# Always remember the basics.



## captainawesome (Jun 21, 2012)

I'm in the middle of making another batch of end grain coasters, and wanted to try something a little different this time. Instead of bundling a bunch of scraps together, I took a couple of larger offcuts and decided to rout some dadoes and rabbits with a contrasting wood glued in.

I was at the router table (TS plywood insert) and routed the first pass of a dado. I then unlocked the base moved the router up, and made a second pass at my final depth. After looking at the uneven dado, I realized I forgot to lock the base on the second pass. I moved the fence over a bit and began to feed the workpiece in to clean up the dado, completely oblivious to the fact that I had set it up to trap the workpiece between the bit and the fence. You can guess what happened next as the chunk of Sapele was turned into a missile headed straight at the front of my just washed truck. 

Luckily it fell short of the vehicle, but more importantly, I had been using push blocks...








It took me a few seconds to examine both of my hands and make sure nothing had come in contact with the bit. I couldn't believe how violent the whole thing felt, and that I came away unscathed. I changed my shorts, ripped off the outside piece to made it a rabbit, and called it a day.

I was so wrapped up in the new method I was trying and the different look I was going for, that I didn't catch such a simple rule when routing at a table.


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