Hello everyone. I have been a silent reader of this bulletin board for a while now. I wanted to tell you what I did that you may say was stupid, but it could happen to you. I was ripping an 18-foot board into 1/4" strips. I had just purchased a brand new finish blade. I ALWAYS use every safety precaution when cutting- hearing & eye protection, feather boards, etc. I was using a Delta Unisaw with a Biesmeyer fence. When cutting 1/4" strips the fence hits the blade guard, so you have to raise the guard, but I let it rest on the fence so that you at least get some protection. I was using a push stick to push the board the last 6" through the blade. I think my mistake was I set the feather board (a magnetic version with plastic feather strips) a little too tight, and the wood was a little hard to push. Using the push stick up front for safety, I placed my left hand on the board BEHIND and to the left of the blade to help push it through- that way if I slipped I would not hit the blade, right???? Well, what apparently happened was that the board kicked back, and my hand shot backwards and my thumb ran across the blade. I now have about 1/4" shorter thumb, and they had to do a skin graft to repair. Can any of you say you've never gotten just slightly careless? I'm very embarassed, but I wanted to tell you that you can never be too careful. By the way, what saved me is that I never raise the blade more than just slighty above the piece I am cutting, and therefore it only got the tip of the thumb. Just FYI- Dewalt blades make a very smooth cut through thumbs... if you were wondering.