Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Bratt View Post
I'm going to through in one more thing that is sometimes mentioned in books, but not in this thread - yet. A characteristic of a table saw - and also a band saw, jointer, and sometimes a router or shaper - is that you are actively pushing your workpiece - often with your bare hands - towards that sharp, unforgiving cutter. When planning your cuts, always think about what might happen - on that rare occasion - when that work piece slips, catches, or otherwise suddenly moves out of the way. Where will your hands go now? How might you use pushers, clamps, a sled, or other fixturing to hold that workpiece safely?
If you find you are really pushing usually something is wrong. It may not seem so but it probably is. For example you may have a dull blade or cutters or some form of misalignment. This type of thing results in too much force application to feed the material. Or stated another way more than you should be using. Some of todays equipment is very powerful and will not forgive much. In fact I belive there was an old saying that dull blades cut more people than sharp ones do by a wide margin.