@Horace said in Mandating the SawStop:
it'll make you care less about safety, which will bite you on all the other tools that don't have a safety mechanism.
I understand that thinking.
Let me tell you about my only injury...
When working with power tools, I was always mindful about the "what if my hand slips" scenario. IOW, if I'm pushing a piece through a cutter (saw blade, router, whatever), I always kept in mind, "If my hand slips, will it slip INTO the cutter." If the answer is yes, I'd change my hand position, or use a push stick or some other safety device.
So, one day, I was going to cut a large flat dovetail into the end of a piece of cherry that I would fit into a mortise at the top of a leg. You'd never see the joint, but I just thought it would be fun to see if I could do it.
I chucked this piece (about ¾" by 2" by 24" into a vise, with the end of it sticking up. I had marked the lines of the dovetail out, and I got out my dovetail backsaw and started sawing away. The piece chattered a bit as I sawed, and I used my left hand to try to stabilize it.
The saw jumped out of the kerf, and landed directly onto the knuckle of my left index finger causing a 2 inch cut through the skin. Fortunately, it didn't go deep, but it required a trip to the ER for some sutures.
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I'd never considered "What if the BLADE slips..."