Table Saw Safety

Here's a public health issue near and dear to my heart. Table saws. And, I have to admit, it has been a little too close to my heart, literally. And it goes like this:

I am home alone with the kids. They're getting along fabulously, so I decide to try to get a couple small projects done that have been hanging around the "shop" for too long. I cobbled together a step stool for my older daughter and a couple wooden trays for my wife.

Everything's going great and I'm moving along, full steam ahead. I'm like one of those extreme makeover guys. In fact, I'm impressed with how fast I'm working and how well it's going.

Now, as a rule, I ALWAYS unplug the tablesaw when I'm adjusting it.

ALWAYS. Except tonight. And I'm fully cognizant, aware, that I'm not bothering to unplug.

My younger daughter, who was about four years old at the time, wanders in during a lull. I'm absentmindedly talking to her. I'm measuring the distance from the blade to the fence. And I hear the most terrifying words in any language:

"Daddy? What's this?"

The tablesaw screams to life, the wind created by the blade rushes underneath the palm of my left hand, she bolts, I shout "OH MY GOD!" and yank the cord out of the wall.

To our credit, neither of us cried.

I made a huge, huge mistake in not unplugging the machine before I started to work around it. But I gotta tell ya--I don't want one of the new saws considered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission earlier this month.

If you're a woodworker you've seen the videos:


On the other hand (is that a pun?) I'm a shoestring woodworker. Adding the extra expense of the SawStop to a table saw for me certainly would make it safer. I'd not even own one.