Saw a scary thing today...

[fergy]

Stopped into Woodcraft today to purchase some Danish oil and sandpaper. While I'm browsing around with the kids, I notice someone working in the shop by themselves, so I assume it's an employee. The router table is making an awful noise, and you can hear the tearouts popping off the wood. I looked more closely, and the guy is cutting with the board between the bit and the fence, and pulling the wood toward him. It looked like he was cutting a sliding dovetail. It was scary.

When I checked out, I had to comment that if that was an employee, they might want to check on him to make sure he knew what he was doing. There was no reason to make a cut like that. The bit should have been flushed to the fence, and the wood run along that, instead of between it.

Having had my share of router table mishaps, one of which put me in the ER, I guess I'm just more cautious than most, but this guy shouldn't have been using a router table without a little instruction.

 

[BobcatBob]

Good thing you were there. I hope they took your warning to heart.

 

[Dean Maiorano]

I used to work for a sign shop that was owned by and shared workspace with a children's playset manufacturer. That 'other side' of the shop would hire young unskilled kids to work their machines. Some of those youthful hires would spend more time playing than working, acting as though they were on some kind of vacation. During one lunch break one of those kids wondered over to our side to cause trouble. He turned on the 5 hp overhead router into which he tossed scrap cuts of wood. The pieces would slam into the whizzing shaper head, get caught by the bit and then get shot out of the machine to go skittering across the floor. Every time he'd get a piece to collide with other pieces of machinery or other shop fixture, he'd giggle with childish delight. We got him shut down in short order and sent him skittering across the floor.

 

[Trent Mason]

:swoon: Whoa! That doesn't sound safe at all. Good call on letting them know how to properly make that cut. The RT and TS scare me more than anything else in the shop. :crossedlips: