrial jobs are getting pretty high and tight on safety and regulations, you would be escorted out of most steel mill situations for this but most commercial safety talk, at least on hand and power tools is just lip service till someone gets hurt.

 

I watched my 7th grade shop teacher cut off 3 fingers free handing a piece of 1/4 Plexiglas, that was about 1981 or so, that left a lasting impression

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I think putting 7th graders in a shop full of machinery is about as stupid as freehanding a rip.  I probably shouldn't have been around equipment in high school as stoned as I was the whole time.  Fortunately I spent most of my time at the lathe since it was the most stoner-friendly tool in there.  Whoaaa.  Did that dude just cut his fingers off dude?  Gnarly.  Anyone got a nutty bar?

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I dont know how common it was, I used to think everyone had the same chances, we had to take an industrial arts class every semester of middle school (7-8 th), wood shop, metal shop and drafting. I continued in high school with 1 year of wood shop, 2 years of drafting and 2 years of building trades. the building trades class was 3 hours a day and we built 4 houses in 2 years. …yes there was a occurrence maybe 2 of a controlled substance being abused by a minor 

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...we had to take an industrial arts class every semester of middle school (7-8 th), wood shop, metal shop and drafting. I continued in high school with 1 year of wood shop, 2 years of drafting and 2 years of building trades. the building trades class was 3 hours a day and we built 4 houses in 2 years.

Wow. None of my schools up to and including all 4 years in high school had anything shop-related. I think there were a few options to have part of your day at a small tech college in the next town over (mostly like car mechanic stuff) but that was it. I can't believe you had all that starting in 7th grade. Crazy.

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Shop class 8th thru 12 th grade. I took it more for access to big machines, the shop teacher was a football coach and they had to put him somewhere.

I am listed in my senior year annual as Co-President of the shop club along with a friend who took it every year as well. There was no shop club ! We just made it up cause all the jocks were listing so many sports we figured we needed recognition as well.

Graduated high school in 1976. Not sure if they still offer shop classes.

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We had mandatory "industrial arts" one semester in grade 7,8, and 9. The second semester was mandatory " home economics". Industrial arts included woodshop, metal shop, drafting, etc and home economics included cooking, sewing, computer software, etc.

After junior high, I dont think much in the way of these were offered.

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On one of the Trading Spaces type shows one of the carpenters taught a second carpenter the trick of tilting a board up into the miter saw blade if it's too wide to cut normally.  Sometimes the homeowners would help the carpenters with projects.  The second carpenter taught one of them that trick, oblivious to the idea that this was something outside normal use of the tool and really demonstrating to the audience that this must be something perfectly safe they should try too.

 

But once you watch Jimmy Diresta everybody else seems downright cautious no matter what they are doing.

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I'm a big fan of This Old House. I'm nearly convinced that Tom Silva can do just about anything, however I've seen him freehand cuts on his tablesaw more times than I care to admit. If there is anyone out there who has the experience to pull this off, it's Tom....but regardless, it makes me cringe every time. I'm no safety guru or soap-boxer, but I'm surprised dewalt/porter cable allows them to show that. He's usually cutting to a scroll line when he does it. Just an observation. This is most likely the wrong section to be posting this. Please move if necessary

 

[ threads merged - Beechwood Chip ]

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