Labor & Industries (L&I), Washington State

Machine Safety Chapter 296-806, WAC

Effective Date: 01/01/05

WAC 296-806-480 Saws and Cutting Heads

For printing

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL SAWS AND CUTTING HEADS

WAC 296-806-48002

Protect employees using saws and cutting heads

You must

• Provide safeguarding to protect employees from the hazards of feed rolls.
• Provide types and sizes of push sticks or push blocks that are suitable for the work being done.
• Use a comb (featherboard) or a suitable jig to protect employees when a standard guard can't be used.

Note: Operations where you may need a comb or jig include: – Dadoing – Grooving – Jointing – Moulding – Rabbeting

 

WAC 296-806-48004

Make sure saws and cutting heads are sharpened and tensioned by qualified people

You must

• Make sure people who sharpen or tension saw blades or cutters have demonstrated skill in this area.

 

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL SAWS

WAC 296-806-48006

Make sure saws are safe to use

You must

• Immediately remove from service a saw that has any of the following problems:
  • – Cracked
  • – Dull
  • – Badly set
  • – Improperly filed
  • – Improperly tensioned
• Immediately clean any saw where gum has begun to stick on the sides.
• Eliminate unintended fence and table movement during operation.
• Keep hinged tables and fences firmly secured and in true alignment for all positions.

 

REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL CIRCULAR SAWS

WAC 296-806-48008

Make sure all circular saws meet these requirements

You must

• Protect employees from contacting the portion of the saw beneath or behind the table by covering it with either:
  • – An exhaust hood, if one is required
    or
  • – A guard
• Prohibit workers from inserting wedges between the saw disk and the collar to form a wobble saw.

WAC 296-806-48010

Make sure circular saw gages meet these requirements

You must

• Make sure circular saw gages slide in grooves or tracks that are accurately machined to maintain exact alignment with the saw for all positions of the guide.

Note: Circular saw gages are also referred to as miter or positioning gages.

WAC 296-806-48012

Safeguard hand-fed circular table saws

You must

• Guard each hand-fed circular saw with a hood that completely encloses both the portion of the saw that is above both:
  • – The table
    and
  • – The material being cut
• Make sure the hood is designed and constructed to do all of the following:
  • – Protect the operator from flying splinters and broken saw teeth
  • – Strong enough to resist damage from reasonable operation, adjustments, and handling
  • – Made of material soft enough to not break saw teeth

Note: Hoods should be made of material that: – Doesn't shatter when broken – Isn't explosive – Is less combustible than wood

You must

• Mount the hood so it does all of the following:
  • – Operates positively and reliably
  • – Maintains true alignment with the saw
  • – Resists any side thrust or force that could throw it out of line
• Make sure the hood:
  • – Allows the material to be inserted or sawed without any considerable resistance
    and
  • – Does one of the following:
    • Automatically remains in contact with the material being cut
      or
    • Is manually adjusted to within 1/4 inch of the material being cut

    Exemption: Saws may be guarded with a fixed enclosure, fixed barrier guard, or a manually adjusted guard when specific conditions prevent using a standard automatic adjusting guard. Alternative guards have to both: – Provide protection equivalent to a standard automatic adjusting guard and – Be used according to the manufacturer’s instructions with sufficient supervision to comply with this requirement.

WAC 296-806-48014

Provide kickback protection for employees using hand-fed circular table ripsaws when ripping wood products

Definition: Ripping is a sawing operation made: – Through the thickness of the workpiece with the grain of natural wood – Along the long dimension of a rectangular workpiece, and – Usually parallel to that edge on reconstituted wood products. – This can also be described as cutting stock to width. Two or more pieces result from the operation.

 

You must

• Provide a spreader or riving knife that's:
  • – Made of hard-tempered steel or its equivalent
  • – Thinner than the saw kerf
  • – Wide enough to provide sufficient stiffness and rigidity to resist any reasonable side thrust or blow that could bend or throw it out of position
  • – Attached so it remains in true alignment with the saw when the saw or table's tilted

  Note: The spreader or riving knife should: – Prevent material from either squeezing the saw or being thrown back at the operator. – Be placed so there is 1/2 inch or less space between it and the back of the saw when the largest saw's mounted in the machine

  Exemption: You don't have to provide a spreader or riving knife when grooving, dadoing, or rabbeting. When you finish these operations, replace the spreader immediately.

You must

• Provide nonkickback fingers or dogs that are:
  • – Located so they prevent the saw from either picking up the material or throwing the material back towards the operator
  • – Designed to hold any thickness of material being cut.

  Note: Kickbacks occur when a saw seizes the stock and hurls it back at the operator. This can happen when the stock twists and binds against the side of the blades or is caught in the teeth. Kickbacks occur more often when cutting parallel to the wood grain (ripping) than when cross cutting. Common contributors to kickbacks include: – A blade that isn't sharpened. – A blade set at an incorrect height. – Poor quality lumber, such as frozen lumber, lumber with many knots, or foreign objects, such as nails.

WAC 296-806-48016

Safeguard self-feed circular saws

You must

• Provide saws and feed rolls with a hood or guard to protect the operator from contacting the in-running rolls.
• Make sure the guard is constructed of heavy material, preferably metal.
• Make sure the distance between the bottom of the guard and the plane formed by the bottom or working surface of the feed rolls meets the requirements of Table 200-1, Largest Allowable Guard Opening, in WAC 296-806-20042.

WAC 296-806-48018

Provide kickback protection for self-feed circular ripsaws when ripping wood products

You must

• Provide saws with sectional nonkickback fingers that meet all of the following requirements:
  • – They cover the full width of the feed roll
  • – They are located in front of the saw
  • – They are arranged so they keep continuous contact with the material being fed

WAC 296-806-48020

Guard circular resaws

You must

• Provide each circular resaw with a metal hood or shield that is:
  • – Located above the saw
  • – Designed to protect the operator from flying splinters or broken saw teeth

WAC 296-806-48022

Provide spreaders for circular resaws

Exemption: This requirement doesn't apply to self-feed saws with a roller or wheel at the back of the saw.

You must

• Provide a spreader that's all of the following:
  • – Securely fastened behind the saw
  • – Slightly thinner than the saw kerf
  • – Slightly thicker than the saw disk