Think before putting your hands somewhere

Rick
Sorry to hear that you injured yourself glad your on the mend

Bill

sounds like it could have been a real life disaster NOT downplaying stitches happy for you its only 2 weeks down instead of 2 months FEEL BETTER :<))

-- Tony---- Reinholds,Pa.------ REMEMBER TO ALWAYS HAVE FUN

So sorry to hear about your mishap, Rick. Thank goodness you’re knowledgeable enough to set your blade depth for safety.

We hobbyists would probably be more aware of the risks and dangers of woodworking if we weren’t enjoying ourselves so much while playing with fast spinning, razor sharp hunks of hardened steel. Hope you mend quickly.

-- "You know, I'm such a great driver, it's incomprehensible that they took my license away." --Vince Ricardo

Sorry man. HOpe you heal quickly.

I use a festool ts55 tracksaw and being one man shop never wanted to heft a sheet good to the TS. I got a 2” thick 4×8 sheet of solid insulation. I lay that on the floor, and put the sheet good on that and cut on the floor. Works great and safe. It’s going on 4 years old now and still no where near replacing time.

Will keep you from reaching.

-- Sooner or later Liberals run out of other people's money.

so glad it wasnt worse

From now on though I will slow down. I’m retired- there’s no hurry here. Take time and think through my cuts thoroughly- safety first.

Just wanted to tell this story in the hopes that one of you may be saved from such a careless injury. It’s a hobby not a race.

That’s a couple of Key Points for sure! THINK and check all aspects of what you are doing before you hit the ON Button and Take Your Time! Your Equipment will wait for YOU!

I hope everything heals up for you Rick!

Regards: Rick

-- Richard (Ontario, CANADA)

Thanks for sharing and reminding us all that we need to keep our head in the game. Glad your injury wasn’t much worse and hope your recover quickly. I think it’s human nature to feel embarrassed about such things and therefore want to hide or failures. So again, good on you for letting us know. I know these reports on injuries stick with me. So I’m sure it helps to keep us all a bit safer.

Safe behavior is an odd thing. With too little experience, you make mistakes because you do not know better. With more experience, you can become complacent, or perhaps just too “trained” in your ways. Then when something a bit different comes along, a narrower strip in your case, and the ingrained, automatic behavior, is not appropriate.

My brother-in-law cut his whole thumb open with a circular saw many years ago (he’s a contractor). He carries the photo around (hamburger is a good description) as a reminder and shows it to his employees to get their attention.

This of course can happen to us all. And I’d bet that we all have done something similar, but most of the time we escape without injury. For example, finishing a cut, and realizing we just missed our fingers, or at least can’t believe we didn’t cut the power cord.

-- Clin

Thanks for the reminder. Hope you heal quickly.

-- Marshall --------------------------- In with 10. Out with 10.

To top it all off, I suppose you got blood on the wood, too? Sorry to hear about your mishap. Heal soon!

-- I admit to being an adrenaline junky; fortunately, I'm very easily frightened

Rick, Thanks for sharing. It is much better to learn from others. Glad it wasn’t any worse.
I work for a construction company. When we have an accident, it is studied and then broadcast throughout the company. I’ll offer some observations in that tune:
1, Have a plan. (You mentioned that one). Most our accidents happen when someone deviates from the agreed plan.
2. A good outfeed table would have avoided making a choice between workpiece damage and stopping the saw.
3. A bump switch to turn off the saw with your knee would have kept your hands at the workpiece.
4. 2” is closer than I want to have my hands. I’d go to a push stick for narrow work.
I’m not trying to be preachy, but different observations from others can help the next guy avoid a similar fate. Thanks again. Greg.

Just wanted to add to my original post. The one very obvious safety factor built into the saw by makita and ignored by me. ... the saw has two handles. One for each hand. If I had used the saw as designed as well as following all the suggestions written here nothing would have happened. Reflecting on the suggestions here one of the best regarding a track saw is to put the work down on a large panel of rigid insulation. Which I was going to do but was too lazy to make the trip to the big box to buy one.

Retrospect can be a funny thing!
Rick

Thanks for the timely reminder…..I hope that you are back to 100% soon

-- K. Stone “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” ― Benjamin Franklin