FoxFreeman

I am one of the statistics but was fortunate enough not to lose any fingers. I did receive stiches in my left pinky finger. In anlayzing the events that lead up to the injury I was able to be objective about the event and my actions that caused it.

1. I was too tired to be working in the shop: I have a basement shop and work outside the home to support my family. Like most of my fellow work workers, I had several projects lined up and wanted to finish one before starting another. Thus, after a 12 hour day at the office and dinner, I went down stairs to "make some progress and get something done every day on that project." While making repetitive cuts on several pieces of the same size, I was reaching over the blade to help keep it against the fence. I had removed the safety guard to cut smaller pieces and had not reinstalled it. For just a few seconds, I lost my attention to detail, got to close to the blade and was injured.

A. I now use two push sticks. This keeps my fingers far away from the blade.

B. At the time of the injury, I allowed the blade to extend too far above the piece. I now an very deligent about blade extension.

C. I do not reach over the blade.

D. I keep the table top waxed to allow the piece to move smoothly through the saw and cutting zone.

E. I stay out of the shop when I am tired or do not have the attention to detail that I need to keep the quality of the project as high as my skills can achieve.

2. What I have not done: I will admit to my fellow wood workers that I have not re-installed the safety guard beacuse it is too cumbersome. I cannot aadequately monitor the piece as it moves through the cutting zone. I do use a splitter most of the time to facilitate the process but find that the kick-back grabber mars softer woods like pine and that the chip deflector totally obscures my view of the cut and is not very functional while cutting smaller pieces. I think that on my Delta that it is "over engineered" and that a simpler version could be just as effective.