Router safety

majakdragon

I was reading an article featuring a Master Woodworker. He was using his router table to cut a dado in a piece of wood. The machine suddenly started vibrating and making strange noise so he lifted the piece of wood up to see what the cause was. When he did, a piece of the router bit flew up and hit him in the face. His safety glasses saved his eye but it ricocheted and cut his cheek. Should you be doing this same operation and hear and strange sounds or have vibrations, turn off the power BEFORE lifting the piece of wood. If this tip saves one member from getting hurt, it was worth typing.

__________________
If you have never made a mistake, you haven't done much.

DWrath

Thanks for passing on the tip majakdragon. Of all my tools, my router for some reason (though it should be my tablesaw) is the one that scares me the most. With those high RPMs, accidents happen very quickly.

LanterDan

Thanks as well majakdragon. Eariler this summer I somehow managed to have the outer windings of my router shake themselves loose from the frame while I was cutting out a sinkhole in a countertop. Definately one the scariest moments in power tool usage I've had in a long time.

Bonus

I was on a job last year and the customer gave me his router because it scared him to use it! Here's hoping he buys some more scary tools!!

oldgoat

The router doesn't scare me as much as the table saw does. Have seem some people get some nasty cuts from them, but luckily no missing limbs.

NateHanson

I'm guessing none of you have used a shaper?

At my first job, I was running a 2.5" cherry chair seat through a shaper with a 2" radius cutterhead. Well, either a guidepin broke, or I lifted the piece just a touch, and that 15 pound piece of wood shot off across the shop like a rocket, leaving me shaking!

I'm still shy with the shaper. Everyone I've worked with in furniture shops agree that the shaper is the scariest tool. A master who taught me a lot of what I know (Phil Lowe - you've probably seen him in Fine Woodworking) used to wear a plywood apron when using the shaper, because the knives used to just be held in by friction. They didn't have the threaded teeth on top like they do now. So occasionally this steel blade would come flying out of the machine right at nut-level, like a japanese throwing star!

RippySkippy

In 1986 I HAD an Crapsman router, plastic framed. One evening as I was using it, the metal fins that draw air though the motor to cool it off started to come off. It hit the trash can one moment after the bit was removed.

timp

My router scares me too, though I've yet to get hurt using it. For the number of times I've smashed my fingers, it should be my hammer that scares me the most!

Tim