Curteshelman

Interesting that no one I saw said they didn't use it.

Even if I cut the dovetails by hand, I'll use sawn veneer plywood for the bottom. You can then glue it in place. This prevents racking of the drawer, which is the usual failure mode. This is one time when solid wood is far inferior structurally because you can't glue it all around. And the sawn veneer has a very good look.

I too am a physician and woodworker with a Powermatic table saw. I had one serious injury. Using aluminum push sticks, one of them wandered into the blade. It was shoved back about a tenth of a blade rotation, but that jammed the blunt end into my palm. It ripped the skin loose and inverted it into the cut, so I ended up with an oval defect. Healed fine.

Following that.... I made all new throat plates for my saw and installed riving knife like projections coming up out of the throat plates. Two heights, one about a half and one about an inch. So I only use a flat throat plate if I am making a very thin cut.

Second, I made a bunch of disposable plywood push sticks that have a broad flat area that rests on the piece, and a notch in the back that pushes the piece through. They are plywood and triangular, so my hand hold is a oval hole in the plywood, several inches above the blade.

I don't use the guard. Can't see through the danged thing, and frankly I have never been in anybody's shop that did use one. Let's give a Nobel to whoever invents a good one.

Nice work. Terrific.

What glue did you use? And do you have trouble with the differential swelling of the different species or even of radial end-grain vs tangential end-grain?

I made an end-grain cutting board decades ago, and it broke itself to pieces all too quickly. Would like to try again.

Thanks for the kind words. Shavins, I would recommend the book Traditional Japanese Furniture by Kazuko Koizumi. The introductory essay discusses "floor-level lifestyle." Other elements: Asymmetry I got. Simplicity I probably failed at. It was fun to design. Note larger drawers above smaller ones and vertical elements don't line up.

I have been in lots of shops and never seen anyone using a blade guard on a table saw. My Powermatic 66 came with one. But it interferes with the sight line to the cut, especially when the plastic gets scratched or dirty. It also has all this distracting extra motion so it is harder to see the work piece. So I have never used it after some initial tries.

The splitter is attached to the guard which is a problem until I recently made splitters attached to throat plates. I like that a lot. But not the guard.

I would be interested in some folks discussing the issue who have successfully used their guards and how they got past the issues that have stopped me.

Maybe Fine Woodworking can review guards. I would be interested in a survey of how many of us really use them.