Craftsman 137.218073 Operator's Manual page 43

RIPPING (FIG. XX, YY)
WARNING
!
To prevent serious injury:
● Never use a miter gauge when
ripping.
● Never use more than one rip
fence during a single cut.
● Do not allow familiarity or
frequent use of your table saw
to cause careless mistakes.
Remember that even a careless
fraction of a second is enough to
cause a severe injury.
● Keep both hands away from the
blade and clear from the path of
the blade.
● The workpiece must have a
straight edge against the fence
and must not be warped, twisted,
or bowed when ripping.
1. Remove the miter gauge and store
it in the "storage" compartment in
the base of the saw.
2. Secure the rip fence to the table.
3. Raise the blade so it is about 1/8 in.
higher than the top of the workpiece.
4. Place the workpiece flat on the table
and against the fence. Keep the
workpiece away from the blade.
5. Turn the saw ON and wait for the
blade to come to full speed.
6. Slowly feed the workpiece into the
blade by pushing forward only on
the workpiece section (1) that will
pass between the blade and the
fence. (Fig. XX)
7. Keep your thumbs off the table top.
When both of your thumbs touch
the front edge of the table (2), finish
the cut with a push stick (3).
To make an additional push stick, use
the pattern on page 56. (Fig. ZZ)
WARNING
!
AVOID KICKBACK by pushing
forward on the section of the
workpiece that passes between the
blade and the fence. Never perform
any freehand operations.
Fig. XX
2
WARNING
!
When width or rip is narrower than
2 in., the push stick cannot be used
because the blade guard will interfere.
Use the auxiliary fence (5) and push
block (6) as shown in Fig. YY.
Fig. YY
7
4
8. Continue pushing the workpiece (4)
with the push stick (3) or push
block (6 - Fig. YY) until it passes
through the blade guard and clears
the rear of the table. (Fig. XX)
43 43
4
3
1
5
6