Thread: What thingos can you buy to stop finger tip splinters ?

I would have agreed with the comments about gloves in the past and certainly in respect to the gloves in the photo above. The gloves I mean are not rubber nor baggy. Mine are Work Crew Ironclad. They have elasticised backs and a soft lfitted leather palm and finger tips. I have adequate feel through the leather. They are extremely close fitting and there is nothing to snag. Metal thimbals would be dangerous as they would soon become a missile. I would not use rubber tips either - the way we used to remove them was to pull our finger on the desk and they roll off as the friction on the wood is greater than the friction on your finger. If pushing hard your fingers could slip forward.

Not withstanding my protestations, I use featherboards and a push stick and only use gloves to handle rough timber. I would never wear or encourage anyone to use rubber gloves, riggers gloves, welders gloves or any other glove that was not tightly fitted all over. I would also never recommend stuffing anything in the finger tips.

I liked Niki's idea in his post about cutting 2mm strips. He used the "feeder rollers". Instead of using knobs to tighten you could install "hold downs" or whatever those springy things are called. Anyway, might work.

Trippy I recon you would look mighty fine in a bunch of thimbles. Don't mind what those other blokes at work say ..they're just jealous.. make a statement.


BTW Try electrical tape - its more stretchy and wont cut off the circulation but use a good quality brand, as the cheap stuff doesn't stick well enough.

OK.
Best Idea yet.

Use a ROSTA roller/
They are a blue lever with a wheel on the end that is attached to a rubber springy thing.
We use them for holding the T&G against the fence of the automatic dockers.
They are also used in the moulders for the same thing feedspeed is up to 60m/m.

The have a leverlock underneath for quick adjustment.

They allow for different widths.

Google ROSTA.

Originally Posted by Bleedin Thumb

Trippy I recon you would look mighty fine in a bunch of thimbles. Don't mind what those other blokes at work say ..they're just jealous..

Uno, your so right !...I'd look pretty good I reakon working the saw with pink thimbles. Almost as good as me slipping on me pink rubber gloves while mixing epoxy.

BTW Try electrical tape - its more stretchy and wont cut off the circulation but use a good quality brand, as the cheap stuff doesn't stick well enough.

worth a go. I'll try it next time. Not shore about that sticky mess it leaves on your fingers.

I understand everyones concerns for safety.....but, but,... I really like the way I do it. Its friggin quick with good results.

I've done thousands of metres this way and I know my hands not going anywhere..(no, no. I'm not kidding myself). I lock up my whole hand up on an edge, or a jig with my spare fingers. My routine is always watching where my fingers are in relation to the blade. My whole left arm is rigid...fixed hard on the table.

The thought is always.....where will my fingers end up if something goes astray. And the way they sit is always with them flicking off away from the blade.

I just don't want cut up finger tips anymore. I'm going to make something. Just got an idea...Thanks for all your help.

I actually have the same (bad?) habit as you, Jake. When feeding anything through the bench saw I push with right hand and use the left hand in a fixed position near the blade to keep the timber down and tight against the fence, letting the piece slide through my fingers. Depending on the timber, the left pointing finger & thumb can really take some hits from splinters - some of which can slice like a stanley knife blade. Not good when you need to have your concentration focused.

It might sound a little hair raising, but from what I've seen of bench saw accidents its usually the pushing hand that gets into trouble. As Jake has said, when using this method you are 110% focused on where your guide hand is in relation to the blade. Interestingly, the Altendorf maintenance guy who came out to service the machine a few years ago had a little incident right in front of me (not serious) while adjusting the saw, but I never have - so far.

Because I use an Altendorf panel saw as my rip saw its somewhat difficult to set up accessories on it, as the bench doesn't have the usual machined grooves in it. Fether boards are particularly tedious for this setup, and as you say, if you're consistently running through boards of different width they can be a pain in the acre.

So I'm a big, tough 6 foot guy with gnarly hands toughened from 35+ years of woodworking and other manual labour who, like Jake, would like to avoid splinters where possible.

I had actually forgotten all about the magnetic feather boards which Jaspr has mentioned. I did look at these once before with interest. They would resolve the problem of not having grooves in the bench top. I would also like to have a look at the Rosta rollers that Glock has mentioned.

Some interesting ideas here. Don't let them give you any stick, Jake.

Wayne

Originally Posted by apricotripper

I'm serious. I reakon somebody must have invented something like.
... snip ...
Can you buy little rubber finger tip things ?...something I can just slip into/out of my workbelt.

Something like this Jake?

I am not sure high friction tape would work as that would negate the sliding action. i have read or seen somewhere a comment that magnetic featherboards weren't the ducks guts either, not holding their position well. I guess the magnets can't be super strong or they wouldn't be able to be gotten off the table. How about screwing a fixture to the side of the table and building a swinging arm off that? It would be flush with the work surface so if the arm were to be removed the fixture would always be there. The arm would swing, be extendable and sprung all in one and it could have magnets in the lower surface to stop it lifting if needed though I doubt they would be needed. It would be slotted with a quick release cam lever for adjustment and Bob's your mother's brother. If it were to have a swivelling fence on the end of it, the stock would feed in and the fence would self align and hold the stock hard against the saw fence due to the sprung arm.

OK...
Another Idea from My work.
Fit an pneumatic cylinder with a long stroke and a roller attached to the end of the ram. run it from a portable comp or fixed airline.

The actuating lever/switch would be mounted on a slide so that it is always near the operator.
We use similar on our re-saw benches in the sawmill, but they are Hydraulic. The benchman is cutting different size timber all the time and as the timber comes to the saw he pulls a lanyard that activets the powered roller hob.

I see air cylinders on Ebay for cheap prices.

Hey Jake, why not find a ball bearing with an ID that fits on your LH finger and push the OD of the bearing against the timber. A rubber thimble from Officeworks might make it more comfortable....

Originally Posted by Mini

I.. I guess the magnets can't be super strong or they wouldn't be able to be gotten off the table. ...

Mag switches have to be switched off to move them. When switched on they hold big time. Check out here
http://www.magswitch.com.au/pages.as...em-magjig-30mm

I have the feather board and because it is so adjustable and works well I use it all the time unlike the other couple I have.

Sounds like more good ideas.

That pneumatic cylinder idea sounds interesting. I don't have any experience with them. So I'm not sure.

Its sounding a bit overcomplicated for me though. Could be wrong.

I was scratching my head today thinking what I should do...then it hit me.......how about electrical tape

Finger bling. (it nice, its interresting, diffffferent ) ...chose red to disguise the blood.

Real happy with it. Will throw the tape in the bag. I really do love simple solutions.

The fingers are best pressure boards in the world IMO. Have the job done by the time others have set up all them jigs. Sorry. Being cheeky uno.

another sign of madness.......spending time taking photos of fingers ? I don't know.

If you are doing a lot of repetition work, with varying widths of timber to feed through, why not "invent" a feather board that swivels on a fixed centre held in the slot of the table saw or router table. Your left hand could swing the feather board into contact with the stock and apply a gentle pressure to keep it up against the fence.

I'm sure one could get something like that to work.

Personally, for the left hand nothing beats the fingers to pressure it just right in the right spot etc..etc. ........with your right hand pushing through, like I think Wayne said above, gota have a stick for thin pieces.

but everyones got there own way eh.