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Scroll Saw Safety
Scroll saws are probably one of the safest tools in the shop. With small capacity motors and 5” x 1/8” blades the potential for scroll saw injuries is pretty limited. But note that I said limited NOT impossible.
As with all woodworking tools there are always good methods and practices and stupidity. Many injuries fall into the category of stupidity. After the fact we ALL say; “I should have know better”.
Let’s know better BEFORE hand.
Here’s my basic rules for scroll saw safety, injuries are best prevented!
Personal Safety
- We all know the drill. Keep your hair tied back, remove jewelry, don’t wear dangling sleeves and wear glasses. And I repeat wear glasses. Not only can the dust cause an infection, as some wood species are toxic but when that blade decides to break it could eject pieces of metal in your direction.
Wearing glasses can prevent damage to one of your body’s vital organs. - Wear low level hearing protection if you expect to be at your machine for long periods of time. Today custom earplugs are available that make protecting your hearing less onerous. As a side bonus, it also improves your concentration and thus quality of workmanship when you are not constantly being bombarded with noise.
When you get my age and you can’t hear your grandkids it is too late for regrets.
- Air Quality and Wood Toxicity
Every day the world becomes smaller. New woods are introduced to the woodworking arena on a weekly basis from some far away place that we have never heard of. What fun!
But think about the .5% of US citizens that have a peanut allergy. It is a pretty insignificant number unless you are one of the .5%.
Wood is the same story. It is only a very small number of individuals that will show any allergic reaction to various wood species. For domestic woods, toxicity is relatively well researched, but for most exotic species the research is spotty at best.
Thus wearing a dust mask and using a down draft table and/or a shop blower, is highly RECOMMENDED!
This is particularly true for the first time that you use a new wood. Keep your exposure time low, until you are sure that it has no adverse effects on your skin, lungs or eyes.
In the next article, we'll look at the idea of removing your hole down clamp and some thoughts on how the idea of blade selection might impact on scroll saw safety issues... read on..
More Information
Learn more, read our other scroll saw tips and information on just about anything related to scrolling and general woodworking.
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