Woodworking safely with small parts

The tips in this article sprang from a comment sent in to Fine Woodworking’s Shop Talk Live podcast. “Yesterday I was cutting some shims on my bandsaw,” the listener wrote. “The piece I was cutting them from was pretty small, but I thought to myself, ‘I can get another one out of this.’ When my finger was about an inch from the blade, the shim and the offcut got dragged into the throat. There was a loud bang, and I jerked back. It hurt a lot. After a moment to collect myself, I opened my fist to find my finger intact. The pain came from the wood exploding and hitting it. I fell asleep last night thanking God for the amazing blessing of my hands.”
From handles and pulls to feet, wedges, wheels, drawer stops, and table-attachment tabs, woodworkers manufacture a fair amount of small parts. A lot can go wrong when we do.

While these little parts can be tricky to handle with both…