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my grandfather only lost one finger tip to a joiner. My father had two fingers pretty well mangled by a table saw. I used to do some carpentry but have lost interest in the last couple of decades.

What really scares me are band saws!



Band saws are scary, but actually quite safe in comparison to table saws or radial arm saws.


Yeah I wouldn’t use a radial arm saw if you paid me. A friend had one he wasn’t using in his garage he offered to give me and I politely passed.


I've never really used a radial arm saw. What's so dangerous about it compared to the other shop tools talked about in this thread?


A table saw is a fixed position blade you feed wood into. A radial arm saw is a moving blade and the wood is stationary. Some of the cuts can involve pointing the blade directly at parts of your body, and then moving it without cutting yourself. A fixed blade is safer since you can try to avoid being in the blade area, but if the blade area is dynamic that becomes much more difficult.

A good video with examples (of pictures of recommended cuts, not injuries) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Zeg8fHVrJBk

A good example is at 1:20 of the video.


I think bandsaws are much safer than table saws. The band saw naturally forces the work against the work surface instead of towards the user. You should give bandsaws another chance.

If I had a small hobbyist shop I think I would spend extra to get a big bandsaw and make do with a circular saw and a nice track. A circular saw and a router (for dados) can substitute for a table saw. You can't resaw without a bandsaw.




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