Ran out yesterday to get rid of some scrap metal. Stopped at the local restaurant on the way back for supper. While there, a couple and their daughter from our village came in and took the booth behind us. We've known them for over 50 years, so started chatting as neighbours do. Turns out they had just returned from the hospital, where he had undergone a "minor" procedure. It seems that he had been trying out his new tablesaw back in September, when he reached for a loose piece of lumber, resulting in the abrupt removal of an inch or so of his left thumb! Yesterday's appointment was to remove part of the nail, which had started to re-grow out of the stump.  It was the first time he had ever tried using a tablesaw. His wife and daughter got rid of the saw to avoid any similar occurrences in the future. PLEASE, folks... ALWAYS KEEP YOUR FINGERS AT LEAST 5" FROM A SPINNING BLADE! (Not my rule, I read it somewhere.)

Excellent rule.

3 hours ago, HARO50 said:

ALWAYS KEEP YOUR FINGERS AT LEAST 5" FROM A SPINNING BLADE! (Not my rule, I read it somewhere.)

Seem to recall Ralph Jones saying that as well as always in his posts. Good reminder. Sorry to hear about your friend. Thankful the injury wasn't any worse than it was.

Yes Ralph but I think he said 6 inches .

11 hours ago, Gerald said:

Yes Ralph but I think he said 6 inches .

Could have been. My memory's not what I think it once was.

50 minutes ago, HARO50 said:

Could have been. My memory's not what I think it once was.

 

My 6 inches isn't either.

I looked up some old posts, and I stand corrected. 6"! I guess size DOES matter.

My uncle was using a dado blade w/out a push block. Board kicked back and his hand went down on to the blade. Lost three fingers. My aunt went looking under the saw in the saw dust for his fingers before going to ER. I’m a retired firefighter/EMT. Was @ an ER one evening and saw a man in one of the exam rooms with a towel around his thigh soaked with blood. Asked what happened. He was cutting a 2”x4” the he laid across leg. THINK SAFTY FIRST. Steve

6" was Ralphs standard, and it's a good one that I adhere to, except for dado/molding head operations, then it's 10". And, when I'm doing production runs I take a break every 1/2 hour or so, and when I get to the end of a run, I stop and take an extra break. Doing this helps to stop the " let's just get it done" rushing.

The shop I worked for the longest had a two stick policy, and I still use two to this day.  I made this quick vid for a friend who I sent a couple sticks to:

 

That second stick has a birdsmouth cut on the end, and as you can see it's used to control the work past the blade, since that is the dangerous spot.  My favorite part of that is that it can be used to keep the kerf from closing as the cut releases tension in the wood - that's what I'm doing when I move it a few inches into the cut.