What's Your Safety Record While Woodworking?

[Brad Tallis]

I have a permament reminder screwed to the inside of my jaw due to not following shop safety...

I was turning an alabaster (stone) bowl on my lathe. I wear an Airmate full-face shield. Anyways, my wife came into the shop to ask me a question. Usually, it's a simple yes/no type question, but this time it wasn't. I hadn't turned off my lathe and the fan in my Airmate mask was still blowing.

Well, I took off my mask so I could hear her better. A few seconds later, I heard a loud bang like a shotgun blast and my face suddenly really hurt.

The bowl had exploded on the lathe and a chunk of it had hit me in the side of my face right between my left eye and ear. It knocked me loopy as I don't remember how I got from my lathe to the other side of my shop. My wife asked if I was ok, and when I went to talk, I could feel my teeth scraping back and forth infront of each other. (ick)

I was rushed to the hospital and they were afraid I would have brain swellng, so I got the mandatory MRI where they found my jaw was broken straight through in my chin (the stone hit me below my ear, but the bone broke in my chin, that's how forcefull it was).

The hospital brought in a neurosergeon who analized me and then refered me to a jaw specialist, who was on vacation. So, they sent me home pumped full of pain killers. I had to sleep that night with a broken jaw and had surgery the next day to install a titanium plate to hold the two sides of my jaw together. Then, I got my jaw wired shut (that was fun... not!)

Anyways, long story short... It would have taken me 1 second to turn off the lathe... Instead, I earned thousands of dollars of medical bills, nerve damage to my face, and my wife had to witness the whole accident ( I think that was the worst part). Yep, one second to turn off the lathe and I could have avoided this. Also, an inch to the right and I probably would have lost an eye...

I still have a chunk of the stone imbedded in the wall as a reminder...

Be safe...

Brad

[Al Willits]

I went with the needed stitches option, never had any, but I've used several band aids, a paper towel and duct tape to finally stop the bleeding after I ran my hand over the jointer while cleaning it, that got two fingers.

I should probably be the Murphy poster boy as if it can happen, it will happen to me...

Only woodworking I ever had was in 9th grade and after a kid ran his hand over the TS blade early on in the year, our power tool usage was greatly curtailed, so didn't learn much about safety and power tools...

So I'm finding out about kick backs, router launches, feeding wood though most anything powered, and all the rest of the good stuff as I go.
Am lucky enough to have had enough experience in other fields to know to keep anything you don't want maimed, away from anything sharp.

With the help of you guys, I've managed to keep everything attached, a bit beat up, but still attached...

Al...nice hobby if it don't kill or maim ya...

[Bill White]

last year. Unpacked and set up my new lathe. Walking down the hill from my shop to the truck with the EMPTY BOX (ok at least 8 lbs. of cardboard).
Tripped, fell, and ended up with a fractured vertebra. Now THAT was fun.
Bill

[Tim Lynch]

Luckily nothing terrible in my shop. When I was in my junior year of college I went down to my father's basement workshop to make a part for some darn thing that was a small piece of sheet metal with a hole drilled in it. Cut the small piece, put it on the drill press, put my finger on it to hold it, and started drilling.

Brilliant, right? They should have revoked most of my college credits right there.

The piece grabbed, spun, and sliced a jagged wound in my index finger.

Even more memorable was this: I laid awake all night trying to elevate my hand and counting the pain/pulsebeats in my finger. The next day was the first day of my first "real" job -- an intern position at an engineering company. Here I am with a huge bandaged finger, trying to fill out forms and type on a keyboard. But the worst was I couldn't stay awake to save my life! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

I'll bet I made a great first impression.

Anyway, it taught me to think a couple moves ahead to what might happen next, and be a little pessimistic about it!

[Brian Penning]

So Brad are you the single vote for the 1st choice of the poll? re: permanent damage.

If not I wonder what it was...

I have a permament reminder screwed to the inside of my jaw due to not following shop safety...

I was turning an alabaster (stone) bowl on my lathe. I wear an Airmate full-face shield. Anyways, my wife came into the shop to ask me a question. Usually, it's a simple yes/no type question, but this time it wasn't. I hadn't turned off my lathe and the fan in my Airmate mask was still blowing.

Well, I took off my mask so I could hear her better. A few seconds later, I heard a loud bang like a shotgun blast and my face suddenly really hurt.

The bowl had exploded on the lathe and a chunk of it had hit me in the side of my face right between my left eye and ear. It knocked me loopy as I don't remember how I got from my lathe to the other side of my shop. My wife asked if I was ok, and when I went to talk, I could feel my teeth scraping back and forth infront of each other. (ick)

I was rushed to the hospital and they were afraid I would have brain swellng, so I got the mandatory MRI where they found my jaw was broken straight through in my chin (the stone hit me below my ear, but the bone broke in my chin, that's how forcefull it was).

The hospital brought in a neurosergeon who analized me and then refered me to a jaw specialist, who was on vacation. So, they sent me home pumped full of pain killers. I had to sleep that night with a broken jaw and had surgery the next day to install a titanium plate to hold the two sides of my jaw together. Then, I got my jaw wired shut (that was fun... not!)

Anyways, long story short... It would have taken me 1 second to turn off the lathe... Instead, I earned thousands of dollars of medical bills, nerve damage to my face, and my wife had to witness the whole accident ( I think that was the worst part). Yep, one second to turn off the lathe and I could have avoided this. Also, an inch to the right and I probably would have lost an eye...

I still have a chunk of the stone imbedded in the wall as a reminder...

Be safe...

Brad

[Brad Tallis]

So Brad are you the single vote for the 1st choice of the poll? re: permanent damage.

If not I wonder what it was...

Brian-

Nope, I voted the one below that, "Injured but with no long lasting effects".

I too was curious what injury was the #1 vote...

Brad

[Benjimin Young]

Radial saw projectile

The first time was about 25 years ago when I was ripping a 2x4 on a Craftsman radial saw from the wrong end and it flew out the other end and logged into a drywall partition. The second time was bout 15 years ago when I was ripping some 12 inch wide plywood (from the proper end this time) and the palls were not set right. The work piece flew straight back at me, hit me square in the chest with enough force to put me flat on the floor with the wind knocked out of me. I rarely rip on my radial saw these days.




When I was in grade 9 metalworking I was hammering a red-hot piece of metal into a cold chisel on an anvil and it left the gripping pliers, flew up end over end in slow motion and hit me square in the eye. Fortunately, I had a face shield on and there was no injury.

[Ernie Hobbs]

One of the more interesting minor woodworking injuries happened to my brother Calvin-
When we were in high school, me and my brothers would play basketball on the dirt court behind Dad's shop. Sometimes, when our Dad (Ben Hobbs) was taking a break from working, he'd come join us for a few minutes and show us how to do it. One day, Calvin was playing defense as Dad was driving to the hoop and and drew back a bloody arm. Dad sometimes puts his chisels in his back pocket when he's carving and had one in his back pocket. When Calvin went to swat at the ball, he caught his arm on that chisel. Since he wasn't really hurt that bad, it was pretty funny and we always had to make sure Dad took out his chisels before playing again. I think Calvin still has a crescent-shaped scar on his forearm.

[Jared Greenberg]

3x3 chunk of ash flew off the lathe and hit me above the right eye (had a shield on) cut me open for 7 stitches.

Went and got sewn up, put on the shirt and tie and went for our fifth anniversary dinner. Blackeye, stitches and all.

She saw the trail of blood from the shop to the house, and thought something happened to one of the dogs! Right then and there I knew where I stood.

[Brian Penning]

Anyone else surprised as I am at the vote ratio?
Over a third with minor injuries. I'm not as bad as I thought

[Howard Hanger]

I haven't ever had a close call but I was speaking with a guy at a wholesale lumber yard who owns a cabinet shop. He was missing part of a finger from a TS accident. Interestingly enough, he thought that the pro's have way more accident than the weekend warriors. They get jaded working around the tools all day and they don't pay as much attention as us amatuers. He wished he had a SS now!

[BOB BUCHANAN]

2, 10, 11

Eyes, Fingers, Toes

No mishaps yet.

[John Russell]

So Brad are you the single vote for the 1st choice of the poll? re: permanent damage.

If not I wonder what it was...

Ok, so I am histronic, but I am the vote. I lost about an inch of my left index finger. About everyday i am reminded of the loss of function --- trying to grip something tight using my fingers, trying to twist on anything does not work because the finger is numb. It is an ongoing and everyday reminder of the accident.

I was cutting rabbets with short pieces. Had cut 10 or so and then something happened so fast i still do not know what actually occurred, but by finger was a mess. A trip to the ER, about 8K in costs later and it took some time to get back to work so I could actually type on a keyboard. I still make mistakes because I cannot feel in the tip of what is left of my left index.

Maybe I should have voted for the category below, but it is a significant enough injury for what I do in life to be an everyday liability.

[Bill Huber]

Ok, so I am histronic, but I am the vote. I lost about an inch of my left index finger. About everyday i am reminded of the loss of function --- trying to grip something tight using my fingers, trying to twist on anything does not work because the finger is numb. It is an ongoing and everyday reminder of the accident.

I was cutting rabbets with short pieces. Had cut 10 or so and then something happened so fast i still do not know what actually occurred, but by finger was a mess. A trip to the ER, about 8K in costs later and it took some time to get back to work so I could actually type on a keyboard. I still make mistakes because I cannot feel in the tip of what is left of my left index.

Maybe I should have voted for the category below, but it is a significant enough injury for what I do in life to be an everyday liability.

John, have you ever thought about having that finger removed?
I know that my sounds bad but I had a lawn mower accident and messed up my right hand really bad but the Dr. did a great job on it and after trying to save the index finger which they couldn't they ask about removing it.
They took the rest of it off and the knuckle as well. I have full use of my hand and there are really no problems with it at all.
I know of 2 people that have had some type of accident that took part of a finger or left a finger with no feeling in it at all. In both cases after seeing my hand and talking to me had the finger removed.

I have worked with people for years that never even knew it was gone.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...70174#poststop

[scott spencer]

I've had a few kickback episodes that got my attention. Usually I was doing something stupid and preventable. The speed and force of the wood coming off the saw always amazes me.

I posted about one of those incidents here about two years ago. I was crosscutting some 2" wide 3/8" plywood strips to length that left about 3" of cutoff on the right side of the blade. I was being lazy and letting the cutoffs collect and stack up a bit. By the time I realized the top piece was dancing it's way toward the back of the blade, I was wearing it faster than I could blink. A 2"x 3" x 3/8" piece hit me square on the upper right arm at a high rate of speed and left a perfect rectangular scratch mark that matched the outline of the peice...that mark later turned to a rectangular bruise. I was lucky it hit me broad side and not with a corner. But wait, there's more...it ricocheted off my arm and flew about 45 degrees off axis and landed in the center of our front yard where my 6 year daughter was playing about 40 feet away (a location I'd consider safe for her) ...it hit her in nearly the same spot on her right arm and left a scratch from one of the corners.

Knock wood...no real injuries to speak of, but more close calls than I'd care for.