Abstract: At 12:31 p.m. on March 27, 2008, Employee #1 was cutting sheet metal on a metal-cutting machine. Employee #1 was operating a Niagara Power Squaring Sheer, Model Number I-6, Serial Number 56720, while cutting pieces of sheet metal. At the time of this accident, the point of operation and hold-downs were not guarded as required. There was a guard-strip in front of the point of operation, which was color coded red and blue but the openings were too wide. The openings from the table to the 'blue guard' were approximately 1.66 inches and to the 'red guard' approximately 0.75 inches wide. The distance from the knife to the guard was approximately 3.25 inches and from the hold-downs to the guard was 0.625 inches. Employee #1 was feeding a piece of sheet metal into the machine, and his left hand's middle finger went under the guard and was caught in between a hold-down and the table. As a result, Employee #1 lost the tip of his finger. No one witnessed this accident. Employee #1 was taken to the Kaiser Permanente Hospital in South San Francisco but was not admitted. He was treated and released.