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"  What I am about to tell you is a cautionary tale. It&amp;#039;s a story about how my husband, an engineer, didn&amp;#039;t follow the safety rules and paid the consequences.  A few years ago the safety guard on my husband Skip&amp;#039;s miter saw broke. The guard is the plastic piece that covers the moving blade. When you start to cut a piece of wood, the guard inches up a little, moving out of the way and allowing you to make a full cut on the wood. As Skip&amp;#039;s safety guard no longer moved up, it was always down and in the way. As this was a nuisance, he jury rigged the safety guard so that it was always in the up position and out of his way. The picture on the right is the result of his makeshift solution and illustrates why you should never, ever disable the safety features on machines...especially power tools! Skip was using the saw to cut 2 x 4&amp;#039;s to frame a wall in our basement when he made a cut and then passed his hand in front of the saw. He was much closer to the moving blade than he thought he was, and the blade went straight through his finger right down to the bone. When we saw the doctor in the emergency room, he said Skip needed internal stitches as well as a set of stitches to close up the skin. He was actually very lucky that the cut wasn&amp;#039;t any worse. Although he cut a slit along the length of his tendon, Skip&amp;#039;s still able to move his finger. For the next two weeks, Skip&amp;#039;s wearing a splint that goes from the tip of his fingers to his elbow. This coming weekend, you&amp;#039;ll be able to find us in the home improvement store buying a new miter saw! If you&amp;#039;ve been waiting for the next blog post on our basement renovation, you&amp;#039;ll be waiting a little longer as it will be a while before Skip will be using the new saw. Be sure to check out Good Housekeeping&amp;#039;s other safety stories: Top Safety Products for Seniors, Expert Tips on Fireworks Safety, Kids Sleepwear Safety. And if you&amp;#039;re going to be in the NYC area, be sure to come and take a tour of the GHRI Labs! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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