I first learned to use a tablesaw the way most carpenters learn to use their tools-namely, by watching the people around me. Unfortunately, that meant I learned from an otherwise excellent craftsman who made dangerous techniques look routine. He would cut sheets of plywood in half by removing the rip fence and muscling the sheet through the blade freehand. He also would trim the bottom of a six-panel pine door by setting the tablesaw fence 1/2 in. from the blade and running the door over the saw with most of the door cantilevered off the left side. I didn't learn to respect the tablesaw, or to use it safely, until a kickback accident cost me a fingertip.
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