Small cautionary tale

[ChicknPickn]

Too close for comfort indeed.

Back in the early 2000s was working with an experienced carpenter installing a countertop, and he went to catch the end of a circ saw cutoff instead of allowing it to drop to the ground. The waste fell anyway, as did the first inch or so of his index and middle fingers. It was pretty gruesome.

Tools have no compassion for flesh and bone.

Be careful, but not fearful.

And always wear eye protection, even when doing simple stuff in the shop. An eyeball is more fragile than a grape.

Look up "angle grinder injuries" in Google Images when you're bored. People have died when Zipcut wheels come apart.

I did. I looked. Whew. Eternal vigilance.

 

[epizootics]

My wastrel brother (a well-noted expert on everything—just ask him!) nailed his foot to the roof of a house he was re-decking, because he left his finger on the trigger and grazed the safety mechanism across the top of his boot…he was working alone, and couldn’t pull the nail out because it went through his foot and embedded it into a stud.

What made this even funnier was the fact the homeowner was gone, and he couldn’t reach a hammer or pry bar to pull the nail out, so had to wait for his wife to bring him his lunch 45 minutes later (pre-cell phone days).

This was somehow my fault, because I’d refused to take a day off from my regular (read: “sure thing” job) to help him roof a house in the middle of an August day in Texas (read: upper 90s/low 100s temperature), just so he could make some extra money.

He’d just gotten a tetanus shot earlier that summer, due to another incident with the same nail gun.

Idiot.

So these characters truly exist outside of American movies? I know I shouldn't laugh but your post is both cruel and funny.


It is interesting to note that a thread like this keeps popping up every two or three months. From a sociological point of view, I would liken it to the same discussion in a workshop, whenever someone on the crew has a close call. That's good. It means that we members of TDPRI have, on some level, created a social unit. The goal of said discussions in shops ("man, I could feel there was something wrong with that blade, phew" followed by "I've seen that happen in my previous job. Sorry for the gruesome details, but...") is to protect the individuals within that group by raising their awareness without their having to actually lose a finger or their eyesight. I'm pretty sure early Homo Sapiens would gather around the fire with stories of hunting gone wrong.

A friend of mine works in a social rehabilitation wood shop. It is actually a good program...on the paper. The two guys who run the shop think they are above teaching proper safety protocols for the machines under the pretense that "nothing serious ever happened". My friend just spent the last year trying to make them understand that waiting for injury to happen was not the right way to look at it, from a human perspective as well as a legal one. The table saw at this place is old and notoriously dangerous (I know because I have used it a couple of times). My buddy is now leaving his job but worried sick about what's going to happen once he is gone and seriously considering contacting the authorities about it.

On a personal note, I build guitars in my flat and my workshop is tiny. I created my own safety protocols over the years. Clear the space around whichever machine I am going to use. No music before and during operation. Routers are unplugged whenever I fiddle with the settings. No using power tools when I am tired or preoccupied. Double check everything before turning on anything. My last serious injury was from stepping barefoot on a UK power plug, which any British person knows is painful but not life-threatening.

 

[Jupiter]

I feel sure that my router/trimmer is JUST WAITING for a chance at me; I watch it VERY closely, rehearse all my cuts, and never feel relaxed until it's back in the box

 

[ChicknPickn]

I was told by a surgeon, "A man without scars is a man without stories."

However, there are some stories I would prefer not to tell from experience.

 

[Wheelhouse]

So these characters truly exist outside of American movies? I know I shouldn't laugh but your post is both cruel and funny.


It is interesting to note that a thread like this keeps popping up every two or three months. From a sociological point of view, I would liken it to the same discussion in a workshop, whenever someone on the crew has a close call. That's good. It means that we members of TDPRI have, on some level, created a social unit. The goal of said discussions in shops ("man, I could feel there was something wrong with that blade, phew" followed by "I've seen that happen in my previous job. Sorry for the gruesome details, but...") is to protect the individuals within that group by raising their awareness without their having to actually lose a finger or their eyesight. I'm pretty sure early Homo Sapiens would gather around the fire with stories of hunting gone wrong.

A friend of mine works in a social rehabilitation wood shop. It is actually a good program...on the paper. The two guys who run the shop think they are above teaching proper safety protocols for the machines under the pretense that "nothing serious ever happened". My friend just spent the last year trying to make them understand that waiting for injury to happen was not the right way to look at it, from a human perspective as well as a legal one. The table saw at this place is old and notoriously dangerous (I know because I have used it a couple of times). My buddy is now leaving his job but worried sick about what's going to happen once he is gone and seriously considering contacting the authorities about it.

On a personal note, I build guitars in my flat and my workshop is tiny. I created my own safety protocols over the years. Clear the space around whichever machine I am going to use. No music before and during operation. Routers are unplugged whenever I fiddle with the settings. No using power tools when I am tired or preoccupied. Double check everything before turning on anything. My last serious injury was from stepping barefoot on a UK power plug, which any British person knows is painful but not life-threatening.

This is a good note that I didn't see earlier in the thread. Changing a bit? UNPLUG! Adjusting a blade? UNPLUG!

Some equipment seems relatively safe to do these things without disconnecting power. I don't skip that little step anyway. An angle grinder is pretty fiddly for changing the disc, and this tool is where I picked up this safety habit as well. Way too easy to jostle the go button accidentally with a hand on or too close to the wheel.

 

[Davecam48]

I was born with crappy eye vision in my left eye, and I was that awkward kid at school wearing glasses that could start a fire using the sun and my left side lens. Skipping forward about a thousand years, the metal particle in my left eye shifted making it's vision worse than ever and was totally dependent on my right eye's vision.
About a thousand years later I had to have an X-ray of the skull for a suspected cracked bone and this metal fragment was rediscovered.

Fortunately one of the doctors involved was the brother of a school mate who went through primary and secondary schooling with me and he had read an article about the same problem at another city in Australia and talked me into having it removed by using a high powered magnetic gadget that literally dragged the small piece of steel through the edge of the eye-ball and out.

I still have crappy eyesight in that eye but it has not gotten any worse over the years!

It's a good thing it was not made of aluminium!!!

DC

 

[johnny k]

I won't go anywhere near powertools. I wish i could build guitars, but not for me. The only thing happening to my finger is my hand got caught in a car door, the door closed shut, but nothing. i was a bit tipsy, and i am sure it helped. Along with the soft plastic sealing in the car door.

Another time my hand got caught in the window of a car. It was one of those cars where if the key isn't in the ignition, you can't roll down the windows. I was screaming open the window, open the window ! My friend had to put the keys back in the ignition and roll them down. I was tipsy as well, and no damage. I think i see a pattern here. If you work with power tools, have a few beers, and you won't feel the pain.
You might have a hard time finding where your index finger tip flew off though.

Take care.

 

[StoneH]

I was cutting aluminum barstock on my radial arm saw. A fleck of red hot aluminum hit my safety glasses dead center and stayed there (like a bug hitting a windshield right where you are lookin down the road).