The shop will be there tomorrow, make sure you are!

[Ken Peluso]

Let me start by saying that I am posting this in hopes that it can save at least one person from some sort of injury. I am not looking for sympathy (I've received enough of that on Facebook :)) and I fully comprehend how wrong my actions were and how to avoid a situation like this again.

I recently finished my first 'real' project, a dining table for my wife and kids ( http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?172697-Waterlox-amp-walnut.-Keep-going-sand-or-start-over ) and was working on making a dining bench out of a spalted maple slab I scored a few months back. I got the top and legs milled and ready for some hand tool work this past weekend. On monday i realized I forgot to cut the short stretchers that would join each pair of legs.

Here is where bad judgement comes into play. I had just gotten my kids to bed, my wife was out at dinner with a friend, and I was bored with the MNF game and decided to go bang out the work of making the two 3" stretchers. I rough cut the piece of maple on my bandsaw to an acceptable length and decided to "just run it quickly over the jointer". Of course I didnt grab the push blocks that were sitting right there and when the piece hit the blades it literally shattered leaving my left hand to meet the spiral cutterhead. Luckily for me, I heard the wood "pop" and yanked my hands away immediately. Unfortunately, I wasnt quick enough.

Fast forward to today, and I am sitting here learning to do things like type this post with my right hand, im a lefty. In the past 38 hours my wife and I have been at two area hospitals via ambulance, and I had surgery at 2pm yesterday to amputate the ends of my index, middle, and ring fingers down to the first knuckle. Fortunately, the Baltimore area has a renowned hand center and the Chief Surgeon at the center worked on me. He told my wife that Id learn to type again, would have good use from my hand to continue working wood, and would most likely be able to continue playing bass guitar with my band. For those things, and my fantastic wife and support group, I am forever grateful.

I am also grateful to be able to share this story and the lessons I learned with you. I have always read and reread everything possible on tool safety but I got lazy, cocky, and disrespected a tool. For that I paid a price. IMHO a small price considering what could have happened.

Please, if nothing else, like a similar thread her @ SMC said back in September, listen to that voice in your head when it tells you to stop and think about what you are about to do. I know we all have deadlines and our society trains us to get things done asap so we can do more, but for most of us here, this is a hobby and isnt worth life or limb. That piece of wood you need to mill/saw/plane/shape/whatever will be there in 5 minutes or tomorrow when you have the time to work it the safe way.

Please be safe my friends, you are all a great source of inspiration and knowledge. Don't wake up to something like this one day:
209896

Thanks for listening to me ramble,
Ken

[Augusto Orosco]

So sorry to hear of your accident and thank you for the reminder. You seem to have adopted a great attitude in the face of this setback: I am sure not many would be able to take things as constructively as you have. Best of luck and a speedy recovery!

[David Nelson1]

Wow that's tough Ken. I have come close to almost the same accident myself and I 'm glad to hear it wasn't worse. Just one more reason to add a feeder to that tool. Take care and heal up ole man!!!!

[Ken Peluso]

Thanks guys!

found your thread on the feeder. might be worth looking into for my jointer. itll make my wife and daughter feel better about me using the machine again.


Wow that's tough Ken. I have come close to almost the same accident myself and I 'm glad to hear it wasn't worse. Just one more reason to add a feeder to that tool. Take care and heal up ole man!!!!

[Neil Brooks]

I'm a motorcycle rider. Have been for decades. Early on, I resented the inevitable "I knew a guy who died ....." stories.

Soon, though, I realized that I needed to be grateful for them -- for the everyday reminders that they provide to me that .... it really COULD happen to me.

Yours is another story where ... I just cringed, reading it. I'm so sorry for what happened, and so glad that it wasn't worse than it was.

I wish you minimal pain, and a full and speedy recovery. Thanks for the reminder, and ... man, oh man. Yuck.

[Bill Maietta]

Thanks Ken, for sharing the story as a reminder. I hope your recovery goes well.

It could happen to any of us. I was talking to my wife about working when you're really too tired to work just last night. I do it sometimes, and so does she, sometimes out of necessity and sometimes stubbornness. I do see unfortunate accidents like yours as warnings to redouble safety focus, especially when we cannot or will not just stop.

I wonder if the nature of the wood added to the problem. I've only worked with spalted maple a couple of times, but I think it would be more prone to this kind of blowout due to complexity of grain. Again, a reminder to use extra caution.

When you are recovered I'm sure the bench will turn out as beautiful as the table and it will have quite the depth of meaning for you.

Good luck,
Bill

[Rod Sheridan]

Dear Ken, I'm sorry to hear of your injury, and extremely pleased to hear that it wasn't worse.

I hope you heal well, and return to your wood working and music.

Thanks for reminding us to be careful...................Regards, Rod.

[alex grams]

Get better ken. I had a similar scare/experience earlier this year myself with a router table board getting grabbed. I took off about 1/2 of the first knuckle on my left pointer finger (image laying a quarter halfway across the fingernail from the thumb side, that got removed). Could see bone, but luckily it wasn't that severe. I think the worse damage was my wife's stress level.

Get better and thanks for sharing a reminder to all of us to be safer. I know I was pretty peeved about my injury, and looking at a freshly wounded finger seemed to make me think it was going to be a lot worse in the long run than it actually healed up to be.

[Mike Cruz]

Okay, fine, Ken...you won't get sympathy from me. You will get a thank you, though...actually two of them. The first is for the reminder that we all so desperately need from time to time. It never gets old or unwelcome...I've posted mine. The second thank you is for turning my already weak stomach! My lunch had already not agreed with me too well today. With the picture of your hand in my periferal vision, as I was reading, my already uneased stomach churned, I lost a little blood pressure in my head, and I'm sure I went a little pale...all of which I sure you did too at that instant.

Who am I kidding? Of course you have my sympathy. I hope you regain as much mobility in your hand, and recover fully. If the doctors are confident, you should be, too. Best of luck to you. Oh, and my sympathies to your wife, too. This had to be hard on her.

[Bruce Page]

Ken, thank you for this post. I think most of us have done something in the shop that when we look back on it we realize that we just got away with one, I know I have. Sometimes we don’t get away with it. I am really grateful for your great attitude in reminding us that a simple lapse in judgment can result in serious injury.
I wish you a speedy recovery!

[Chris Tsutsui]

Thanks for sharing,

Every story I hear adds to my reality that these machines can change your life in the blink of an eye.

Safety reminders are good, it's just unfortunate that it almost always is bad news that acts as the reminder.

I work for a contractor and I have to review various safety documents and sign them each month, and then there's yearly safety courses. Statistics show that it has helped the company quite a bit and is well worth the expense. Accident's account for huge losses and there should almost be a monthly safety article that SMC members can read and check off... Or something that could prevent these accident posts... Just thinking out loud here.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for sharing a reminder I hope I never get tired of hearing; safety, safety, safety.

[Phil Thien]

Thanks for sharing, Ken. Reminders like these are one of the best aspects of this site.

I wish you a speedy and painless (as possible) recovery.

[Adam Cavaliere]

Ken,

Thank you for this post. I can't imagine how you feel right now. Like the rest of the posts, I have had a few close calls too, but the jointer has never been one of those. I think when everything runs smoothly, you get a little lax about it and figure you can just pass a board over it quickly because you have so many other times without issue. I can tell you that this post will resonate in my head the next time and every time after that I use my jointer. Your story truly has touched me to rethink how I work out there. Thank You.

[Steve Griffin]

Thanks for sharing Ken. I'm going to chat about the jointer tomorrow with my coworker. It's one of the easier tools drop your guard with, as it "seems" safer than others.

Hope you recover as well as possible.

-Steve

[Peter Aeschliman]

Wow, ken. I'm sorry man, that sucks. I'm glad you still have usable digits left.

I hate using my push pads on the jointer. I don't feel like they give me the grip that I want. So I find myself going bare-handed sometimes. This is a great reminder that I need to wise-up.

Btw, I was the guy who had the table saw accident back in September (took a board to the forehead). I sort of feel your pain, though I think between the two of us, I was the lucky one.

Best of luck with your recovery.

[Cyrus Brewster 7]

Hope you feel better soon, Ken. Thanks for the reminder to think twice before rushing to get something done. With 3 small boys and a busy schedule, I can absolutely relate to what lead up to the accident. I have done that quite a few times. You really have me scratching my head because this is something that I could have posted. Yes, the shop will be there in 5 minutes or tomorrow.

Really good news about being able to play the bass. Good luck.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Fast forward to today, and I am sitting here learning to do things like type this post with my right hand, im a lefty.
Despite your request - you do have my sympathy - for @ least the next few weeks...
I'm a righty & mashed my hand up & had it all wrapped up in a bandage for a few weeks years ago..
Getting food in was bad enough - when it came time for it to come out, it was just plain miserable...

Thanks for the heads up on the jointer though. There's been a few times I've been tempted to not use the push blocks.

[Rod Sheridan]

Ken, as an after thought to my initial post, I purchased a new jointer three years ago and it came with the Euro bridge guard.

After using a "pork chop" guard for 30 years it was a revelation to have a guard that didn't leave the cutter exposed during the guard travel time.

Now that I have the bridge guard, I would never go back to the swing away type.

I often hand feed work, using the palm of my hand on the infeed table, and the entire hand on the outfeed table. Using my palms on the infeed table with my fingers raised, if I slip my hand goes over the top of the bridge guard.

It sounds uncomfortable, however after using a Euro guard for a couple of weeks, it feels "normal"............Hope your recovery is going along well........Rod.

[Paul McGaha]

Ken,

I am very sorry that happened to you. Glad it wasnt any worse than it was and hope your recovery goes well.

Thank you for posting this as I'm sure it is a good reminder to others to possibly not make the same mistake.

PHM

[Jim Foster]

My heart goes out to you, I had a similar, but not quite as bad (close) accident several months before I got married many years ago and it was very depressing. I did this to myself doing something, even as a novice I should have thought through. In my case, I'm a lefty (I hurt my left and) and the doctor said I'd probably never close my hand again... boy did I work hard to prove him wrong and I did. Also along the way the doctor told me if I was a good golfer, typist, whatever, I'd be a good golfer, typist afterward if I worked at it, and it proved true, even 20 years later. I wish you good luck in getting your strength and dexterity back in your injured hand, and if it looks swollen and crazy now, remember it will look a lot better sometime in the near future, and if you exercize it right, and as much as allowed, you will get your strength back in a reasonable time. Good luck, I hope things go as well as they can for you. Oh and by the way, very rarely do people even notice the aftermath of my injury, and usually when they do, they are surprised because it's long after they met me.

[Peter Quinn]

Ken, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I wish you a full and speedy recovery. Accidents didn't stop Django Reinhard or Gerry Garcia from making music, and this one wont stop you! Thank you for definitively answering the question "Is the jointer a dangerous tool". Yes, I have actually seen in posts here the suggestion that the jointer is not dangerous, or at least is one of the safest tools in the shop. This should serve as a reminder to all not to pass hands over the cutter head ever, not to process short stock, and never to work rushed. I grew up with a great uncle everyone called "Stubby", and he was not particularly short, just particularly unlucky with the jointer. It was the one tool in my dads shop he warned me not to touch when he was not there, it was the one he always locked out, it was the first one I figured out how to defeat the lock out. I shattered a piece of knotty fir framing I was playing with at around 13 yrs old and nearly put my own hands into the knives. I was lucky it cost me only a pair of shorts. I cringed and nearly fainted when I saw your post having been very close to there once. I believe your attitude and spirit will be our best assets as you heal and recover. Be well.

[Mike Cruz]

Peter, what you just said reminds me of a saying my old boss told me once...it has rung in my ears for years, and will likely never go away: If you cut your fingers off on the table saw, they might be able to sew them back on...but you can't make potatoes out of potato chips. The jointer is NOT one of the safest tools in the shop. There is nothing supporting the workpiece, the blade is spinning up at the wood, and to true up a face of board, you have to "be there". Obviously, you don't need to put your hands over the cutterhead, but you have to flirt with it...even with a push stick. Maybe one day they will figure out how to make a machine that "captures" the wood, feeds it in, and faces a board...kinda like a planer "takes" the wood in. Maybe it is on the market already. But it isn't affordable or marketed for the public. I'm sure commercial businesses have them. Til then, we need to keep potato chips in bowls in front of the TV.

[Kevin Presutti]

Well Ken I can only repeat what many others have said here, I am so sorry to hear of your unfortunate accident. Safety is always paramount when working with these machines. I had a very close call 10 years ago or so with a jointer and was lucky to only get a bruised hand when the board shattered upon feeding it into the knives and kicked back at me. I have been listening to that little voice for many years and thanks to Pete I say it to myself everytime I turn a piece of equipment on for the last couple of months. I wish you a speedy and painless recovery and pray you get that dexterity back to play the guitar.

Kevin

"If you have to ask yourself that question, you already know the answer!" :)

[Gordon Eyre]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, you certainly made me think as I have done that same thing many times before.

[Scott Driemel]

Such a tragedy Ken. If your alright talking about the wood though I'd appreciate it. I've got a bunch of birch and maple purposely lying down (logs) trying to spalt them. Now I've never done this "spalting" process before and certainly never milled spalted logs. I know the logs will be moist still, maybe even a tad soft (hopefully not). My question is I presume the spalted slab you were working on was dry? Was is puncky? I've picked up dry spalted wood (maple) before and it's felt almost like "balsa wood". I remember thinking "whoa, this might be brittle". Can you describe the degree or level of spalting and guesstimate how dry it was? I'm presuming because you say it "shattered" it was dry but so can other wood if it has enough internal stress. If your uncomfortable talking about it I completely understand. Your story has me planning to get a couple of Grr-ippers for Christmas. Thx again for sharing.