Thumbs and table saws, be safe not stupid!!!

You know it will hurt, you know it will make a mess, you know not to do it, so why did you? :o :doh::doh::doh:
https://www.woodworkforums.com/attach...1&d=1344306318
Cutting a 15mm thick strip of pine to repair a draw slide and was using my right hand to feed while I used the left hand at the rear of the blade to stop the wood from grabbing between the blade and guide rail. My left arm/hand was beginning to extend of the rear of the table (it was a small GMC portable table saw) so I stopped the feed pinching the timber down with my right hand, then as I brought my left hand forward, I lost focus with my new multi-focus glasses and zing, one dumb thumb into the back of the blade.

No bone was hit according to the xrays and plastic surgeon tommorow (Wednesday) for a good clean out and stitches.

Moral to the story, Well just a reminder to keep your hands clear of the bite'y end, it bite's if you get to close.

Stay safe, Ed :no:Reminder to self, your an idiot:~

Glad it wasn't worse and hope it heals up quickly.
I've had that "I can't believe I just did that :doh:" feeling.

Yow! Hopefully got away with this one, Ed, two thumbs the same length. Had a student do similar a few years back, but she was minus a knuckle, on the back of the blade.
All the best,

Push sticks, push sticks, push sticks, push sticks, push sticks, push sticks, push sticks. That is the moral of this story. They're easy to make and saves, pain, spilt blood, time off work and time away from your favourite hobby.

Hope I'm not telling you to suck eggs here or being too condescending but as a theatre nurse I'm always disappointed when I see a woody pass through our theatres.

On the flip side, I hope you're okay and not too much damage has occurred.

Cheers for all the comments guys, a lesson learned and still learning now the advise rolls in.

@ SJT; push stick was present and awaiting for enough material to go through so it could be used, but do agree push sticks do need to be used for "feed".

It is apparent now, that I need to learn more about;
"Riving knife's" possibly with a "Suva-style guard" & also "feather boards". Just some advise/links from another forum, that may have helped protect/remove the hand at the back of the blade while still allowing the saw to be used in the way we need.

Anyway, the wound was all cleaned out and stitched today. Got knocked out, so bandages off for a look in a week. At least the thumb bandages are now minimal, downside is, still no Xbox:doh:.

Ed

If you are routinely using a table saw without a splitter/riving knife, then you are asking for trouble.....simple as that.

Others have already mentioned push sticks, featherboards, etc.

I'm losing count of the blood-splattered posters on here saying something like "I was reaching over behind the blade to...." - under no circumstances should you ever be doing this, and with a properly set up splitter/riving knife you shouldn't need to.

Glad to hear you won't have to change your username to "Stumpy" though ! :D

Just goes to show even toy tablesaws can bite :)

But really, the biggest problem with what you were doing is that if there was kickback, in which the bit you're cutting gets pulled back towards the in-feed end at high speed, if you are hanging onto it at the rear of the blade, guess where your hand ends up?

I guess the GMC doesn't have kickback pawls, so I'd be using a fingerboard on the fence pressing down and another one on the table pressing to the fence. Feed through until the end of the piece clears the table, then use a push stick to finish. Or if it's only a small bit, you can use a bit of ply with a notch out of the bottom, which allows you to apply downward pressure at the same time as feeding it through.

Never reach behind the blade and pull it through.

Nasty, just hope it heals quickly and your not too long out of action.
Since I did mine (10+ years ago) I now have glasses and I'm extremely careful when using the TS. I plan everything so the is no reaching for anything.

Riving knives/splitters are standard and the use of feather boards is now a must.

Just don't want to ever go through it again.