Jointer Close Call
Although David got a nice bite from his jointer, I call it a “close call” because I can only imagine how much worse his injury could have been. Let’s hear David tell the tale:
Well Marc I had an accident on my jointer on 04/25/09. I was milling maple for your cutting board design when the accident (carelessness) happened. I had just run the piece through on its face and pushed the piece through no problem. Well i didn’t push the piece all the way past the blade guard which left it propped open about two and a half inches (see pic) exposing the spinning blades. I reached for the end of the board closest to the blades and that’s when it happened.
My ring finger on my right hand came into the blades path. I heard a little hum and my hand immediately jerked back. I was scared to look down to see what happened to my hand. Marc I was lucky, I was bleeding moderately but my finger was all there. I hand cut a 1/16th inch deep flap about the size of your pinky nail (see pic). There is no room in woodworking for carelessness or lack of safety around machines. It could of been much much worse but safety will come first in my shop from now on.
Please let this serve on your site as a testament to safety especially for upcoming safety week.
Circular Saws Cut Skin Too!
Mattias recently experienced a terribly painful injury. One moment of lapsed judgment landed his butt in the ER with 9 stitches. Let’s hear his story:
I’m hoping all is well over there. I have a good story for you for safety week. Well, maybe not good, but it’s current and it involves blood and gore. Last night at about 10 PM, I was finishing up a last minute house project and needed to make one particular crosscut that didn’t work well on the table saw. So I laid up the workpiece with a crosscut guide for the circular saw, and balanced the whole contraption in a less than ideal way over the table saw (I’m a bit cramped for space).
Since this is about safety week, you can imagine what happens next. Basically I had my hand behind the saw, supporting the workpiece, and the saw kicked back, climbed up on the workpiece, and shot right over my hand. I’m kicking myself because this would totally have been preventable if I had just taken the time to move things around to support the workpiece properly, and I know exactly how to do that. I even got the warning signs from the saw before the kickback but I didn’t pay attention. It’s that “just one cut, it will be fine” problem.
Anyway, after leaving the ER at 3 AM and nine stitches later, I no longer have a 2″ by 1/4″ wide by 1/2″ deep hole in my hand. But I will let this be a warning to myself and anyone you want to share this with that this sort of thing happens so easily and in an instant, and it could change your life forever. I’m incredibly lucky to still have all my digits attached and working. And I’ve got some gory photos too. Thanks for doing “safety week” – it’s clearly needed.
The Inspiration for Safety Week – Brent’s Injury
A few weeks ago, Brent told me the story of his injury on the jointer. He also sent me pictures of the damage. I have seen injury photos in the past, but for some reason these had a profound affect on me. I think its partly due to the fact that a jointer injury is one of my worst nightmares! After giving it some though, I asked Brent if I could share his story in the hopes of preventing someone else from making the same mistake. And the more I thought about it, I started to realize that I needed to do something bigger with a much larger reach. And so Woodworker’s Safety Week was born.
Here is Brent’s story:
“I was in my garage and working on a project for a family member. I had worked all day at my job and decided to get some shop time in because this project was taking me forever to complete. The amount of time this was taking was way longer than I originally thought. I just finished gluing up some boards and should of called it quits for the night. I was exhausted and hungry. Instead of shutting the lights out and going inside I decided to use the jointer and flatten some boards for the next step. This would give me a head start for the next day. As I passed the boards over the jointer (not using a push block), I noticed I was getting a large amount of snipe. I don’t know what I was thinking or what I was not thinking due to being tired but I adjusted the out feed table. When I did this adjustment I lowered it a little too much. The next board I ran across started to bounce and I instinctively pushed the board down to control it. The board then shot out and my hand came down on the blades. This accident sent me to the emergency room. When I arrived they stuck a needle in my palm about seven times to numb it. I also received an IV and tetanus shot. I then had to hold my hand under running water for fifteen minutes. The surgeon then came in only to tell me they were shipping me to another hospital where a specialist could work on me. The plastic surgeon operated on me the next day. I received a skin graft from my arm to my palm that resulted in twelve staples and fifteen stitches. Lessons learned: 1) Don’t woodwork when you are hungry and tired. 2) Know your equipment and its correct operation. 3) Push sticks and safety equipment are less expensive than hospital bills (by far). 4) When you rush to meet a deadline it can cost you dearly. The photos are from the day the bandage, staples, and stitches were removed. This was about seven days after the accident. The one good thing I got from this accident was it taught me to respect the equipment and never work without the use of safety equipment. I am now recovering fine and have full use of my hand. I was very lucky it could have been a lot worse.”
WARNING!!! The photos below depict the results of a serious power tool injury.
Check it Out!
Premium Membership
Keep Up With TWW!
Shop our Affiliates
Latest Video
Proud to be Sponsored By:
Support our Advertisers
