I got bit today... by my table saw.

[cwsmith]

OOUCH!

Your post took my breath away there for a minute. Thanks for the follow-up explanation and I'm very sorry that you went through that. I can only imagine the pain.

I'm happy it wasn't worse and I wish you very quick healing and NO complications or lasting effects.

CWS

[trungdok]

Oh wow... that sounds crazy. I'm glad that it's not worse. Hope you'll heal quickly and fully.

[Sweet Willy]

unintended benifit

I was looking at the injury to my thumb while my wife was changing the dressing and I realized how lucky I was. The blade caught the "face" of my thumb, pulled it down and ran over the top of my thumb and cut through a part of the nail. I realized then that if I was not using my zero clearance insert the blade "most likely" would have pulled my thumb down into a wider opening and do considerably more damage. The attached photo shows the zero clearance insert that I use for most cuts. The orange insert came with the saw and I still use that one for angle cuts. The last one is for my dado blade. Sure glad I was using my zero clearance when I went stupid.

[jseklund]

I had a similar experience a few years ago, also after >50 yrs of woodworking. I, however, was doing something that I knew at the time was dangerous. I said then that stupidity (mine) trumps experience any time. Hope you heal up quickly!
Papa

This reminds me of something that I was taught on THIS VERY FORUM a LONG time ago when I first started using table saws - most accidents are not from a beginner making a mistake, but from an experienced user who KNOWS they are doing something wrong, but has gotten away with it before.

I see this a lot among my construction worker friends - picking up a circular saw and doing something crazy, or grabbing any tool and doing something crazy and they KNOW it's wrong, but they've done it a million times before.

A few months ago I put my finger into a grinding wheel. I had just spent about 20 minutes grinding a large metal rod down to a smaller profile and had no problem. Then I looked at the final product (which was going to be used as a tool) and noticed some rough edges. I thought, "two quick swipes on the finer wheel should clean that up so I don't get scratched using this". One swipe. Second swipe and wham! It was over before I knew it even happened. I was lucky it was a grinder and not a table saw - I lost the nail and some skin and had some pain, but it was not bad in regard to what it could have been. My gf was nearby and I told her if that had been a saw blade the finger would have been in half or worse.

The key was - it was over before I even knew anything happened.

I hope everything heals quickly and entirely. Be careful out there...

[Tnmurf]

That was me in June on my middle finger of my left hand. Cutting a thin piece do oak using the Rockler jig. Had all the PPE on, standing out of th kickback zone, push stick, leg positioned next to the off paddle switch. The wood started to lift past the blade and I reached over to push it back down. The blade pulled the wood and my finger to it.

I now use a gripper. Expensive but worth it.

Left some blood spots on the floor as a reminder