"Thomas G. Marshall" . com
wrote in message news:qAIui.3596$9F4.2407@trndny04...

I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of
a near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of
other's mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this
thread dies with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or
more?


A couple of weeks ago a buddy came over to use some of my tools. He's
probably got 2x the experience I do in woodwork and around a shop, but he
made a mistake. He was using the router in the router table, and put the
work pin on the wrong side of the router bit. Instead of giving him
protection from being drawn into the router, the pin served as a perfect
pivot to throw his small workpiece into the bit. His finger (or thumb, I
don't remember) hit the follower bearing on the bit instead of the cutting
surface, so he wasn't harmed. He was probably 1/4" away from losing part of
a finger. And routers, like belt sanders, don't leave pieces that can be
re-attached. They leave meat dust.