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In July 2003 I cut the tip of my left index finger mostly off
on a table saw at a friend's house. This was of course my own
fault for not being sufficiently safety conscious, but it
probably would not have happened on better equipment. For one
thing, the blade was very dull so I had to push hard on the
wood to get it to go through the saw, which tempted me to push
with my left hand instead of using it only for guiding the
wood against the fence. So while I was using a pushstick in my
right hand, my left hand ended up pushing towards the blade
without a push stick. This contractors saw was pretty
lightweight so I had to hold it down with one foot to keep it
from tipping over while I was jamming this wood through it,
which likely affected my concentration. It also had the stock
throat plate in it, which leaves a very big gap to the side of
the blade. I was ripping some thin strips from a 2x4, and
getting to the end of a test cut when something happened which
caused the offcut to get jammed into the gap between the blade
and the throat plate. My left hand now had little resistance
from the wood and went into the blade. I tried to pull it
back, but it was too late and I felt a smack on my fingers as
if someone had hit them with a piece of wood. Seeing a mess on
the end of my hand I quickly put it in a rag and got my friend
to drive me to the hospital. Fortunately, it was just the tip
of one finger, which a good orthopedic surgeon put back on. Of
course the bone was gone from the saw kerf area and had to be
cleaned up, and the nail was mostly gone from one side, but
the chunk he put back on the end has taken nicely and I even
have some feeling back in the tip now. Its a bit shorter,
looks and feels kind of funny, but all in all its hard to hope
for anything better than that when you put your hand into a
table saw.
I gave some serious thought to my lifelong interest in making
things with tools that can maim. But in the end I decided that
this is just too big a part of who I am to give up, and vowed
to be more safe in the future but to continue using power
machines. In order to give myself the best chance I decided to
buy a cabinet saw, and fit it out with a great fence, zero
clearance insert, and a sharp blade. After reading lots of
accident accounts with table saws on the web, I also decided
to put in some kind of splitter. I would also like to use a
blade guard, but am still undecided on which approach will
prove the least annoying.
About the same time, I discovered the Old Woodworking Machines web
community, and opened my mind to buying something old and
reconditioning it. This would also help me to know my tool and
give some more though to the whole situation while my finger
healed. So I found a Powermatic 66 for sale in the local Want
Ads magazine and purchased it.
This machine came from a junior-high school shop, donated to a
woodworker/preacher who had led the life of a depraved hippy
in his youth but then one day had a rapturous seizure which
led him to dedicate his life to god. One of the ways this
manifested was that he built a lot of cabinets for god, built
a church for god, built a house for god, worked with
delinquent kids to build furniture for god, and resold donated
woodworking machines for god.
I'm not sure of the undoubtedly depressing circumstances which
caused a junior high school wood shop to close its doors
forever, but it did bring me a 1973 special edition Powermatic
66 table saw. I had to take it mostly apart to move it home in
my friend JD's truck and get it into my house. Here it is
sitting in our spare kitchen.
You are _so_ dirty
After much work to recondition and replace parts on this
beauty, which you can read about through the sidebar, I have
it back to work now.
Sweet!
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