to guard or not to guard?

Quoted text begins.my question is whether this is foolish behavior and that sooner or
later the thing will bite me
End of quote.

Hi Calvin,

The short answer: Yes.

The long answer: Use a risk management process
http://www.dir.qld.gov.au/workplace/subjects/riskman/fivesteps/index.htm

Picture yourself or a mate in hospital, injured by an unguarded blade. Ask
yourself "What could I have done to avoid this situation?"

I'm sure we all have horror stories to contribute.

Recently, a friend was using a 4" meataxe to cut out a timber floorboard. The
blade jammed and kicked into his thigh. While he was crouched over, holding the
gaping wound together with one hand, and the still-running angle grinder by the
lead in the other, his phone rang. He let go of the wound to turn off the
machine and answer the phone. It was his wife, ringing to say g'day. He gasped
"Get an ambulance" and held the bits together until it arrived.

He only survived because he was so fat. With little more than the blade depth of
flesh over his femoral artery, he was lucky not to have died in minutes.

One company that I deal with has had two workers each cut the same tendon in the
same hand with the same grinder, yet they still refuse to insist on a guard.

Try different ways of holding the machine so it is not running in line with any
part of you or somebody else. Rehearse the cut before turning the machine on,
and imagine the blade jamming - will it bite you?

Practise cutting scrap stone using a guarded blade so you can get used to lining
up the cut looking from behind the blade. And lastly, always hold the machine
loosely so that its own weight drives the cutting action. That way, the blade
will clear a width for itself, leting dust out and cooling air or water in.

Simon