Slicing up some gorgeous bending oak from Zena Forest Products to send overseas with my kayak building kits. I don’t sell bending oak domestically anymore because people can order it a lot cheaper from J. W. Swan & Sons (or pick some up in person from Zena), but I’m happy to put it in the kits that we send overseas to save on what would otherwise be a massive separate shipping cost. These ribs are going to Australia where bending wood is hard to come by.
I’ve been cutting my bending oak for a while now with a thin kerf circular saw blade in the tablesaw. This increases the yield by about 25% and lets me do this on an under powered saw. I can’t say for certain but as far as I can tell I think this is safe, but I wouldn’t do it on anything thicker than 1 1/4, I’m cutting wet wood which is a lot softer, I take the blade out every 50 ribs to clean the gunk off, and I only cut about 200 ribs before I put a fresh blade on. (It’s 10 bucks don’t be a cheapskate!)
Anytime you’re mass producing small parts on a tablesaw the risks go up. Just like with boating my approach to safety is to focus more on judgment and technique than building a cage of safety features that may or may not work as intended. Thats just me though.
Appropriately powered saw/blade combo
Zero clearance insert
New blade
Safety glasses
Never gloves
Stand out of the way
Keep firm control of the wood
Use a push stick
Push all the way through
Use the push stick to move the offcut
Never reach around to grab the rib
Don’t cut tired, stay focused
23 years, 10 fingers still, only one serious accident (workpiece exploded during normal cutting operations. So scary. Safety glasses saved my eye.)
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