Bamboo Tips - Extreme Rodmaking
Power Tool Safety

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In the barbershop a couple of months ago, my barber, who is also a better woodworker than I,  showed me his stomach.   Huge black , yellow and blue area with a couple of scabbed over places.  He is a part-time probation officer so my first thought was that he had been shot.  Answer was kickback form the table saw.  After he got off his knees, cleaned up the blood and decided against the ER, went back to the shop to finish.  Yup!  Less than a half hour later, doing the same operation it got him again, on the other side. 

A week later, I needed a new push stick (handle) for the table saw for some narrow stuff.  Thought one like a hand saw handle would be great.  Put a 2" Forstner bit in the big drill press and started hogging out for the hole, you can guess what came next.  Too small a task to get a clamp, and the only damage was a severely bruised hand that looked like a sausage.

Two nights later, trying to finish up a jig, the wife communicated that it was time to end the noise in the basement for the night (stomping 3 times on the floor above).  Saying "OK", for some reason I looked up, as if I could see through the floor.  Zing, whack! and I was on my knees, the 8" square piece of MDF nearby with sawtooth marks.  Now I had a 6" x 8" black, yellow and blue place on the tummy, with a perfect impression of the corner of the MDF bleeding.  About 2 months later that mark is still there.  The goose egg is down to a barely detectable lump. 

Lessons:

1. There is no small job in the shop - they are all potentially dangerous.

2. Keep the eyes on the task, not matter how mad she is!  (Carey Mitchell)