Painful lesson

[180x]

As I was edging the rails and stiles for a divided light kitchen cabinet door I noticed on the first one that the speed on the router (installed in a table) was too slow so I increased the speed. I also decided to make the profile in two passes. I moved the router table fence forward and proceeded with my activity. However, I noticed that the profile look funny, almost like a cope cut. I concluded that it must have been because I moved the fence forward and proceeded moving the fence back.

As I was routing one of the rails, I noticed that the wood wasn't making contact with the guide bearing nor contact with the out feed side of the fence. I thought this was a bit strange and as I got the end of the rail...WHAM. The wood shot backwards off the router table like a bullet; good thing I wear safety glasses. After about 2 hours of analyzing, I realized that I hadn't tightened the collet and the bit had risen up out of it (hence the funky looking profile and wood not contacting the bearing).

So as I type this, minus half a nail and w/ gashes on my index finger, I'm trying to figure out how I forgot to do that. But I bet I will not forget again. Nor will I, if at all possible, rout without a push block.

Why did I take two hours to analyze? I took me that long to get the bleeding under control, which it wasn't totally stopped 9 hours later!

[Ed62]

WOW! Consider yourself lucky. That could have been a real nasty accident.

Ed

[BobSch]

Which goes to show that it's not just table saws that can cause kickback.

Be careful out there, campers.

[TB Roye]

I have had one kick back on the BT3 and one on the router table. The one on the router was louder and scarier than the one on the saw and did more damage, thankfully not to me.

Tom

[footprintsinconc]

glad to hear that you are ok! it could have been worse.

sometimes, we jsut get into the mode of getting something done, so when we see the finish line up ahead, we tend to ignore the abnormalities and concentrate on nothing but getting the job done with minimal down time. this is when we become vulnerable to accidents -- because we basically have stopped thinking.

i did the same, except, after the 2nd cut, i saw the bit rise a bit, man that scared the Xrap out of me.

[Uncle Cracker]

This kind of thing happens most often when we get most comfortable with our tools. I try to hover somewhere halfway between comfortable and scared stiff. If I'm always thinking "How can I screw this up?" it keeps me on my toes.

[Lonnie in Orlando]

Dwane:

Don't blame yourself about not tightening the collet ... yet. It may be a bad/worn collet that allowed the bit to work loose.

It happened to me while routing a dado with an old 1/4" router. The sound changed and the bit pushed up through the workpiece as it moved out of the collet. Superman couldn't have moved any faster getting to the off-switch. Luckily the bit had not worked all the way out and the workpiece trapped it. If I had been pushing the top of the workpiece with my hand, I would have been bleeding too.

Bought a new collet. Fixed the problem.

Sorry about your injury. Glad it wasn't worse.

Get well soon.

- Lonnie

[180x]

Lonnie,

I would love to claim that as the culprit, but the router is relatively new and I'm sure that it was my doing, or my not doing in this case.

I work in the nuclear industry. Because of the it's nature, using human performance tools is considered SOP. If I would have applied the same principles in this case: self checking/verifying my setup, take a time out when I didn't get the initial results that I should have and reassess the conditions/situation, and consider what can go wrong and take steps to eliminate or minimize it or it's impact.

But the pain is gone, though the finger looks horrendous. They say the lessons we tend to not forget are the ones that are relatively expensive or relatively painful. I think this fails into the latter category.

[rnelson0]

180x, hope the damage isn't permanent. What kind of damage did you take, exactly?

This kind of thing happens most often when we get most comfortable with our tools. I try to hover somewhere halfway between comfortable and scared stiff. If I'm always thinking "How can I screw this up?" it keeps me on my toes.

For me, it's when I'm rushed or tired. In either case, I'm likely to damage myself or whatever I'm working on - which could be as simple as drilling a hole for an anchor in the wall offcenter, smashing my finger with the hammer, or cutting myself - and don't let anyone fool you, you don't need horsepower to hurt, handsaws can tear you up too.

[ironhat]

<snip>
For me, it's when I'm rushed or tired. In either case, I'm likely to damage myself or whatever I'm working on <snip> -

Same issues but frustration is also another for me. Then, it's time to turn off the lights and exit the shop!

[180x]

180x, hope the damage isn't permanent. What kind of damage did you take, exactly?

It's not anything permanent. Just knock of half of my fingernail and bruised it pretty good to the first joint. All the doctor did was give me a tecna (I hope I spelled that right) shot and a prescription for antbiotics. Actually, the place I was given the shot is more sore than the finger.

[LCHIEN]

It's not anything permanent. Just knock of half of my fingernail and bruised it pretty good to the first joint. All the doctor did was give me a tecna (I hope I spelled that right) shot and a prescription for antbiotics. Actually, the place I was given the shot is more sore than the finger.

I believe that would be tetanus

[krogers]

Where is the picture?

I thought we had a rule on this forum......no pics, didn't happen. Car to share the gory details?