For me, day #2 of this class was all about the rip cut.
When I was a little girl in gymnastics, the phrase “psyched out” was used frequently around the gym. Someone would be standing on the beam, arms in the air, ready to do a back handspring. And they would stand there and stand there and stand there. Eventually the coach would wave their arms and say, “You’ve psyched yourself. Get down and you’ll try again later.” We all learned that it was best to get up on the beam, do the trick and get it over with. The longer you paused, thinking about it, the more time your brain had to remember the times your hands slipped off the beam and you hit your head. Or if you hadn’t fallen yet, your brain had time to imagine all the things that could go wrong.
Without realizing it, I had psyched myself out with a rip cut. For a while, when I only had a miter saw, making a rip cut wasn’t an option so I didn’t worry about it. I simply designed my projects from wood widths that were readily available to me at whatever store I happened to be buying from. When I finally invested in a table saw recently, the rip became an option but still something I didn’t jump to start doing. When I watched videos on how to use a table saw safely, they all talked about how dangerous the machine was and how a piece of wood could quickly be thrown back at you. My plan was to keep my fingers as far away from the blade as possible and my body off to one side or the other. It was probably quite comical to watch in the first few weeks with my table saw.
As I mentioned before, I had come to a dead end with my project at home. One solution that Juan came up with would require me to make a rip cup in an already pretty slender piece of lumber. I thought about it for several days- which looking back was maybe a smart idea- and psyched myself out. I told Juan I would need to find a new solution, that I didn’t feel ready to make that cut. Luckily, day #2 of the class came with the announcement that we would be making 4 rip cuts to make all our aprons of the table the same width. I felt a knot tighten in my chest as my fear began to overwhelm my excitement.
I can’t remember a time when I have paid such close attention to someone. This was different- my mind was telling me that my life depended on it. The instructor gave similar instructions to what I had seen online. He also mentioned the pieces of wood that could come flying back into your chest. He stated he would never stand behind someone making a rip cut… NOTED! He even talked about the special SawStop blade they used there which could sense a finger, moisture or metal coming into contact with the blade and stop itself. I wasn’t comforted as much as he said he was. When my turn came, I’m sure he could tell I was anxious. I began repeating his instructions out loud. He told me to run through the pass without the blade being on so I could practice when to grab the push block and how to continue past the blade. I don’t need to tell you that the cut went fine. I made four passes and walked away with about 100# of fear off of my chest. This cut will likely continue to make me nervous but the first one is past me and I will only get more comfortable with practice.