Table Saw Push Sticks: What to Keep What Pitch
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Safety with power tools is boring but vital topic and there's not a lot that can make it interesting. I have always been paranoid about loosing digits or parts of digits and to date - after 50 years of woodworking I still have all of them intact, and I intend to keep it that way.
RULE #1 - STOP, LOOK and PLAN. I never attempt any cuts with the table saw that I even think will land me in trouble. If I have any hesitation about making a cut, I look for an alternative method or a safer way of doing things.
In the past generation when power tools started to become popular, the pioneers in power tool woodworking lost fingers and parts of fingers because they were not aware of safety procedures and in many cases there were not the safety shields on machinery that there are now. They taught us that safety IS important.
Part of the problem today, is that many manufacturers that produce inexpensive table saws are, in many cases, unable to manufacture things like blade guards, slitters, riving knives that are truly safe. And what I mean by that, is once you get some of this equipment home and set put it all together, the problem is that some of the safety equipment is so crappy that you need to take it OFF the machine to make the machine safer, because wood is getting caught in and under there supposed safety features and in fact are making the machinery less safe.
I don't need a flashlight very often when I am doing woodworking tasks, but every now and again I need extra light to see into some part of a machine that needs to be lubricated, tightened, loosened, sharpened or some other adjustment. I always try to have a flashlight handy but every time I go to use it either the batteries are dead, or more often, they are missing because they were taken out to be used in some other "battery craving tool or toy". I have plug-in trouble light, but just as the name indicates, it is more trouble to find the light ... plug it in and then discover the bulb is either broken or simply doesn't work. These kinds of small irritations are what drive me crazy in the workshop.
