How kickback happens ....

[Dan Barber]

I can finally talk about it now...

We have not had time to completely set up the shop since moving to our new house, however I tried to be sure I was following all the proper procedures while I worked on the remolding projects. I did have the overhead blade guard in place - but the splitter was still in a box somewhere.

It happened two weeks ago today, I was ripping some pieces to make some shoe molding for the dinning room. These were very simple pieces about 1/4" x 3/4" with a 45 degree bevel on the top. I was doing a repetitive set of steps, machine the bevel with a hand held router, rip a 1/4" wide piece off the working stock, joint the face and repeat. These were 10 foot long pieces of poplar and all was going well.

Having an extension table off the back of the table I was not too worried about the see-saw effect of the long boards. I should have been more concerned as it turned out. I was ripping a 1/4" strip off a piece of stock about 1-1/4" wide and was nearly to the end of the cut... pushing the stock with another piece of 3/4" thick stock the last few inches and then it happened...

The board reached the point where there was very little weight holding it on the table. The piece tipped up until it was clear of the blade, then the weight of the guard brought it down on top of the spinning blade just outside of the kerf.

Suddenly the board became a javelin 10 feet long and moving at just under the speed of sound. :eek:

It contacted my hand midway between the two large knuckles on the middle finger of my right hand as I was moving my hand out of the way. The result - a finger broken in two spots between the knuckle and once behind the large knuckle along with a very deep laceration between the middle and index finger.

I sit here now typing this with the partial use of both hands and a finger with a metal plate and 8 pins holding it together. The prognosis is good, but there is a period of rehab to undergo before all is useful again. I guess the remodeling will have to wait a while before it's completed

Just now have gotten over my anger at my own stupidity for not taking the time to find the splitter, install it and prevent such an accident.

I thought I would share this incident so it might remind others to be careful while you work.

Cheers and please work safely,

Dan

[Don Abele]

Dan, sorry to hear about your accident, but glad to know that the damage was minimal and repairable. Thank you for the reminder that accidents do happen and not just to the other guy.

Best of luck on your road to recovery. Be well,

Doc

[Jim Becker]

Yea, it happens "oh so quickly"...I'm glad the damage was not worse for you. Further, I can personally appreciate the pain as I had the first kickback in a few years last weekend when I was cutting some miters on small moldings for my clock project. A very small piece of off-cut (only about 2" long) somehow made its way back to the blade after the cut was made and made like a rocket for my left hand that was gripping the miter guage. It caught my thumb and middle finger, very slightly breaking the skin on my finger just under the nail. But where it hit the end of my thumb, it split the flesh under the skin, but not the skin, itself. (Very wierd!). So my thumb-tip has a dark stripe and finally stopped hurting toward the end of the week.

I can only imagine what a 10' piece of lumber could do at the same speed! Burrrrrrrrr! (Makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up...and that's not a pretty sight...)

Heal well!

[John Miliunas]

Dan, not pleasant, I'm sure! Glad to hear it wasn't any worse and really appreciate the sincere (and painful) reminder for the rest of us! I've had a few "small" kickbacks on my old Delta contractor saw, though nothing that serious. When I got my new Bridgewood, I responsibly installed the splitter. Bad news: I really didn't like it, plus it got in the way of the Excalibur overhead blade guard. Off with the splitter! Don't fret. I left the power "off" as well, at least, until I got the Beisy splitter! I felt it important enough that, even though I had to "modify" the Biesy to fit the Bridgewood, I didn't want an incident similar to yours happening, especially with 3hp of motor behind it! Heel quickly, Dan and thanks again for the personal warning! :cool:

[Bob Lasley]

Dan,

Good to hear you will heal. I've had one serious kickback that left me bleeding and bruised, but not seriously injured. There is a splitter in my saw at all times now, unless I'm cutting dados or similar cuts.

Thanks for sharing your experience and get well quickly.

Bob

[Matt Bridges]

Ouch Dan!! I'm glad you're ok and it wasn't more serious. Get well soon and see ya in the Creek.

Matt

[Dale Thompson]

Dan,
I'm sorry about your injury. I hope that you are back at 100% very shortly. I'm not sure that there is a solution to kickback when you are running very thin cuts except to stand aside and wait for it to happen. It seems like the mass of the thicker wood on the outside of the cut draws the "thin" piece into a pinch situation. Just today, I was doing some 1/8" strips on 3/4" Oak. Two out of three of the 1/8" strips shot back but I was ready for it and out of the way - no damage to either the strips (most important) or to me (I don't mind bleeding - that will heal - but I hate blood stains on the wood - that WON'T heal).

Listen to the wood. As in turning, you can tell when there is a problem by simply tuning into the sound. On a table saw, chatter tells you that you may be in trouble. On the lathe, a higher pitch says that your bowl thickness may be getting a bit marginal. How do I know that? Well- I've made all the mistakes there are to make. What I would really like is to do it RIGHT! JUST ONCE!! :o

Dale T.

[Tom Hintz]

Dan,
I am sorry to hear of your accident, but very glad to hear the prognosis is good.
I know exactly how you feel, regarding the cause of the incident. though my kickback left me with only a bruise and a sore side, the cause was almost identical, my getting too complacent with what I was doing.
I did a survey of woodworking injuries a couple of years ago and the results were remarkable in that many of those suffering injuries were experienced woodworkers who almost to a man blamed their own "stupidity" (their word, not mine) as the cause of the accident.
We all need to use your accident as a wake up call and re evaluate what we do in our shops every day.

Since you are more able to read than type at the moment, something I'm sure you will over come soon, I include links to the stories about my kickback and the Safety Survey. At least you can take heart in knowing you are by no means alone in this type of accident.

Get well!

http://www.newwoodworker.com/kickback.html

http://www.newwoodworker.com/safesurvy.html

[Kurt Aebi]

Dan,

Sorry to hear about your accident. I am six weeks into the healing process from contact of my left thumb with a saw blade (stupidity to the extreme). I am 3 weeks into therapy and cannot bend the last joint on my own yet. It will be a slow painful process, but at least we still have our appendages and will be able to use them again.
Don't give up on your remolding entirely, you'd be surprised what a one-handed guy can do with a little thought. I built an oak TV stand last week as wellas helped LOML with her scrollsaw projects.
Good luck with your recovery.

Kurt

[Rusty Hughes, Indy]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the reminder but I am sorry to hear about the accident you had. May your finger return to normal soon.

[Jim Young]

Hope you fingers heal quickly and completely.

Thanks for posting this. These posts are constant reminders to me about how serious our hobby is. After reading these posts I go into full safety alert again. Every time I have been hurt in the shop was due to lax in safety procedures.

[Lee Schierer]

Glad you are getting better, you have to watch those saws, they can bite in more ways than one.

[Ken Salisbury]

Sorry to hear about your accident. I wish you a speedy recovery.

As I remember your right hand is also you beer drinking hand but that shouldn't take long to remedy :). However, poor Joy ! -- now she has to undertake the restoration work while you sit, drink beer and give directions :D.

[Dan Bussiere]

Sorry to hear about your accident. We will never get too many reminders about safety so thanks for sharing your incident with us. Wish we could have heard that it was only a close call instead.
Dan

[Dale Thompson]

There is a reasonable probability that some of us SMC folks have a drink or two once in a while. What's the concensus on mixing alcohol and power tools? I've always had a personal, inviolable rule. If I have so much as one beer, the only things that go on in my shop are the lights and the shop vac.
I violated that a few months back. It will not happen again!

Scenario: What's the harm of emptying the dust collector with a single manhattan under my belt? Nothing - right? It's just a 1 1/2 HP Penn State collector but works very well. My shop is rather small so I disconnect the duct input to the blower when I remove the bag. I also have a tiny leak at the lower bag seal so I use a band clamp to seal it up. Putting the band on is a pain in the neck so when I replaced the bag I thought that I would start it up to see if the original metal band had sealed the leak. Immediately, the blower started to suck up the cloth band clamp which I had placed on the floor. My first reaction was to grab the band and the clamp but, thank God, I released it immediately. My hand was 10" from the impellor. I would NOT be typing this if I had been stupid enough to have TWO Manhattans when I violated my own rule. Since then, I have kind of gotten to the point where the only things that go on in my shop when alcohol is involved are the lights. I'm even reevaluating that.

Don't be STUPID!! Stay SAFE!! :)

Dale T.

[Bill Roland]

Dan,
Sorry about your accident. Hope you heal fast. If I can do anything to help give me a shout.

Bill Roland
MT Juliet, TN