Table Saw Safety: My Accident and How to Avoid Your Own
MrFixItDIY2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2018–2020
tutorial · general · evergreen · 2018–2020 on HN
A woodworker shows how his table saw accident happened, why it happened and how to avoid a similar one. He describes severe hand lacerations from a blade contact.
HN recommends it as a candid mea culpa and a kickback demonstration that changed how people use push blocks.
Up next
7 mo on HNImmigration, World Poverty and Gumballs
NumbersUSA
7 HN recommender · 2013–2024
8 mo on HNBreaking the x86 Instruction Set
Black Hat
9 HN recommender · 2017–2022
3 mo on HNAvi Bryant demos Dabble db
Tavis Rudd
2 HN recommender · 2014–2023
10 mo on HNTim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools
ClojureTV
9 HN recommender · 2014–2024
8 mo on HNDick Proenneke in Alone in the Wilderness
swererbob
10 HN recommender · 2012–2023
9 mo on HNOrigins of Precision
Machine Thinking
11 HN recommender · 2019–2025
6 mo on HNThe Art of Making a Nixie Tube
Dalibor Farný
6 HN recommender · 2017–2026
5 mo on HNBuilding The World's First Computer - Greeks, Clocks and Rockets - Antikythera Mechanism Episode 1
Clickspring
7 HN recommender · 2018–2024
4 mo on HNSmelting Iron in Africa (A DEMONSTRATION)
Christopher Roy
4 HN recommender · 2015–2024
4 mo on HNBuilding Prototypes Dan Gelbart part 1 of 18 Introduction
Dan Gelbart
4 HN recommender · 2015–2022
3 mo on HNClockmaking - How To Make A Clock In The Home Machine Shop - Part 1 - Making The Clock Frames
Clickspring
3 HN recommender · 2017–2024
3 mo on HNHow To Sharpen A Knife In About 5 Minutes With ONE Stone | EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW FAST! 2023
OUTDOORS55
3 HN recommender · 2025–2026
3 comments from Hacker News
This is one of my favorite kickback demonstrations. Since watching this, I have made sure to keep my push block/stick close to the blade & applying pressure toward the fence, instead of closer to the fence & applying pressure toward the blade. ▶ this video
I moved around a lot as a kid, so I saw a lot of wood shop teachers. All were missing various parts of fingers. Pretty good "mea culpa" video here from a guy that cut his hand up: ▶ this video
> They are not a problem if a parent teaches young kids how to use them properly. The statistics don’t bear out that training or experience eliminates risk of serious injury. It’s even trivially disprovable with anecdotes - tons of experienced woodworkers have had blade touches and/or kickback-induced blade touches. Here’s 3: link link ▶ this video If anyone is learning advanced shop safety, a few years ago I made the advanced survey that I wished existed: link . link has table saw injury stats. In an era of flesh-detecting table saws, using a table saw without it (other than weird special-purpose saws) means underestimating either the probability or the consequences.