Looking out for fingers and lungs

A few years ago, my little granddaughter fell off an aging metal playground and suffered a concussion. She was by no means the first to do so, and last month the city had an opening ceremony for its brand new, state-of-the-art, all plastic playground. Walking through the throng of delighted kids, something came into focus.

Sometimes, it takes a dramatic event for people to get serious about safety.

The heart and soul of small woodshops is the table saw where, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, there are about 4,000 reported hand injuries every year. There are also injuries that don’t get reported, which the National Library of Medicine estimates at about 30,000 per year.

Unfortunately, blade guards and kickback pawls often get in the way, and even riving knives are sometimes removed to make specific cuts. Those technologies have inherent deficiencies that encourage woodworkers to work around them, and a whopping 73 percent of the reported injuries involved disabling them in some way.

Fortunately, there have also been some very encouraging advances over the past few years. It began with SawStop (sawstop.com) in 2000, when Steve Gass and three of his friends started building table saws that could sense the presence of fingertips at the blade. Other manufacturers have followed with high-tech solutions to make sliding table saws safer.

The Hand Guard from the Altendorf Group (altendorf-handguard.com) uses two cameras to collect data that a computer then recognizes as hands near a slider’s blade. An LED strip on the blade guard goes through traffic light colors (green and yellow) to warn the operator about proximity to the blade, and then drops the blade on red when a hand gets too close. The system is currently offered on four models.

The Felder Group (felder-group.com) says that its Preventative Contact System (PCS) is “currently the fastest, non-contact triggering safety device in the world.” The PCS recognizes human tissue in the ‘danger zone’ and triggers before contact with the saw blade. The system resets with a touch of a button, according to the company.

The new Blade Off from SCM Group (scmgroup.com) won the XIA Innovation Award at the 2022 Xylexpo Fair in Milan, Italy. The system is equipped with smart sensors that can identify and recognize the human body, and then trigger the blade to drop before the operator gets too close. It protects the danger zone around the blade, rather than waiting for contact, so the company calls it a predictive system rather than a reactive one. And it works when fingers approach from the side, not just head-on. Two facets of its performance that SCM highlights are that it operates perfectly even when parts are being pushed through the blade at high speed, and that the blade is ready to go back to work as soon as the operator restarts the saw. There’s an LED light system on the guard, and it tells the operator whether Blade OFF has been disabled for a specific cut. SCM has been showing Blade Off on the model Class Si 400ep.

FastCap (fastcap.com) has developed a line of dust collection systems for miter saws, and the latest member of the family is the Saw Hoodie. Designed for quick setup on the jobsite and 8” saws, it can also work on 10” and 12” saws, according to the company. It attaches with a flexible metal spring ring and there’s a vacuum port in the back.

U.S. Duct (us-duct.com) has added an in-line cyclone separator that uses centrifugal force to remove large particles before they reach the filter bag.

Biesse (biesse.com) has been developing environmental safety options for the areas around its CNCs, including pressure-sensitive floor mats that sense an operator’s presence.

Several newer HVLP systems now have a transfer efficiency rating over 80 percent, which means that, unlike traditional coating technologies, there is very little overspray. Machines such as the Precision-5 Pro LE from Apollo Sprayers International (hvlp.com) can be used without a spray booth, and even “in your customer’s kitchen”, according to the company.

The newest addition to the Grr-ripper pushblock system from MicroJig (microjig.com), the 2GO, is designed to protect hands and fingers from cuts and injuries during table saw operation. “The legs have a minimum cutting width of 5/16” (8mm), making it perfect for making precise, thin cuts. Its kickback prevention features ensure that you can work safely and reduce the risk of accidents,” the company said.

Trimaco (trimaco.com) has just added SuperTuff shoe covers to its catalog. These are inexpensive ($4.47) sleeves that installers can slip over their shoes to avoid tracking. One size fits all, and they are non-skid.

Total Finishing Supplies (totalfinishingsupplies.com) has the latest personnel protection equipment from 3M, Anest Iwata, Binks, and SATA. These include the Air Vision 5000 from SATA that offers complete head and breathing air protection against solvent vapors and isocyanates, and the Versaflo loose fitting headgear from 3M that provides respiratory protection against flammable gases and combustible dusts.

Several companies such as DeWalt, Fein, Makita, Bosch, Milwaukee, Ridgid, Ryobi, Kobalt and Metabo have introduced small cordless jobsite vacuums. On a larger scale, the new VHB436 from Nilfisk (nilfisk.com) is a battery-powered industrial vac that runs on lithium-ion batteries for up to 2-1/2 hours on a charge and offers HEPA level filtering.

Last year, Oneida Air Systems (oneida-air.com) introduced a new Super Dust Deputy, the 4/5, that is a cyclonic separator designed to work with almost any 1- to 3-hp single-stage collector. For small woodshops, it separates 99 percent of dust and debris from the airstream which eliminates filter clogging and helps keep the air cleaner and safer, according to the company. While it is designed to fit 4”, 5” or 6” flex hose right out of the box, it can also be connected to ducting with additional adapters.

SandMan Products (sandmanproducts.com) makes a filter cleaner that hooks up to a central vacuum system. The filter is cleaned in a well with compressed air, and the fines are captured by a hood. 

This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue.