Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Woodworking
New tooling designs carry three safety benefits over blocks used in the past.
1. The limitation of cutter blade projection dramatically reduces the severity of injury for operators if they contact the rotating tooling. We have had several anecdotal accounts from people who would have had very serious injuries if they had not replaced their old tooling with chip limited tooling. Instead of amputated fingers, they got away with lacerations and stitches.
2. The chip limiter restricts the depth that the cutter can bite into the timber so ‘kick backs’ are less severe. (People tell us that they also give a better finish, reducing the amount of sanding that has to be done.)
3. LCPT tools have a secondary means of securing the cutters into the tooling body so preventing ejection. Ejection was commonplace on older style cutters which were held in place by friction clamping only.
Because of the high accident rates at VSM’s and the ease at which a power feed can be removed for that ‘one off job’, LCPT will almost certainly be required for all spindle operations. Power feeds do provide a good degree of protection from the cutters but only if set low to the table when machining smaller work pieces. Remember that LCPT does not prevent accidents, it is to reduce the severity of injury when accidents do occur.