speared with his riving knife

I watch a youtuber who is rebuilding a steel fishing trawler into a house boat,
yesterday he posted a video of an accident he had with his table saw. just on a home project.
His blade grabbed the riving knife, ripped it out and speared it into his chest.
Looks like an old PaulCall machine.
the riving knife now has 'teeth' where the blade bit into it.
I will look a bit differently at my own riving knife from now on.
CLOSE CALL. I nearly wasn't here to tell this story. - YouTube
Dont know if links work here. IF not the channel is called The Adventures of Sheryl and Paul

That could have been an evil result.

He was very lucky indeed.

I'd say it all started to go pear shaped when he tried cutting with the short edge of the material against the fence, instead of using a mitre fence. As soon as there's a slight movement of the piece away from the fence - almost certain to happen if the material rides up, which he didn't seem to care about - it was likely to catch the riving knife. There appeared to be a curve at the bottom of one of the slots that straightened out and allowed the knife to come out of the machine. I'd be getting a new knife with holes rather than slots, if it will fit, and with plenty of meat under the holes.
Glad he's OK, but it certainly wasn't a freak accident. It was almost certain to happen sooner or later because of one bad work practice. I hope he learns from it.

Another table saw accident without a guard.

Very scary. Thanks for sharing.

Years ago, before a lot of Queensland legislation was modernised there was a clause in one of the Occupational health sections that detailed that all riving knife's had to have a closed end where they bolted onto the machine. The slot could not be open ended to prevent this very scenario.
Rgds,
Crocy.

Kind of very bad luck being injured with a bit of safety equipment but it is a good reminder not to get complacent with tablesaws or other workshop machines. The splitter on mine could not be launched foreward like that but it has prompted me to give the whole saw a good look over for loose or missing nuts and screws.
Regards
John

The whole setup looks pretty rough and ready to me. Apart from what others have said the 'thing' that he was using as a fence - two pieces of board attached to another board that is attached to the saw table by God knows what - looks inherently dangerous to me. Only just replaced the blade. :think:

He strikes me as the type of guy who's an accident that's already found a place to happen, the only question is the timing.

Have to agree with Aldav, dodgy equipment and dodgy practices

Unfortunately these guys get plenty of air time!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aldav

The whole setup looks pretty rough and ready to me. Apart from what others have said the 'thing' that he was using as a fence - two pieces of board attached to another board that is attached to the saw table by God knows what - looks inherently dangerous to me. Only just replaced the blade. :think:

He strikes me as the type of guy who's an accident that's already found a place to happen, the only question is the timing.

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I agree, I reckon that the riving knife was thicker than the blade and it jammed and he tried to pull it off and pulled the knife into the blade and we see the result.....

I agree with everyone - that "tablesaw" looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

Paul's next video "Any idea whats in the box", I replied: Hopefully a new tablesaw because you need one after seeing the last video!".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EagerBeaver71

Paul's next video "Any idea whats in the box", I replied: Hopefully a new tablesaw because you need one after seeing the last video!".

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i thought exacty the same thing

I guess the "logical" conclusion from this video is that riving knives are dangerous and should be removed from table saws. :rolleyes: :p :-



The most dangerous and hazardous item in safety management - "the nut behind the wheel." :) :cool: