80K views · Dec 2, 2017 · 8:35 · 2 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2018–2020
A woodworker shows how his table saw accident happened, why it happened and how to avoid a similar one. He describes severe hand lacerations from a blade contact.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN recommends it as a candid mea culpa and a kickback demonstration that changed how people use push blocks.
“Pretty good "mea culpa" video here from a guy that cut his hand up”HN comment, 2018
“Pretty good "mea culpa" video here from a guy that cut his hand up”
Table saw accident story and safety lessons
I moved around a lot as a kid, so I saw a lot of wood shop teachers. All were missing various parts of fingers. Pretty good "mea culpa" video here from a guy that cut his hand up: this video
“This is one of my favorite kickback demonstrations.”
Kickback demonstration changed commenter's push-block practice
This is one of my favorite kickback demonstrations. Since watching this, I have made sure to keep my push block/stick close to the blade & applying pressure toward the fence, instead of closer to the fence & applying pressure toward the blade. this video
“tons of experienced woodworkers have had blade touches and/or kickback-induced blade touches.”
Example that experienced woodworkers also get injured
> They are not a problem if a parent teaches young kids how to use them properly. The statistics don’t bear out that training or experience eliminates risk of serious injury. It’s even trivially disprovable with anecdotes - tons of experienced woodworkers have had blade touches and/or kickback-induced blade touches. Here’s 3: link link this video If anyone is learning advanced shop safety, a few years ago I made the advanced survey that I wished existed: link . link has table saw injury stats. In an era of flesh-detecting table saws, using a table saw without it (other than weird special-purpose saws) means underestimating either the probability or the consequences.
