Close call yesterday

[lrogers]

Listen up newbies, intermediates, veterans and professionals. We all know about safety, preach safety and most of the time work safely, but it only takes one micro second and one bad decision to ruin your entire day.
I've started a fancy toy box for my grandson (diesel locomotive) and was cutting all the stock to rough sizes. I'd been working most of the day and was getting tired (red flag #1). I had a couple of small pieces to cut and decided since it was only a couple (red flag #2) I could just cut them using the fence instead of setting up a gage block and the miter gage/table. I cut the first one just fine so I decided I could get away that set up (red flag #3). Next thing I knew, the block of wood flew back and bounched off my head. Luckily, it also hit my hand and pushed it away from the blade instead of into it. The block was destroyed, my hand was sore and my pants, well, let's just say they saw better days!

Fellows, take the time (for the record, it took only a few minutes to set up and do right) to make you cuts the correct and safe way. Don't work around a spinning blade when you are tired. I was VERY LUCKY this time, I can still count to 5 using one hand.

[Ken Massingale]

Glad it wasn't worse, Larry. Thanks for the reminder that it can easily happen to any of us.
k

[DUD]

Larry I had a wake up call last week, and now You. I am glad You are okay, please Everyone, let's keep our heads on straight and play safely. Bill

[final_t]

Heck, I was *being* careful last night and doing a favor for the Resident Artist by drilling a series of holes in a PVC sheet when the bit caught and spun the work into my thumb. I had the whole nine yards going - hot glued the sheet to a carrier block, clamped, slow speed, etc. Still popped it right off and into my hand. Scraped off the top layer of my left thumb for a good bit. Little blood, still stings like the devil.

[LJR]

Larry, good thing you weren't hurt worse. One of the hardest things for me to do is shut off the lights and close up shop for the day when I'm tired. I almost never make good decisions or use good technique when I'm tired. Thanks for the reminder.

[kwgeorge]

It is amazing what we do when we know we should not. I suffered one also last weekend. I was making dados for the new router cabinet and using my Freud Super Dado set and what I did not notice until I made the first cut was the 3/32” chipper was taller than the others. Afterwards I found this blade to be a full 16th of an inch taller than all the rest and I feel this is a defect on Freud’s part so I need to contact them. So anyway I made the test cut and noticed the issue but decided to go on with the cuts since they would not be seen anyway. Big Mistake! While making one of the cuts I hit a very hard spot in the plywood and in the matter of the blink of an eye I took a hit from a 24” X 30” piece of plywood right in the stomach. It hit me hard enough to take my breath away and now I have a cut and a very nasty bruise. Yes it could have been a lot worse than it was and I was lucky.

With all this I can only reiterate what you have said, if it looks wrong it probably is and it only take an instance for an accident to occur.

Ken

[cgallery]

Constant safety reminders like these are one of the reasons I keep coming back to BT3Central. They keep me thinking. It is too bad that the most dire ones are those due to a close call or a not close enough call.

Glad your grandkids will still be able to hi-five you when you're done.

[wardprobst]

Yep, I posted one a week ago. You can be too carefull I guess but I've never done it. Cut my right hand three times yesterday hanging ductwork. And yes, Oneida tells you every page that sheet metal is sharp, wear gloves but does the piano player pay attention???
NOT!
DP

[Turaj]

Larry, Glad to hear that you are OK. It is very unfortunate that sometimes we (all of us) get too comfortable and try to take short cuts (are they really short cuts?). Thanks for the reminder and once again, glad that the mishap was not more serious.

[ChrisD]

Very glad you're OK, Larry. Thanks for the reminder.

[jseklund]

OK, I wasn't going to ADMIT this, since I am a newbie and most of you probably already think I'm dumb enough. This, however, should make you think great things about me.

Being a newbie, I am VERY careful around blades. The table saw scares me just to look at. What has really scared me was twice, using the table saw blew the fuse and all the lights in my garage went out. I've learned to hear when the saw is working too hard, and about to blow, so I've avoided that. I've been thinking of running a battery-powered lantern while I'm in the shop or something too- just in case. Nothing like being in the dark with a spinning blade slowing down a foot or two in front of you, and a projectile (wood) in between.

But, I've had no accidents because I try to do everything else right (to the best of my knowledge- which could still use some improving probably) around safety with these machines.

So I'm sanding down two SMALL blocks of wood. I have them in a clamp, and I'm using my dads ROS (my belt sander, Dewalt, died and is "in the shop"). I have the wood in clamps so I don't have to hold it, and I"m kind of bent over sanding. I take the ROS off the wood to look closely (I had goggles and respirator on- so not what you're thinking), and there's a ton of dust on the project. I had the sander just slightly tilted, and go to brush the dust off with the other hand. Somehow, in my lack of attention, my left wrist grazes the sander at an angle as I do this motion and I manage to sand my wrist raw in about.....0.01 seconds.

NOw, the point is that I wasn't paying attention, and I wasn't having enough respect for the ROS. Just because it didn't have a blade doesn't mean I didn't have to pay attention. Even after it happened, I almost didn't do anything about the cut, but then decided to go clean it. I didn't think I could have a bad cut because "it's just sand paper". Well, it's not a BAD cut, but it's worse than I thought and I've got to keep it clean and bandaged. In a week it will be fine- but I guess that was god telling me to smarten up. Be more careful- and never assume that you don't have to be careful because "it's just a {insert tool here}".

Lesson learned- you guys can feel free to laugh at me for my clumsiness and ability to hurt myself with an ROS. It's like a bad rug burn.

[jabe]

larry you were lucky not to get cut by the blade. Count your blessing. Funny how we all know the signs, but when you're tired we all make bad decisions. We all got to learn to shut it down and walk away, there is allways tomorrow.

[parnelli]

Being a newbie, I am VERY careful around blades. The table saw scares me just to look at. What has really scared me was twice, using the table saw blew the fuse and all the lights in my garage went out. I've learned to hear when the saw is working too hard, and about to blow, so I've avoided that. I've been thinking of running a battery-powered lantern while I'm in the shop or something too- just in case. Nothing like being in the dark with a spinning blade slowing down a foot or two in front of you, and a projectile (wood) in between.

You know what would work pretty well in this situation? A battery backup like you'd use for your computer.

Office Depot happens to have one on sale for $20 starting today- it's only marginally adaquate for computer use, but if you had a light plugged into it, it would keep the light on with no perceptible interruption. I was trying to think of something that I could use it for around the house, and then I read your post!

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=277408

It says 'low availabilty' but it *is* in today's paper, so they should (?) have some at the store.

I don't think you could use a 1000W halogen, but I'm sure you could do enough to keep the whole shop reasonably lit if the circuit blew.

[mater]

Thanks for the reminder Larry. I am glad you are ok.

[Ken Weaver]

We can all do with the reminders - we've all been there on way or the other and thankfully we've been blessed as a group. Let's all take a deep breath and be careful.