What's Your Safety Record While Woodworking?

[Doug Mason]

None for me yet other than normal cuts and close calls; my major fear is an eye injury from a shooting sliver of wood (from a knot, etc). I try to wear safety glasses always.

[mark page]

This has got to be the funniest shopbattle I've ever heard !!!! Was it a co-ed class

Yep it was co-ed, we had a few girl woodworkers out there. That didn't bother me as much as the trek to the parking lot to get in my car to drive home to properly attire myself again.
It was a very long time before I touched a wood lathe again, and still can't without remembering that fiasco. I was just lucky, REAL lucky. I have never seen anyone fight with a lathe before or after me, but have seen farmers get caught in tractor pto shafts. Not a pretty sight. They have no forgiveness.

[Pat Germain]

After watching films like "Three Finger Joe" at Vo-Tech and seeing absolutely horrendous mishaps in the Navy, I try to be very safety conscious. I always have my safety glasses on if I'm in the shop doing anything. (But I'm learning I probably need goggles for working with a router.) I always wear over-the-ear hearing protection when any power tool is running. I wear a dust mask when routing.

I admit I removed the guard and "splitter" from my table saw shortly after I bought it. That thing was so poorly designed I honestly think my saw is safer without it. Is there a good aftermarket guard and splitter available for a Craftsman contractor saw? If so, I'd consider buying one if it actually made the saw safer.

[Aaron Hamilton]

Back to high school shop again for me - we had a 20" big green bandsaw w/ a c-channel type adjustable blade guard. The saw didn't have a brake and I paid no attention to the fact the blade was still coasting. I grabbed the c channel guard w/ my hand and tried to adjust it only to realize about 2 second later that the blade was cutting the tips of my 3 fingers on the open side of the blade guard. No stitches, nothing horrible, but went to the bone.

[Jim Thiel]

Does being hit over the head by an at the time girlfriend with a hockey stick soon followed by an ugly breakup while working on the mailbox that I had hit earlier in the morning going way too fast down a narrow stretch of Broadway (odd coincidence there) count as a woodworking mishap?

Not that I would admit to that.

Jim

[Ralph Lindberg]

Actually all my scars are hand tools, mostly on my left hand...

OK, so there is one scar someplace else. You see I store my lathe chisels point down. I also had my carbon paper stored such that I had to bend over, behind the lathe, to reach it. Once, I backed up before standing...the DW loves to tell that story.

[Martin Shupe]

There is a hole in my drywall due to a kickback from the table saw, but no flesh wounds (yet). I use my safety gear, and I try to be careful.

[Chuck Lenz]

Meat cutter for 17 yrs, woodworker for close to 30 years. Still have all my digits, COMPLETE too !

[John Schreiber]

Trimming the Christmas tree before putting it in the stand. Used a bow saw with a frame which tapered from back to front. At one point, the saw got caught on a branch, jumped out of the kerf and bit the tip of my thumb.

It went in about halfway down the nail at an angle. I was alone at home at the time and went inside to get towels to stop the bleeding. I bled a little on the floor and had to clean that up before I went to the ER. I was more afraid of having my wife come back and see blood on the floor and me absent than of loosing tissue.

It looks normal now, but I don't have feeling in the very tip

[Larry Cooke]

I've never hurt myself in anyway that required medical attention other than a bandage in my woodworking. I always use the safety devices on my tools, if I ever have to do something that requires them to be removed I do a couple of mock tests (no power on the tool) and verify that all my appendages will be safe. I'll create jigs if needed, I kind of like thing the way my creator gave them to me.

I made the mistake of not using my safety glasses at work while using a bench grinder. Was buffing a metal part on the wire brush and ended up getting a bristle in my eye. Let me tell you that was one experience I never ever want to go through again. The doctor clamped my head in a head vise and then told me to look straight ahead and DO NOT MOVE MY EYE while he came at me with a syringe. Yep, he used the needle of the syringe to pick the sliver out of my eye while I got to watch him. I can still see out of the eye, but it taught a very valuable lesson. Use the safety tools too.

Be careful out there!

[Michael Schwartz]

I hit my thumb with a hammer today. TWICE!



On the bright side I didn't shoot my self with my framing nailer, cut myself with a skillsaw, or break my wrist with my hammer drill, or wreck my van on the way home.

[Dave Lindgren]

Dull blade on the bandsaw, had to force the work through. 3 stiches in the left index finger later I bought a new blade for the bandsaw. 700$ for the ER and 12.95 for the new blade.

[Brad Naylor]

Took the pad of the middle finger of my left hand off on a table saw - guiding stock through too close to the blade. It had healed enough after 5 years to play the guitar again.

Then I took a quarter inch off the same finger on the jointer. I don't play the guitar any more - but I blow a mean harp!

Cheers
Brad

[Rennie Heuer]

You need one more choice in your poll for those who have suffered minor nicks and bruises (see my signature) but have never been injured seriously enough to require anything more than a band aid and have been fortunate enough to not have had any close calls.

Something just less than "I have suffered minor injuries that required stitches or equivalent care".

My own circumstances have led to the point where the LOML always asks to see the blood spot on any finished project!

[Earl Kelly]

OK Guys, I may have the most unusual close call ever. I've been working with furniture since the early 70's and I used to do a lot of repairs and restoration. Well, I had this nice cedar chest that I did some work on, forget exactly what I had to do. But, one thing I did was replace the lock mechanism which sits in an open mortise on the inside of the chest. This was the last thing to do. I had the chest on my saw horses sitting upright with the lid open. While fitting the lock I realised it was slightly different from the original and had interference with the sides of the recess/mortise. It was necessary that it fit flush so the lid would close properly. I found the offending wood and proceeded to take it out using my router set to the proper depth. The router was horizontal to the floor and the bit was towards me. I just needed to trim a little off. Little did I realize that when you lean over with a loose sweatshirt it tends to hang away from your body. Yep, the router jumped up and grabbed my sweatshirt, right at the sternum, and before I could blink, the router was on the floor and the shirt had a hole in it the size of your fist. I just stood there for a while, I must have been ghost white, afraid to feel for bodily damage. Finally I mustered up enough courage to check and was relieved to be uninjured. I still have the sweatshirt as a reminder and have never worn it since.