Well, I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I had to make a new zero clearance insert, or throat plate as it is also called, for my table saw. My old one was worn so bad that it no longer offered the safety and esthetic benefits that a zero clearance insert offers.

If you are not aware, a zero clearance insert’s saw blade opening is cut to the exact width of the saw blade’s kerf. This helps prevent thin slices of wood from jamming in between the blade and the insert, as well as helps to reduce the amount of tear-out that can happen with the stock insert that comes with your table saw.

Being able to cut thin strips of wood safely and minimizing tear-out are enough reasons to install one of these throat plates on your saw. While I use the term, ‘minimizing’ in reference to tear-out this is only to err on the positive side of a statement. My own experience has shown that tear-out is virtually eliminated.

You may wonder why a zero clearance throat plate isn’t a stock item on your table saw but this is because a wider opening is required for different blade angle cuts, and since a zero clearance insert is not required for most general construction use the added cost for including an additional throat plate would be cost prohibitive.

But this is really no problem because making your own zero clearance throat plate/insert is such a simple process that you’ll be surprised that you didn’t make one sooner. Let me tell you how I made mine:

Continue reading 'How To Make A Zero Clearance Insert'

Well, another successful Woodworkers Safety Week comes to a close. It was a fantastic week for woodworkers to gain information on a variety of safety aspects related to woodworking.

Woodworking Safety Week is an annual event that attempts to bring shop safety to the forefront of our daily activities.

This was the second annual woodworking safety event which began last year after Marc Spagnuola announced that the first week of May was to be Woodworking Safety week. This was quickly embraced by the woodworking community and subsequently by woodworkers world-wide.

The woodworking community at large works together by writing blog articles, having forum discussions, creating video and podcasts, introducing new products and more with a focus on safety.

Here are some of the articles that were distributed this past week:

Continue reading 'Safety Week 2009 In Retrospect'

A couple of years ago I ordered a Dust Bee Gone dust mask with little expectations. Sure, I read the hype that it was guaranteed not to fog my glasses but I had been down this road before. Still, I had to try it.

Over the years I had tried practically every type of dust mask out there but each of them fell by the wayside for one reason or another. They fogged up my glasses, they didn’t give a good seal, they were hard to breathe through or they were so cheaply made they simply fell apart. The bottom line is that they just didn’t work. Consequently, I seldom wore them, exposing myself to the risks of toxic wood dust.

Within minutes of the Dust Bee Gone mask arriving I tried it on and tried it out. I quickly realized that it was a winner – my glasses didn’t fog up and it was very comfortable to wear. It fit perfectly to the shape of my face, even over my beard and moustache.

The Dust Bee Gone dust mask is made with a patented interlaced monofilament polyester structure that’s effective against non-toxic dusts (it is not NIOSH or OSHA approved) down to 3 microns in size. This unique material allows the exhaled hot air to pass through the filter material so your glasses don’t fog. That’s right, your glasses don’t fog up! Guaranteed.

Continue reading 'Dust Bee Gone “No Fog” Dust Mask'

During last year’s Woodworkers Safety Week I did a safety assessment on my shop and one of the things that I found missing was a fire extinguisher. I’m glad to say that I now have one.

The one I chose was one with 2.5 Kgs (5.5lbs) of dry, non-toxic chemical extinguishing agent that is propelled by a compressed, non-flammable gas. This is known as a clean agent fire extinguisher. These types of extinguishers store the agent as a liquid, which turns to gas when it hits the air. Clean agent extinguishers act to extinguish a fire by cooling and smothering it

The Class rating for this extinguisher is 3-A, 40-B, C. The ABC Class rating means that this one is a general purpose extinguisher and good to fight wood, paper and cloth fires (A) as well as flammable liquid (B) and electrical fires (C). The number preceding the A and B rating refers to the size of fire they can handle.

Class A Ratings
An extinguisher for Class A fires could have any one of the following ratings: 1-A, 2-A, 3-A, 4-A, 6-A, 10-A, 20-A, 30-A, and 40-A. A 4-A extinguisher, for example, should extinguish about twice as much fire as a 2-A extinguisher.

Class B Ratings
An extinguisher for Class B fires could have any one of the following ratings: 1-B, 2-B, 5-B, 10-B, 20-B, 30-B, 40-B, and up to 640-B.

Class C Ratings
Extinguishers rated for Class C fires are tested only for electrical conductivity. However, no
extinguisher gets a Class C rating without a Class A and/or Class B rating.

Here’s a great video on how a fire extinguisher works:

Continue reading 'A Fire Extinguisher For The Workshop'