When you don't stick to your own rules.....

So, I had an awesome Saturday morning, well, unlit about 11.30 am that is. I was working in the garage on another woodworking project. One of the princess's friends has recently acquired a 12 sitting cutlery set, and she wants to keep it in the dining room dresser drawer. But, she does not just want all the stuff lying around, so asked if I could make a cutlery holder for her. No problem I said - yea right, not as easy as one might think. Anyway, I started out by making a "drop in" box, that fits snugly into the drawer. This is so that if she ever wants to change her dining room suite, she can uplift the whole thing and keep it.

Basically, something like this concept, but in a drawer:-

So the forks and spoons don't pose too much of a problem, but the knives do. Also, the packing has to be very close, (and I want it to be evenly spaced) due to the amount of cutlery going into the drawer.

So this is what it looks like - before....

with me having kind of placed the pieces where I think they will fit. Not in the drawer are another 24 knives, of the butter and normal cutting type. Fish and steak knives are in the pic.

But I digress, the above is another story for another time.. So I'm making a drop in box for the above. It's probably one of my best "boxes" yet, and going along just fine. I start to glue in the felt cover. As I do this I find I need some offcuts to put on the glued edges so as to be able to clamp it down for better adhesion. No problem, grab some hardboard offcuts and run them through the table saw.
I have one of these:-

and it works just fine for the jobs I do. Only thing is I have removed the safety guard over the blade as it gets in the way!! I have also made sure that I have taught LuckyL NEVER TO REACH OVER THE MOVING BLADE. So, I'm pushing these hardboard offcuts through the blade, making 2" wide x 400mm long slats to use. As each on is cut through I let it drop to the floor behind the saw. As the last one is cut through, for some unknown and completely stupid reason I reach across to catch it, and take my thumb through the blace. Had my hand been in the vertical plane, I would have lost the whole thumb!!!!

So, the instant it happen, I didn't look at it, and though it was just a touch, so I walked out of the garage into the drive, shaking my hand saying, "Damn, that was close!". I then looked at my finger to see how close, and saw the blood running out all over the place!!!! Then I saw the blood all over the garage floor, and the driveway (from the way I was shaking my hand around), and decided that maybe it was worse then I thought! I looked again, and saw the ripped part of the nail hanging on, so pulled that off.

I wrapped it with my handkerchief, (always have one in the pocket), got in the car and drove down to the Doctors rooms!

Pic as I got to the nursing station and removed the handkerchief....

Nice angled view showing the extent of the damage!!! (LOL)

After all the injections, and just before the Doc put in 5 stitches, the last one being where the nail was ripped out.

So, I now have my thumb in a big bandage, more to prevent accidental bumping against everyday objects (I think) than to keep it covered! It's not too sore, throbs a bit every now and then depending on carry and usage, but overall bearable. A very, very stupid mistake to have made, and a lesson well learned. Will be putting the safety guard back on this week!

Salagatle!