UnseenWombat

Leaving comment.

"Riffler writes: Make a mark on top of the fence with permanent marker indicating the start of the table insert and never allow your hands to go beyond that mark."

The table insert? I never allow my right hand any closer than the front edge of the TABLE, and my left hand never gets any closer than the miter gauge slot. As you can probably guess, this means I use push sticks for just about everything.

I also make sure to keep my weight back and consciously control the pressure of hand on the sticks such that if the stick slips or is flung out of the way, I won't fall toward the saw nor will my hand involuntarily fly toward the blade.

I think, like others have said, that CNC has a place for people who want to do a certain thing with their woodworking.

Also, consider this: only die hard purists or the Amish use nothing but hand tools, and even most Amish have upgraded to power tools. Who here shapes crown molding with a hand-scraper instead of a router? The CNC is the same. It's as big a step above a fixed router as a router is above hand scrapers. That's all.

Most of the hobbyist CNC machine reviews I've read are horrendous though. The Carvewright and the Compucarve are useless junk from what I've read. The only good tool I know of is the Shopbot. Yes, they're expensive, but my opinion is buying one new from the manufacturer is foolish. There are tons of used machines out there that you can get for half price or less.

My saw doesn't have a riving knife, and I've removed the guard because it always gets in my way. The way I keep myself safe is I never let my hands get anywhere near the saw blade. I always always use a push stick unless the piece is so large that I can hold it with my hand on the other side of the miter slot.

Even that's not enough though, a push stick could slip off and if I'm bearing down on it, that could send my hand right into the teeth of the saw, so I always think of what direction the force of my hand is moving, and where it would end up if that push stick were to slip or touch the spinning blade and kick out.

I've seen some people make a rip cut with their fingers only inches from the blade. They're nuts in my opinion, and an amputation waiting to happen.

That's one nice bed. :) I love the posts and the finials.