I’m a little too embarrassed to post this but I figured I should. I always thought I would be one of those SawStop owners who would own a SawStop for thirty years and never had to use the safety trigger. Today put an end to that dream.

I was ripping a piece of 3/4″ walnut 1″ wide when the next thing I knew I heard a large bang. I looked and saw the blade was gone. I backed away from the table saw and looked at my left thumb. Somehow my thumb caught the blade. I wish I knew how I did it, but it happened so fast I’m not entirely sure how. I wasn’t rushing and I was paying attention to what I was doing, even using a push stick.

I was using my left hand to gently hold the wood away from the blade and using my push stick with my right hand pushing the wood through.  I think what happened is right before I got cut, I felt some vibration in the wood and it caused my left hand to slide into the blade. I mean, it had to have happened that way. It’s only logical explanation of how I got cut. I just can’t believe how fast it actually happened.

The damage to my thumb is not that bad. The blade took a chunk of skin off and ripped my fingernail but no stitches are required. I can’t even imagine the damage that would have been caused had I not owned the SawStop. More likely I’d be in the emergency room tonight trying to have the top of my thumb reattached.

After I got my thumb taken care of, I took the cartridge and blade out of the saw. I’ll have to go buy a new cartridge tomorrow at Rockler and use another blade but it’s still far cheaper than an emergency room bill. I think my table saw has just paid for itself!