r/woodworking Jan 23 '24

Safety It finally happened to me

I am a hobbyist who does occasional furniture and cabinetry work for word-of-mouth clients, and got this SawStop PCS for about 3 ago. I've had 2 accidental triggers; one on a nail I didn't know was there, and the other is still a mystery. Well, the other day I finally had a real trigger. I was batch-cutting walnut planks for the ceiling of my garage apartment (see photo of nearly finished product for reference). I moved from cutting operation to a rebate operation and forgot to set the new blade height. The blade triggered on my middle finger. Didn't even feel it, but I immediately realized what had happened. Looked at my finger, and the 2nd pic is all that I had to show for it; didn't even draw blood. Third pic is what the damage would have been. The height that the blade was at, it would have gone about 3/4 of the way through the thickness of both those fingers along that line.

It is so easy with batch-cutting to get into a rhythm, especially with a podcast going, and hundreds of cuts to do. Stay frosty my friends. The saw that my wife basically forced me to get has officially paid for itself several times over.

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u/allangee Jan 23 '24

Always nice to know you got your money's worth out of the SawStop. I've had two "incidents" so far... one with stitches, and one was too chewed up for stitches. Can still count to ten on my fingers though.

3

u/betarcher Jan 23 '24

Glad to hear you've still got them all. I've seen mixed results with the tech. Stories on line of both extremes, and I knew a guy that still lost his finger cuz it took long enough for it to trigger. I think it might depend on how quick you're moving, maybe? I was pushing pretty slowly. Whatever the case, I certainly count myself lucky, and will certainly be more careful.

2

u/Glum-Square882 Jan 23 '24

yeah you never see them just casually swinging the sausage into the blade in the demos, always slowly dramatically approaching it

2

u/Otisfinklestein Jan 23 '24

Actually, there is a super slo-mo video on YouTube by Jonathan Katz-Moses where he rams a hot dog against the spinning blade (https://youtu.be/OGKBuq9aZhI?si=yXwEjqyq7_wUXxIq). A visit to the ER would be needed, but you would still have 10 fingers.

1

u/Glum-Square882 Jan 24 '24

thank you for showing exactly the thing I asked for