re: Do as I say not as I do AKA Don't do this at home

I have had two accidents in the my 19 years of woodworking and both were the result of improper use of the bandsaw, once through sheer stupidity and the other time due to not being aware of bad practice. These accidents happened not so long after I began woodworking. Luckily I was not permanently maimed, ‘luckily’ being the key word here.

Most machinery in the old days was inherently unsafe but workers still managed by and large to keep themselves out of harms way. This could only have been accomplished by understanding the dangers beforehand. I am not against passive safety built into machines, but I still consider the brain to be the best of all safety devices.

I do my best to consistently use my tools in a safe way by following good practice, but I still break the safety rules occasionally, but only when I’m aware that I am doing so. Things can go very wrong very quickly with cutting machines whirring at high speeds.