Abstract: The employer operates a lumber remanufacturing plant that removes defects from wood and cuts it to custom sizes. Employee #1 had been a chop saw operator at this facility for about three months at the time of the accident. The chop saw is an under-the-table, electrically operated saw. A foot-control pneumatically raises the saw above the table to cut stock while at the same time lowering the guard onto the stock. The chop saw that Employee #1 operated had a history of hanging up, with the saw staying above the table and the guard down. Employee #1 said this happened two to three times a day over the two-and-a-half month period before the accident. During that time, he saw how the plant manager would release the saw by hitting a valve that was behind a door under the saw table. From this Employee #1 said he learned to do it himself. He did this often enough that he left the front door off to facilitate this repair. At the time of the accident, the saw hung up and Employee #1 reached under the table and hit the valve. The saw came down and somehow his gloved left hand contacted the saw. His injuries were open fractures to the ring and little fingers and a lacerated thumb. Employee #1 said that he was told that he would not get back the use of the ring-finger joint.