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NPORS Bench Saw Training (N302)
The circular saw bench is the machine with the worst amputation record on site, and almost every case comes down to a missing guard, a badly set riving knife or somebody feeding with their fingers. A day that puts the guard back on and teaches the push stick habit for good.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N302 Bench Saw different
About this course
The NPORS N302 Bench Saw category covers the circular saw bench used on construction sites, in joinery shops, formwork yards and maintenance workshops to rip and cross cut timber and sheet material. It covers the machine and its guarding, setting up for a cut, ripping, cross cutting and the use of push sticks and jigs, along with the maintenance, dust control and authorisation arrangements that surround it.
The saw bench has an unenviable record. HSE's investigations into circular saw bench accidents found that most stemmed from inadequate or missing guards and from insufficient operator training, and a high proportion of the injuries were finger amputations. Kickback is the most dangerous single event: a piece of timber picked up by the back of the blade and thrown at the operator, usually because the riving knife was missing, wrongly set or too thin. The other recurring cause is the hand that keeps feeding the timber right up to the blade because no push stick was to hand.
A day covers the machine in the detail it deserves. The guarding arrangement, which means a top guard adjusted as close as practicable to the workpiece and a riving knife thicker than the blade body but thinner than the cut it makes. Push sticks, at least 450 millimetres long with a bird's mouth, used for the last part of every cut and for any short cut. Blade selection, condition and sharpness, and why a blunt blade needs more feed force and kicks back more readily. Fence setting, cross cut arrangements, jigs and packing. Extraction above and below the table. And the authorisation question: who in your organisation is actually allowed to use this machine.
- The machine and its guarding: table, blade, rise and fall, fence, extraction and isolation, a top guard set as close as practicable to the workpiece, a correctly dimensioned riving knife and guarding below the table
- Push sticks and push blocks: dimensions, when they must be used, and the rule about the last part of every cut and any short cut
- Blade selection and condition, sharpening and setting, and how a blunt or damaged blade changes feed force and kickback risk
- Ripping and cross cutting: fence setting, support for long or wide material, packing and jigs, and cutting sheet material safely
- Kickback: what causes it, where the operator should stand, and what to do when a piece binds
- Wood dust and extraction above and below the table, noise, and duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998, including who is authorised to use the machine
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N302 Bench Saw category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card where you hold the relevant NVQ, carrying the CSCS logo while your CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date
- Operators who set the guard and the riving knife before the machine is switched on and who reach for a push stick without thinking
- A clear record of who is trained and authorised to use the saw bench, which is what an inspector or an insurer asks for first
Who should attend?
Site carpenters and joiners, formwork, shuttering and falsework crews, timber frame and modular builders, joinery workshops and fabrication shops, plant hire and builders merchants cutting material for customers, and maintenance and facilities teams with a saw bench in the workshop. It is also the right course for site managers and supervisors who need to understand what good guarding looks like before they walk past a machine that has none.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, able to stand at a machine and handle timber and sheet material safely, and able to follow spoken and written English well enough for the theory test, though an interpreter or a reader can be arranged on request. No prior card is required. Tell us at enquiry what saw bench you run, what extraction is fitted and what material you cut, because the practical is built around them. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo you need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass at Operatives level taken within the last two years, which we book for you.
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the machine, the guarding standard, kickback and the duties, then practical cutting on the bench with correct guarding and push sticks, with theory and practical testing at the end.
The machine, the guarding and the duties
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and PUWER 1998 as they apply to woodworking machinery, including training and authorisation
- Machine components: table, blade and arbor, rise and fall, fence, riving knife, top guard, extraction and isolation
- The guarding standard: top guard position, riving knife dimensions and setting, and guarding below the table
- Push sticks and push blocks, their dimensions and the cuts for which they are required
- Blade selection, condition, sharpening and setting, and the effect of a blunt blade on feed force and kickback
- Ripping, cross cutting, cutting sheet material, and supporting long or heavy workpieces
- Kickback and binding: causes, operator position and the correct response
- Wood dust, extraction, respiratory protection, noise and housekeeping around the machine
On the saw bench
- Pre use checks of the machine, guards, riving knife, fence, blade and extraction, and reporting a defect
- Setting the riving knife and adjusting the top guard correctly for the workpiece
- Selecting and fitting the right blade, and isolating the machine before any blade change
- Ripping timber with the fence set correctly and the push stick used for the final part of the cut
- Cross cutting safely with appropriate support or a jig
- Cutting short and narrow pieces using push sticks and push blocks rather than fingers
- Shutting down, isolating, cleaning down and leaving the machine and the area safe
Method of assessment
How the N302 bench saw test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and practical test. The practical is carried out on a properly guarded machine, because a saw bench that cannot be guarded correctly cannot be used for the assessment either.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many people, where, what saw bench you run and what extraction is fitted. Six sit the course with one instructor and one machine. We quote per group.
2. Pre course check
We check that the machine available for the practical is correctly guarded and in serviceable condition, agree whether you need the CSCS logo version of the card, book the CITB test where it applies, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
Classroom on the machine, the guarding standard and the duties, then practical cutting on the bench with the guards and push sticks used properly throughout.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering legislation and authorisation, machine components, guarding, riving knives, push sticks, blades, kickback and dust control.
5. Practical test
You carry out the checks, set the guard and riving knife, select and fit a blade, rip and cross cut with correct technique and push stick use, and shut down safely, assessed against the NPORS test specification.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for your card, carrying the CSCS logo where you hold a current CITB Health, Safety and Environment test.
After the course
The guard that got taken off in 2019
Almost every badly guarded saw bench on a site was guarded when it arrived. The top guard was removed for an awkward cut and never replaced, the riving knife was taken off to run a dado or a groove and lost, the push stick got used as a wedge. The training tells operators what right looks like, but the machine has to be put back into that condition and kept there. The most useful thing a supervisor can do after this course is walk to the saw bench and check the guard, the riving knife and whether there is a push stick hanging on the machine.
The other half of the job is authorisation. A saw bench should be used by people who are trained and authorised to use it, and by nobody else. That means a named list, not a general assumption that any carpenter can use any machine. The NPORS card is a straightforward way of showing who is on that list and when they were last trained.
- N303 Circular Saw for the other circular saw category your crews are likely to need
- N301 Abrasive Wheels where the same people also cut metal, stone or concrete with a grinder
- N704 Manual Handling for the timber and sheet material that has to be lifted onto the bench
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us where the CSCS logo version of the card is needed
Build your course
Who is coming, and how many
We do not run these to a timetable. The course is built around your people: how experienced they are and how many of them there are, which is what sets the length and the cost. Pick the mix and we will come back with a date and a price.
The course builder needs JavaScript. Without it, tell us how many people and what experience they have and we will price it up.
N302 Bench Saw FAQs
The NPORS test sheet gives a one day novice duration with six candidates and one instructor, and the same maximum of six on a refresher. We confirm the length when we quote.
Not on the NPORS test sheet we work from. N302 shows a novice course and a refresher, each with a maximum of six tests, and no experienced worker figure. Experienced users therefore take the course or the refresher rather than a test only route.
Because it is what stops the timber closing on the back of the blade and being thrown at the operator. It has to be thicker than the blade body but thinner than the cut the blade makes, set the right distance from the blade, and it has to be there. Kickback is the single most dangerous event on a saw bench.
HSE guidance is that a push stick should be at least 450 millimetres long with a bird's mouth, and that one is used for any cut shorter than 300 millimetres and for the last 300 millimetres of every longer cut. The course makes that a habit rather than a rule people remember when the inspector is watching.
They should be trained and authorised on that machine specifically. The saw bench is one of the machines where the law expects an identified group of authorised users rather than a general assumption of competence, and this card is a simple way of recording who is on that list.
Yes. Effective extraction above and below the table, respiratory protection where the extraction is not enough, and good housekeeping. Wood dust is a health hazard in its own right and it also affects how well you can see the cut and the guard.
Yes, provided the saw bench is correctly guarded and serviceable. Training on your own machine is worth far more than training on ours, because the guard, the fence and the extraction people will use every day are the ones they learn on.
An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card where the holder has the relevant NVQ. Either carries the CSCS logo while a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass is in date.
NPORS courses are priced per course, not per person. What you are paying for is the instructor, the registered tester and the machine time, so the figure turns on four things: the category, which route your operators need (novice, experienced, conversion or refresher), how many people are coming, and whether we run it on your site or at one of ours. It is also why a squad works out considerably cheaper per head than sending operators out one at a time. Use the course builder on this page: tell it who is coming and it works out how many days the course takes and how many times it has to run, which is what the price is built from. Then ask us and you will get a figure for that exact group rather than a list price with conditions attached.
We run NPORS courses across the UK rather than out of one fixed centre, and for most categories the better answer is that we come to you: your operators are assessed on the machine they will be using anyway, nobody loses a day travelling, and for a group it costs less. If you would rather come to us, we have centres at Trent House in Stoke, Pride Park in Derby, Europa House in Manchester and Kingsway House in Liverpool. Tell us where the work is and we will say honestly which way round makes more sense.
There is no fixed timetable to wait for. NPORS courses here are run to order, which means the dates are built around your programme rather than ours, and a single operator or a full squad can normally be booked in within a couple of weeks. If you have a card about to expire or a start date to hit, say so when you enquire and we will work to it.
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