..subtitled, Thank God For Faceshields.
This story starts, as do most stories of accidents, with a poor choice on my part: trying to make a miter cut with a chop saw on a piece that, in retrospect, was really too small to try to hold with my free hand. I should've used a clamp.
Apparently, it shifted a bit when the saw blade hit it, and the blade grabbed it out of my fingers and -- somehow -- threw it *toward* me. At about mouth level. Right into the faceshield, so hard that _it knocked it off my head_.
I'm basically unhurt: my left thumb has a minor bruise from the workpiece being wrenched out of my hand, I have superficial cuts on two knuckles from sharp edges on the wood, and another bruise on my left pec where the wood hit after bouncing off the faceshield. Still haven't found where it went after that...
Lessons:
- Clamp small workpieces.
- Wood sometimes can be ejected in unexpected directions.
- Clamp small workpieces.
- Respect the power of a kickback.
- Clamp small workpieces.
And, last but not least... if you've been around this ng for any length of time, you've heard me say this before: You have other things on your face besides your eyes that are worth protecting! That's not the only reason I use a faceshield instead of goggles -- but it's the only one that's on my mind right now.