Your first cuts on the table saw
Last time we went through the safety talk start to finish, no skipping, and I meant every bit of it. If you weren't in the room for that one, go back before you touch the machine. I'm not being dramatic. It just matters more here than it did with the hand saw.
Now we actually cut something.
Setting up
Same board, same reference edge you've been using this whole time. That doesn't change just because the tool did. Your reference edge goes against the fence. Every time. That's the whole trick, same as it was with the hand saw and the square, you're just letting the machine hold that relationship steady instead of your hands.
Set your fence to your measurement. Lock it down. Then measure again from the blade to the fence with your tape, rather than trusting the number printed on the rail. Those rails drift a little over the years, and I've been burned trusting mine more than I should have.
Blade height. People skip this one because they're in a hurry to cut. You want the blade sticking up maybe a quarter inch above the top of your board, not much more. I know it feels like more blade above the wood would somehow be safer, further from your fingers. It's the opposite. Less blade exposed above the board means less blade exposed to you if something goes sideways.
The cut itself
Push stick. Use it. Even on a board this size, even when your hands feel plenty far from the blade. The push stick rides on top of the board, behind your hand, and it's what finishes the cut for the last several inches so your fingers never have to come close to that blade at all.
Feed the board steady. Not fast, but not slow and hesitant either. Hesitant is actually worse, it gives the blade more time to grab and kick something back at you. Steady, even pressure, both hands doing their job, one guiding against the fence and one pushing straight through.
Let the blade do the cutting. You're not forcing the board through, you're guiding it. If it feels like you're shoving, stop, back the board out, and check that your fence is actually parallel to the blade. Something's usually off if you're having to muscle it.
Stand slightly to the side, not directly behind the board. If a piece kicks back, you don't want to be in the line of it.
Checking your cut
Same as with the hand saw. Square against the cut edge. See if light slips under it anywhere. A table saw cut should come out cleaner and straighter than your hand saw cut, and that's most of why people like the machine. But it's not magic. If your fence was off, your cut's off, no matter how nice the tool is.
People tend to trust the table saw more than they trust themselves, and it really ought to be the other way around. The saw is only as accurate as the setup you gave it.
A story, because this is where it always comes to me
I built Mary a step stool a while back, so she could reach the top shelf in our kitchen without dragging a chair over. Simple build, and I was proud of how clean the cuts came out. This was back when I was still pretty new to the table saw and feeling good about it.
Only problem, I never actually measured against her, against the counter, against anything real. I measured against a number in my head that felt about right. Built it, carried it in, she stood on it and could reach about four inches past where she needed to. It was too tall to be useful for the thing it was built for.
She still has it. Calls it "the tall mistake." It's a plant stand in the corner of the kitchen now, and it does that job fine.
The cuts were good. The cuts were the easy part. What I skipped was checking my measurement against the real thing it needed to fit, not just a number that sounded right on paper. Your table saw cuts today can come out clean and square and still be the wrong length if you didn't check what you were actually building for. Don't skip that part just because the machine makes the cutting feel more official.
Before next time
Practice a few cuts on scrap pine before you touch your real shelf boards. Get the feel of the fence, the push stick, the feed rate, all of it, on wood you don't care about yet.