On 21/05/2020 08:44, fred wrote:
On Wednesday, May 20, 2020 at 4:06:38 PM UTC+1, wrote:
A cautionary tale! Typed using less than the usual number of fingers.

Until an hour ago I had never (in many! years) had a bad kick-back on a
saw table. Everyone knows not to stand in-line with the cut and not to
cut short pieces using the rip fence. I didn't stand in-line but
couldn't be bothered to fit the cross-cut table and was "only"
chamfering the edges of some new post tops, so ran the 110 square bits
of 20mm sawn between the blade (canted to 45 degrees) and the rip fence
- all was well until, very suddenly, it wasn't. Suddenly there was a
bang and pain. The piece of wood must have rotated slightly, jammed
between the blade and fence, and been fired backward at mach 2+ ... all
exactly as I was warned by Mr? in woodwork class back in 1960something.
Very fortunately my fingers did not get the blade (or vice versa) but
the wood has caused bad bruising, swelling and a few holes in my right
centre and ring finger - the centre one may be broken. I'm starting to
wish the initial numbness would return.
Take care, and use that cross cut table!

I've had a few of those but only minor ones but definitely brown trouser moments. When I attempt what you did I use extreme caution. Best to clamp a small piece of wood to the fence which ends before the saw blade and take your measurement from there but we've all got 20/20 hindsight

Yes, when cutting to length I normally clamp a block to the rip fence or
use the cross-cut carriage with a stop block to get repeatable lengths
.... but I needed a chamfer and the blade only tilts one way and this was
"only" a small cut, and (insert lots of other "only"s) - bottom line is
that I was a prat and lucky to escape with my right middle finger still
attached and likely to function normally once it stops looking like an
over-inflated blue balloon. My wife is very relieved ;-)