My first adventure with a table saw was after I picked up a cheap one at a garage sale. I didn’t realize that it had a crappy little fence that didn’t square very well. So the first time I used it I set the fence position and started feeding the board while I was positioned in line with the blade. Right at the end of the cut the piece between the fence and the blade was pinched and instantly shot back into my stomach. I knocked the air out of me and I was down for probably ~10min. Luckily no internal damage and no witnesses .
Hard lesson to learn but that tends to make you respect the tools a lot more. I have since bought a better saw, stand to the side and always use a push stick when cutting smaller pieces between the fence and blade.
The distraction is a big item. One time the wife walked by and waved I looked up an pushed my push stick into the blade. It was jerked out of my hand and slammed to the table and bounced into my face the hit the blade again and hit me in the ribs along with the piece of face frame I was trimming I am so glad I use a face shield and leather apron when cutting all the time . My wife never comes down to the work area but she listens to everything that goes on now
I slapped this push stick together a few years ago. As it wears out, I use the cross cutting sled to cut the bottom off and then glue on a new one. After doing that too many times, I just grab another piece of scrap and cut a new one out. The plywood on the back is screwed on and gets replaced with a new square pretty often.
What I like most about it is the ‘push’ area pushes on both sides of the blade and the pressure pushes down on the piece also.
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