There are already various safety requirements for table saws in the US, and they have been changing them. I understand that riving knives are becoming standard and I thought that they are likely to become required. I would not be that surprised to see sawstop also become required. What surprises me is no union has, to my knowledge, required sawstop saws as part of a collective bargaining agreement.
I’ve never used a guard on a table saw. I find them more hinderance than helpful.
The rules are pretty simple. Don’t feed the blade anything you don’t want it to cut and don’t wear clothes that can catch in the blade arbor. If it’s a rip cut then use a long stick to push it through or stand to the side and pull it through. Dado cuts are done with with a feed guide or a feather board. Always wear eye protection.
Everything done on a table saw is predictable and preventable and that’s more than can be said about a kitchen knife used to cut a bagel. Yes, it’s a very dangerous tool when used incorrectly but so is every other cutting tool right down to hand chisels. I find table saws to be one of the safest cutting tools I own.
Kind of an odd claim, given that mitre saws, band saws, and radial arm saws are inherently safer as they have no possibility of kickback. I’ve never heard any woodworker dispute that the table saw is the most dangerous power saw in the shop (unless you count chainsaws, I guess, but that’s a whole different ball of wax). Sure it can be used safely, but one moment’s distraction and it’ll maim you.
Miter saws and radial arm saws are specifically saws where the angle brought toward the user is often changed. I’ve watched people continue to use the same hand to pull the blade down instead of switching to the hand on the side of the cut. If you’re going to hold the wood on a miter saw do it with the hand that is away from the cut so you’re not drawing the saw toward your hand. Band saws are notorious for people feeding fingers into the blade when cutting round rough-cuts.
It’s not that I don’t think a table saw can’t be dangerous I just find it the most predictable tool. Circular saws are, IMO, a tool more likely to bite the user because it is often used on something that is poorly braced and people rarely set the cutting depth properly for a quick cut of a 2 x 4. I cringe every time my nephews walk by a circular saw. How many different ways of stupid one can use such a tool is beyond count.
So other power saws can be used carelessly and cause injury. Of course. But table saws are less forgiving due to the more open nature of the blade and the capacity of table saws for kickback. This is borne out by the injury statistics cited upthread. I think you’re the first person I’ve ever encountered who thinks table saws less dangerous than other power saws.
It was an interesting report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission but it lacked the perspective of labor-hour use. Table saws are one of the most popular woodworking tools if not the most popular.
Yes, (IMO) I think table saws are less dangerous (than the other tools listed in the report) because they are in a fixed position. You’re not drawing the blade to you or rotating stock into the blade. It’s either a rip cut or a crosscut. I find circular saws far more dangerous because they’re almost never used properly and often involve loosely held stock.
The figure I found most interesting in the report is the age group. 51 year old males which I could extrapolate to mean hobbyist.
Of course they are inherently dangerous. They’re power tools.
They’re large spinning knives which can butcher meat as easily as they cut wood. Their very design makes them dangerous, their very intent is to be so.