# This seem like the best place for this



## GHBiker (Mar 18, 2017)

Words of Caution and the price for not heeding them

I was working on a 30" X 6" stick of Ash to place a magnetic knife holder into and to do so had to cut a blind dado for an inset to be trued up with hand router and chisel. The blind dado involved putting reference marks on the fence and anchoring one end and bringing the other slowly down onto the 3/4 dado set at a quarter deep and then carefully moving it to the second reference mark. First, I have done this many times in the past carefully and with shallow cuts. Second, I have always been aware of where my fingers were in relation to the blade, just in case something were to go wrong. Third, this was a process I had done repeatedly to where it was almost automatic and I had layed it out the day before. Fourth, and importantly, my mind was on upcoming projects and the finish of this one which had a deadline of a couple of days. All of this led to what was to transpire.

As I lowered the board unto the spinning blades, anchoring the front end and lowering the rear end, the dado grabbed it and pulled it right through along with my hand holding the anchored end. I felt it and knew immediately what I had done. I turned off the saw and was afraid to look at my hand. I realized I had to as blood was gushing from my middle finger on my left hand. My Wife/Nurse/Partner/Assistant was in town, 17 miles away so I called our neighbor. I grabbed a rag and wrapped it and ignorantly squeezed, but it did slow down the blood.

I had just dadoed my middle finger and it was bad. We went to the nearest Hospital and after looking at it and redressing it they sent us to Louisville Jewish Hospital about 50 miles away, known for, among other things, its Hand Specialists. I had to have about a inch of the finger amputated. About 7 hours later we were back home.

I am writing this for two reasons. 1) to present to the members here the stupidity of my actions and let them analyze all the ignorant things I did wrong so, quite possibly, they will not make any of the many mistakes I did and, 2) To hash and rehash in my own mind all that I did wrong while it is fresh. I think the most important is not being totally focused on what I was doing.

Anyhow, I hope this will cause you all to think and reflect on how quick this can happen, regardless of how long you have been doing this Skill/hobby/vocation/art we all love and enjoy. I have many years in at this and am learning every day, but obviously not fast enough.

Your comments will not offend me, I have earned any negative ones and would welcome constructive ones also. The positive is, it could have been much worse.


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## newwoodbutcher (Aug 6, 2010)

Ouch! Was it a climb cut?


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## ibewjon (Oct 2, 2010)

Really sorry to hear of your injury and wish you a speedy recovery. Not that I am smarter than you, but I would have never considered dropping the wood onto a spinning dado. Maybe it is safe with a wide enough board to keep hands well out of the path of the dado. I would have used a router and fence for that cut. Accidents do happen in a split second.


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## newwoodbutcher (Aug 6, 2010)

Now that i see the response of ibewjon', I realize that I assumed it happened on the router table as that is a common practice. Now I realize it was a spinning dado blade. The thought of that gives me the shivers. I agree I would no lower a board onto a spinning dado blade.


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## 1thumb (Jun 30, 2012)

Get well soon. I've been doing this for 25 yrs and about sliced off my index finger a month ago. Seems to be the reaction to an action that is most harmful.


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## pottz (Sep 15, 2015)

damn thats horrible and yes you made a bad decision but thank you for sharing this,hopefully it will prevent someone else from repeating this.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

I am so sorry to hear about your injury. Stories like your make me very safety conscious.


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## CaptainKlutz (Apr 23, 2014)

Sorry for your loss.

+1 Would never make a stopped dado by dropping a board onto a spinning TS blade.
Almost lost a finger on TS decades ago. 
Experience haunts me every time I flip a tool power switch, even 40 years later.

Alas, Router tables can be almost as dangerous. 
Had a 5 stitch Klutz router table mistake to my little finger last year.

On a lighter note:
The only people who laugh at this comic are those spared the agony of the finger.









Be safe!


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## ibewjon (Oct 2, 2010)

I also thought this was a router table accident until I went back and read it again.


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## CommonJoe (May 8, 2021)

I have no problem with what you were doing unless I understood it wrong. No different than doing a through cut as if you were going to cut a square out of the middle of a board or something. Drop it down, push it forward to your mark, turn off the saw and remove the board. Common practice if you ask me. 
Good Luck through the healing process. May take a few to get back on the saw, but the uneasy feeling will go away quickly.


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## rwe2156 (May 7, 2014)

I agree a router is a better tool for the job. But you can do, using stops fore and aft. Not just a block, a board that goes across the table to support the whole width of the board.

Learned that watching Matt Waajda do the Bennett Street toolbox video on Fine Woodworking.

That said, are you now going to consider a SawStop? One "final" close call was all it took for me to pull the trigger. My wife telling me she is glad now she doesn't have to worry about it, that's also a +.

Thank you for posting this, you may have saved someone a serious injury.


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## Ark68SS (Oct 1, 2021)

Welcome to LumberJocks from another member of the 9 1/2 digit club. 
I've made a few cuts like you did, only I had a stop block clamped to the fence instead of using a mark. My thinking is that the block will stop a runaway cut. I've also been using a push stick or my Grrriper almost every time I move wood on the TS since my accident. It's not a good thing to have an amputory experience, but at least I learned from it. 
Best wishes for a quick and painless recovery.
BillL


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## redlee (Apr 11, 2016)

Thanks for sharing your experience, it will hopefully prevent anyone else from doing the same.
Best wishes and a speedy recovery.


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## GHBiker (Mar 18, 2017)

I appreciate the kind wishes for a quick recovery. I will now carry a constant reminder of a moments in attention and inadequate planning with me for the rest of my life.


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## ibewjon (Oct 2, 2010)

One option instead of marks on the fence would be start and stop blocks held in place with some very strong Mag Switches. Easy to install, adjust, and remove.


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

If the dado set was spinning toward you, what action pulled the board in?


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## controlfreak (Jun 29, 2019)

> If the dado set was spinning toward you, what action pulled the board in?
> 
> - Phil32


Phil, I am still having trouble getting my head wrapped around this but tell me (OP) if this is what happened. One hand was acting as a stop on the rear of the cut. The other was lowering the piece onto the spinning blade but was past the blade toward the rear of the table. The board "took off" pulling the hand at the rear into the blade.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

GH, can I thank you for not posting photos. I've seen enough in my career up close and in real life. Hope you get healed up real soon.


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## ibewjon (Oct 2, 2010)

The way I read it, he put the board down with the left hand first, the went to lower the board with the right hand, and when the dado grabbed the board, the left hand was pulled into the dado head. But I believe the same injury could have happened if the right hand put the board down first, and the left hand was the second movement.


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## SMP (Aug 29, 2018)

> If the dado set was spinning toward you, what action pulled the board in?
> 
> - Phil32
> 
> ...


That would be my guess, have had some close calls myself doing stuff like that.


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## controlfreak (Jun 29, 2019)

After seeing a YouTube video where the person was intentionally trying to induce kickback to demo it in action the board being ejected pulled his hand to within about an inch of the blade. I decided at that moment to never let my hand go past the rear of the blade without it being attached to a push stick or micro jig.


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## 1thumb (Jun 30, 2012)

I always do that the other way. Hold the back of the board, the end closest to me, as I lower the front, out feed end, onto the blade.


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## Jimarco (May 15, 2015)

I get enough adrenaline flowing lowering a board on to a router tables spinning bit. Thanks for reinforcing me to ever consider doing that on a table saw.

Under the heading of "Look On The Bright Side", you now have a built in quick excuse for flipping someone off…. "oh no I was just looking at where I cut my finger". Hope you heal quickly and are back making saw dust soon.


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I will usually raise the blade into the secured wood for a stopped dado big/long enough to justify the saw vs. the router.

I hope you heal up quickly, this is still prime riding season and throttles don't twist themselves!


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## Sark (May 31, 2017)

I can't quite make sense of the OP's description. It seems logical that the hand behind the blade was pulled into the blade when the piece was kicked back. But he says that the hand in the front was pulled into the blade, and I don't understand how that can happen.

I've also made blind cuts in the same way, and regardless of the actual sequence of events, the word of caution is noted. I did finally buy a Saw Stop based on reading these types of stories posted on this forum. The older I get, the less I trust myself to work without serious error.


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## ibewjon (Oct 2, 2010)

Instead of front and rear, I think he meant the hand on the outfeed side was pulled into the blade, not the infeed hand which should be pushed away during a kickback. I wasn't sure the first time I read it, so I looked again, and this is what I think happened.


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## controlfreak (Jun 29, 2019)

Yeah, front of the board and front of the TS may be opposing directions.


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## GHBiker (Mar 18, 2017)

Yes that is what happened. I must say, it was quite the surprise. Besides not paying enough attention, looking back, I was taking way too big a bite. I was taking a 3/4 wide X 3/8 deep dado. I have done this many times, but it should have been 3/4 wide X 1/32 deep and very carefully walked it down to depth and finished the sides and ends with a chisel and the bottom with a router plane. I paid the price for education.


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I don't think the "bite" was too big, just the technique needs to be altered. I've cut 1" wide dad's @ 1.5" deep in a single pass with zero problems, a sharp blade and a 3hp saw don't seem to mind. As mentioned before, I raise the already spinning blade into the restrained workpiece to the desire depth of cut then advanced the piece along the fence to the prescribed stopping point then lower the blade below the table before turning the saw off.


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## Barkley (Jun 28, 2019)

I did it with a dado on my left ring finger and pinky. Man it's a heck of a impact with those dado blades. Thank goodness it missed my wedding ring, I guess it would have just jerked the whole finger off.


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

Sounds like a scary operation regardless. The only way I would even consider doing this sort of stopped cut on a table saw would be to use double sided tape to attach some some sort of pushing devise that would allow me to lower the piece without having my hand near the blade and preferably completely in front of the blade. Raising the blade into the cut is probably the safest way to do it but it is difficult to set the blade to the exact height needed, especially if you have to make several dados that all need to be the same depth. More than likely, I would not lower the blade at all but instead have the stopped cut on the trailing end only and glue a strip into the dado on the entry end (or use a router).


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## GHBiker (Mar 18, 2017)

I sure appreciate all these responses. It shows many, many people are thinking about safer ways to persue our craft. I am thankful for all the kind wishes for a speedy recovery also. You all are the greatest!


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