Man vs Machine (Day 959)

Its been 959 days of construction and not an injury that involved blood or bones. Pretty lucky, but no one is lucky forever. Today I met my match with a Porter Cable circular saw. I picked up a used bathroom cabinet (21" x 72") for nothing, and was modifying it for the garage. Made some pull out trays and was preparing the face to accept a nice wood vice (Shop Fox). After consulting with Tool Time Jim, I decided to cut the face frame down so that the vice would mount flush with the cabinet top, which is two layers of masonite-like particle board. No way to put the cabinet up on the table saw, so I had to make a plunge cut into the oak (hard) face frame.

I started with my 18v Makita, but it wasn't powerful enough. Out came the 7" Makita, which was clearly up to the job. Plunged part of the 12" cut, then stopped. Reentered the cut and the saw bound up and jumped outta the groove. Unfortunately my thumb was in the wrong spot and before I knew it the Man vs Machine battle was over. I managed to nip off the corner of my thumb; sort of mitered the last 1/4" off. Didn't seem like a serious injury (and it wasn't), but there was blood spurting and it started to throb. Hurried into house, dowsed it with water and wrapped it up in a Brawny towel (how appropriate you say). Nancy fired up the Subaru and off to Jefferson Heath Care. The mopped it all up, took a few x-rays to make sure bone wasn't involved (it wasn't), then put a tidy little gauze wrapper over the thumb. Said it would be useful in a month and as good as almost new by Christmas.

When I got home I finished off the plunge cut with a hand saw. Mission accomplished, except for the ca. $800 hospital bill. That cabinet doesn't seem like such a good deal now, but I'm going to use the hell out of it.