Folks -
Well, good safety habits pay off. Tonight I have been working on a small lap tray and a keepsake box - both of them have mitered corners that I've been cutting on the tablesaw sled.
I was cutting the last section of surround for the lap tray out of black walnut. The saw sled that I built has an inverted "U" plastic guard, about
3" wide, that runs the depth of the sled, above the blade path. I usually wear a face shield as well. Anyway, I was trimming the end of the board and heard this LOUD pop and felt my right hand sting - nothing serious... I turned off the saw to see WTF happened and somehow the offcut of walnut had ricocheted off of the side of the plastic blade guard, breaking about 9" off - the plastic knicked the knuckle of my index finger at the first joint. I was VERY suprised that it had that much force - the offcut was only slightly larger than about a 2" chunk of pencil in size.Each of my hands were well away from the path of the cut. I can't see how this upset could have been prevented, short of using a backsaw and doing it by hand. So, accidents DO happen - don your safety gear, especially for that "one little cut".
John Moorhead