My Powermatic table saw is the center of my woodworking shop. So I was keenly interested when I got a newsletter from “Fine Woodworking” on table saws and emergency rooms. It is by far the most dangerous machine in my shop.
In a study published in a 2005 issue of the Journal of Trauma, roughly 31,400 people are treated in ERs every year for table saw injuries in the US. That doesn’t count the number of people like my dad, who self-treated his table saw traumas. Ninety-three percent of those injuries were to fingers, thumbs, or another part of the hand. Sixty-six percent were lacerations, and ten percent were amputations. (At this writing, I am, thankfully, still entirely digitized.) Other types of injuries included injuries to the head, face, and neck, presumably from “kickback” (when the spinning blade grabs the wood and slings it back at the woodworker).
Most of my woodworking skills have been developed by adjusting my plans to fit the wrong cuts I have made. I have experienced only two accidents on a table saw. The first was of the bloodless type. I had a kickback experience with a six-by-six-inch piece of one-inch mahogany. I allowed it to get crosswise with the blade by just a hair. The spinning ten-inch blade caught it and flung it back, knocking me to the floor as it hit me in the center of my chest. The second accident was allowing the tips of two fingers to lightly brush the spinning blade. The ends of those two fingers were removed. I bled but did not scar. The only evidence of the event is a slight numbness on the very end of the digits.
The “Fine Woodworking” asked, “Why are so many people hurt while using table saws, despite improvements in guards and splitters?”
I believe the answer to that question goes back to The Fall; despite all the truth we have, and Divine Truth, we are offered for everyday life activities, we would instead “do it my way.”
Do a word search in your computer Bible with the words “well with you.” One of the first occurrences in the NIV is Deuteronomy 4:10, “Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.”
As Norm Abram says on every episode of his New Yankee Workshop, “Before using any machine, be sure to read and understand and follow all safety instructions.” (My paraphrase.)
Please do not hear me say that the Bible is simply “God’s instruction book for life.” It is far more than that; it’s more of a parental love letter to a maturing child. However, those three words are essential when considering your use of the Bible, “read, understand and follow.” Any one of them neglected puts a person, and the persons around them, in trauma’s way.
An additional point for free, your pastor and or Bible teacher is not there to just help you heal from the wounds of life. He is also there to review and become familiar with God’s advice to avoid many of life’s traumas while getting your Kingdom life job done.
Photo – My Powermatic beast in its cleaned up state.
Baldwin Heirlooms 