Yeah, I had a router grab the other day when I was cutting a shallow
mortise and run about an inch farther than I had wanted. No possibility
of flesh damage in this case but it reminded me that I never like to
have my hand in a position that could find its way into the cutting
zone if the wood suddenly slipped or fed to fast. This is one of the
first lessons I teach.

This includes pushing into the TS, I've seen this one happen. Pushing
in a bandsaw when resawing, I've come close. Face planing on a jointer.
I saw a guy with the heal of his hand hanging over the back of a board,
just as I was going to say something the board slipped forward and he
came so close to shaving his hand or worse that he sat down white as a
ghost.

Whenever I am pushing, I try to see what path my hand will take if
things go fast and really try to never have it traveling in the deadly
path.

The (slightly trimmed) tip of my left pointing finger reminds me every
day.In this case I was pulling a RAS for several hours cutting sticks
of the exact same length, hundreds of them. The install crew comes back
into the shop at the end of the day and I am listening in on their
conversation, still working, boerd and absent mindedly slid the stock
forward to the stop, leaving my left hand where it stopped, right on
the path of the blade as I pulled the RAS forward. I was very lucky
this was only a tip. It could have easily been the whole gang of
didgits on the left hand and that would have changed my life
significantly.

Now, I also ALWAYS watch the path of any cutter and make double sure i
see no flesh in that zone. I know for a fact that I wasn't doing that
at the RAS because i didn't see it happen.

BW


Toller wrote:
I was cutting a 3.5" piece of glued up wenge into a turning block. The
blade bound when I tried to cut to small a radius and suddenly cut real
good; through the remaining wood and into my finger.

Doctor says it would have been hard to cut so badly while doing so little
damage; to the bone, but in just the right spot. Three weeks good as new.
Well maybe; hard to say how if I will lose some sensation in the tip, but I
don't have much left anyhow.

I have odd luck like this. When I was 14 I cut my wrist straight across to
the bone on a broken milk bottle. Doctor didn't think it was possible to
miss the nerves, but I did.

Did I learn to stop using tools inappropriately? Only time will tell.

Odd thing is how easy it is to touch type short one finger; the ring finger
just sorta automatically takes over for the middle finger.