Push Sticks
The fence is set correctly, the blade set to the right height, the splitter or riving knife is in place behind the blade, you've got hold downs and hold in in place, the straight edge of the board is against the fence and the flat face of the board is resting flat on the table. and you're ready to feed the stock into the spinning saw blade - right? WRONG!
What are you going to do near the end of the cut where you have to get your hand very close to the spinning blade? You are going to use a push stick aren't you, or can you spare a digit or two?
There's an even better product on the market called The GRRRIPPER. It pushs down on the stock ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE.presses against the fence and pulls the stock into the fence while keeping your hand well away from the blade. It's really handy when ripping thin strips, down to a quarter of an inch wide. JoinTech.com had it on their site and a Google search should help you find a place to get one. It isn't inexpensive - about $70 US . If they could get it down to maybe $30 I'm sure they'd sell a lot more of this great safety device. (I own one but have no interest in the product or the company that makes it or sells it)
(Swingman noted the need to add the following)
Whatever you use to push the stock to and past the blade, it should keep your hand away from the blade if, for some reason, it slips off the stock and towards the blade. (Another reason t ogo with setting the saw blade as low as possible for each cut.)
to more on table saw safety from a thread in rec.woodworking ---->