"Discussing subjects like this and learning what would best work for each of us is never a waste of time or effort. It's never a reason to feel stupid or be embarrassed. It's especially true for those of us who have some physical limitations or abilities.
I am deaf, use a cochlear implant to hear and have balance issues. I broke my back in 2001 and have limited flexibility. That's why I chose to build 2x4 grid to use for rough cutting plywood sheets and I use the grid on the floor. It's a lesser distance to fall should my balance "wander" momentarily."
Ken Fitzgerald posted this comment yesterday in a discussion and inspired me to pass on a recent experience that I was not going to share. I have a lot of things medically wrong with me and until recently didn't know I was diabetic. One of the problems has been dizziness so I have tried my best to only work power tools when the wife is home.
Long story short I'm revamping the shop with hand tools being the primary source of work flow. The shop is a total mess things outta place etc. I was ripping pieces for the base of a work bench and finished the cut the next thing I knew I was clutching my left hand and trying to get out of the shop. I lost the 1/2 of my thumb nail, index finger below the finger nail, and severely mangled the middle finger.
I was asked how......... my initial answer was I slipped or tripped on something and my hand caught the blade to stop me from falling. It wasn't till a week or so later that I went back out to the shop to see what I tripped on. Although I had crowded myself there was plenty of room to operate the saw without a trip hazard and stay safe.
I was done and moving my left hand to turn the saw off. I had laid the push stick to the right of the fence. I don't use the guard that came with the saw because it causes more problems than a few. During this cut I used a mag feather board for the first time to keep the stock against the fence so my left hand wasn't even in the game. In the past for long rips I use a Unifeeder and jig to keep it clamped to the table and fence.
The root cause of this injury was the dizziness, complicated with the omission of a guard and proper egress path. There is an argument that if I had the guard on I would have not gotten hurt, maybe so or to this extent but the stitches at the base of index and middle finger lead me to believe other wise. Don't get me wrong I ordered a shark guard and until it comes in I will use the original.
The take away from all of this is proper clearances, know your egress route, emergency shut down, (I left it running) and last but not least your personnel limitations.
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Originally Posted by Scott Vigder
