safety/idiots and sharp objects

[Ron Nossaman]

> I think it's dangerous because it seem pretty benign compare to the
>noisy fury of a table saw or router.
>
>
>Mark Story. RPT
> -----Original Message-----
><deleted>
>
>I'm sorry to hear what an awful time you had. Table saws give me the
>willies. I always feel safer with bandsaws, but they can be dangerous
>as well, because of one's greater confidence.
>
>Susan


My experience is that given enough time, all that power and fury becomes
familiar enough to fade into your conscious background and you become too
comfortable and secure around those whirling blades. That's when they bite
you. I've always felt that anyone working with power tools will eventually
hurt themselves badly - or VERY badly, and the trick is to stay afraid of
them (even using them daily) long enough to die of advanced old age before
your attention wanders enough that they whack you. That's the hard part.

My attention was thoroughly held Sunday morning when I climbed to the top
of a dead 50 year old pine tree, topped and limbed it as I came down, and
felled it from ground level when it got short enough to be controllable.
Believe me, a 53 year old acrophobic with an electric chain saw 40 feet up
a tree is in hard focus and leaving finger dents in the bark even though I
tied off with my seat belt webbing strap at each level. By the way, the
altitude seems to increase dramatically as the surrounding limbs fall and
leave the lumberwimp exposed and clinging to the bare trunk at the top. A
real attention getter, and took some longer subjectively than the hour and
a half the clock showed.


Ron N