Bill Grumbine
10-17-2004, 7:50 PM
Good evening everyone
Thank you all who responded to my post with empathy, sympathy, and encouragement. My hand is much better than either I or the doctor expected. He said four or five days or even a week before the swelling would start to go down, but it is about 80% better already! I took some time to take a few pictures this afternoon in the shop to reconstruct the accident and see what I could do better or differently in the future. Do not worry, there is no blood or gore coming!
<img src="http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/drillpressaccident01.jpg">
Here is the thing that did the deed. I was drilling these pieces to become the feet of a footstool of my own design. You can see that I have a very nice drill press table, and it even has clamps. I have drilled pieces for years, sometimes clamped, sometimes not. I would never have thought of having to clamp this particular one down. Glenn, do you notice the table? It has some really nice clamps that came with it. :o
<img src="http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/drillpressaccident03.jpg">
Here is a closeup of the hole. You can see where the flutes of the bit grabbed the wood. Ordinarily this bit drills very clean holes. I think that something cause the wood to move. Perhaps as has been suggested, the bit was raised a bit too quickly. That is entirely possible, since I am not known for patience. I do respect my machines though, and almost always wait until things have spun down, stopped, or are otherwise safe to approach. Maybe I was distracted by something. That would come as no surprise, as I have a lot on my mind right now.
<img src="http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/drillpressaccident04.jpg">
Here is my bandaged paw in the drilling position. What must have happened given the shape and location of the cuts on the back of my hand is that as the piece raised up above the fence, the part on the lower right rotated around and hit the back of my hand - several times in the fraction of a second it took to pull away.
I do have clamps for this thing, but have never really used them except for odd shaped pieces or when there is no fence to hold things in place. I tried the clamp in two different places. On the left, under my hand, the clamp would have done nothing - well, maybe a little, but the piece slid out from under very easily. On the right, the clamp worked a lot better. I could not move the piece in any direction without tugging the entire drill press off its foundation.
Lesson learned - even a mundane task can cause an injury. I am fond of telling people the machine will always win, and I forgot it in this case. I also tell people that the few seconds lost in having to wait for a blade to spin down is less time spent that a trip to the emergency room. That apparently holds true for clamping boards to the drill press. So, I will learn to use my clamps more often.
<img src="http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/drillpressaccident05.jpg">
Here is what I am building. I had an order for one, so I decided to build five. I now have two sold before they are even done, and I may be able to salvage the foot that got chewed up a bit. If not, I will put the parts aside and make a new one when the Mini Max arrives.
Thanks again for all your comments, and I hope these pictures help someone besides me out.
Bill
Thank you all who responded to my post with empathy, sympathy, and encouragement. My hand is much better than either I or the doctor expected. He said four or five days or even a week before the swelling would start to go down, but it is about 80% better already! I took some time to take a few pictures this afternoon in the shop to reconstruct the accident and see what I could do better or differently in the future. Do not worry, there is no blood or gore coming!
<img src="http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/drillpressaccident01.jpg">
Here is the thing that did the deed. I was drilling these pieces to become the feet of a footstool of my own design. You can see that I have a very nice drill press table, and it even has clamps. I have drilled pieces for years, sometimes clamped, sometimes not. I would never have thought of having to clamp this particular one down. Glenn, do you notice the table? It has some really nice clamps that came with it. :o
<img src="http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/drillpressaccident03.jpg">
Here is a closeup of the hole. You can see where the flutes of the bit grabbed the wood. Ordinarily this bit drills very clean holes. I think that something cause the wood to move. Perhaps as has been suggested, the bit was raised a bit too quickly. That is entirely possible, since I am not known for patience. I do respect my machines though, and almost always wait until things have spun down, stopped, or are otherwise safe to approach. Maybe I was distracted by something. That would come as no surprise, as I have a lot on my mind right now.
<img src="http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/drillpressaccident04.jpg">
Here is my bandaged paw in the drilling position. What must have happened given the shape and location of the cuts on the back of my hand is that as the piece raised up above the fence, the part on the lower right rotated around and hit the back of my hand - several times in the fraction of a second it took to pull away.
I do have clamps for this thing, but have never really used them except for odd shaped pieces or when there is no fence to hold things in place. I tried the clamp in two different places. On the left, under my hand, the clamp would have done nothing - well, maybe a little, but the piece slid out from under very easily. On the right, the clamp worked a lot better. I could not move the piece in any direction without tugging the entire drill press off its foundation.
Lesson learned - even a mundane task can cause an injury. I am fond of telling people the machine will always win, and I forgot it in this case. I also tell people that the few seconds lost in having to wait for a blade to spin down is less time spent that a trip to the emergency room. That apparently holds true for clamping boards to the drill press. So, I will learn to use my clamps more often.
<img src="http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/drillpressaccident05.jpg">
Here is what I am building. I had an order for one, so I decided to build five. I now have two sold before they are even done, and I may be able to salvage the foot that got chewed up a bit. If not, I will put the parts aside and make a new one when the Mini Max arrives.
Thanks again for all your comments, and I hope these pictures help someone besides me out.
Bill