How? Do you have a video of the near miss or can you explain it? If you use a piece of wood to push down the top I don’t see how it’s risky.

The common theme is that when the blades catch the wood and the hand is gripping it, the hand tries to follow the wood. If you get very unlucky the wood escapes about the time your hand is nearing the blade and momentum carries you in. For routing tables it’s the curved pieces that’ll get ya. Snag, spin, bzzzt.

I believe my instructor suggested but didn’t mandate a two pusher technique with the jointer, where the left hand pushes the wood against the back plate and forward while the right helps stabilize. Less pressure on the hand with a vector toward the blade. Seemed safer to me.

Ah yeah I see. I’ve always used a micro jig like pusher to push it down and towards the backplate to try and avoid that scenario.

Pushing sticks should save you because the hand never gets close to the table. But those thin plastic pushers aren’t enough elevation. I think Stumpy Nubs has a video about how people (and how many of them) get injured by those things. I’ve never been brave enough to watch it.