Reminder to be safe!

[alex grams]

Summer coming on strong, shop time was in full swing for me, until I had a board get grabbed in my router table which pulled my far (left hand) back into the bit. I can post pics if you guys are curious, but figured i wouldn't do so right off the bat.

I was making some chair legs with a master template mounted to a the leg being cut. I did a majority of wood removal on the bandsaw and had about 1/16"/3/16" of material to route off. I guess i let the piece get loose, and was coming up on some grain change, but either way it grabbed and now I am missing a chunk of my left hand index finger (imagine taking a coin (quarter) and laying it halfway across your index fingernail from the thumb side, and that is gone.) No bone damage, no nerve or tendon damage, so I am lucky in that regard. It is a method of shaping pieces from a template I had used dozens of times before, but from now on on similar pieces, I will use a hand held router with the piece clamped down, so if there is kickback then the tool is secured in two hands. A nasty accident, but it could have been much worse.

A reminder to be safe and always think twice! I am out of commission for 3-4 weeks and having a dang hard time typing, so forgive any errors in my post.

[John TenEyck]

Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you heal up real soon. As someone who also lost a little bit of their left index finger - to a bisquit joiner - I can say with some confidence that I feel your pain. Happened in the blink of an eye. No bone damage in my case either, but the fingernail never completely filled out afterwards and the finger always has a tingly sensation whenever I touch something, which serves as a constant reminder about the importance of doing things safely. Hope yours heals better and that you're back out in the shop real soon.

[Tom Ewell]

Sorry to hear that.

Out of curiosity, could you describe your setup?
Most "ugly" grabs I've heard of had the bearing on the bottom of the bit(relative to the table), ie. the pattern was on the table with cutters "up", so any slip up would mean full exposure to the cutter whereas a top bearing might tend to save a little flesh.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Most "ugly" grabs I've heard of had the bearing on the bottom of the bit(relative to the table), ie. the pattern was on the table with cutters "up", so any slip up would mean full exposure to the cutter whereas a top bearing might tend to save a little flesh.

Interesting.... had never given that any thought. I had a pretty serious grab with the template on the top. Serious damage to the piece, but none to me (or the push stick type things that I was using to guide everything.

You make a good point. I too am now curious.

[John Coloccia]

I had the same thing happen to me a couple of days ago, Alex. I have a little mental checklist I go through before I start a cut. It includes doing a "dry run" and pretending that something grabs or kicks, so I usually have a strategy for where/how to hold the piece to keep me out of trouble. In this case, the planning worked and I was able to avoid injury. It ruined the piece, damaged the template and definitely woke me up.

I was using a 1/2" spiral bit with a top bearing. As I started the cut, I'm sure I just accidentally made a slight climb cut, and it was all over. On the next several bodies I was cutting out, I simply cut right to the line with my bandsaw, smoothed out the blade marks with a rasp, and scraped the rasp marks clean. I was done in about 10 minutes, about the same amount of time I spend doing it with the template because I always have to do a little touchup work off the router table anyhow. I may just end up retiring it in favor of just working to a line like the old timers did it.

[alex grams]

Tom, you are correct on my setup, the bearing was on the bottom of the bit and the master was on the underside of the piece. It is a precarious setup in hindsight with a fully exposed bit sticking out of the table. Would probably be much safer to clamp the piece down and have the master on top of it with a router held by both hands moved around the piece.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Sorry it happened, but so thankful it was not worse.

[mreza Salav]

sorry to hear about your accident and thanks for posting it. It certainly should be a reminder to all of us.
I've always used hand-held router for pattern routing (never had to do a piece that was too small to do it hand held).
Although it still has it's dangers I somehow feel more comfortable doing it this way (with both hands on the router and the pieces clamped to the table).

[Rod Sheridan]

Alex, glad to hear that you weren't more seriously injured and hope the healing process goes well for you.

I'll admit to not using a router, I use a shaper. I have a question for you, were you using any sort of cutter guard when the injury occured?

When template shaping, I use a smaller guard on the shaper that covers a lot of the cutter, the thought of a router bit sticking up with no protection makes me shudder, as I can imagine how easy it would be be to accidently contact it.

A starting pin is also a useful item for starting the cut when using a template, it prevents a lot of kick backs.

Hope you're better soon, regards, Rod.

[alex grams]

Starter/pivot pin: yes

If it is a simple pattern I like to back the bit up against a fence as much as possible to cover the bit from one side, but this pattern required a lot more movement of the piece, so I did not have the fence nearby to block off the approach to the bit from one side.

[glenn bradley]

Alex, I am so glad that wasn't worse. The difference that a fraction of an inch can make is frightening in those situations. Heal fast.

Say hello to my little freind:

[Simon Dupay]

It sounds like you made a climb cut to me, I sometimes will put an arrow telling me which way to feed the piece into the bit.

[alex grams]

Not a climb cut Simon. Was normal cutting direction. The bit just dug in on a harder/grain change and kicked the piece back towards me along with my hand on the far side coming back into the bit. :(

[Ron Kellison]

A good friend was making a rip cut last week and had his left hand pulled back into the blade. His index finger is now fused, he has two broken fingers (and deep cuts on those fingers) and a pinky finger with damage on the tip. He'll be bandaged for several weeks and then faces several months of rehab. One of those "blink of an eye" moments some of us have already experienced! Folks, this is just to reinforce the message Alex is sending...Be careful out there!

Regards,

Ron

[Neil Brooks]

Yikes.

Heal quickly !!!

As a long-time motorcycle rider/driver, with no accidents, I have this rather annoying habit of constantly anticipating the worst thing that could happen, and trying to plan for it.

So far, it's been of immeasurable benefit in my woodworking, too, but I'm NOT one of those who thinks that ... it could never happen to me.

So ... thanks for the reminder.

[scott vroom]

My saw gave me a similar reminder last night: The riving knife came loose and I was in a hurry to finish up a job so rather than take the time to tighten it up I removed it like an idiot. Sure enough, about 3 cuts later the wood past the blade got sideways and kicked back, slamming the board into a wall cabinet and seriously denting the corner of the hard maple. I was standing well off to the side so it missed me.....but it scared the crap outta me.

Hope you heal quickly!