[bradly]

> The blade guard helps too, but AFAIK, there are many instances where you can't use it.

Blade guards are rarely used in shops I've worked in. I've even worked in a shop that removed the riving knifes on their saws as they got in the way of certain cuts and they didn't want to spend time taking them on and off.

[ckozlowski]

Stumpy Nubs over on YT gave some testimony where he believes that a well-made blade guard could prevent most injuries. He believes that it's a culture around not using them (or poorly-made ones) that is the source of most injuries.

Timestamped for convenience: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxKkuDduYLk

[AlotOfReading]

Every tradesman knows people that actively refuse to use PPE and other safety equipment. There's are huge social stigmas against it in most crews.

[antihero]

Does that mean decorating helmets with union stuff is actually a great marketing win for safety?

[Spooky23]

Totally. It’s also evidence that the control has been accepted and incorporated into the workers identity/image.

You see it in utilities. Gas workers will helmet up swapping out a meter head.

[bluGill]

The blade guards on the cheap tablesaws are awful and everyone removes them. The good table saws come with guards that work much better (but still not perfect sometimes you have to remove them but most of the time they work well). You can buy a new table saw for under $100, a good blade guard can be bought separately for $300 so you see why a lot of saws have cheap guards. (note that the cheap tablesaw too light duty to support the good guard)

[Implicated]

What sort of cuts would cause you to need to remove the riving knife?

[rocqua]

Plunging cuts, and 'cove' cuts. Also smaller blades like dado stacks.

With a cove cut you move the fence to about a 30 degree angle to the blade, to get an elliptical cove along the length of a board. It's a rare thing to need. But if you really need a wide cove, it might be hard to get a router bit to do that.

[mym1990]

Very beginner woodworker here, but dados(or any kind of groove are the ones that immediately come to mind. Essentially anything that has the work piece going over the blade, but not cutting through completely.

[lukaslalinsky]

You can keep the riving knife for those cuts, it causes no issue. just can't use the blade guard. I honestly can't imagine a cut that would require the riving knife off.

[1-more]

Dado stack. It's a smaller diameter than the blade. You'd have to be pretty lazy to not just reinstall the riving knife when you put a normal blade back on, but I could see that happening.

[mym1990]

I think people get complacent and if it a cut that one does fairly regularly, I could see someone saying on the 1000th cut "eh lets keep it off for this one time" and then it just becomes a thing.

[bradly]

Cove cuts.