Safety first, second and third. What to never forget.

[Wintergreen]

I post here since it regards our tools.

 

How many times have you read the instructions about safety first? Plenty? Yeah, me too. But still...

I will only post a picture of my glove and not of the wound the tablesaw inflicted on my fingers and then a short discussion of what happened and ho to prevent it from ever happen again.

So, take a moment to examine this picture. Let your mind wander off to worst case scenario and then read on below.

 

That was ugly, yes?

However I can comfort you in that I still have five functional fingers on my hand. The wounds are only shallow however the fingernail on my index finger got slitted lengthwise and will probably fall off in a week or two.

Thumb and pinky are unharmed.

Okey, what happened?

I usually work with gloves on. Partly because my shop is below room temp and partly becasue I've believed that they give some sort of safety when it comes to power tools. Now I know that that is not true.

 

Today I bought and mounted a new blade to my tablesaw. A tablesaw that takes up tp 12"/300mm blades. This new blade was small att 165mm with a kerf of 1,5mm. Happily trying it out I made two or three more or less serious errors.

1. Slitting a piece of fine grained pine down to 1,5x3,5 I had the blade unecessarily high. I didn't lower it between cuts.

2. I did not use my pushing sticks, which btw always lay beside the saw.

3. I had gloves on.

4. And finally, I got carried away and forgot about safety first.

 

What happened was that as I was cutting the wood from 20x30mm downto 1,5x3mm the far end of the stock started to catch the blade. Reaching beyond the blade to hold down the end s**t happend. Even though my fingers were away from the blade the blade caught the fabric of the glove's index finger. Rest is history so to speak.

 

Right, so what to do in order to keep skin and nails intact in the future?

Well, had I lowered the blade it wouldn't have caught the glove and even if it did catch the glove, I would probably get away with only real scare and a "C**P, that was close!

In using push sticks I would have been safe no matter how high the blade was set.

And with bare hands I doubt that the blade hade caught my entire hand, which is what happend now. Instead the blade would probably only scoure the finger. Or maybe not. I have no intention of trying this out.

 

What about my wellbeing?

Yes, we drove down to local healthcare (only 2 mins away) and had the wounds taken care of by a nurse after a GP dr had had a look. I did also receive a prescription of antibiotics cure, one week long.

I addition to that regular pain killers will be on the menu for a couple of days.

And really, I'm fine. Yes it hurts but I kind of earned that.

 

My sending off words to you all are

Have fun, but BE SAFE!

 

[Wintergreen]

And by the way, I'm left handed, so I can still brush me teeth. 😄

 

[BenD]

You got lucky mate!

 

I have a friend you can't move two fingers anymore because of a table saw. 

[G.L.]

Luckily you still have all your fingers. Working with a table saw is so risky. Both my thumbs know all about it; they were both introduced to the saw blade many years ago. Since then I have become very careful with my circular saw.
I sincerely wish you a prosperous 2022 without sawing accidents and a speedy recovery for the other issue.

[Charles Green]

As well as NO GLOVES - NEVER - with any rotating power tool or shaft (think being wrapped around a PTO) add: long hair tied back; no open cuffs on long sleeves; no jewelry on hands, wrists or neck; shirt tails in; aprons tied in back.  And while I'm at it, have a fire-extinguisher handy.  Compare the pain, time lost, function lost and money associated with an injury to the cost of push-sticks of various forms, feather boards and the time in making one-off holding jigs.

[Tim Holt]

Ouch.  That just gave me the chills to read it. Thanks for posting just the glove picture and glad it was manageable. 
 

 I lost about 1/8” off the pad (print) of my thumb by a similar move.  No gloves and was using a push stick, but I reached over the cut to stabilize the wood past the cut and brushed my thumb against the blade. 
 

At least like thumbprints, fingernails grow back. 
 

I also have stopped using gloves around any power tool after I got my glove caught in a drill press, which rapidly wrapped around the bit.  I got to the power switch fast enough.  But I did also get a foot switch after that. 

Edited December 27, 2021 by Tim Holt

[Jim Lad]

You had a very lucky escape, mate! Glad to hear that you will heal properly. it's so easy to take these machines for granted, but I'm certain you'll never do so again.

 

John

[Ryland Craze]

Glad to hear that in time your injury will be healed.  You just reminded us that you cannot take safety for granted.  These tools can hurt or worse.

[druxey]

You were very fortunate really. Hopefully no infection and clean healing.

 

Whenever I'm even a little tired, I don't use power tools. If ever I feel a little too confident or nonchalant, I quit right away as well.

[gjdale]

Glad to hear that you escaped without serious injury. Table saws always scare the c**p out of me, which is why I invested in a Sawstop Table Saw. Doesn’t replace the need for vigilance with safety, but does prevent those serious injuries.

[mtaylor]

I'm glad it wasn't worse than it was, Håkan.    I glad you posted this as often times, even the most careful person can have a "oh c**p" moment and require medical help.  

 

As for what Druxey mentioned.... I practice that also.   Better not to get something done than face unintended consequences.

[Paul Le Wol]

Hi Hakan,  I remember working in a fab shop a long time ago and this guy was using the floor mounted grinder. The foreman went over and reamed him for wearing gloves while using a turning piece of machinery .  That always stuck with me.  Glad you are okay. Sometimes being left handed is a good thing😀

[Dr PR]

My junior high school shop teacher had a jar full of formaldehyde with one of his fingers in it. He brought it out and passed it around on the first day of each semester.

 

When I was a kid I knew a carpenter who was missing one finger - power saw accident. One day he came home missing another. Get careless and you pay the price.

 

Having just passed Christmas brings to mind a personal Christmas story. I had been working on some hobby project and had a few hours Christmas morning (before I was married) before I had to go somewhere. So I was working with an X-Acto knife cutting something. I had very good vision so I didn't need glasses, and safety glasses just blurred things a bit. The extreme tip of a NO. 11 blade broke off and stuck in the white of my eye. I couldn't close my eye because the metal cut into the inside of my eye lid. Talk about pain!! I called a fellow I worked with and he came over and drove me to the emergency room. They removed the splinter and gave me some eye drops to relieve the pain. It was a not-so-merry Christmas!

 

So I learned my lesson about wearing safety glasses when using tools that might break or chip and produce splinters.

[Dave_E]

Working for a company that always preached safety…. Today I was carving in a rabbit on my Lady and I found myself carving a square blade knife into the keel with my hand directly behind it. Slip and instant insertion of exacto blade into my hand. I’m very aware of the easy ways you can loose fingers and injure your hands in this modeling hobby. Thank you for the thread! Think as you work. 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Dave_E

[Wintergreen]

Thanks for the replies and well wishes!

My point of posting this screw-up of mine was to remind anyone that reads it just how easy and terribly quick things can go wrong.

I kick myself for letting it happen, but as you say I was lucky, indeed.

Today my daughter which is a full blown nurse will stop by and switch the bandages that are more like band-aids really.

And I also got the antibiotics to prevent infection.

[wefalck]

It gives me the shudders when I see guys on YouTube proudly showing off their wood-working or mechanic's skill - wearing gloves to protect their manicure(?) ... gives bad examples to innocent novices, who go there for instruction. Such videos should be banned. That applies also to those thin nitrile gloves a lot of workers nowadays seem to use to avoid skin contact with oils and other chemicals. They may not be strong enough to wind around rotating machinery, but it is enough for the fingers to be pulled close to some sharp rotating tool.

 

BTW, I am running all my machinery off momentary foot-switches - it is enough to lift your foot to cut the power, no looking with injured fingers for emergeny switches in a panic.

 

Apart from minor scratches I never had an accident in the modelling workshop

 

The only serious DIY accident I ever had was a few year ago, when I tried to cut a heavy floor tile. I grooved it with the angle-grinder, but not deep enough. When I then put it on edge to break it off, it broke in an irregular fashion, I must have slipped or something, and a racer-sharp edge went into my left wrist, missing the main artery by a few millimeters - still bleeding like slaughered pig. I put pressure on the clean cut and went inside the house for help. My wife panicked, but had the good sense to suggest using a ladies' pad as a pressure dressing. I bandaged myself up and then we went in search of an emergency department (it was in Spain). The first one turned us away, because our address did not belong to their district 😲 In the second one, the doctor looked at my wrist and asked what we wanted, as I was already bandaged up - it took a while to convince her that the wound needed 'proper' dressing by a professional, perhaps even stitching as a big flap of skin was cut loose ...

[No Idea]

Wow that looks nasty but I'm really glad that you are ok 👍  It doesn't take much to hurt yourself thats for sure.  When I was an apprentice we were told that there were two rules when using power tools of any kind 

 

1.  Use it only as intended with the utmost respect for own health and safety.

2.  Break rule 1 and the tool will do you some serious damage.

[gjdale]

A good mantra to remember is: “Every machine in your workshop is actively trying to murder you!”

[bricklayer]

I used to be a builder. Once I attached a load to the hook of a crane at the building site. I wore gloves, too. Rigid ones. One glove got caught at the tip of the hook at it`s open end around the wrist. The crane operator lifted the load and me. My feet were off the ground when he noticed what was happening. The glove, a leather/fabric mix, didn`t tear. Would it have torn if I had been 20m above the ground? The crane operator had mercy with me and released me from this embarrassing situation.

Michael 

[G.L.]

11 hours ago, gjdale said:

A good mantra to remember is: “Every machine in your workshop is actively trying to murder you!”

I suddenly feel very brave: soon I'm going to spend a day in my workshop full of murderers who all want to get to me.😕

[wefalck]

14 hours ago, gjdale said:

A good mantra to remember is: “Every machine in your workshop is actively trying to murder you!”

That applies even more so to cars and motorcycles ... 😈

 

Another good principle is to make yourself always aware of the potential trajectories of workpieces or tool-parts coming off a machine and keep your body and mainly your face out of the way, if possible ... or use safety-shields.

 

When using a lathe, try to opt for collets, rather than 3- or 4-jaw-chucks whenever possible - they are inherently safer. A worthwile investment, as they also have less run-out.

 

[kurtvd19]

On 12/28/2021 at 4:09 AM, wefalck said:

It gives me the shudders when I see guys on YouTube proudly showing off their wood-working or mechanic's skill

I recently started to watch a YouTube video about saw safety and stopped the video after about 30 seconds when the guy went to the saw with an open button up sweater with long sleeves AND a tie!  At that point I stopped viewing the video because I figure that anybody who wears long sleeves and a tie while using a table saw is a certifiable idiot.  YouTube has some excellent informational videos but also some that are pure BS.

[Ian_Grant]

As was said above, bad stuff can happen very quickly with a table saw. I have a 3hp Unisaw and my accident history is;

 

1) It once kickbacked an 18" or so long piece of wood, past me, through the workshop door, across the basement, and into the opposite drywall. Fortunately I have the good habit of not standing in line with the blade as the table is at about testicle height 😬. On this occasion the right-tilting blade was at 45 degrees and the projectile was trapped between it and the fence. I had a little voice in my head beforehand telling me the cut might not be a great idea as set up but I didn't listen.

 

2) Once I was trying to make a cut in a too-small piece of wood. My left index finger "somehow" contacted the blade which neatly manicured the nail and shaved off the  tip. I have no idea how it happened, still. No serious damage, missed the bone, but lots of blood and the fingertip felt "numb" for several years until the nerves grew back. Again that little voice had tried to intervene. As a side note, it is amazing how the body recovers from injury; it was interesting watching the fingerprint whorls etc re-form as it healed.

 

Not a bad record for 35+ years with the Unisaw I guess, but I have learned to pay attention to that little voice now.

[davyboy]

Reminds me of an incident with a glove around  50years ago. I was then a SNCO in the RAF,sent one of the men out to do start up crew on our SAR Helicopter (Westland Whirlwind 10) The last check before lifting off (in winter) was the start up crewman had to open the fwd door and check the anti icing hot air was flowing. He did this,took off his cold weather glove to feel and dropped it accidently. Needless to say it was sucked into the engine which stopped with a loud bang. Never saw aircrew moving so fast leaving an Aircraft. 

 

Dave 

[druxey]

Always listen to that little inner voice! Never, ever discount it. This applies to life as well as workshop. I could have saved myself al lot of grief in life that way!

[wefalck]

Yes, it is rather strange, how often we do things against better knowledge and spite of recognising at the moment that we shouldn't do it ... I gather it is often lazyness ...

 

My father had a peculiar way of rolling up his shirt-sleeves, not inside-out, but outside-in. He explained to me that he was taught that by his father, who trained as locks-smith, joined the Imperial German Navy in the early 1900s and after WWI worked on shipyards. The purpose was to prevent sparks or hot metal swarf from being caught in the rolled-up part.

 

There used to be special blouses and overalls for mechanics operating lathes etc. that had very close-fitting and buttoned cuffs and where cut with sleeves as tight-fitting as possible.

[CDR_Ret]

That is part of the reason I sold my 40-year-old 10-inch Delta contractor table saw and got me a SawStop cabinet saw two years ago. I'm getting older and was concerned my strength and situational awareness was probably not what it used to be. Shortly after, I was ripping some planks for my son's deck and my thumb contacted the blade. (Never had happened in the four decades of regular use with the other saw.) Long story short, received a tiny <1/8 inch nick on my thumb, but had to replace both the safety cartridge and the blade. Totally worth the cost.

 

Terry

[Ian_Grant]

Lee Valley used to do a sawstop demo using a banana. Very impressive!

 

I am going to make a serious confession here, despite the opprobrium I may receive:  I've had my unisaw in the basement workshop since we moved here in 1992. Just between us guys, I have yet to use the blade guard since we were in the old house. 😬🤓 It just gets in the way.

 

For jobs I do for other people I take my Dewalt portable table saw. Being more modern, it has a much nicer blade guard; it has a riving knife not just a splitter; you can latch the side guards up to check a measurement against the blade; you can instantly detach it and leave only the kickback fingers; you can quickly detach the kickback fingers for non-through cuts; you can instantly reattach both; you never need to re-align it. The old unisaw guard has none of these features. I guess I should look into a more modern guard for the unisaw.

 

I'm braced for feedback..............

Edited December 30, 2021 by Ian_Grant

[Wintergreen]

Back up on the horse as they say.

Now a couple of days later I went out to the shop again. The injured fingers doesn't ache all the time and yes, I have been shaken of the incident.

Creative thinking applied. It happened once. It might happen again. The human race is slow to learn from history... the glove is nailed to the wall adjacent the saw.

A blade guard...hm... pictures below.

The fences on my crude table saw are quite high, therefore I use a board clamped to the fence for smaller jobs.

Figured out the the guard had to be attached to the board. The setup only applies for small jobs, still need to figure out one for the 10" blade as well. Later though. It also needed to be retractable in some sense, for setting the blade and such.

(gah, typing one-handed is slow)

It can probably be refined. Anyway, I fired up the saw and finished the cuts that I started previously.

Yes, having the fingers wrapped in band-aids does impede agility and it felt awkard and I was not at all feeling confident. All due to the accident.

But I got it done and it worked quite okay.

 

This high was the blade set  at the accident.

 

Should have been this high.

 

And the blade guard (or fingerguard might be more appropriate). It is attached with a hinge at this end and folds up to 90 degrees.

 

The saw only does 90 degree cuts, no tilting. No riving knife either. But dust extraction I've built.

Now back to building 🙂 

 

[wefalck]

Are you aware of the concept of table saw push-blocks and -sticks ? Have a look here: https://www.google.com/search?q=table+saw+push+block&newwindow=1&sxsrf=AOaemvKPStG6ZDKxbv40FJt5DdRaG2gdEw:1640887753307&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicqJudj4z1AhWnxoUKHZZLAwMQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1276&bih=695&dpr=2

 

They come in all sorts of guises and configuration, can be mad by oneself or Rolls-Royce-versions can be bought ...