Safety is critical when using woodworking machines

Many of the machines that are in everyday use in a woodworking company, a door manufacturer or furniture manufacture can be considered quite dangerous to use. These machines normally have the wood inserted into them or through them, bring the operator into a potentially injurious situation. A shaper is a perfect example of how dangerous these machines can be. The typical shaper has an extremely high speed rotating spindle coming up from under the bed; this spindle is fitted with a razor sharp profiled cutter which cuts a design along the edge of a board. The board must be guided along a rail and sent into the cutter, the board must continue to move forward until the cut is complete.

Under these conditions, although guards are fitted and often the work piece is held in a fixture, there is tremendous potential for injury. To overcome this, most factories that use machines which are designed to be fed with the wood use power feeders.

Power feeders take the place of an operator for the dangerous part of the operation. Now, instead of having to hold the wood and guide it completely through the machine, the operator now just has to advance the wood into the power feeders, and they take over.

A power feeder is a device which consists of rollers, usually three, that are mounted on a bogie. There is a belt which encompasses all three rollers which are powered. In many cases there are two belts. Regardless of the number of belts, the operation is the same. The thickness of the wood that is going to be sent into the cutters is preset between the guide fence of the machine and the surface of the belt, as the rollers and belt are on a bogie, they can accommodate minor variances and be set to firmly grip the work piece. The rollers are driven by an electric motor and the speed of travel for the wood is set through a variable speed controller. There is a hold down that is fitted to the shaper or the guide fence to stop the wood from becoming misaligned. As the wood is entered into the cutter area, the power feeders take over, pulling the wood through the cutter and sending it out the other side where it can be safely withdrawn by the operator.

All wood Inc are suppliers of new and used woodworking equipment, supplies and accessories such as power feeders which can be adapted to many different machines.