Table saw strikes again - just

[skuthorp]

While cutting shelves for the pantry I had a close call with my thumb. Just the nail and the top off the knuckle. Nothing serious but there'll be no picking this xmas eve.
Give you a start all the same.

[Garrett Lowell]

I'm glad it was only a rough reminder.

[cedar savage]

My nail is starting to grow back after my close encounter.

My turn to tell you to always use a push stick when you're hand is that close to the blade.

[JimConlin]

Three years after my 'incident', sensation is slowly returning to my left forefinger.

[Gary E]

I allways wondered why Dad sold his table saw when I was 6 or 7 yrs old.

[sawcutmill]

Just like my father sold the Mercedes 450 when I turned 16! i have never been closer to owning or driving a mercedes since then...!

[WindHawk]

Funny, my Dad sold his '71 Buick Riviea convertable (with the 455) about a month before I turned 16. :rolleyes:

[Gary E]

Dad's do these kind of things....

I remember seeing pic's of Dad and his '32 Ford...
of course THAT got sold... dunno when... but I sure would a given body parts for that in the '50's...

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

The finger I bunged in the woodlathe a week ago is swollen and hard. and yellow. and blue.

(dislocated it 90 degrees at the main knuckle.)

[Phil Heffernan]

My Dad gave me the 1967 Plymouth Barracuda when I went to college, and I had the coolest wheels, but I didn't even know it...

I ended up being a good stick shift driver, but I doubt I'd be so generous to my kid...

I've been lucky in life...

My sister got the car when I bought 'my own', and it seized up on her driving up to college her first year: she didn't know you had to 'check the oil'...My Dad's mistake...

[ 12-16-2005, 03:04 AM: Message edited by: Phil Heffernan ]

[PeterSibley]

Congratulations on the escape Skuthorp ! smile.gif

Thanks for the reminder :eek:

[crawdaddyjim50]

My first car was a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda. White with a red interior and a 273 interceptor, 4bbl Carter (what a pain to tune, but would outperform a Holley if it was right). Put in a big cam and then a set of headers then dual exhaust then more compression then a 727 because I killed the 904 transmission then a new rear gear because I killed it. Then I started making good money and decided I had to have a bigger cam and all this time I knew there was something I was forgetting. That is when the brakes weren't up to snuff and I totaled the car on Hiawassee drive racing a mustang( I was leading at the time)......

[Thorne]

Bought a tablesaw a few months ago, still fear it, never liked them anyway. First cut I made on it was a vertical trim of a 2" oak post, and it took the narrow trimmed bit and jammed it into the slot next to the blade, stopping the whole thing.

Sometimes I'll set up a cut, turn the saw on, look at it awhile, then turn it off.

I find a Skillsaw with a guide clamped to the plank often works better and is MUCH safer.

[ 12-17-2005, 07:47 PM: Message edited by: Thorne ]

[Wild Dingo]

respect Jeff... gotta respect these mechanical with sharp teeth that have no respect for blood and bone creatures that we like to muck about with

Complaicency the biggest cause of mistooks out there

Keep safe :cool:

[Tristan]

One of my grandfathers got his finger into a machine that chopped corn stalks into ensilage. Took his finger right off - at the shoulder!

[htom]

Many years ago one of our ambulance runs was to a farm where the father had lost most of his left arm into a corn picker. Wife & eldest had saved his life with a tourniquet. While we were strapping him onto the gurney, eldest was railing at the old man for not doing as he'd always preached. He got quite worked up, and before we could stop him, he lost his right arm into the same cornpicker. Took them both in.

[jakobcornelis]

I can't remember who said it, but "Hide don't bother them machines none."

Jake

[Wild Dingo]

Bloke on one of the mines I go to did a big saftey sermon to the new bloods about makin sure they dont put their bodies between the tub and the cab of the articulated truck pointed out the signs on the body of the tub and on the side of the cab made quite a song and dance about it... then when takin a young fella around to do the skill assessment got out of the cab without checkin where the young fella was or what he had done before gettin out... bloke climbed out and was waiting between the cab and truck young fella got out catchin the steering wheel with his hip and... crush... fella died young blood cant bring himself to return to work at the mine... young fella was cleared by the investigation as he had not been signed off as trained to operate the machine

Over confidece, complaicency and stupidity...

Ive taken the method of what I call "Take 2" just stop for a few and stand well clear before you do anything... in the cab with young bloods I tell them to Take 2 before the turn it off or move from their seat check around the cab check the mirrors and beep the horn once before doing anything

Saved another young fellas life that did last week... that fella was meant to be standing clear of the truck while me and another did his skill assessment instead this fool walked into the space between cab and tub reckoned he saw some leaking oil dripping from the steering rods... truck running young new fella in the seat trainer beside him and this idiot walked into an area of danger :rolleyes: the blast on the horn scared the buggar and he moved back... we stopped and got out delayed the skill assessment while I had a go at the idiot... He was actually a good operator been drivin articulated trucks for some years and that was his problem he was cocky over confident and it near cost him his life

At an underground mine out near Laverton another operator lost his life for doing a similar thing awhile back... parked his truck in a stockpile got out and stood between cab and tub to relieve himeself... steering creep and brake failure got him along with being too far between them a wet loose surface... inattention and over confidence conspired with the geographical issues... advice now is to park up get out move well clear of the truck and do the business and like anything underground make sure you have an alternative escape route

Take 2 assess reassess check look listen and check again make noise as warning wait 2 then slowly move

With the table saw... check assess check again be aware of whats happening around you check again then do it

Be safe and survive

[skuthorp]

I'm a bit with Thorne on this one, Never felt entirely safe on qn it, think I'll either dump it or convert it to a bench mount on a drop-down rig.

[sdowney717]

I run mine wode open, no blade guard to mess up eith the cutting.
Sometimes I have found myself pushing the stock with one hand and it moves so fast, just barely catch the tip of the thuumb if I am not watching close. So I then use a push stick. But then the other way it gets you is sometime the piece will kick back real hard. I have a 3 HP motor and the blade kicked it back so powerfully it hit me like a sledge hammer.
Another time a chunk was picked up by the blade and hit me right next to my eye. I wore that triangular blood mark for 3 weeks. I was so thankful, I really could have lost my eye that time.
So I dont often wear eye protection, use push sticks only when forced to and dont use a guard.
But I also like my tablesaw and could not get along with out it. Losing a finger or worse on the saw would only take an instant. You think you are so tough you will live forever but really the flesh is so weak.

[sbsbw]

I was working cutting scrap on a big bandsaw, i think it was a 24, with no guard on the return, I knew my hand was a bit to close when i felt the wind on the back of my hand.

Another time i was cutting something with a jigsaw and relized about a second before i got thier that my fingers were in the way on the bottom side of the piece.

I personally don't have that much of a problem with table saws. I learned how to use them from my shop teacher at school who knew far to many people with partial fingers to allow us to do it wrong. always stand to the side and keep my hands wayfrom the blade. He'd fail us if he cought us with our thumbs out more than five times. Said that we could risk losing it the number of fingers that we had. FYI, That shop has been acident free for the last 8 years. last acedint was when a teacher tried to plunge cut on the table saw, and it kicked back on him and cut his finger.

the only time have come close to loosing my fingers was playing hockey w/out gloves. I fell and somebody ran over three of my fingers. lets just say i've got a nice lookin scar.

_Ben

[Gary E]

Safety is the ONLY thing that counts...
Stupid, careless, over confident... means you will screwup..eventually...

Please use guards... and common sense

When I was in high school I was the wood shop teachers assistant in the evening classes 3 nights a week. These classes were for guys like us, OLD FARTZ that think we KNOW what we are doing...For the most part they did, but then there was this one time I saw a fellow stand a 12 in wide board on end on the jointer, this is about a 16 inch or maybe wider machine with a LOT of power, and start to run the end grain over the cutter, I didnt have time to stop him but I did flip the circuit breaker off and stoped the machine. He got ticked off and complained to the teacher that that the snot nosed 16 yr old kid shut the machine off... The instructor said I did the right thing, most likely saved him from a lot of dammage.

Forward to apprentice school where a guy was running a horizontal milling machine and using a paint brush to brush away chips from the cutter. The cutter grabed the brush and the pulled it into the cutter, the fellow would not let go, so the finger was cut, lucky he didnt loose it.

On the assembly floor where the spindle carriers are built one fellow bypassed the safety interlock switch while the cover is removed from a set of spur gears, he lost the tip of his triger finger. After several days he came back to work and this co being very safety minded wanted to know how this happened. So with the shop supervisor, safety supervisor, shop foreman, and several other onlookers he showed how buy cliping off the tip of the 3'rd finger... on the same hand.

Some NEVER LEARN... PLEASE USE THE GUARDS...

[Lucky Luke]

I could not agree more, Gary.

I am "short" of the last "phalange" (english= ???)of second finger and tip of the little one: jointer.

No protection at all, 6,000 rpm, and a smlall piece of wood that tripped..... :rolleyes:

OVER-CONFIDENT = OVER-STUPID!!!

[htom]

Another warning I never got in class was "you can't let go of the stick fast enough to keep your hand out of the sharp bits."

[wyndham]

If you take the upper wheel gaurd off the bandsaw and you lean in close enough becuase the line is not pencilled dark enough and your glasses have sawdust on them it is possible to cut your forehead just above the hairline when you lean it into the spinning blade.
At least that's what I've been told, not that it happened to me you understand.

[ssor]

When I was in Vo-tech there was a kid with hair about six inches long working a big drill press but runnig a small bit. He leaned forward to get a better look at his mark and caught his hair on the drill bit and pulled out a patch as big as his hand.

I had a radial arm saw set up for a rip and had a piece kick back and break the first joint on my thumb.