COOL! Getting your workpiece flat and straight is half the battle - use whatever you have available 😎

While not as pristine as a blank created with a pucker planer thicknesser, I'm well happy with the results and can now practise to my hearts content without ruining top class wood and wasting money.

Looking good James, that’s the first time I’ve heard good things about this device. 

I know from a recent live stream that Mark isn't a huge fan of the safe T planer

Nor me!

I think it was the winning finalist in a 'Design an Accident Waiting to Happen' competition. There are just so many things that could go horribly wrong, please be really careful. Just watching some of the 'instructional' videos on YouTube sends a shiver up my spine and if you can rig up a foot operated 'off' switch for your pillar drill than all the better!

One of the key things to consider when using any power tool or machine is 'What happens if something goes wrong?' For example with a bandsaw you always need to makes sure that you hands are never pushing directly towards the blade but rather to either side of it. That way if the wood suddenly splits or the blade breaks your hands are naturally moving towards a safe area.

If you are holding a piece of wood that suddenly grabs with a Safe T Planer then who knows where your hands may be dragged or how much damage may be done to your fingers, and as guitarists we like our fingers don't we?

Its very design involves a spinning thing with catchy bits on it and if, for example, the cuff of your sleeve was to get unexpectedly caught, it would just wind you in!

It really is one of the craziest bits of kit ever marketed to the amateur woodworking sector and you could never get away with having one in a commercial woodworking environment due to the risk assessment and the fact that you rely on using a machine in manner for which it was not designed ie applying side load on a pillar drill. Most chucks are held into these machines on a morse taper. No problem when the load in normal use is pushing the chuck tighter into the taper. However, introduce vibrating side loads with no tightening pressure and the chuck could actually come lose from the taper and drop out of the drill press. You then have a rather exciting(!) situation involving a fast spinning, heavy lump of metal with sharp bits on it bouncing around your workshop! I've seen this happen twice on my CNC router when the spindle has failed to pick up the tool holder properly and dropped it and trust me, it is a VERY worrying moment.

We are all (mostly) grown ups here and I fully respect peoples right to make their own decisions on these things but would I ever use, or allow someone under my supervision to use a Safe-T-Planer? Absolutely no way!

Darren

https://www.finewoodworking.com/forum/scary-wagner-safe-t-planer-accident

Please stop sitting on the fence @darrenking and say what you think 🤣

I appreciate your comments but surely the shirt sleeves getting caught in spinny sharp things apply to any tool, routers, table saw etc and are not peculiar to this one. 

I'm not sure how the chuck could 'drop out' of the drill press when in contact with the material being planed.

Treated with mindful respect and used safely, surely it's a useful tool for those of us working in a small shed without access to milling machinery. 

And if the worst comes to the worse I'll get into Gypsy Jazz...... Django did ok with fewer fingers than some 🤣

Hi James,

It's more about where your hands are in relation to the dangerous thing and where they may end up if something goes wrong.

The chuck could loosen and drop out when you remove the material but whilst still spinning.

Look, I'm not saying that this tool will kill you, you may use it for years and it end up being your favorite bit of kit, but I have seen accidents happen before, which I could have helped prevent but didn't, and it is a truly sickening feeling and one I never want to experience again.

I just wanted to say that even bits of kit that look relatively safe (especially ones with the word 'safe' in their name) can be surprisingly hairy in use.

Cheers

Darren

PS The Django thing. He was really a pretty good guitarist prior to losing the use of his fingers. I don't think even he would have recommended it as a career move! 🤣 

• I have seen accidents happen before, which I could have helped prevent but didn't, and it is a truly sickening feeling and one I never want to experience again.

  Totally appreciate your concern mate and will heed your advice...... but they are some seriously smooth flat pieces of wood 🤣👌😀

I used a Safe T Planer once years ago at Lutherie school. I had made a neck through Explorer and used it to thickness the top and back of the body to match the neck cre after everything was glued up. It worked great and I don’t really remember doing it much but it was awkward and a bit scary.

Not nearly as scary as when I was cutting out pieces for a Neck Jig on the table saw. I don’t know what happened but it caught the wood and threw it at me, I blocked it and it fell back onto the table and then threw it in another direction across the shop. I don’t think I’ve ever been as scared as that, before or after and I have kids!

Can't sit on the fence either, I'm a toolmaker by trade but wood is a new material for me, it was me who mentioned the jigsaw on the live feed! Taper's are wonderfull things and used correctly tend to tighten but a side load on a morse WILL have a tendency to loosen. There's a daft lad on utube trying to demo the grab on a table saw, scary. Please be careful James, use a draw bolt, it can't work loose then.

For example with a bandsaw you always need to makes sure that you hands are never pushing directly towards the blade but rather to either side of it. That way if the wood suddenly splits or the blade breaks your hands are naturally moving towards a safe area.

Another thing not to do is ...

• leave the blade guard up high on the bandsaw, rather than lowering it as far as possible
• spend an hour using an old (and getting quite blunt) bandsaw blade to rip some old doors into kindling sized pieces.
• get quite bored doing that after the hour, and possibly not being paying complete attention
• start having to push the wood quite forcefully as the blade got even blunter
• turn round to pick up the next piece of wood whilst still pushing another piece through the blade
• allow hand to slip from the pushing position, towards the blade ...

It was a bit "ouchy".

Luckily, my knuckle bore the main impact, and, with the blade being blunt, it didn't cut through the bone.

but I've had one sitting in the shed unused for a couple of years.

I've got one sitting unused in my workshop.

It'll probably stay sat!

I think I'll chalk this up as one of those 'wish I hadn't bothered posting' threads.....

@tv101 Shit TV!, was this a recent learning experience?!!

A couple of years ago @darrenking - so I was plenty old enough to have known better!

I think I'll chalk this up as one of those 'wish I hadn't bothered posting' threads.....

🤣 I think it’s probably best James. Having said that, it’s raised an important issue so it’s not waisted really. 👍