My jointer injury

[Jason White]

Hi, everybody. Here's a video I just made that explains how I lost part of a finger on my jointer what I'm doing to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future. I hope it can help somebody else.

https://youtu.be/xGbyT11sNnY

Stay safe out there!

Jason White

[George Yetka]

Ouch.

Looks like a good recovery though. Stay vigilante

[Jason White]

Yes, indeed. I got very lucky. Still quite a bit of healing left to do.


Ouch.

Looks like a good recovery though. Stay vigilante

[Erik Loza]

My dad was an industrial arts/woodshop teacher for many years and described almost the EXACT same injury to one of his students. Glad it wasn't worse and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Erik

[Christopher Wellington]

Thanks for sharing. I especially appreciate your to-the-point presentation and focus on explaining what (you think) happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again. Stories about shop injuries sometimes focus on gruesome pictures and (understandably) the emotional toll. I don't find that helpful as it just leaves me shaken and not wanting to spend time in the shop rather than teaching a valuable lesson or two.

Dragging right-hand fingers across the cutter head while edge jointing seems like an easy mistake to make. The position of that hand is not a natural thing to be aware of, the guard doesn't help, and the injury happens at the end of the cut right when you may think you're in the clear.

[Jason White]

Thanks, Erik!


My dad was an industrial arts/woodshop teacher for many years and described almost the EXACT same injury to one of his students. Glad it wasn't worse and best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Erik

[Jacques Gagnon]

Jason:

Thanks for sharing and taking the time to produce the video. It is so easy to "drop our guard" when working with familiar machines - your efforts at raising awareness will help viewers to remain focused on the task and, hopefully, avoid injuries.

I wish you well in the next few weeks towards full recovery.

Regards,

Jacques

[Richard Hart]

You are very fortunate for sure... glad you didn't lose fingers!

I know for myself when doing anything with power tools, I won't use them if I'm tired, crabby, overhungry or preoccupied. Especially overhungry when blood sugar takes a nosedive. Get interrupted? I shut off whatever I'm using at the time. (drill, circular, whatever) I read and watch videos like this so I learn what not to do. I guess the older I get, the more careful I get.

First project for me is gonna be a push stick.

Rich

[Nick Sorenson]

It only takes a second and could happen to any of us!

One thing a pro woodworker taught me for table saws, but also applies here... hook as many fingers over the fence as possible and just push with a thumb (far from the blade). That way if you slip, you're still anchored to something that isn't moving. I like his idea.

[Warren Lake]

Two people I know have lost fingers on the jointer. One I never understood how the other made sense. Ive said and others a few times that pork chops in some positions do nothing, that is how one friend had the accident and was distracted by some other difficult stuff that happened that day plus not proper support as well for what as going over the machine.

What I see looking is you stand very far back and then stretch out. Unless that is just for the camera I dont see that as comfortable. Id have to tape myself as I dont really know but im pretty sure id be more forward and a bit sideways to the fence.

Im no fan of gizmos. If you work in a shop and have them then end up working somewhere else and dont have gizmos then what? Hope you heal well and thanks for posting to help others.

[Rod Sheridan]

Jason, sorry to hear of your injury, glad to hear that you were fortunate and have healed well.

I just had a saw accident and was lucky also…..Regards, Rod

[Jason White]

I'm standing where I am so you can see what I'm talking about on camera. I don't normally stand this way. I also agree that gizmos are no replacement for good safety practices. This just seems like a good solution for me; it's probably not the right one for everybody.



Two people I know have lost fingers on the jointer. One I never understood how the other made sense. Ive said and others a few times that pork chops in some positions do nothing, that is how one friend had the accident and was distracted by some other difficult stuff that happened that day plus not proper support as well for what as going over the machine.

What I see looking is you stand very far back and then stretch out. Unless that is just for the camera I dont see that as comfortable. Id have to tape myself as I dont really know but im pretty sure id be more forward and a bit sideways to the fence.

Im no fan of gizmos. If you work in a shop and have them then end up working somewhere else and dont have gizmos then what? Hope you heal well and thanks for posting to help others.

[Jason White]

Here's another interesting doohickey I might try at some point. Popular Woodworking has a measured drawing for it on their website. Just do a search for "jointer featherboards". 462883




Hi, everybody. Here's a video I just made that explains how I lost part of a finger on my jointer what I'm doing to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future. I hope it can help somebody else.

https://youtu.be/xGbyT11sNnY

Stay safe out there!

Jason White

[Alan Lightstone]

My technique is very similar to what Jason suggests. Been doing it for years, although with two Magswitch Dual Roller Guide Attachments. When I brought it up on a thread here, people were criticizing it. Bad advice from them, as it's a safe, effective way of producing good results and keeping your fingers out of harms way.

Thanks for sharing the video, Jason. Sorry to hear of your injury.

Your MagSwitch featherboards will exert more pressure than the Dual Roller Guides, at the expense of a little more friction. Might be a better approach. Not sure if it matters. Both are good techniques in my book.

[Jason White]

Hi, Alan. Do you find the dual roller guides keep the stock tight enough to the fence? I'd be willing to experiment with those a little, too, if they're easier to use.

JW


My technique is very similar to what Jason suggests. Been doing it for years, although with two Magswitch Dual Roller Guide Attachments. When I brought it up on a thread here, people were criticizing it. Bad advice from them, as it's a safe, effective way of producing good results and keeping your fingers out of harms way.

Thanks for sharing the video, Jason. Sorry to hear of your injury.

Your MagSwitch featherboards will exert more pressure than the Dual Roller Guides, at the expense of a little more friction. Might be a better approach. Not sure if it matters. Both are good techniques in my book.

[Alan Lightstone]

Hi, Alan. Do you find the dual roller guides keep the stock tight enough to the fence? I'd be willing to experiment with those a little, too, if they're easier to use.

JW

They do keep the wood tight, but they also occasionally move a little outward. A little stronger magnets on the base would be helpful. The featherboard approach would accomodate differences in depth better (if you are doing a batch of boards and they are slightly different in depth.

This approach is very easy to use.

[Stephen White]

Hey thanks for the video. It was a reinforcement to me to always look at every tool for how to stay safe and particularly those with a blade. They cut through body parts so much more efficient than wood :)

I can see though how you got casual with that back hand because this tool seems so much less dangerous than some of the others with blades, glad to see you have healed up and still enjoy woodworking.

[Curt Harms]

................................
First project for me is gonna be a push stick.

Rich

I have push shoes rather than push sticks. I feel like I have much better control over what I'm pushing versus the typical 'push sticks' and my body parts are still well clear of any cutters. I especially like the push shoe when face jointing. I can exert more forward pressure with light down pressure. My Jet JJP-12 uses a Euro style guard so I just leave a small gap - less than 1"- in the guard next to the fence. The shoe is made from 1/2" ply so plenty of room for the push shoe to pass between the guard and fence.

[Mikail Khan]

Thanks for sharing.

Hope u make a full recovery.

MK

[Ryan Yeaglin]

A heeled push block works well both for face jointing and edge jointing as it has a positive stop against the work. My friends dad had a jointer accident a few years ago and also has some shorter fingers from it ( he was attempting to joint something under 12" long).

[Warren Lake]

Id have no interest in push block for edge jointing, you have no feel and less control of the material. you are working two directions, to the fence and your balance over infeed and outfeed.

Jointed enough face stuff shorter than 12" and its a push block and technique being sure where your pressure is focused. gap between infeed and outfeed is different on different machines. My SCM has less of a gap than say the General smaller machine. Less gap is a good thing.

[Ronald Blue]

Thank you for sharing. This drives home the reality that ANY machine that works wood can do serious bodily harm in the blink of an eye. Table saws only get the majority of the attention because they are probably the most common stationary tool. But I know of more that one person who had a circular saw accident as well. I hope you are back to normal soon. I've always been cautious in using the jointer but this only shows that merely one minor change in technique for whatever reason and suddenly you are injured. It's easy to go on autopilot and become complacent.

[Alan Lightstone]

Actually, in my experience when living in the Midwest, farm equipment caused the vast majority of the accidents. And they weren't pretty. Being a city boy, I had never heard of things like a bush hog, or a combiner, or getting stuck in a grain bin. Who knew city life was safer? Sorta...

Basically, anything we can do to improve the safety in our shop is a wonderful thing. Respirators, push sticks, guards and riving knives actually being used, stopping for the day when tired, sliders or SawStops, etc...

[Ronald Blue]

Actually, in my experience when living in the Midwest, farm equipment caused the vast majority of the accidents. And they weren't pretty. Being a city boy, I had never heard of things like a bush hog, or a combiner, or getting stuck in a grain bin. Who knew city life was safer? Sorta...

Basically, anything we can do to improve the safety in our shop is a wonderful thing. Respirators, push sticks, guards and riving knives actually being used, stopping for the day when tired, sliders or SawStops, etc...

Unfortunately grain bin accidents still happen to often still. So easy for one to become entrapped in a sea of grain. As much as it's publicized these days people still make the sometimes fatal mistake of entering a bin with no safety harness or way to stay safe. The other danger is also a common farm item which is the gravity flow wagon. Children have died in them as well while they were being unloaded. As the grain feeds towards the open gate/door they are pulled under. Once a harvest season is to many. They have developed a rescue tool for grain bin entrapment. It's a steel tube they slide down around the victim and it has an auger that they power with a cordless drill that begins removing the grain from inside. Once enough is removed they can then pull them free. That's all dependent on help being summoned immediately.

[Warren Lake]

several accidents over the years on the farm two homes away from me 150 acres same family forever. Now destined to become 156 homes on one part. I moved to green acres and slowly a village is becoming a city. One brother save the others life with the grain bin, father fell off one, father got pined by his skid steer arm. leaking hydraulic arm crushed and stuck, helicopter landed and took him away to top place and whatever I dont remember.

Sometimes there is just no room for errors on different machines.

[Jason White]

That's the perfect way to describe it! I was on complete autopilot. Stupid move on my part.



Thank you for sharing. This drives home the reality that ANY machine that works wood can do serious bodily harm in the blink of an eye. Table saws only get the majority of the attention because they are probably the most common stationary tool. But I know of more that one person who had a circular saw accident as well. I hope you are back to normal soon. I've always been cautious in using the jointer but this only shows that merely one minor change in technique for whatever reason and suddenly you are injured. It's easy to go on autopilot and become complacent.

[Jason White]

I find push blocks much too clumsy (and possibly dangerous) for edge jointing. I'm worried the blocks could slip off the material and straight down into the cutterhead, along with my hands.


Id have no interest in push block for edge jointing, you have no feel and less control of the material. you are working two directions, to the fence and your balance over infeed and outfeed.

Jointed enough face stuff shorter than 12" and its a push block and technique being sure where your pressure is focused. gap between infeed and outfeed is different on different machines. My SCM has less of a gap than say the General smaller machine. Less gap is a good thing.

[johnny means]

Great video. I notice you said several times that, " It happened so fast." I suspect that was part of the problem. One thing I do is run through a mental checklist on each and every cut. Whether I'm doing two cuts or two hundred, every single pass through a cutter get's a running approval process. "Left hand, right hand, blade, fingers clear, thumb in, cut, cleared blade, watch blade, remove offcut." I'm a daydreamer and clumsier than most so I feel like I have to force myself to avoid autopilot.

[Richard Hart]

This is the one that I was looking at making: https://jayscustomcreations.com/2014/03/the-best-push-stick-ever-invented/ So it's not really a "stick".

[Steve Ellison]

I jointed the fingerprints off my index, middle, and ring fingers years ago. Thought I could get away with jointing too short of a board and it kicked back and fingers kept going. MY FAULT ENTIRELY! Super careful since then.

[Warren Lake]

This would be a good opportunity to switch to a life of crime, they would never identify you and for sure it pays better, plus you dont have income tax. A super talented guy I know lost three digits on the jointer. Social finger then one next and then pinky next. He told me when he plays the piano he plays minor chords. Over the many years his works is outstanding and it never slowed him down. I was more upset about it. Still saddens me.

Somewhere ive seen one of those offshore you tubes where a guy was running a piece likely 4 x 4 over the jointer and think even fingers hooked onto the sides. It should not even be on you tube in case someone who doesnt know they dont know sees it and thinks its okay. Im not MR safety but but no chance id do a small piece like that. No one ever taught us dont do that or even how short is safe, just know not to do that. I dont know the shortest ive done I dont remember but short but with the push gizmo. Why would someone do such a really short piece anyway you cant run that through the planer unless you make a jig to hold it. Lots of better ways to do stuff to that suface.

Weirdest one was an old Englishman, super nice worked into his 80s but only six hours a day then he could get the pub earlier. He told me he cut two fingers off on the stroke sander. He hit the side of the belt hard by accident when it was running. They put them on, they were twisted a bit and think he said he didnt have feeling but they were still there.