Shopsmith Forums

I was ripping some narrow material and got a kickback. Just taking a narrow strip off the edge of a board.

Of course I didn't see exactly what happened, but based on the ZCI damage, I think the board lifted at the back and was then promptly fired, angled down into the ZCI and blew the hole in it.

Hard for me to imagine it raising off the table as it was held down with featherboards on the fence-but its clear SOMETHING happened

You see it actually damaged the end of my pusher as well.
Anyways-the new project was figuring out how to make a new insert on my own once I realized a SS replacement would be $20 and some days.

New insert was made with 1/4 Maple ply and seems to do a pretty good job.


Next steps: Buy one of those GRR-Rippers and make some kind of fence extension that doesn't leave me in tight spaces between the fence and the blade. That always makes me feel less comfortable on a cut.


b

Damn Bainin that could have been all sorts of ugly if you hadn't had the feather board in place and using a push stick. Close call... Bet it made you jump. LOL... The new insert looks nice. I don't have my SS yet. Are all ZCI's made of plastic?

They need to be made from material that the blade will cut through as the blank is lowered onto it.

[quote="Spooner"]Damn Bainin that could have been all sorts of ugly if you hadn't had the feather board in place and using a push stick. Close call... Bet it made you jump. LOL... The new insert looks nice. I don't have my SS yet. Are all ZCI's made of plastic?[/quote]

I don't know that ALL ZCI are made of plastic or not BUT not all table inserts are made of plastic. All of my "original" table inserts were metallic (I think aluminum". When I acquired my first Crafters Station it came to me with non-metallic table inserts none of which were ZCI.

I now make all of my own ZCI and most of them have been made using Baltic Birch plywood.

Yea-the kickback woke me up. Of course, this is the ONE time in months that the wife is standing nearby-yet confirming again for her that I'm a danger

For inserts I have seen :

Metallic, red painted standard saw inserts ...I assume these are from SS-i have a few of these.

Plastic, red inserts (the now destroyed ZCI above), for shaper and router (round opening).

Plastic, red "blanks" that you saw thru for your particular application/blade.

Home made-wood inserts using 1/4" stiff wood-typically harder ply's.

An occasional "kick back" is a necessity. When one happens to you, you know that you have done something stupid. Learn from it!

I got hit in the chest just yesterday with a piece of plywood (about 14"x14") that I was cutting on the table saw. I saw it happening but had no time to avoid the obvious. Later I found my rip fence was not parallel to the blade squeezing the work piece on the outfeed side. No scars, no bruises and no witness. Just lucky, no emergency room.

Inserts and push sticks are expendable. Consider them consumables. If you have no bruises or cuts, consider it a win and replace the parts that broke. I make my own zero clearance inserts because I figure they are expendable. I've never had one break up like that yet, but I've "worn out" a few by cutting too many different shaped cuts into them for different jobs. When that happens, they go to the trash.

If you could, open the rear of the slot to 1/4" using a router bit and you will have room to use the riving knife and the anti kickback pawls to prevent the stock from lifting off the table. Don't know why the piece would lift if the finger boards were used correctly. A picture of the setup would help greatly.
Bill V

bainin wrote:I was ripping some narrow material and got a kickback. Just taking a narrow strip off the edge of a board.

Of course I didn't see exactly what happened, but based on the ZCI damage, I think the board lifted at the back and was then promptly fired, angled down into the ZCI and blew the hole in it.

Hard for me to imagine it raising off the table as it was held down with featherboards on the fence-but its clear SOMETHING happened

You see it actually damaged the end of my pusher as well.

bang.jpg

Anyways-the new project was figuring out how to make a new insert on my own once I realized a SS replacement would be $20 and some days.

New insert was made with 1/4 Maple ply and seems to do a pretty good job.


Next steps: Buy one of those GRR-Rippers and make some kind of fence extension that doesn't leave me in tight spaces between the fence and the blade. That always makes me feel less comfortable on a cut.


b

How narrow? Very narrow against the fence is not the way to do it. That could cause what you experienced.

Well the fence was off to right side of the blade.

Featherboard pushing down on the piece between the blade and fence without much room beyond the width of the featherboard (maybe 3/4"?)

The strip being cut off was probably only 1/4" or so.

I was push blocking downward in front of the blade while pushing thru with the push stick.


At some point there isnt much left to push block on and then was relying on the featherboard and the push stick to continue thru the cut.


I'd love to hear a better way to do these tight cuts.


b