Careful with that saw Eugene

[12bz7]

Been a quite year for gigs , amp building/repairs for me as I've been concentrating on finishing house renovations (on going for the last several years ). Lost my job at the start of the year so money has been real tight but wanted to get this 'monkey off my back' so that next year I could concentrate on work, playing, building ect. Gigs picked up, all of a sudden I have  3 each weekend till the new year .
Now the reason for this post.
Last week I was trimming up some timber on the bench saw and through a 'momentary lapse of concentration' slipped and put the blade threw my left thumb ( bone and all) . Had to have surgery. I'm righthanded and won't be able to play again till after the new year. Have to get a fill-in-guitarist  till then.
Hopefully next year will be a better one.
My message to all those using power tools is to wear the correct safety gear and make sure your 100% focused on the task. Don't take risks.

[tubesornothing]

Thanks for the sobering reminder.  Holy crap.

I put my finger in the bandsaw last year, like you a slip.  I was lucky though, I was able to pull my hand out before it hit the bone.  I **never** want to do that again.

[Ritchie200]

WOW!  Sorry to hear that.  I guess if there is any positive - it could have been worse.  Hope you heal fast and are back to twanging soon!
Jim

[G._Hoffman]

We've had this up in the shop for years now.  If I am at all concerned about my concentration, I don't even go near the power tools.  I'm seriously thinking about getting a Saw Stop anyways.

Sorry to hear about your accident.


Gabriel

[PRR]

Power tools just go deeper faster.

I just moved, my power-saws were packed, I needed to shorten a 1x3 pine stick. Handsaw, fooba fooba fooba SLIP... through the skin near my knuckle. No gross damage, little blood, but the blood would not stop seeping for days. Couldn't work on anything without leaving red spots. Hadda go around with my finger taped-up in a "F*ck you!" position so it could heal.

Sharp things are dangerous. Chain-saw to rug-knife, they all bite.

Blunt things are dangerous: the only time I found bone was when I dropped a big round rock on my thumb. I was VERY mindful of that this week as I was pulling a 900 pound concrete stump out of my yard. Study, brace, jack, check, brace, jack, take ten, ponder, re-rig, fetch stronger cribbing, jack a bit... at every pound-inch and every step around the hole I wanted to know what could go wrong and how NOT to be hurt when it happened.

[imaradiostar]

Man this is scary stuff. I spent the last three days working on some table saw jigs for different things. I'm sharing a shop with my dad now so I've got my two Craftsman saws for ripping and finger jointing (each dedicated) and his Grizzly saw for everything else. The blade on his saw scares the crap outta me- it goes so fast that the high pitched whine of the air while NOT cutting is too much to handle without hearing protection. I'm a deaf guitar player so this says something.

I can see how someone could get distracted and lose a finger pretty easily on a saw. I was especially mindful of this while designing my finger jointing jig. It takes 4 passes per inch of cabinet depth to join all 4 corners of a cabinet. On a marshall style 4x12 that means no less than 56 mundane passes through the dado blade, 28 at a time before reclamping. The repetitive motion is a recipe for injury so I designed my jig with substantial guard around the business side of the blade so it'd be more difficult to accidentally slip into the blade.

I still hate pushing work through a table saw, even with a decent push stick or block. I worked at a place in college where I had to cut plexiglass on a radial arm saw all the time. If you think cutting wood is scary, wait till a 10 or 12 inch radial arm saw sucks a big piece of plex out of your hand and chucks it at the wall. 

12bz7, I'm sorry about your accident. It's a scary thing to think about, especially for any musician. Are you expected to have feeling in that thumb?

jamie

[G._Hoffman]

I won't use radial arm saws.  I spend so much time using a shaper (you want to talk about a scary tool!), that I have a rule - never use any tool that self-feeds!  Sure, the kick back from the table saw can be a bitch, but at least it isn't going to suck your hand in through normal operation.

We use a lot of jigs with our shaper, and because of the nature of the work we can't really use any guards - just the nature of the beast, I'm afraid.  But every jig is designed so the logical place to hold it is such that your hands can never be sucked into the shaper, and of course we always push against the rotation of the cutter, and NEVER climb cut.  You might be able to get away with climb cuts on a router table, but never on a shaper.  Which is of course why the shaper is reversible.  Which doesn't help at all with this thing:



It's a cutter for roughing out necks, and that thing is about 7 inches across.  It would not just take your fingers, it would take your arm.  Fortunately, it is so heavy and well balanced that even when you cut against the grain it leaves a practically glass smooth cut.


Gabriel

[12bz7]

Thanks guys, apart from the constant pain, the inability to do simple tasks like button up my fly, the real bummer is not being able to play. The funny side is when I'm out shopping I get a smile and a 'thumbs up' from complete strangers also my wife has taken to calling the 'sun room' ( I was working on at the time) the 'thumb room'.
Thanks Gabriel for the SawStop link, I checked it out and would love one but the price in my country (Australia) is just over the top for my budget , somewhere between $4500-$6000 depending on model.
I did further study and found there are ways to make it a lot safer for powertool newbies (and veterans for that matter) by making up jigs to keep hands clear of blades.
 http://www.amazon.com/Danny-Proulxs-Shop-Made-Jigs-Fixtur
es/dp/1558707522/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=12581
80608&sr=1-1#noop
Wish I'd done me some research sooner.
There's probably better books out there by now but with a little guidance and imagination one can make the whole process much safer.

PRR Yep, blunt things are dangerous, more people killed with blunt things than sharp . Yep, yer braver than me, I wouldn't even contemplate trying to move a 900lb rock.

imaradiostar, your saws do sound scary, mine's only a handymans saw but has a nasty bite. I've only just now learnt about jigs, previously thought it was something one did with
irish music and good ale, but I won't be going near any saws untill I have a few 'jigs'.I won't know about permanent numbness till the bandages are removed in a few days.
I've only just realised that this post should have been in the cabinet-speaker section.

[tubenit]

Heal quickly! I hope you have 100% recovery. 

I do woodworking also and stay mindful of the dangers but stuff can still happen. I'm thinking I'll make the furniture and stuff that I need over the next handful of yrs or so and sell or give away the woodworking tools when I'm around 65. If I did woodworking all the time, I'd buy the saw stop in a heart beat. I'd give well over $5K to have a finger back.

With respect, Tubenit

[Frankenamp]

OH MY! Sorry to hear about that... I hope your recovery goes well and quickly. (sounds like your wife has a similar sense of humor as does mine... especially when it's at my expense) If it's any consolation- remember that Django Reinhart (sp?) and Tommy Iommi had similar misfortunes and went on to greatness


I occasionally use a table saw at work (with sled) and am one paranoid mofo when that thang is on. Example: I just cut a piece of work and a bloke walks up and goes "wot's this?" ...and sticks his pointer within an inch of the now spinning down blade...and was shocked and dismayed at my instantaneous assesment of his intelligence and genetic heritage in paint blistering detail. The same rules apply to RAS's as to table saws- feed into (against) the rotation. There are some jobs that a RAS is particularly good at, but they are every bit as dangerous as a table saw.


I have been a bit busy myself adding double interlocking switches (two hand operation) to (plastic) material mixers. And posting a LOTO board with a set of plug locks in a noticible position. Think of a gigantic Chi-Com made osterizer blender with a chute (don't say that word around anyone who speaks Hindi) at the bottom to evacuate the mixed material. Someone stuck their hand up the chute to ostensably clean it, and accidentaly hit the 'on' button with their other hand. Mangled two fingers and nearly severed his thumb. As the Molding manager and I were investigating what happened- the material room lead worker told us that he "knew about the defective safety switch for a looooong tiiiiime" ...(fast forward to meeting with CEO) the lead was just promoted to supervisor over all three shifts. Gawd I hope Corning makes some personnel changes in that department. I'm still dumbfounded.

[Heinz]

Sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you recover soon and completely.

Here's a video from the "time warp" series that shows the saw stop in (slow-motion) action:

The speed and force of this thing is simply amazing. I would definitely invest the money if I had to do woodworking regularly.

[stingray_65]

I cut off my left index finger about 12 yrs a go with a hatchet.

basic scenario was a house heated with a wood stove, cold morning, no kindling, 3 mins after I woke up freezing I lost the finger.

actually I didn't "loose" it because it was holding on by a flap of skin.

long story short it was reattached, it stays cold all the time, I must be consiously aware of frostbite when out doors in the winter, it hurts when the weather changes, but it moves and I have better than 80% dexterity within 3 months of the operation.

My insurance wouldn't cover leaches so that therapy was out, I really think it would have helped establish colatteral growth of the blood vessels supplying the finger and perhaps i would have regained more touch sensitivity.

If I had a bigger work area, I would have a radial arm saw. My first factory job I ran one along with 16 others in my department. I saw a man loose a thumb on one when working unlimited overtime. you keep stuff you dont want to cut out of a small path and even when it grabs and feeds it won't vary from its path. the problem arises when you are holding the wood down with such fervor that if the wood climbs into the saw, your hand is drawn with it. proper jigs, sharp blades and common sense will keep your fingers on. a Radial arm saw is so versitle.

[billcreller]

I've been using power tools since the late 40s. I'm always thinking about guitar playing when using that equipment, to keep from doing something dumb, and hope I keep thinking that way.  Sorry about your distraction, and hope it heals OK for you to play again.  Like Gabriel, I use a big router under a good sized table for shaping to a jig or fixture. A router or a shaper is downright scary when it's running.