Bench Dog Push-Loc

Safety equipment is only useful…..if you use it.

There are lots of excuses used to disregard the use of safety equipment – can’t find it, some safety equipment interferes with the operation of other safety equipment, the safety equipment interferes with the process itself.  Are these excuses ones that you are willing to overcome, or ones you’d rather be telling to the A&E department?

One fundamental rule is keeping fingers (bodyparts etc) at least 6″ away from moving blades, and a part of achieving that is the use of pushsticks. Bench Dog have attempted to overcome some of those other excuses with their Push-Loc pushstick, supplied by Professional Woodworkers Supplies

Bench Dog Push-Loc Offset Pushstick

It has a storage container that you attach where convenient, such as with double-sided tape to the unused side of the fence (or on top if you prefer).  The storage container also provides somewhere for the ever-necessary pencil and tape measure to reside.

Thin Rip w Offset Handle

In this second photo, you can really see the advantage of this pushstick.  (The storage container is just to the right of fence).  It can fit a very narrow gap between the guard and the fence, and yet where your hand would normally snag on the bladeguard (and dust port), the handle has been offset to allow extra clearance.

So back to the original potential reasons for not using an item of safety equipment:

Not able to be found/accessed easily: mounted right where you need it

Interferes with other safety equipment: thin so can pass without impacting the guard

Interferes with primary operation: rubberised base for grip, the design both pushes the workpiece from behind, and holds it down on the table and the offset handle means the operator doesn’t impact the guard.

Ticks in all the boxes.