Oops! ? That Was Close!

Article - May 14, 2010

So as Woodworker’s Safety Week comes to a close, I thought it would be fun to talk about our close calls. You know what I’m talking about. That time you tried to cross-cut a 4 foot long board with no miter gauge…. or that time you pared that tenon while holding the work piece in your hand….. We’ve all done it. And hopefully, we’ve all learned from it. So let’s hear your best “close call” story. And although I am keeping it light-hearted here, my real intention is to shed light on some of the more obscure mistakes we can make in the shop. You’d be surprised at how many people will learn something new from this exercise.

And just to keep things interesting, I’ll be picking my favorite three stories and giving these folks Guild memberships (or extensions if they are already members). Happy Safety Week!

***WINNERS***
Steve Hupp, Neil Aronson, and GMack. Thanks everyone for the excellent stories and so glad you all have enough fingers left to type them out!

Discussion

Brad Hancock May 14, 2010 9:02 am

I’ve had a few close calls, as probably most of us have. Here are a couple of the more memorable ones.

Many years ago, using a chain saw, I lost concentration momentarily and allowed the chain, running at full speed to contact my jeans at my knee. The contact was close enough to cut open my jeans, but I didn’t damage any flesh. I shudder to recall how close that was. At the time, I had to put the saw down and regain my composure for several minutes.

Just the other day, I was using a plastic push stick that I have had for years, at my table saw. After pushing the wood all the way through, I managed to let the stick touch the blade on the way back across the table. It instantly shattered, sending shards across my workshop and numbing my hand from the impact. I’ll be using wood sticks in the future, but more importantly, I’ll pay closer attention until the saw stops running.

Reply
Michael May 14, 2010 9:06 am

I was riping a piece of poplar on my tablesaw. This is an old saw without guards or splitter. I was using one hand to push the wood through the saw and the other pushing up against the rip fence. About half way through the cut the board does a minor kickback and the top of my index finger on my left hand was cut by the wood. I was saved from a more serious injury because of the nail on my finger. It was not too bad so I just bandaged it up and continued to work. Later I added magnetic feather boards and never have my hand in that position again.

Reply
Chester May 14, 2010 9:07 am

I don’t know if I am crazy or in denial … but I honestly do not remember some of the bone-head things that I have done that were near misses. I know that they happened.

Maybe that is my tip, try to remember the stupid stuff and really “pin it to the board” as to your resolve to “not repeat that one.”

My real suggestion, however (and I have written about a number of times in the past), is to SLOW DOWN! For some reason, at least for me, there is some inclination to try to move through a project like I have only 23-minutes to complete a cherry highboy antique reproduction (before the cameras are turned-off). I have to remind myself that all of the NYW, TWW and other videos that I watch are:
1- Performed by professionals
2- Are highly edited for final production
3- Normally have unseen support staff (Nicole) behind the scenes working.

I just can not do that highboy in 23-minutes … and I have to keep telling myself that very fact. Slow down and enjoy the journey.

Reply
- thewoodwhisperer May 14, 2010 9:15 am
  
  Couldnt agree more on slowing down. But to address your other points..
  1- Performed by professionals – how dare you call me professional! ;)
  2- Are highly edited for final production – OK you got me there.
  3- Normally have unseen support staff (Nicole) behind the scenes working. – I wish!!
  
  Reply
  - Frank Kovach May 14, 2010 10:06 am
    
    It’s okay Nicole, I’m sure he still appreciates you. :)
    
    Reply
Nick May 14, 2010 9:16 am

Back in High School I was ripping 1″ white oak on the table saw. Needless to say I wasn’t the most skilled woodworker. I did something dumb and the board kicked back directly into my gut bounced off and slid across the room. It happened so fast. I looked up and looked around. Saw my instructor look up at me, shake his head then went back to his own tasks. I was sooooooooo shaky the rest of the say all I would do is play with a sander. People aren’t joking. When these boards kick the are fast! I was fortunate and it didn’t do any damage. Take care out there and keep kickback control in mind!

Reply
Casey Madden May 14, 2010 9:22 am

I agree with Brad on the fact that we’ve all had close calls. Well here are the a couple that i remember

the first was when i was instaling new bath tub handels and faucets at my house. I had to cut a chunk of a stud that was interfering with the new valve. So i pulled out my plug in sawzall (most of u guys can probably guess what happend next). As i was finising up i started to pull back on the saw to take it out and next thing i know i was seeing stars because the blade punched the stud resulting in me punching myself in the FACE!

The other happend just a month ago. I was cutting rabbit cuts into some wood for a picture frame i was making. I dont have a dado blade so i was using the regular table saw blade. this was taking longer than i thought would. I had to cut all 4 pieces then micro adjust the fence. So basically i got in a rush and on the LAST cut i pushed the piece through but didnt push past the blade so when i went to grab it my thumb grabed the blade…….. all the way to the bone. Lucily i didnt lose it!!!! and i swear i jumped 10 feet in the air when it happend

Reply
Tom Balzamo May 14, 2010 9:37 am

I once used a card scraper on the inside of a segmented bowl turning, WHILE IT WAS TURNING!! I know, dumb idea, especially when both ends of the scraper catch the inside of the bowl and the whole thing becomes a 900 rpm propeller with my hand tangled up somewhere inside. It flayed my thumb open, almost taking it completely off. Aside from a nasty scar there’s no impairment from the injury, unless you count my pride.

Reply
Daniel May 14, 2010 9:39 am

I don’t know if actually being hurt counts as a “close call”, but it could have been much worse, so I’ll give it a shot…

I was trimming 3/4″ off of a piece of 3/4″ MDF that was about 6″-8″ wide and 8″-10″ long. I was just barely pushing the limit of how close I was willing to have my left hand on the left side of the blade. In my brilliance at the time, I put the 3/4″ side of the cut against the fence. Stupidly, I didn’t have a splitter installed either. OK, so I was new at this… I’ll admit it…

This whole paragraph took about 1 millisecond to happen: About half way through the cut, the piece started to rotate counter-clockwise and kicked back. In the split second when it started, I felt it moving and jerked my hands back. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough. As it kicked back, the piece spun around and smacked against the back of my hand, forcing it downward just enough for the tip of my left index finger to hit the (still very much spinning) blade. I finished pulling my hands back and didn’t know how much damage had been done.

I turned off the saw, calmly walked over to the door of the house, opened it, and announced to my wife, “Get your keys and some paper towels. We’re going to the emergency room.”

I lost my finger nail and had some tissue damage at the tip of the finger that was darn painful. After about 6-8 months, a reasonable facsimile of my original finger nail grew back. Most people can’t tell anything happened now, but there is a nice scar and a slightly misshapen finger nail. My sense of touch in that finger is still a little “strange”. Its hard to describe. It works, but it isn’t “normal”.

Anyway, on returning to my shop from the hospital, I found a mess. Lets just say, I left a trail from the table saw to the door. The piece I had been cutting was on the complete other side of the shop, on the floor, having put a small dent in the wall where it hit. My father-in-law cleaned up my shop for me and then, a few weeks later, forced me to get back in the shop and use the table saw again. I’m glad he did, I love the hobby! Thankfully no incidents since.

Lesson learned: Now that same cut would involve feather boards, push sticks, a splitter or riving knife, and maybe a stop block to keep the piece off the fence. If only back then…

Reply
- Frank Kovach May 14, 2010 10:22 am
  
  I know exactly what you mean about the finger being somewhat numb. I have a similar effect from an injury when I cut my finger using a pocket knife trying to jury rig a clothesline to a GP tent in Okinawa in 1999. Should have had stitches, but didn’t, lasted for a week before officially calling attention to it, by then the nerve damage had been done.
  
  Reply
- Joe M May 16, 2010 5:41 pm
  
  Have a similar sensation in my right middle finger. Trying to looosen an old counter top when it pushed back and crushed the end of the finger. Went to the ER and all, but 6 months later, it still isn’t right. Every weekend I do a project it is somewhat numb for the next few days.
  
  Reply
  - Frank Kovach May 17, 2010 5:40 pm
    
    On mine, if you look at the left index finger head on and divide it into four quadrants, the lower left one has no feeling. I only feel pressure on that finger from the nerves in the other quadrants, which is a strange sensation. It’s like if I push it on something, I feel it from the inside first. And there is a tiny scar right down the crease of the first knuckle. I’m used to it now, but ever once in a while…
    
    Reply
Paul D’Errico May 14, 2010 9:48 am

This particular incident was a little more than a close call, and it taught me the value of taking my time while working on anything in a shop setting. A good, healthy, thoughtful pace is my key to avoiding any mishaps like this one.

It was around Christmas time, and I was finishing up three remaining projects for friends as gifts. I was drilling a hole for dowels directly through the leg of one piece. I was in a bit of a rush to get the projects completed before old St. Nick was slated to show up. Like an idiot, I was holding the piece in my left hand with my hand wrapped around the leg while drilling with my right. Of course, I managed to drill through the entire piece into my left-hand, pointer finger.

Not too crazy… No real need for stitches, but there was a bit of muscle tissue exposed (gross!!!). Luckily, I have this really bitchin’ Harry Potter lightning bolt scar on my finger that’s about a half-inch in length.

It could’ve been much much worse than that. And from then on, I’ve always been really aware of when I’m rushing through something. If for no other reason than the fact that I’ll make a mistake that ruins the piece.

A drill press for Christmas that year might have helped, too!!!

=paul

Reply
Jim Rimmer May 14, 2010 9:49 am

I was ripping boards to size and had “one last cut”. Blade was too high and guard was removed. As I pulled my hand away my middle finger contacted the blade. Since I was moving away from the blade, injury was minimal but it scared the bejeebers out of me. Now guards are in place and I alwyas take time to readjust blade height.

Reply
Doug Hoffer May 14, 2010 9:51 am

I was using my miter saw to cut a rough angle out of a 2×4 without rotating the blade from 0 degrees. (holding the workpiece at an angle on the bed with no rear support. when the saw came into the wood it grabbed it, sent it flying across the shop and through my garage door like a bullet. before it got off the saw it bent my blade and broke the saw at the pivot point. My door, saw and pride were the only casualties so I know never to try that again. (It was stupid and I knew it before I did it!!!). I laugh about it now but I had to check my shorts after it happened.Happy wood working, Doug Hoffer

Reply
bob pawloski May 14, 2010 9:59 am

All of these power tool close calls I think I will share a hand tool close call, because they happen. I was ripping a board with my hand saw and was so concernd about staying on the line that I did not realize that I was very close to my leg. I notcied once I cut through my jeans and scratched my leg. It seems that no matter what tool you are using, you should always know where your body parts are in relation to the tool.

Reply
Rick Waters May 14, 2010 10:21 am

Contradictorily, my scariest moments in the shop have always been when I KNOW I’m about to do something risky, while I’ve always been very calm indeed when something shocking happens.

So what I’m getting at, is when I know I’m doing something risky (like shooting a safety video), I’m way more careful than I am when I’m just trying to get some work done. It’s when I’m NOT ready for trouble that I end up stepping back and taking a few deep breaths when something unexpected happens.

That being said… When I first started out, and had no instruction from anyone, I was using a circular saw on a full sheet of 8′ x 4′ x 3/4″ ply. The ply was propped up on two saw horses, and when the blade started to get pinched while I was cutting the sheet through the middle…

Well, my arm was fully extended, the weight of the ply was pressing into the blade, I was dumb as a rock when it came to power tools, and the damn saw jumped out of the kerf and came back at me.

I wasn’t hurt, the sheet of ply was OK, but it scared the bejeezus out of me. The saw had jumped about 6″ up and a foot or so back towards me. I went inside for a while to calm down (and change my shorts). Just kidding… I didn’t need to go inside :)

Anyway, after getting online months later and discovering the tools and woodworking communities, I realized what a close call that was. Still scares me when I think back to it sometimes.

Reply
Heath May 14, 2010 10:25 am

My closest call to date involved table saw kickback. I thought I was operating safely. I had the splitter and saw guard in place. I was using wooden push sticks and feather boards. I was not standing directly in front of the blade. I was keeping my hands away from the blade. Etc.

I made a cut that resulted in a very small cut off piece right up against the blade. I was worried about it interfering with the next cut, so I decided to move it out of the way with my push stick. My table saw is quite old and takes about 30 seconds for the blade to stop spinning, so I did NOT turn it off (big mistake). I’m still not exactly sure what happened, but I *think* the scrap piece wedged between the blade and the saw guard and caused the kickback. But however it happened, I heard a very loud “pop” and felt a very sharp pain in my hand that had been holding the push stick. The push stick was gone – shattered. Half of the plastic saw guard was gone – shattered. And my hand was in a lot of pain and was bleeding. It hurt so bad, I was afraid to look at it.

When I finally looked at my hand, I realized it wasn’t that bad. I had a flap of loose skin on my palm, but the tear wasn’t very deep. There was a blood blister next to that tear. I bandaged my hand, took a few minutes to calm down, then went back to work with a new respect for (and a healthy fear of) my power tools.

I did take away some valuable lessons from the incident. 1) Slow down. It doesn’t hurt anything to wait 30 seconds for the blade to stop spinning. 2) Don’t rely too heavily on the equipment’s safety devices. You can still get hurt. 3) Don’t hold the end of the push stick against my hand. Hold the push stick so that if it gets kicked back, it’s not my hand that stops its travel. 4) I should really build a crosscut sled. 5) I should also develop “Kick-Stop” technology and try to have it mandated that all new table saws be equipped with it.

I’ve also made a promise to my wife that I will not operate any of the power tools in my shop if I am home by myself. The incident scared her too and I have an obligation to her and my kids to make sure that if I do get hurt, somebody will be around to help me.

Reply
Dave May 14, 2010 10:27 am

Don’t try to cut two feet off the end of a 2’x8′ piece of 1/4″ plywood on the table saw, without a guard or splitter, using the wall the table saw butts up against as a “fence” late in the evening after many hours in the shop. The piece will invariably pivot at some point and the saw will take that 2′ square chunk and send it back at you hitting you just inches above your very special area. The plywood square will hit you on edge near the corner proceeding to poke a hole through your shirt and jeans and boxers and leave an abrasion on your skin along with a 3″ long 1/4″ wide 1/8″+ tall welt. If you ask me how I know this I will plead ignorance, which was obviously at play that day back in the early days of my woodworking life.

Reply
Frank Kovach May 14, 2010 10:33 am

Okay, here’s mine. I don’t have a close call of my own (fault) that I can think of, but you be the judge. When I was a little kid, probably about 4 or 5 years old, I can remember my dad using a belt sander on a, door, I think, or a table top, in the carport of the house we were living in at the time. My little brother and I were out there, watching him sand this thing, moving the sander back and forth across the surface. No big deal, until we (or at least I) moved closer to the table and started moving our hands across the surface of the board to feel the difference between the sanded and the unsanded portions-and then my dad ran my hand over with the belt sander. I remember it being very quick, and looking at my hand, which was pretty torn up (it was probably a pretty low grit) and screaming bloody murder. In my mind all the skin was torn off and I was only left with a skeleton hand, but it was probably just a large abrasion-you could imagine. Moral of this story? I don’t know, really. If you’re the dad, don’t run over your kids hands with a belt sander. If you’re the kid, stay out of the way. Seriously, though, now I am a father of a three year old and a two week old, and I enjoy having my older son with me, watching me do these things, learning, being interested, but you have to be careful. Don’t let your young kids around you when you are a) doing something which really requires 100% of your attention to avoid injury to yourself and/or b) doing something which could injure your kid because he or she doesn’t know not to get too close. My worst fear is injuring my kids because I was stupid. Also, don’t use a hammer while balancing on rafters with no light (my dad-awesome thumb injury).

Reply
- Rich May 17, 2010 3:15 am
  
  Honestly, I don’t think there IS a safe place for young kids in a workshop — especially with power tools working. You just can NOT anticipate what might go wrong or you think you can manage something that you can’t. My 5 and 7 year old grandsons love to visit my shop. With close supervision, they are allowed to explore, hold hand tools and learn to use them properly. But even when they aren’t around, I constantly practice unplugging jointers, saws, planers, sanders, etc. The day WILL come when they get in the shop by themselves and I would never forgive myself if one of my tools could be activated. Kids just have absolutely no judgement.
  
  Reply
Travis Cook May 14, 2010 10:39 am

When I was in college, I built sets and props for the college theatre. We were up against a deadline and we were working long hours. I was ripping down some plywood for some prop furniture. While I was ripping the board, my left thumb brushed up against the flat side of the blade. Holy cow! My adrenaline was certainly rushing, and not in a good way. I checked my thumb just to make sure it was still there. Whew! Not even a scratch. There was no way I was going to work with any more power tools that evening. I turned off the saw and called it a day. Goes to show you that if you’re too tired to pay close attention to safety, you are in no condition to turn on any of those tools. Especially if you’re alone in a shop.

Reply
Jim Woodward May 14, 2010 10:42 am

My close call – other wise known as….

Learning about the Dangers of Kick Back

I inherited my grandfather’s Craftsman contractor’s saw and it still had the original rip fence (other wise known as the crappy P.o.S. rip fence). I will chalk part of this accident up to still being new to woodworking and having no clue about how a table saw should be tuned. However, as you will see given the shape the saw was in when I got it there was almost no way to actually properly tune the saw up for safe use.

With the knowledge gleaned from a couple of woodworking magazines and books I decided to try my hand at something semi-useful. A basic wooden box. There was no resources like Wood Whisperer or Matt’s Basement Workshop to go to to ask questions of, at least not that I knew about back then. All I had was magazines, books and Norm (bow down to the Gawd of Woodworking – Norm). Norm’s tools were always new and shiny and perfectly tuned and he had three of everything and no matter what he built it could be completed in 30 minutes.

I was going to make about a half dozen or so boxes as Christmas gifts. After returning from Houston Hardwoods with my nicely milled S2S board (had to pay them to mill it for me – man is it nice to have your own planer and joiner), I immediately began doing my rough dimension cuts and began with ripping my stock to the needed width.

Well as I am running the board through my poorly tuned table saw (fence not parallel to blade or miter slot) the board eventually got away from me and a horrible kick back happened. It flew across the room and embedded in the sheet rock in the wall behind me. As I stood staring at the hole in the wall with a shocked expression on my face, my current live-in girlfriend opened the garage door and asked me why there was a board sticking out in our breakfast dining area and at about that point it hit me that I was damned fortunate that I had not been standing in the path of that flying missile of walnut – because if it could go through a wall that was about 12 feet across the room I am sure it could have done some significant damage to Little ol’ Me. Needless to say there was an immediate change of underwear that took place and I didn’t turn on the table saw for about two weeks after that little escapade.

Can you guess what my next purchase was? “The Complete Table Saw Book” by Tom Carpenter. After reading the table saw tune up chapter and trying multiple times to make the original crappy P.o.S. (piece of sh*t – for those who need a translation) craftsmen rip fence to true up and stay parallel was close to impossible (it lost parallel every time you moved it to a new location and you had to reset it all up for each new cut). My second purchase a Mule Cabinet Accusquare rip fence (and I love my fence now).

So while I appreciate my grandfather’s gift of inheriting his table saw I really have no clue how he managed to not get hurt using the thing the way he had it setup.

Reply
Renee May 14, 2010 10:50 am

My ‘learning opportunities’ were:

1. On my first day with my planer, I made a few test runs on some boards and was impressed with the lack of snipe and functionality. The only weak part was my dust collection method, a shop vac. So after the cuts it was time to spiff the planer back to showroom new appearance. I blew out as much as I could. Then I reached my hand in to wipe out some of the remaining chips without raising the cutters. My knuckles racked across the planer knives. Ouch, lesson learned and I did not get blood on my new planer.

2. I thought I would do some cleaning and rearranging of my shop. I did not have any wood storage system yet so things were leaned against other things. In the process, I was trying to get from one spot to the other and stepped over an 3/4″ thick MDF panel leaning against the jointer.
As I was pulling my rear foot over the panel, the front of my foot caught it and pulled it over. The edge fell and raked down the back of the Achilles on my front foot. With the sharp edges that MDF have when cut and their weight. I got a painful injury that left me limping for days.
Lesson: leaning boards and panels are dangerous and should be avoided if possible. Combine this with clutter and placing them in walkways and injury can ensue.

3. While using ‘safe’ handtools on a board in my vise, I dropped my pencil and stooped to pick it up. My forehead hit into the corner of the board and gave me a cut.
Lesson: watch out for corners!

Reply
Ed May 14, 2010 11:03 am

I was using an inexpensive 10 inch table saw to rip a 2 foot long pine board to the correct width. No blade guard or feather boards were installed. As the cut end of the board reached the end of the factory insert (which was set too low) the board jammed. I wanted to turn the saw off but my left hand was holding the board to the table top and my right hand was holding a plastic push stick. My unfortuntate solution was to lighten the downward pressure of the push stick and allow the cut end of the board to lift slightly so I could finish the cut. The board kicked back so hard it broke the push stick in several pieces and a very sharp pain ran up my arm. It was so quick I remember being in a daze asking myself what happened. I feared my arm was broken. That was three years ago and I now use featherboards, blade guard/kickback device and a different style push stick.

Reply
- Chip May 15, 2010 11:39 am
  
  It’s a good idea to have a switch that you can turn off with your leg when you can’t move your hands. I like these: http://www.rockler.com/product.....ter=switch
  
  Reply
  - Ed May 17, 2010 10:08 am
    
    Thanks Chip for the link. I placed my order today.
    
    Reply
Chet May 14, 2010 11:10 am

Old Safety Equipment – worse than none at all…

I was working on building a sled for my table saw that would help me put one straight edge on rough sawn lumber. I had started ripping a piece about three inches wide when I desided to use my push stick. Now this push stick was basically rectangular in shape made out of 1/2″ plywood. I made it over 10 years ago and it has been through a lot. Over time it has gone over the blade a number of times and become structurally inadequate (though I didn’t realize it at the time). Anyway, I grabed the push stick and started pushing the stock – then, in the blink of an eye, it cracked on the left side. My hand dove into the blade and my thumb was badly cut. Though it was not cut clean through, it did cut through a portion of the bone. The cut was in the middle of my thumb nail so stiches were not possible. It just had to heal on its own.

So what was the close call?

Well, fortunately, I didn’t have the blade up too high and it didn’t cut off my thumb. That was about 14 months ago and I have regained most of the feeling and strength in my thumb. It works well (if not perfectly) and I consider myself very fortunate.

Lessons learned:
It’s not a virture to keep a piece of safety equipment for a decade. Inspect often and replace frequently.

It is a virtue to limit the amount of blade projection above the stock whenever possible.

Sometimes safety as an afterthought is worse then none at all. You’ll be better off if you think safety first.

,,,,,,Chet

Reply
Ryan May 14, 2010 11:37 am

Let’s not forget about tool safety!

I borrowed my friend’s 13″ portable DeWalt DW735 planer to surface a 12′ piece of cherry for a built-in desk I was building. I was so focused on properly supporting the piece of wood on the outfeed side that I didn’t notice that the board exiting the planer was about to hit the wall. When it did, the wood stopped moving and the planer started to slide across my work table. The rollers in the planer happily pulled it down the board. By the time it got to the end of the board the two front feet of the planer were hanging off the edge of the table. If the board were an inch longer, the it would have fallen to the floor and I would have owed my friend a new planer!

Reply
Carl May 14, 2010 11:57 am

I had a close call with a (power) mitre saw, cutting some quarter-round trim. I don’t really know what happened, perhaps I hit something hard in the wood. The saw kicked back, the end of the work piece was shredded, and my hand ached. I decided I really didn’t need to cut small pieces with a power saw, and immediately bought a nice hand mitre saw from the local hardware store.

It was a good reminder that power tools aren’t always the best choice.

Reply
spamfilterman May 14, 2010 12:04 pm

I tried to cut down a piece of MDF, maybe 2’x2′ or so, on my tablesaw. I bought the saw used, and it didn’t have a splitter of any kind. I knew I shouldn’t have attempted the cut… I kept telling myself “don’t do it, it’ll fly back at you”. But I did it anyways.
Sure enough, it started to bind, and a micro-second later it smacked me right in the gut. I went down, it hurt bad. It hurt so bad that a bruise didn’t even form for days… then the ugliest bruise formed and didn’t go away for weeks.
I immediately went to ebay and bought a replacement splitter for my saw.

Reply
Bill AKins May 14, 2010 12:05 pm

Yeah I remember a few close calls. I bought my first, cheap, tablesaw. My son helped me put it together. I ripped the edge from a 2×4 scrap, great. Then I tried to cut the end off useing the miter AND the fence. What a dumba$$. My son was sitting directly behind the blade on a chair. The projectile wood hit him square in the chest, knocking the breath out of him. Fortunatley he only suffered a bruise. I hate to think what would happen if it caught him in the eye.

Soon later I purchased my router table. No one else in the room this time. I put the piece between the fence and the blade. Once again, projectile wood, exploding this time into thousands of splinters against the wall. Check underwear.

Other than that, nothing serious. When I come from the shop with a bandage (or CA glue covered in blue tape) my wife assumes the worse. No, it’s just me slipping with a chisel or knocking a knuckle on a tool on the peg board.

Reply
Woodcanuck May 14, 2010 1:03 pm

It might be less time-consuming to think about the things I’ve done right! :-)

Two stories…both equally dumb but on different levels (yes, I am an accomplished idiot, I have dumbness of multiple levels.)

The lathe: I was pretty new to using a lathe, I’d turned a few pens, bowls, spindles…nothing too elaborate and always using nicely dried stock. I took down a birch tree and upon digging out the stump noticed that there was a nicely spalted rootball. I saw beauty in this dirty rotting lump of wood and after washing it and trimming off the small roots decided to drill a small hole in the center and try mounting it in the screwchuck and doing a little green turning!
If you turn…you know what happened next, even though I turned the speed WAAAY down. Standing squarely in front of the piece with my roughing gouge in hand, I flipped the switch and was promptly bounced backwards into my bench as the rootball knocked the wind out of me as it leaped off the tiny screwchuck. I suffered nothing more than the indignity of the event, but learned later that had I been able to start turning I may have put myself in a much worse situation, not knowing the risks of turning green spalted wood. The fungus can live in the air for quite a while and once it finds a nice moist spot to live (like a lung perhaps) you will find yourself playing host to a nasty and potentially irreparable respiratory infection.
LESSONS: Research what you’re doing and understand the right way to do and the potential risks.

Kickback: Try and follow along with the string of stupid choices. I had been sick for a few days with a headcold, hadn’t slept well and took some cold/sinus medication before going out to do ‘a little’ woodworking. To help with the symptoms I drank more than a little extra strong coffee to fuel my spirit. I worked on a few small items and got to the point where I needed a little 1″x1″x2″ block of maple. It didn’t have to be accurately cut and it was almost lunch time, so I ‘quickly’ ran it through the tablesaw without a fence or miter. Once the little block made it past the midway point of the blade it was cut through and just angled enough to catch the blade on the backside. The little block, which weighs nothing, whipped across the table and into my thumb.
I had no lasting injury from this, but at the time, my thumb swelled up pretty nicely, which ice took care of. What really took me off guard was the impact of all the other things (caffiene, cold medicine, being tired, being sick, being in a hurry). Shortly after putting ice on my thumb I started to feel very very dizzy and had to lie down. I believe the combination of events was making me flirt with some mild shock symptoms.
LESSON: If you aren’t feeling up for it, don’t even go in the shop…go online and check out Marc’s archives!

Ian

Reply
- Jason May 16, 2010 7:31 am
  
  I had a similar, dizzying experience happen to me, though not from woodworking, and no illness or chemical assistance was involved. After spending $100s on plumbers over a few years to clean out my sewer main, I decided to buy an electric sewer snake and do it myself. The plumbers wear metal gauntlets when using theirs, but mine was a much thinner diameter, so I just used leather gloves. The snake got caught on something, so I decided to pull it out. What I should have done, was reverse the snake, to reduce the tension. Pulling it out allowed enough slack to form that it wrapped around my thumb. I couldn’t reach the reverse switch,so I tried pulling the whole unit closer to me, causing it to press on the foot switch, turning it on more, making it even tighter. Luckily, I was able to get to the reverse, and was released. Feeling a little woozy, I rested on the steps out of my basement for a minute. I went to the kitchen to get a drink of water. The next thing I know, my wife is calling from upstairs “What was that sound?” I realized that I was no longer standing at the sink, but lying on the floor. Besides the bruised ego, I only suffered from a little bang on my elbow (from hitting the sink, or floor, I don’t know which) and loss of some feeling in my thumb for a few weeks.
  
  Reply
Peter Bierma May 14, 2010 1:15 pm

oOo fun topic! A few months ago I needed to cut a point on the end of a 4′ strip of 1″ wide pine, maybe 1/4″ thick. I figured, “Well, it’s only one point I need to cut (not 50).” I couldn’t figure out how to cut what’s essentially a 75 or 80 degree rip cut, so I decided to lay the flimsy piece of pine PERPENDICULAR to the chop saw fence, and angle it 10 degrees freehand. No guards, fences, or backing. Just my hand.

The first cut was fine; but when I turned the board over… BAM. Sucked pieces of wood down through the throat guard, busted the guard into several pieces, and tweaked my wrist. No serious injuries, phew!

Okay, what’s worse is I “hadn’t gotten around” to securing my chop saw to the stand that it’s on, so the saw actually lurched up into the air a bit. I wonder what would have happened if 1) the saw was secured to the table (would my hand have lurched??!!) or 2) the saw had lurched -forward-, like, at me. Yikes. Bad setup, bad cuts, bad ideas. Lessons learned!

Reply
Dan May 14, 2010 1:34 pm

Having done a fair bit of deck work, the obligatory thumb-whacks are nothing new, but don’t under-estimate what a screwgun can do! It’s amazing how deep a square-drive bit will go when it jumps off the screw with one’s whole bodyweight behind it.

Those toolbox Sharktooth saws are no joke either. You know the ones: short, rigid, and angry! I was using mine to excise a stubborn root when it leaped off the wood and into my index finger. In the shop I have better luck (and patience) using pull-saws.

Back to power drills for a moment; it’s very hard to make a perfect circle without proper tools. Did you know that, with some clamps, a centerpunch, sandpaper, and some creativity, it’s possible to chuck up a 10in plexiglass disc and make it perfectly round? Yep, possible… not recommended. Sandpaper is thin, and plexiglass is sharp!

Stay safe! …-er than me :p

Reply
steve hupp May 14, 2010 2:47 pm

This past fall I was in the process of refinishing the top of a large coffee table. I had pulled it out to the top of my driveway (which slopes down pretty steeply) and was stripping the old finish off with a belt sander

Reply
- Frank Kovach May 16, 2010 9:21 am
  
  I had an interesting story about when I was a kid and my dad was using a hand held belt sander. Unfortunately mine didn’t turn out as nice as yours did, but no permanent damage. I agree with you, though, that toddlers and woodworking generally don’t mix, except at the end of the process.
  
  Reply
Vick May 14, 2010 3:11 pm

My first table saw was a portable saw (with much vibration). One day, after successfully completing a cut, I took a just a few seconds to examine the finished piece before turning the saw off. I didn’t think about the saw because my hands were well clear of the blade. While my attention was directed elsewhere, the off-cut piece vibrated into the blade and was violently shot into my inner thigh (thank God I’m tall!). I had a softball size bruise for almost 2 weeks. I use the photo as my profile pic on LumberJocks to serve as a constant reminder.

Reply
mark williams May 14, 2010 3:30 pm

Well, let’s see;

Here are all of th dumb things I have done;

1. I connected a brad nailer to a compressor while at a pawn shop. My wife said do you know how to use it? I said of course, and then by mistake had it depressed in my hand and it went off.. I had emergency hand surgery that night….
2. The first time I ever used a chisel was to mortise out a strike plate…Well I held the door with my left hand below where I was working…Four stictehes later I have a cool scar on my left hand. (same hand as the nail went into)
3. The first time I used my jig saw I was forcing the blade and it deflected. I went to change the blade right after I stopped cutting….Well I had a nice little burn….
4. I have had my table saw kick back, because I removed my anti kick back pawls, splitter and blade guard…I did this knowing it was wrong but the whole system broke after about ten cuts…So I have contacted sears and am buying warranty and then having them come out and replace it…
:-)

Anyway, I have learned to be very super careful! I have adopted Marc’s method of thinking through worst case every time I approach ANY tool…

Thanks for rasining awarness Marc!

Reply
- Rich May 17, 2010 3:27 am
  
  Your last sentence is an absolute — wish we could all remember to do it! Even more I wish we could actually anticipate EVERYTHING that might happen. At times, I use a sanding wheel in my table saw. I made a nice jig that allows me to sand perfect circles at a set size. Fine and dandy — but it never occurred to me that when working with a smaller piece I might allow my finger to carefully guide the piece around so that the finger got trapped between the sanding wheel and the piece. Nicely sanded off the fingertip with half my nail all the way to the bone! It eventually grew back, but it was many painful months.
  
  Reply
Eric Wolf May 14, 2010 4:19 pm

I was putting together a piece for a customer that involved half lap joinery at 45 degree angles in a piece of red oak. Half lap on one side, and half lap on the reverse opposite side. One half lap came all the way out to the exposed edge while the other was in the “meat” so to speak. To accomplish this, I set the Radial Arm with Dado stack at 45 degrees. I nibbled out one side of the wood with the exposed edge first and then set up for the opposite cut. I went to go take the first pass, and slightly moved my hand a little further from the blade. Immediately after, as if there were a ripple in time, I heard a loud “thwack”, followed by the numb pain of three of my fingers. Apparently, when I moved my hand further from the blade, I pushed down on the side with the exposed half lap joint, the edge of the wood that was now half as thick as the rest of the piece. It acted as a lever, and threw the side of the piece I was cutting back up into the blade, and my fingers. If the blade guard had not have been installed on the Radial Arm Saw, it would have flown up and embedded itself in my skull. Two lessons: Always make sure your cuts are done fully supported, and, whenever possible, use clamps to hold the piece down instead of fingers. For all of you wanting to see what happened to “the other guy” after the fight: http://bit.ly/ckIYnY

Reply
Jim “Bear” Giles May 14, 2010 4:20 pm

I was installing doors in my basement, I had 4 doors to install. 2 of the doors fit pretty close with only a little work of an electric hand held planer. The 3rd door I needed to remove about 3/4 of an inch. I thought I would be “smart” and rip off this on the table saw. Problem was than the saw was an older model and I again thought I would be “smart” and put the door on the left side of the blade and rip off a strip to the right. (I did this because the saw was too narrow to fit the fence any other way.) I got all the way to within the last 1/4 inch of the cut being very proud of myself for such a great cut on a rickety old saw. Well as most of us should know by now, when your off cut gets wedged between the saw blade and fence it tends to become a projectile. well luckily I was holding the door on the left side of the saw and was not standing behind the saw. This 3/4″ X 80″ missile comes shooting off the saw and manages to spear the 4th door I still had to trim down. I turned off the saw. Put down the door. Sat down for a minute to collect myself. It was about this time I noticed the “spear” sticking out of door #4. I went and pulled the offending projectile from the door thinking I now had a small patch job to do for my being so “smart” the hole was a clean 3/4″ wide by about an 1 1/4″ tall. I then turned to door around to see how I was going to patch this small hole only to find out there was a 2′ hole in the backside of the door. Yeah hooray for hollow core doors. I count my stars I was in the right place at a wrong time and missed getting gutted by my own stupidity. I installed door #4 on the closet in the basement with the small patch on the front of the door but purposely left the large gaping hole in the back as a reminder to not only measure twice and cut once but also to think twice before being too “smart” when it comes to power tools.

Reply
Dean Jackson May 14, 2010 5:06 pm

I knew the piece was too small for my normal push stick, so I used a sacrificial one. Which got exactly halfway into the blade before I realized, “how the hell do I push the sacrificial stick through?”

As I realized “just shut the saw off, silly”, I accidentally twisted it against the fence, ever, ever so slightly. It made a SPAH-TANG! noise as it blew by me at professional fastball speeds, and I got a brushburn out of it.

Saw how little damage I took from something so stupid, and just had to laugh. Never really done anything painful to myself since, since that served as a hellofa reminder.

Reply
David May 14, 2010 5:07 pm

Oak missel missed me by a hair. I was cutting miters on the end of a board on a cheap table saw that had a gaping hole where a zero clearance insert should have been. That, compounded by the fact that I was cutting the miters so that the cutoff fell INTO the blade, produced a triangular oak missel that brushed the short hairs just above my ear on it’s high velocity trip around the shop. Lesson learned.

Reply
Charles B May 14, 2010 5:30 pm

I learned a very valuable lesson about “you get what you pay for”. I purchased my first table saw before I knew anything about them. Its a cheap tabletop 10″ Skil.I quickly figured out one of the major downsides to a cheap saw is that there was no zero clearance insert.

My solution was to remove the metal insert and fabricate my own out of plywood. (cheap fix!) After 10 or so passes there was this huge pop and plywood pieces flew everywhere. Turns out that plywood and the vibration from turning on a cheap saw don’t go well together. So there I am with a 4″ splinter sticking out of my shirt just above my waist line. It only went in about 1/4″ but it scared me so bad I had to sit down to keep from falling over my knees were so shaky.

I learned my lesson and decided it is not always the best idea to cut corners. I got off very lucky since I only got hit with the smaller piece of shrapnel! If you can’t afford something just wait til you can – no need to shortcut it!
When it comes to the table saw everything happens in the blink of an eye. Take the time to think things through so you don’t make a mistake, its way better than the time you will spend thinking about a mistake that does happen!

Reply
Jerry May 14, 2010 5:35 pm

Ok, about a year ago I was working on a queen sized murphy bed and was assembling a mission style facade. I was fitting all of the faux rails/styles/doors when I stupidly miscut a piece. Unfortunately I did not have any more stock so was forced to get in the car and run down to my supplier and buy another piece. This put me behind my personally set schedule. When I returned with the stock it had be be milled and I was in a hurry on the table saw. I was quickly ripping some pieces and my mind was ahead of what I was actually doing. After ripping one piece, my right hand was lifting the cut on the other side of the blade while my head was turned to the right looking for the next piece to pick up. It was then I felt a vibration on my index finger. My first thought was “oh crap, what have I just done”. The tip of my finger was mangled and it looked like my fingernail was gone (it wasn’t). A trip to an urgent care was made and in the end it healed nicely.

I considered this a warning shot. An encounter like this could have turned out much worse. It rattled me because I had always been one to pause for a second or so to take note of where my hands were and going before starting a cut. I was always respectfully nervous around the saw.

What I did wrong:

– I was rushing because I was behind my self imposed schedule.
– I lost situational awareness because my mind was trying to think ahead rather than the task at hand – due to being rushed.

But the good news:

I told my wife about this new product called SawStop. From that point forward, she kept telling me I should get one. I thought about it for a while and then I said “oh gee — if you really insist”. Now have a nice SawStop PCS in my shop. Not that I would recommend this technique to sway your wife’s opinion about a tool purchase.

Reply
project240 May 14, 2010 7:10 pm

My close call story didn’t actually happen to me, but to a very unfortunate girl in my HS shop class.

A guy was starting to rip thin stock on the table saw. I believe he was trying to cut a 3 1/2″ piece of wood into 1″ strips. Anyways, he was part way through the first when he apparently realized there was no push stick handy. He was smart enough to know to not try push it through with just his fingers, but not smart enough to know to shut off the table saw before leaving to find a push stick.

So as he realized he needed a push stick, instead of shutting off the saw and going to find one, he just let the piece of wood go, assuming it would sit there. Unfortunately for the poor girl behind it, the piece of wood rocketed off the table saw and hit her squarely in the mouth, knocking out 8 teeth. There was a fair amount of blood and she looked pretty rough. In addition to knocking out her teeth, it gave her a black eye and a very bruised and very sore jaw.

She ended up suing the school/teacher/student and “winning”, but only enough money to cover her newly acquired lifetime dental bills.

This was by far the worst accident I’ve seen and everytime I’m in the shop I’m reminded to slow down and always think about what I am working on. Sometimes working in a 1 man shop has it’s benefits…

Reply
Neal Aronson May 14, 2010 7:17 pm

I think I was about 20 at the time, working for a building contractor doing remodel jobs. We did everything from concrete to finish work. We were working in the shop milling wood for a hand rail which required running a 1 1/2″ dado on the bottom of the rail to house the ballusters. This particular piece required a stopped dado and for some reason I decided it would be easier to feed the 2×3 redwood rail through the dado set backwards. No soon had the wood made contact with the 3/4″ thick blade than it was ripped out of my hands and shot across the room, missing my boss by about a foot, and broke through the window and into the forest surrounding the shop. No one was hurt, but the look my boss gave me left scars to this day. It’s been about 25 years since that stupid move and I haven’t had an accident yet. My daily ritual on entering my shop is to count my fingers before I start work and again when I’m done. So far, the count is the same.

Reply
Crate May 14, 2010 7:34 pm

My close call story is really a scar story with a little loss of feeling….

While changing the blade on my rigid band saw i obviously had to remove all of the guards as well as open the covers to the drive wheels. And yes….all of this removing of guards and changing the blade was done with it unplugged.

When i had mounted the new blade on the wheels and added the proper amount of tension to begin testing to make sure the wider blade i had installed was tracking straight, i closed all of the door and added back the guards before the machine was plugged in. Except one!!! i had unintensionally left the guard off that covers the blade as it tracks next the the switch…you know the 8 in span of open blade!!! i pushed the on switch and the blade was tracking correctly…..as i was looking at the blade on the wheels i reached with my index finger to push the off switch…missed the switch by 3/4in and shoved my finger into the blade, cutting almost to the bone and half way through the tendon. This resulted in a trip the ER, 5 stitches….and some continued loss of feeling in that finger. The loss of feeling and blood stained on my shop floor (from cutting the main vein in my finger) serves and a reminder to slow down and make sure everything is in place before testing.

IMO…Rigid has WAY to may guards that are separate and have to be removed independently!!!!

Reply
Dennis May 14, 2010 7:34 pm

I was ripping a piece of pegboard. The fence on my table saw did not touch the table and the piece got wedged under the fence, not thinking I pulled back. The whole piece went flying across the back yard and hit the back door of the house. Embarrassed I quickly ran and picked it up, hoping no one saw it

Reply
Adam Rutherford May 14, 2010 8:02 pm

I have a couple stories from years back, first one was a very close call, I was drilling some walnut (with a fairly old and dull drill bit) on my drillpress, now I used to be bad for not wearing safety glasses while drilling, but this time for some reason I decided to wear them, while I was drilling the bit just stopped going deeper, so I brought it up and down a few times and next thing I know I have something dark right in front of my eye, I turned off the drill press and looked at my safety glasses and saw a shard of my drill bit impaled halfway through the plastic lens, turned out the walnut had some buckshot in it, and the bit wouldn’t cut through it so instead it heated up and when i shocked it by bringing it down on the buckshot again it just shattered sending bits all over, I have those safety glasses mounted on the wall as a reminder of what they did to save my eye, and I use them for everything now!

Reply
- Jerry May 16, 2010 4:49 pm
  
  That reminds me of a kick back incident last summer. I forget exactly what I was doing but during the rip I saw the piece move unexpectedly so I KNEW it was going to kick back so I stepped to one side.
  
  My TS in in the garage facing outward. On that day, my wife had a bunch of moms and kids over for something and there were the usual crowd of soccer mom mini vans parked on the street. One minivan was across from the garage.
  
  So then the kick back happened there was the usual BANG! and the piece was gone. The piece flew across the street but fortunately, the minivan was parked not exactly in the direct path of the saw. There is a small hill across the street so no other targets. Never found the piece.
  
  It was one of those moments that you look around and hope no one saw.
  
  Reply
Adam Rutherford May 14, 2010 8:07 pm

My second one, wasn’t really a close call rather it was an accident, this one was in woodworking class back when I was in high school, my teacher always stressed always clamp your work down before chiselling, and so I always did, but one time I had thought I was finished and unclamped it, then noticed a small spot I missed, so I fugured no bigger I can hold to do that one small spot, and so I held the work down with my left hand behind the spot I was chiselling, and with my right hand went in with the chisel and of course I slipped the chisel off the wood and right into my finger untill it hit bone, So I guess that goes with the never racing rule, always work safe, now I always clamp before I chisel no matter how little work I need to do, and remember even a dull chisel is usually sharp enough to cut skin

Reply
Brian May 14, 2010 8:24 pm

I will always use a “zero clearance insert.”
I had a very tiny piece (1x6x.25) on the free side of the tablesaw blade (not between the fence and blade) fall into the space between the blade and insert just enough to kickback into my left hand which was not even close by. This is my story because nothing else could have happened. It was one of those Forrest Gump moments “Something bit me in the” hand. I did not see it but I heard a noise and suddenly my left index and middle fingers were throbbing. It broke both fingernails and they were black and blue for quite a few weeks.

Reply
Dave May 14, 2010 9:27 pm

I would like to think I am a much more advanced woodworker now than I was before but this boneheaded move actually just happened to me last week. I recently purchased a new drill press and was drilling a 1 1/8″ hole with a spade bit in a short pine board with the table tilted at about 30 degrees. I wasn’t aware of it then but I had never properly installed the chuck. I thought I pressed into the spindle correctly but it was never seated properly. Well, half way through the hole the chuck started to come loose from the spindle. All I could do was watch and wonder why the stop button was so far away (even though on my drill press it is only about two inches from my fingers when I’m holding the feed handle). Anyway, the bit was still attached to the chuck and they both flew into the air like a spinning javeline. Luckily, it flew in the direction completely opposite from where I was standing. I could only imagine walking into my house and telling my wife I need to go to the hospital because the drill bit impaled my body. I later learned that my chuck and spindle were not completely free of dirt when I installed it so it did not press all the way onto the spindle. Luckily I got a chance to fix it.

Reply
Spud May 14, 2010 10:02 pm

Many times I do dumb things with tools that I use regularly and seem harmless. We use these type of tools frequently and often safety doesn’t cross our minds. When ever I step up to a power tool that could cause the loss of a digit or future child I stop and think about what I am doing.

I can remember a time that I was working on something in my garage and I had to break down some odd shaped boxes, so I was cutting them down with a box knife. I know you all have done this, but I was using a semi dull razor blade which caused me to use more effort. while I was pulling really hard I stabbed the razor blade into me forearm. Luckily it didn’t go in very far.

It made me realize I was lucky that I didn’t stab a more vital area of my body. Anyway think before you use knives!

Reply
Vic May 14, 2010 10:58 pm

I’m sure you recall MY most hazardous close call. It was when I was installing flooring in the house and ripping a piece of it without the splitter installed. It actually knocked me to the ground and the wind right out of me. If the piece had been sharp or had more mass, it could of actually killed me. This was all posted in the old forum.

The times I’ve hurt myself most often, though are with hand tools or hand power tools. We often forget they, too can do damage. I was using a side grinder once and nearly ground into myself to the bone. I still have the scar from that incident, because the grinder cauterized the wound and it never healed correctly. Other times have been doing stupid things with sharp chisels or knives.

The bottom line is that ALL shop tools are inherently dangerous in the hands of the cavalier. Pay attention ALWAYS!!!

Reply
Brian Kooshian May 15, 2010 4:30 am

I was an adult when I got my first table saw, and so green around the gills that I tried to crosscut a 12″ piece of 3/4″ white oak with a miter guage . . . and the fence. You can guess what happened. As I got to the end of the cut, the work piece bound between the blade and the fence, and the saw launched it backwards with enough force to dent the wall ten feet behind me. Fortunately, I had known enough not to stand directly behind the workpiece on the table saw, but unfortunately, my four-year-old nephew who had come to watch Uncle Brian use his new saw, was standing almost directly in its path. I say “almost”, because the 12″ square flying wooden bullet missed his head by inches. That was the day that I began becoming aware of who was in the shop with me and where they were at all times.

Another boneheaded thing that I have done (just one among many, unfortunately) is to try to use a circle cutter — the flat type with the adjustable wing cutter blades — with only one cutter blade (I wanted a larger circle), and a hand drill (it wouldn’t fit on my drill press because I wanted a larger circle), on the floor. Somehow — I’m still not sure how — I ended up with a wing cutter an inch deep in my thigh, and bled like a stuck pig. The close call was really for my 13-year old twin boys who were holding the workpiece steady for me. Yeah, I know, in retrospect it was incredibly stupid, and I recklessly endangered my sons’ safety. It was made all the worse by one of the twins who, after I had bandaged my leg and returned to the workshop, asked “So Dad, why don’t we just cut it on the scroll saw?” Good question.

I can thank God that none of my idiocies have resulted in any kind of serious harm to anyone, and I hope I have learned from each incident. Such incidents are much fewer and farther between now, but safety is always a moving target and we have never really “arrived” to the point where we can really let our guard down.

Reply
johnathan Stover May 15, 2010 5:20 am

My close call would be with A Stanley block plane out of all the tools huh? Well lazy me decided instead of clamping my glued up panel to the bench to knock down the high spots. I calculated that it would be a good idea to hold the end of the panel steady with my left hand and control the whole plane by using my right hand. Boy was I not thinking correctly at all and (My hold fast were already in my dog holes would have taken me 2 seconds to prevent my close call. Anyway I started my venture into the world of one handed planing wobbling along down the panel exerting more force than would be needed had I been using 2 hands, When I neared the end of the panel near my hand I hit a high spot and had to use even more force. Well needless to say that high spot wasn’t a very high spot. The plane went through it like butter, my right hand followed my sharp plane as it rocketed of the end of the board and collided with my left hand taking a nice skin shaving from my pointer finger with it. I stepped back and marveled at how lucky I am. My wise grandfather once told me “Patience is a virtue that saves life and limb in the shop take your time do it right.” My senseless preventable very close call could have been prevented that day had I used my head. Not to mention right above my workbench is a big and I mean very big sign that says “USE YOUR HEAD.”

Reply
Zontobi May 15, 2010 5:48 am

Geez, which close call should I choose?

One that has been coming to mind everytime I go to the table saw was when I was trying to cut a thin strip of wood at the table saw. The piece I wanted was between the blade and the fence and had plenty of room underneath thanks to me being Captain Moron of Planet Idiot and not using a zero clearance insert. The dull blade grabbed and pulled the piece down. My pushstick followed and so did my hand which, by the way, was giving a generous amount of exessive pressure (Duh…I wonder why I felt the need to do that?)
Had the pushstick been shorter, it would’ve remodeled my hand.

That’s when I realized I should learn how to woodwork before just jumping in, fingers and all. Yea..I know…a real Sherlock Holmes eh?

Reply
Wes May 15, 2010 6:32 am

Embarrassed by the number of close calls; but that was prior to discovering the immense online woodworking community I have come to really enjoy.

I have learned a great deal from all the podcasts, online articles and content, magazines (that I had no idea existed), and forums.

For many years I thought my “hobby” was a very niche arena. I thought there was: The professional carpenter, furniture makers with enormous assembly lines and machines, the average homeowner who had only the Home Depot “tool kit” in the garage, and me. I was someone who inherited a bunch of old tools from my father, who was a carpenter, and tried my best to learn on my own to use them. This is where all those close calls came in; learning by doing.

I am sure places/people like “The Wood Whisperer”, have saved a couple of my fingers.

For that Marc, and the community as a whole, I thank you.

Wes

Reply
Mitch May 15, 2010 7:15 am

I had a long thin flathead screwdriver that had a messed up tip. I decided to reshape the tip on the bench grinder. This being before I knew what I was doing, I angled the tip downward into the grinder rather than pointing it upward. Once instant I’m grinding, the next I hear a loud pop and the grinder sounds like it is about to self-destruct. The wheel had grabbed the shank of the screwdriver, pulled it into the housing, ripping the handle off. The shank was apparently just the right thickness and length that it was bent into an arc shape and flew all the way around the back of the housing up to the top and caught on a tiny lip just before lauching, spearlike, into my stomach. Once lodged, it then locked up the wheel and seemed like it would tear the grinder up. This all happened in about 1/100 of a second.

It’s funny how once second you can be doing somethig out of ingnorance or carelessness (and it doesn’t matter which) and then later that very same second you are injured or counting your blessings that your luck held for one more day. It all gets better with experience and training, but thinking through the possibilities of what could go wrong ahead of time can save you a lot of grief.

Reply
Rob Damon (Oldguydrummer) May 15, 2010 8:23 am

In 1981, I picked up my first tablesaw, a 10″ craftsman cast iron top. I only had a bedroom 10’x12′ to work out of. This limited me from cutting up large sheet good to just cutting half sheets (48″x48″) maximum on the table saw, with the saw in the middle of the room. I was building some floor to ceiling book shelves that only needed to be 9″ deep. I had tried getting a straight cut with both a hand circular saw and a jig saw, but it just wasn’t working out.

Being young and having the “nothing can hurt me” (and the fact that the internet did not exist full of websites and videos full of what you should not do with a tablesaw) I came up with a plan to rip the full sheets on the tablesaw.

I move the table 24″ from one wall, so I could lay the full sheet on the tablesaw surface ahead of the blade and still have room to hold up and guide the sheet. I set up a table on the infeed side to support the wood.

Step1: Crouch under the board to turn the saw on. First thought, maybe not a good idea with blade running if I bump the sheet. Next good idea, unplug the saw, turn the switch on and just use the plug connected to the extension cord to start/stop saw. Worked great.

Step2: Turn on saw, plug in, motor starts, push the plywood sheet as far as it will go until it hits the wall on the out feed side. Unplug saw, wait for motor to stop, shift the table saw, with board still on it toward middle of room.

Step3: Start saw again, push the plywood sheet as far as it will go again before hitting the wall. Unplug saw, wait for motor to stop, shift table saw with board still on it to make final cut.

Step4: Start saw again, push the plywood sheet,,oh.oh..forgot to move the outfeed table support, just as the last bit of the sheet is cut, the piece between the blade and the fence raises up, and bam, the board catches and gets slung back past me and heads toward the window behind me. The window was saved but the trim board on one side of the window was crushed. Because I had been standing completely on the side of the tablesaw is the only thing that saved me.

Step 5: Find scrap piece of molding and replace damaged section, before the wife notices, and makes you sell the table saw.

Faults were removing the blade guard/splitter and not providing proper support on both infeed and outfeed side. But the real fault was not having a big enough shop to begin with, “honey can we turn the living room into a wood shop, it would be sooo much safer!”

Rob (Oldguydrummer)

Reply
Neal Aronson May 15, 2010 9:44 am

I was working on my first remodel carpentry job, a complete fix-up of a century old home. This particular day I was reframing the back door, adding cripple studs above the door header. The siding was still intact and I was standing on a ladder inside the the doorway toe-nailing the cripples in with a nail gun. The gun was in my right hand and my left hand was resting on the siding to stabilize myself on the ladder. Everything was going fine until one of the nails hit a knot and hooked outward, going through the siding and piercing the pad at the end of my middle finger like a hook through a worm. Standing on my ladder with my head inside the house, I couldn’t see how to unhook myself. I stood there for a little while assessing the situation and realized I had to get some help or I’d be standing on that ladder all day. After my boss unhooked me he walked away shaking his head, muttering something about this being the last time he hires another Jewish carpenter.

Reply
Bret Wortman May 15, 2010 10:21 am

I was using my TS to dado a long piece of santos mahogany for a picture frame I

Reply
Beechwood Chip May 15, 2010 1:05 pm

Some of you may have heard this one.

I was ripping some splines out of 1/2″ plywood. The fence was too close to the blade, so I removed the blade guard. I was using the Grrripper and was convinced that I had a pretty safe setup. I was cutting a whole bunch of these, and had gotten into a nice rhythm.

On my next to last cut, I carefully finished the cut, turned off the saw, and picked up the piece to put it with others. Suddenly I felt a huge impact in my left index finger. Without really thinking about it, my left hand had reached out to clear the off-cut from the saw and my finger had caught the blade.

I guess the blade had almost come to a stop, and my bone stopped the blade instead of the blade cutting through the bone.

What I learned:

If I can’t use the regular blade guard, consider setting up some other kind of blade guard mounted to the fence or the table.

Watch the blade or the bit until it stops spinning. Just because I turned to tool off doesn’t mean I can forget about it.

When I’m making repetitive cuts and it’s all going smoothly, stop, take a breath, and concentrate on making the last cut just as safely as the first.

Reply
GMack May 15, 2010 1:14 pm

Unplugged with no blade!

Gliding my rip fence across a well-waxed table saw top, dreaming about the next 47 steps in the project and how perfect it was going to be when finished… Saw unplugged. I had removed a stacked dado but not yet reinstalled a blade. Eye and hearing protection in place. Dust mask doing the Darth Vader. Safe, huh?

Zip!

A finger barely slipped into the miter slot and the inertia of the heavy Biesemeyer rip fence pinched it against the cast iron top and skinned off a complete fingertip.

Wife remains skeptical.

Reply
Devin May 15, 2010 3:28 pm

Many years ago when I got my first router and built a router table for it I was making some frames and needed 2in wide strips of wood. I rough cut them on the scroll saw and then set the fence on the router table for 2in. Not thinking that I needed to feed the the stock left to right when runing it between the fence and the bit I went right to left. The router grabed the board and it shot out and hit the the wall on the other end of the shop. learnd that lesson the hard way.(I would have used a table saw if I had one at the time)

Devin

Reply
Matt Rakowski May 15, 2010 3:54 pm

i was cutting a stopped rabbit in a book case rail on the table saw so i dropped the piece on the blade a couple of inches from the blade and made my cut and realised that it needed to be a little bit closer to the end so i set the piece over the blade and was going to back cut up the half inch i needed and the board shot out and droped my fingers on the dado blade i was very lucky and only had a corner of my middle finger nail taken off and a nick on my ring finger on my left hand now when i do anything like that i find a much safer way to do it

Reply
Joey May 15, 2010 6:26 pm

My closest call was with a B&D miter saw the older style before all the improvements with guards. I was installing some custom cabinets I build, which included installing all the trim which I also custom milled out of cherry. We were just about done with the job when someone from a cement crew decided to cut some of the their form boards (2×4) on my saw and of course they hit a cut nail which in it self was pretty dangerous, but thats not the close call it came after I had to changed the blade because the one on the saw was shot. All I had with me was a 40 tooth combo blade the ones with the deep gullets, that was on my table saw. I toke it off and installed it on my miter saw and got back to work installing the three piece crown on the coffers and the light boxes, one of the run was a bull-nose about 1 1/2 x 3/4, now there was a couple of small off sets that I had to return on, this meant cutting some small pieces which isn’t no problem usually, but today a piece got caught in one of these gullets and I guess it was side ways because when it went up into the saw guard (now these where the old kind guards that had a wing nut on the top that held the blade guard on the saw,) well any way when that piece of cherry went up into the guard it was like a bomb when off blowing my guard to pieces the main part of the guard flew up and smacked me in the forehead . After the shock of what just happened I started taking inventory of all my body parts. luckily all I had was a mean bump on my head, but we had to dig a couple of piece out of the metal guard out of the wall where they got embedded. Fortunately no one was around when it happened, and no one was hurt and since then I have never used another combo blade with gullets in a miter box or a radial arm saw.
Joey

Reply
Jim May 15, 2010 7:02 pm

I’m still fairly new at woodworking, but so far my closest call was a near kickback. A couple of years ago, I made the rookie mistake of trying to crosscut a piece of oak on my table saw with my miter gauge… and the fence. I felt the wood starting to pinch and kick back. Luckily I was able to prevent it, and shut off the saw with my knee.

Lesson learned!

Jim

Reply
Bud May 15, 2010 7:45 pm

I ALMOST cut off even more of my finger while not using a guard on my jointer…that was close. Pretty thorough way to learn:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3.....710099211/

Reply
Andre May 16, 2010 5:55 am

I was once trying to cross cut a longish (and kinda narrow) piece of 1/4″ plywood on the table saw. As soon as I was though the cut, the piece between the blade and fence twisted, sending it flying back at my chest at warp speed. After it hit me, I just sat there on the floor (saw still running) for a couple of minutes, panting and wheezing. I couldn’t believe how effectively the wind was knocked out of me by such a small piece of wood. I was kinda lucky that it hit me edge on, instead of with the corner. I might of gotten more than a bruise(to my body and pride). Lesson learned, albeit more than a little painfully.

Reply
EJ May 16, 2010 11:49 am

I was doing some routing on my router table and had been working in the shop all day. It was high time to be turning off the lights and going in the house…… so as I was trying to figure out, in my fatigued, overly tired mind, how I was going to cut this rabbet I decided I would just run it in the normal direction but on the other side of the bit….between the bit and the fence. At the time it seemed perfectly logical, the wood is being fed in the correct direction, the bit is not taking off too much wood, safety glasses are on, dust collector running, router speed adjusted, all should be good. Off we go, as soon as the wood contacted the bit it grabbed the material, forced it through the opening between the bit and the fence and shot it across the shop at a high rate of speed, striking the far wall (approximately 10 feet away). Upon inspection, all body parts were intact, but the router bit had several pieces of carbide missing from the cutter. Needless to say I now know when to go inside and where not to feed material into the router bit.

Reply
Caleb Sarty May 16, 2010 3:30 pm

I guess this would qualify as a little more than a close call, but here I go. Three and a half years ago I was working away in my unheated Nova Scotian shop in the middle of February after a few “brews”. Even with my winter gloves on, my fingers were practically numb. I was crosscutting some stock on my table saw (without the guard installed) and apparently my mind had momentarily checked out. I reached with my right hand to clear away the piece I had just cut from the other side of the still spinning saw blade.

I ended up connecting my glove with the saw blade which sent my hand shooting back to me. I ripped the glove off of my hand and noticed that half of the glove thumb had been removed. Since I didn’t immediately feel any pain I thought I had been EXTREMELY lucky. That only lasted a few seconds, until I realized that my hand was getting very very warm and wet.

Within minutes my wife was rushing me to the local hospital to have the lower half of my thumb reattached. All in all I ended up having a full thickness skin grapht taken from my right inner bicep to rebuild the bottom of my thumb. It’s a little shorter and narrower now, but seems to work almost as well as the original. Needless to say the guard was put back on the saw before I used it again.

lessons learned:
1. woodworking and beer don’t mix
2. If it’s too cold to work comfortably with your bare hands, it’s probably to cold to work.
3. If your mind starts to wander while using power tools, it’s time to take a break.
4. GUARDS ARE THERE FOR A REASON!!!
5. Chicks dig scars (well…maybe)

Reply
Steve May 16, 2010 6:19 pm

I purchased my first table saw many, many years ago when I was in High School. I’d had it maybe a year or so when I saw, in a magazine or book, what I thought was a neat project/technique. I think it was a pedestal table of some sort. I only really remember the pedestal. It was about 2″ square and 24″ long, with a stopped 3/4″ wide dado plunged in from all four sides. The dado depths were all more than half the thickness of the board so the center of the board was removed leaving a “post” on each corner. It looked pretty cool in the book, so I thought I’d give it a try.

So I set up the stacked dado to 3/4″ wide and about 1 1/4″ deep. I set the fence to center the dado and clamped a stop block to the fence in front of the blade. I set the end of the board against the stop and proceeded to pivot it down on to the dado blade. You know how people say they can sense when they are doing something they shouldn’t be doing in the shop? Well, this was one of those times for me. As I lowered the board on to the spinning 3/4″ wide dado blade something went wrong (big surprise) and the board kicked back like a rocket. I was standing on the left side of the saw, so I was not in the path of the kick back, however my left hand was on the board directly over the blade. My hand went down into the blade. I don

Reply
jHop May 16, 2010 6:26 pm

the worst injury I’ve suffered so far (other than pride or intelligence) was actually something I suffered at work. (I cut the tip of my finger off with a knife, and went back to work after getting it taped off while waiting for my ride to show up to bring me home. It’s a lot harder than I thought to make sandwiches one handed.)

The second worst accident happened at a different job (splinter under the fingernail while I was paying attention to the cute girl on the boat and the security guard i was teaching to tie knots in boat lines instead of paying attention to the dock post) which involved calling my boss to show up from his other job, a trip to the emergency room, walking back to work, and discovering two 80 foot boats had collided in my absence.

But I have not yet suffered any injuries to my physical self while woodworking.

My closest call came just two days ago, when i was trying to get the pattern bit out of the router. I had it (Black and Decker 7616 fixed base router) upside down, my face near the bit so I could see what my hands were doing, a wrench in each hand, and the cord plugged in. The collet stuck, my hand slipped, and I just barely missed the toggle switch to turn on the router.

All these accidents and near misses have that “ADD issue”: Showing off and in a rush can lead to “ouchies.” What’s worse now is the pride issue; if I have an accident while woodworking, that means i have to hear about all my faults from my paramedic wife. Her rule is “Just because Mom knows how to fix you doesn’t mean she has to.” (the kids hear this constantly. I don’t want to be the subject.)

I still love sandwiches, I still enjoy boats, and I’m still ugly. (oh, yeah. and I still would rather be working with wood than almost anything else.)

Reply
Brent Bowden May 16, 2010 8:56 pm

I make wooden crosses for a small business my wife runs. Each cross after assembled gets all edges rounded over, which accomplish with a table mounted router and bearing guided bit. Moving too quickly one afternoon, I slipped off the work piece and slammed my hand down right on top of the spinning bit. Pain shot up my wrist and I instantly applied pressure and instinctively headed for the shop door to let my wife know about my injury. I thought I should check how badly chewed my hand was before showing it to my wife. When I glanced down I found only a bruise in the shape of that blessed bearing guide. Somehow I slammed my wrist exactly on the bearing never contacting a sharpened surface inflicting only enough of an injury to get the point across – slow down, take your time, use blade/bit guards wherever possible, when not possible find another way to accomplish the task.

Reply
Darrell May 16, 2010 9:07 pm

Oops!

Reply
Paul G. May 17, 2010 6:44 am

My two close calls:
1. Chain saw (One of the most dangerous tools IMO)

Reply
Steve May 17, 2010 10:23 am

So you are all most likely going to laugh and say what a dummy but I was only 15 years old. I was on the back porch building a speaker cabinet for a friends car, I was using 3/4″ mdf the blade in my skilsaw had just about had it so I decided to change it. I took the little wrench supplied with the saw and removed the old blade this was a cheap saw and the I sware the screw that held the blade on must have had 7 million threads on it. Being in a hurry when I went to put the new blade on I though putting the wrench on the nut and bumping the trigger would save me a lot of time as it would tighten the nut more quickly. Turns out that was the worst idea I had ever had. I bumped the trigger the blade spun about 8 million times the wrench hit the saw table flew off the nut and hit me directly in the eye ball at about 100 miles an hour. I immediately covered my eye and thought to myself that I was going to lose my sight. I have never experienced more pain in my life. Thank god I was only left with about a months worth of pain behind my eye ball. I learned a valuable lesson that day. ALWAYS RESPECT YOUR TOOLS.

Reply
Joel Pro May 17, 2010 12:12 pm

I’m new to woodworking and didn’t realize how close my calls were. After reading thread, I now realize. I inherited a ShopSmith that had a slightly bent splitter that forced the work piece into the fence and made it very hard to push the work piece through. I realized that pushing hard was not a good idea because a slip could cause my hand to run into the blade. I took off the splitter completely and finished my project. I knew that kickback was something I needed to be aware of, but I didn’t realize the true danger. Thanks to all for sharing your stories. Time for me to get a new splitter!

Reply
Robert Stuart May 17, 2010 12:19 pm

Too late for the prize drawing but might as well still share – one of my close calls was with my handheld router. I had my router sitting on top of my workbench getting ready to use it in my dovetail jig – went to plug it in and realized I had somehow left it turned on – it spins up and jumps off the table – I go to catch it and then luckily my mind said STOP! – It had a 1/2 of dovetail bit sticking out spinning at full speed – that would have been very ugly! Router hit ground – broke bit but other than that and a very close call – all was ok.

So moral to the story – always make sure things are turned off before you plug them in.

Thanks for reminding us all Marc.

Reply
mike from Pittsburgh May 17, 2010 7:08 pm

Aw heck, might as well share too. Not a woodworking whoops, but a home renovation one. I was framing a new wall, drilling a hole in one of the studs for electrical wiring. I’d just bought a new Rigid drill. It’s a nice drill, but it takes an awfully long time for the chuck to stop spinning. My arm was getting tired from all the work so, after drilling the hole, I let go of the trigger and let my arm drop down so the drill was hanging down next to my leg. I guess I swung my arm down a little too much because, before I new it, I’d drilled a 1/2″ deep hole in the side of my leg. And, yeah. Hurt like a muther.

Reply
herb May 20, 2010 12:05 am

Also not woodworking, but blood curdling none the less.
I was trimming something with an Exacto knife and whoops! Left thumb, and I’m a lefty. Man, did that hurt!
It was thanksgiving day and we were having relatives over and my wife was busy with the turkey….Well, you get the idea.

Foolishly, I told her I could make it to the hospital alone, and almost didn’t, I was getting woozy driving and actually had to pull over and compose myself once.
The triage nurse however, was very impressed, when she stopped laughing that is, to find that my wife had given me tampons to help stop the bleeding. Not one of my best Thanksgivings, to say the least.

Reply
David Stewart May 21, 2010 12:08 pm

Looks like this thread may be closed but I really wanted to share this with you.

I have a radial arm saw that I use quite regularly in my shop. Several feet high above this saw is a shelf on the wall. One of the many items I ONCE kept on this shelf was my propane torch that I use for branding my work.

See where this is going…..

So I’m making a cut on the radial arm saw like I have done so many times before with the propane cylinder perched on the shelf above when finally the combined vibration of the saw shook the propane cylinder loose.

The propane cylinder fell on the table bounced under the spinning blade of the radial arm saw in mid cut.

The cylinder was cut through spraying cold (and smelly) propane all over my face! I had safety glasses on but it froze them and made my face and hands numb. Shards of the cylinder were sprayed around the room as well. The saw stalled and tripped the breaker.

I have to say it really scared me. It seems like a simple lesson. Don’t have loose things on shelves especially above your saw. I guesses that’s the definition of an accident…

Be careful.

Reply
crowe May 23, 2010 1:43 am

I’m v new to wordwork, but can’t help notice of the number of incidents with table saws compared to band saws. My tool selection is geared to safety, so am going to opt for a woodrat for doing all my router work (morticing, tennoning, Dovetail, etc).

Oh yeah, and its time I took some lessons.

Reply
Gary Griffith May 27, 2010 8:02 am

Like many others I probably have many episodes of close calls. One close call is when I was making the cutting board from Marc’s video. I put it in the planer after the 2nd glue up and maybe I just was trying to take too aggressive a cut or that is not something you do but the planer did not like it at all and spit that cutting board right back out and rather quickly. I was standing on the side of the planer so I was not hurt, but it sure scared the crap out of me. I am still a little timid when it comes to planing.

Reply
- Eric Wolf May 27, 2010 9:02 am
  
  It’s actually likely because you were trying to plane end grain. If you’re wanting to plane down end grain, it’s a lot (exponentially) safer to do it unplugged (planing end grain on the power planer is not even something I would consider in my shop). We don’t often think about it, but here’s why it’s so unsafe:
  
  A power planer has rotating blades that come down and shave the grain off of wood at a 90 degree angle between the blade and work, efficiently severing the fibers from the substrate. With end grain, the work is not contacting the bevel of the blade to shave it off efficiently, it’s hitting it at a near parallel angle. The only way the blade can sever the fibers of the wood are with brute force. More often than not, this leads to bad kickback because there’s nowhere for that displaced force to go if the blade gets hung up on the work. The motor is usually strong enough to not bog down, and it shoots it right back out. This is also why you don’t use the jointer on end grain.
  
  Don’t be timid (but do be apprehensive, if that makes sense). If you keep grain direction in mind, the jointer and planer are outstanding tools!
  
  Reply
  - Gary Griffith May 27, 2010 10:50 am
    
    At the time, I never even gave it a thought. That is something I will never do again. I guess I did not learn enough before I starting using it. Thanks for your insight.
    
    Reply

Oops! ? That Was Close!

Sponsors

Advertisers