Folks -

Well I've either had an accident with the saw, or not. Here's what
happened.

I was cutting leg blanks out of 8/4 oak with a Freud Rip blade and a low
"unisaw" style aux. fence attached to the Bies. My wife was standing on the
outfeed side taking the blanks off of the table as they were cut. She's
helpt before and knows *NOT* to pull on the stock and also to just support
it, not turn it at all as she removes it from the table.

Well it all happed so fast (the six scariest words in the shop) anyway, I
was cutting the last leg blank and there was a narrow offcut on the "waste"
side of the blade. I *don't* remember quite what happened next, except that
the push stick I was using hit the blade and got tossed out of shop. I had
the presence of mind not to hang onto it - we had just finished the cut and
there was a POP! and zing.... My main concern was that Rose wasn't injured.
Well, we were both wearing safety gear, and I ducked as the push stick
zinged overhead in a fast high arc. We both counted to ten, literally and
figuratively. I turned the saw off, took a breath, unplugged it, and
inspected the blade very carefully. I didn't find any chipped teeth or
obvious damage, so all was well.

Later on, after about an hour or so, my left pinkie was hurting. I looked
at it and discovered a small cut, less than 1/16 wide, about 1/8 long and
just deep enough to break the skin on the back of the end finger segment.
It wasn't even bleeding. I didn't remember cutting myself on anything, and
even though I had gotten a number of splinters over the course of the day,
this cut looked too clean. I took a jeweler's loupe and looked at the cut
very carefully. Like I say, I don't remember cutting it on the saw when the
push stick went sailing, and I don't *think* I nicked it on the blade when I
was turning it carefully over by hand after the fact.

So, the situation is both a big relief and also very disturbing. It could
be that I nicked it on the blade during inspection, or hit it on something
else or it was a splinter - but I have done some thinking and here's what I
came up with:

1) I pushed the stock being cut through the blade and then in coming back up
to finish, I hit the blade with the push stick and all hell broke loose.

OR

2) Rose was using the leg blank to tip the offcut away from the blade and we
had a "mid-air" behind the blade, sending the push stick flying.

Either of these *could* have been what happened. When the push stick hit
the blade and went over my head, I ducked and turned to the right. When I
turned to the right, my left hand, which was holding the left edge of the
table turned with my body and because my attention was on the trident
missile overhead, the back of my finger touched the tip of the blade.

In looking VERY carefully at the cut, it looks like that's what happened. A
very sobering experience, and I was *VERY* lucky it wasn't worse.

Having given it some more thought, here's how I could have reduced the
likelihood of injury:

1) Had an easy to use outfeed table to support the cuts and get them out of
harms way, instead depending on my wife.

2) I should have been using a long narrow "shoe" style pushstick, with a
hand guard. My push stick was too short (My wife has told me this MANY
times) and my hands were too close to the blade for the cut I was making.

3) Had a blade guard. Currently, I don't have blade protection. You guys
ever hear of this? The stock guard is the only thing that's more dangerous.
So, yes, I am looking for an aftermarket blade cover.

4) Not explaining fully the nature of what I wanted my wife to do and the
consequences of not fully understanding what would happen if there was an
accident. This is solely my own fault.

I'll be posting a query about blade guards later today. Even though I may
NOT have cut my finger on the saw, it gave me pause to think about the
ramifications of my actions. Today, I am a lucky guy.


John Moorhead