- Hey guys, my name's Aaron Massey from mrfixitdiy.com,
and today I'm here to talk to you about table saw safety
because earlier this week I had an accident.
(rhythmic instrumental music)
If you follow me on social media,
you know that earlier this week while doing a cut similar
to cuts I've done thousands of times before,
I had an accident, and managed to screw up my hand
by making some careless mistakes that led
to my hand making contact with the blade.
Now, I'm extremely lucky and fortunate
that I didn't lose any finger, however,
my fingers did get chewed up pretty badly,
leading to a bunch of stitches across these three fingers.
And I'm gonna be out of commission
for at least a month or more.
I'm not gonna include the graphic images
of my accident in this video, but if you do want
to see the extent of the damage to my fingers,
I will put a bunch of photos on my website along
with a companion piece to this video,
which you could check out in the description down below.
Again, I was extremely lucky.
Many people who have had table saw accidents
have actually lost fingers or done more severe damage
than what I have, so I feel very fortunate.
And I know it might sound odd
to take table saw safety advice from somebody
who has had a table saw accident,
but I can assure you that I have been around this tool
for close to 20 years, and have always
had a fearful respect for the table saw.
And I've never considered myself someone
who didn't operate the saw safely,
so if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.
And my goal with this video is to show you exactly
what happened in my accident, how and why it happened,
and how I could've avoided it.
And hopefully, give you a few tips
on how you can avoid a similar situation down the road.
So here's what happened in my accident.
This was the setup that I had at the time of the accident.
As you can see, I had the piece,
I had the blade set just taller than the piece itself.
I was ripping a drawer front down
to its final size to install my custom vanity build.
And the piece got behind the blade,
resulting in the piece getting kicked back at me,
and my hand being sent into the blade.
Now, I'm not sure if my hand went into the blade as a result
of the piece coming back and hitting me in my side,
and my reaction to that, or if the kickback motion
of the piece itself sent my hand into the blade.
But I do know that I made three critical mistakes
that combined led to this accident happening,
and I want to show you those right now.
My first mistake was starting the cut
without locating my push stick first.
Normally, my push stick is attached to my table saw fence,
but in this case my push stick was actually across the shop,
and I started cutting the piece before I realized it.
Because this was a finished cut on a drawer front,
I needed the cut to be clean, so I decided to continue
with the cut, just by using my hand.
My second mistake was an immediate result
of my first mistake, and that was
because I was pushing through with my hand,
I decided to slide my hand over towards the fence,
further away from the blade,
thinking that it would make my hand safer,
even though I know this not to be the case.
In doing that, I actually changed the direction
of the force that I was applying
on the piece from the fence towards the blade.
And when the piece got to where the majority
of it was beyond the blade,
and the blade was no longer there to push back on it,
the piece deflected immediately behind the blade,
allowing for the kickback to occur.
And my third mistake was not having
my riving knife installed on the table saw
at the time of the accident.
A riving knife is designed to prevent kickback
because it doesn't allow a piece
to get pinched immediately behind the blade,
or allow the piece to get immediately behind the blade
by turning, like it did in my case.
Had I not made any one of these three mistakes,
the accident likely wouldn't have involved my hand,
and let me show you why.
I'm gonna start with the first one.
If I had had my push stick, even if I was
to push the piece very close to the fence,
and change the direction of the force I was applying on it,
the kickback still would've likely occurred,
however, my hand would have been up and off the table.
And because my blade height wasn't that high,
even if the kickback occurred,
which still may have kicked me in the side,
my hand would've been well above the table,
and my hand wouldn't have made contact with the blade.
So it still would've been a kickback accident,
but my hands wouldn't have been involved.
Secondly, had I actually just left my hand closer
to the blade than further away, the force in which
I was applying on the piece wouldn't have changed,
and I actually would've been safer
to have my hand closer to the blade than by further away.
Which seems to be counterintuitive,
but it's true in this case.
And three, if my riving knife were installed,
the piece wouldn't have been able to deflect
and turn behind the blade until
it was already beyond the riving knife,
which means it wouldn't make contact with the blade at all,
and the kickback wouldn't have occurred.
My riving knife wasn't installed because it's slightly bent,
and it interferes with my ability to use my crosscut sled.
But rather than fixing the issue
I had taken the easy way out and removed it,
and obviously that was a mistake.
I think at least for myself, sometimes I have a tendency
to kind of rush things along, and try to get
as much done in as little time as possible.
Sometimes I sacrifice safety for convenience or for speed,
and obviously that is a tremendous mistake given
that it only takes one time to cause an accident like this.
So while I obviously made a lot of mistakes
that led to this accident, there are two things
that I did that I think lessened
the severity of the accident.
Number one is that I set the blade height
of my table saw properly.
Had I not taken the time to adjust the blade height,
and the blade height was significantly higher,
you can see how much more cutting area
that would've left exposed above the table.
So if my hand had made contact with that amount
of cutting area, you can imagine
how much more severe the damage would be.
The second thing that I'm happy about
is that I never stand directly behind
the table saw blade for kickback reasons, specifically.
Now, in this case, obviously, the piece kicked back,
but it kicked back on kind of an angle.
And it hit me in the hip in kind
of a glancing blow, and the piece continued on.
Now, had I been standing directly behind the blade,
that piece would've shot back, and hit me square
in the abdomen, and I would've absorbed 100% of that impact.
You can see how much bruising was done
with that glancing blow, so if I took the piece
in a direct hit to the abdomen there's potential
that I could've had internal injuries as well.
So I'm thankful that I wasn't standing
directly behind the blade.
At the end of the day, what it really comes down
to is developing good saw habits and sticking with them
because it only takes a split second
for a potentially life-altering event to happen.
So I just want to outline a couple more quick tips
for you that hopefully will help
you develop good saw habits,
so that you don't have an accident like this, or worse.
Number one is the most important,
and that is take your time.
Make sure that you have everything that you need
to make the proper cuts nearby you.
Make sure that you're following
all the safety procedures that you possibly can.
And take your time, evaluate the cut before you make it.
I think the majority of accidents happen
because people were rushing or not paying attention.
And that was certainly the case with me
because these are not things that I've learned
after the fact, I knew all
of these things before this accident occurred.
But because I was in a hurry,
and just trying to get something done
at the end of the day, this is what happened.
Number two is to never let your hands go beyond the front
of the blade without some sort of push stick.
Now, there's tons of different schools
of thought as to what push stick is the best push stick.
I don't really care what push stick
you use, just use something.
Imagine there's a do not cross piece
of tape across the front of your saw blade.
And if your fingers get to that point,
you know it's time to transfer to a push stick.
Hell, I don't even care, put a piece of tape on there,
and write no fingers beyond this point.
Just never let your fingers go beyond
that line at the height of the blade.
Number three is don't stand directly
behind the saw blade in the event of kickback.
Always set your blade height just taller
than the material that you're cutting.
Never reach over or across the blade
to grab a piece that you're cutting.
Never wear gloves, or baggy sleeves, or clothing
around the table saw when you're using it.
And always try to keep a blade guard
or riving knife on the table saw as much as possible.
In addition to these safety tips, I'll include a bunch more
on my website that you guys can also check out.
And if you use your saw a ton, and you want
to make sure that you're as safe as possible,
you can always save up your money and purchase a SawStop.
I just did that prior to this accident happening,
but the saw didn't arrive before the accident happened.
So from that perspective it's a little bit ironic.
This is not a paid or sponsored promotion for SawStop,
they just happen to have the saw with the technology
in it that I think should be industry standard.
But until it is they happen
to kind of corner the market on it.
Owning a SawStop doesn't replace having good saw habits,
but it is an added level of security
in the event that something does happen.
That's it for this video, I hope you guys enjoyed it,
and I hope you learned something.
And at the very least, I hope that it
has made you reevaluate your own saw habits,
and maybe pointed something out
that you might be doing that's a little bit unsafe,
and you should correct it before it becomes and issue.
I also want to say a quick thank you
to all of you who have reached out to me via social media,
and offered your support, it means a lot to me.
And the healing process is going well so far,
so thank you so much for that.
And if you did like this video, please hit that like button,
and leave a comment down below, and let me know.
Also, consider sending it to your friends
who may benefit from developing safer saw habits.
And if you guys want to check out more
of my home improvement and DIY related videos,
I'll leave links to those right here.
Or you can always visit my website at mrfixitdiy.com.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
I'll see you next time.
(rhythmic instrumental music)