Stupid Shop Injuries

[Ryan Myers]

I've never been hurt from the big equipment, though I have had my fair share of close calls. I do have the utmost respect for any tool with a motor as one should.

I let my guard down on the smaller things. Earlier today I caught my arm on the corner of board sitting on top of the tablesaw and cut my arm about 4" long. It is not life threatening but stings pretty good. Then 2 hours later, I am applying edgebanding with an iron and I swung my other arm into it and got burnt to the point the skin is very close to blistering.

Not a big deal. I just wanted to rant about how it's the stupid things that injur you sometimes.

[Jim Becker]

Beware the evil too-long clamps...they prey on unsuspecting forheads everwhere... ;)

[Jeff Heil]

And groins when a glue up is sitting on the assebly table and you aren't paying attention as you walk by.

[Jody Malinich]

I had just recently gotten a new bandsaw a few years ago when I nicked my thumb. I got it all cleaned up and put a band-aid on. I then went back to work on the same piece and proceeded to cut the band-aid. Didn't get the thumb again but I quit for the day.

[glenn bradley]

I have some small shop towels who's only purpose in life is to hang on the end of clamps like a little flag warning me off from chance encounters. So far, so good.

[Gary Herrmann]

Beware the evil too-long clamps...they prey on unsuspecting forheads everwhere... ;)

Aw man, did you have to mention that one? My wife was helping me clamp up a bookcase once. I was clamping up the bottom and when I stood up I hit a clamp she had just applied to the top so hard, that I almost knocked the bookcase over on top of her.

Left a ridge right down the middle of my skull.

First she freaked because the bookcase was tilting towards her, then she realized I had whacked my head and winced then she tried real hard not to giggle. Meanwhile I'm staggering around the basement bumping into other things - definitely didn't help the whole giggling thing.

We finished the glue up and then I retired to the family room with a large bag of ice.

[Craig D Peltier]

Maybe two weeks was feeding a 16" poplar board into router the wrong direction:confused: , got yanked from my hands, plowed into my 06 cherokee and put a 1.5 inch crease in door panel... I was over it at first then it sunk in two hours later.I was mad then.Oh well have to get the other ding removed anyways from car door or just leave it.

Once in High School saw a kid put togetehr a dado set without an arbor insert to fit correctly.It got momentum and wobbled irregulary so hard it caught on kickback guard which snapped the cast iron an proceeded to hit pipe above us and cracked it and carbide teeth were all over the shop.Thats was fun.:D

[Tim Martin]

turning a bandsaw wheel by hand to check the tracking of a new blade. Not looking where my fingers where and trapping my thumb between the blade and the rubber wheel.......and then ripping out my thumb as the natural reaction. Split the nail down the middle with plenty of claret flowing.:(

[Gary McKown]

Sometimes things materialize where there is normally a free zone, too. Was setting up the DP to drill into the ends of a 6" long block. Set block on DP table, reach under table as usual to adjust height, paying strict attention to the bit clearance. Result: major altercation between lip and edge of the block.

[Mike Langford]

I have a PC 690 router that does double duty as a hand-held and in a table. I have the "old" style 690 with the toggle on/off switch that means that when it's in the table you turn the toggle to "ON" and then plug the router into the table's on/off switch....No problem,works fine until you remove the motor for hand-held use and you forget that the toggle is still turned ON :eek:

I was making my wife a sewing table (4'x4') and had the table top set on some sawhorses and was going to round-over the edges. I placed the 690 motor into the hand-held base and flipped it up-side down on the sewing table and installed the 3/8" round-over bit....THEN....I reached for the extension chord and plugged the router in!
Whirllllllzipppppppp!!!!! the router came to life and like a startled duffas I instinctively reached and grabbed for the router to steady it!:eek: (spinning cutter and all!) BUT just as fast as I reached for it I snapped back my hand only to just slightly "feel" the spinning bearing.
What was even more stupid than grabbing at the router was the fact that I threw down the router's plug-in that I had in my hands...I should have simply "unplugged"it!

Later on, after what could have happened sunk in, I was thinking back to when my hand quickly pulled away from that spinning bit, I seem to remember feeling that I had someone special helping to pull my hand back!:) (It shore wasn't MY QUICK WIT)

[Bill Eshelman]

I just yesterday tried using a 3.5 inch raised panel bit for the first time. I had it up a bit too high on the second pass and it kicked my hand back directly into the metal edge of my table saws iron top. Bruised two fingers to the bone. I went to a friends shop tonight for a saftey lesson on router techniques. I was successful raising a panel tonight when I got home (Thanks Lou!). Still one scary bit though. Kicks like a mule, and bites even harder.

[Dan Gill]

Several stitches from a table-mounted router. I had been using a push block, but for some reason on this piece I put my hand on top of it. And it was a fairly small piece. The bit caught and threw the piece out from under my hand, which of course fell on the spinning bit. Doh!

This was early in my woodworking career, and is the main reason my daughter suggested I paint my shop cabinets red.

[Kevin Scott]

Last night I was cutting some double-stick tape so that I could adhere some small pieces to my workbench. The scissors were gummed up and wouldn't cut all the way through the tape. So I tried to rip the tape while I still had the scissor in my hand and ended up slicing my thumb pretty good.

I am just glad that all of my shop injuries thusfar have been pretty minor!

[Craig D Peltier]

I know what you mean about that, I plugged mine in once but was laying on side and immediately unplugged it.
I have a PC 690 router that does double duty as a hand-held and in a table. I have the "old" style 690 with the toggle on/off switch that means that when it's in the table you turn the toggle to "ON" and then plug the router into the table's on/off switch....No problem,works fine until you remove the motor for hand-held use and you forget that the toggle is still turned ON :eek:

I was making my wife a sewing table (4'x4') and had the table top set on some sawhorses and was going to round-over the edges. I placed the 690 motor into the hand-held base and flipped it up-side down on the sewing table and installed the 3/8" round-over bit....THEN....I reached for the extension chord and plugged the router in!
Whirllllllzipppppppp!!!!! the router came to life and like a startled duffas I instinctively reached and grabbed for the router to steady it!:eek: (spinning cutter and all!) BUT just as fast as I reached for it I snapped back my hand only to just slightly "feel" the spinning bearing.
What was even more stupid than grabbing at the router was the fact that I threw down the router's plug-in that I had in my hands...I should have simply "unplugged"it!

Later on, after what could have happened sunk in, I was thinking back to when my hand quickly pulled away from that spinning bit, I seem to remember feeling that I had someone special helping to pull my hand back!:) (It shore wasn't MY QUICK WIT)

[Ted Miller]

Using a slotted screwdriver to change the 220 plug on my TS and the screwdriver slipped and the blade cut into the middle of my left hand.

Cut a piece of 4" hose for some DC. A small pice of wire was showing and in the process of tighting down the hose clamp I scraped my palm just under my left thumb on that wire. Nice deep cut about 1/2" long.

Its incredible been using power tools my whole life and never even a scratch, but get me around some harmless, well harmless looking non power tool then breakout the first aid kit. My wife calls me "the walking wound". I still do not know what a chisel looks like, I am very afraid of those, very afraid, lol...

[Ted Miller]

This was early in my woodworking career, and is the main reason my daughter suggested I paint my shop cabinets red.

LOLOL, I just splilled my drink all over the keyboard on that one, lol...

[Bob Childress]

Yeah, it's always the little things that get me (so far :eek: ). Just twenty minutes ago I was grinding some high spots on new-cut procelain tile with a masonry wheel on the angle grinder. In spite of the fact that the wheel is clearly labelled masonry, I can tell you that it will also grind knuckles that get too close to the wheel. :mad: :o

[jeremy levine]

"vice grip" brand (really Irwin tools). enough said.

[Dan Gill]

LOLOL, I just splilled my drink all over the keyboard on that one, lol...

Sorry about your keyboard, Ted. Yep, that's my daughter. Three parts compassion and one part cynicism. (Must be from her mother's side--after all, it couldn't be from me.;) )

[Glen Blanchard]

I had a biscuit joiner bite me once. A BISCUIT JOINER!!!! Man, you've got to work pretty hard (or do something pretty dumb) to get one of THOSE things to hurt you.

[Al Willits]

High school welding shop, I was helping a guy make a large box to hold live fish in, was using 5/8" steel rod for the frame, he had just got done brazing one corner and started on another when the box started to slide off the welding table...I reached up and grabbed it, no gloves of course...yup right where he had just got done brazing...seen smoke on that one.
Man that hurt for a long time...

Al......who welds with gloves ever since.

[Greg Cole]

If you haven't let out a little red stuff with a chisel in some point in your life... you either haven't used chisels or you don't sharpen them... or you didn't play with Dad's when you were a kid... DAMHIKT.:D
If you drop a plane iron after sharpening and have the brain fart to react naturally and catch it, there is a good chance of leakage afterwards.... CA glue is in the shop but not for the tools or the wood.

Greg

[glenn bradley]

Surely someone besides me has performed the infamous 'drag racing' belt sander show from plugging in a sander with the switch locked on(?).

[Ted Miller]

Glenn, I'll tell you that sander combo is gonna kill me one day. It never fails that there is always more skin coming off that belt than saw dust. I always seem to want to get just a bit closer and then yup, skin gone. I think I have permanent belt rash on my knuckles...

[Craig D Peltier]

We used to do that in high school.Porter cable against bosch.:D
Surely someone besides me has performed the infamous 'drag racing' belt sander show from plugging in a sander with the switch locked on(?).

[Chip Olson]

Was sanding a small component on a disc sander in high-school wood shop. Sanded the component a little too small and it dropped between the table and the sanding disc, followed closely by my fingertips. Didn't have to trim those nails for a while.

[Larry Fox]

Split my lip pretty good and loosend a few teeth once trying to wrestle a tight tenon from a mortise while standing on and bending over the piece.

[Jim Becker]

I will add to the list: Proving that your chisel is sharp by forgetting where the business end is while checking things after a paring cut...fingers really bleed with a mess. Come to think of it, so do foreheads that have altercations with the ends of clamps...

[Randal Stevenson]

Knocked a belt sander off the table, caught it with my arm against the belt, and my hand caught the trigger.

Seen too many people grab for knives they drop in the kitchen.

My worst one, was in my mechanics garage (extended family) and was under a car helping, and due to it being a smaller car, the rack wasn't in the normal places. I walked into it's arm (with the full weight of the car), three times. I then put on a baseball cap and still hit it with the bill.
I must of had a hard head, because other then a mild headache, I didn't really hurt anything other then my pride.

[Tom Cowie]

I use a chain saw quite alot at work. So when I bought a new one for home use I was "miffed" when the wife said " Don't cut yourself "..

"Ha" I scoffed.......... First tree, five inch gash in my leg :eek: :eek:

I thought do I bleed to death or just tell her??:rolleyes: :rolleyes: ..


Tom

[Mike Monroe]

I tried running a 4 inch piece of clear acrylic through my 8" jointer. I was making an overarm gaurd assembly for my tablesaw.

Sometimes I look at the small scar on the back of my right thumb and wonder what the heck was I thinking that day...

-Mike

[Bill Wyko]

On x-mas eve I was frantically trying to finish a wooden hinge on a cigar carrying case and I was using a 3/8 spiral bit and tried to trim about 1/16 off and forgot the rotation of the bit. It took off like a missile and pulled my finger right into the bit. It took off 1/2 of my finger nail and all the meat as well. I thought I'd be ok but it was still bleeding the next day so I was in the emergency room for x-mas. I didn't touch the router again until about a week ago. Ultimately it healed just fine but I'll always think about rotation before I ever run a piece through the router again. I hate when that happens.:mad:

[John Durscher]

Last year about this time I was working on a project for my church's Good Friday service. I was drilling scores of holes in some pressure treated 10x10's with my drill press. I was wearing some of those tight fitting work gloves to keep from getting splinters with the pressure treated lumber.

Well, I was chugging along and was wiping the shavings off the beam when the forstner bit caught the index finger of my glove (with my hand in it). Well, the glove, and my index finger were quickly wrapped around the bit. My first and second reactions were to try to pull my hand out of the drill press. Of course the glove material was stronger than me and my finger was wrapping around the drill bit tighter and tighter in a manner that it really was not designed for. Eventually I remembered that I could shut off the drill press. The glove was destroyed and my index finger was a mess. Of course my wife was out for the evening, and I had to get the project done so I finished the drilling with the messed up finger wraped up in a rag on ice and worked the drill press with the other. She was not amuzed when she came home and noticed I had one hand in ice on top of the drill press, still drilling away.

Of course it doesn't end there. She wanted to take me to the hospital, but being stubborn and foolish I declined. The next day it really hurt so I went to the drug store and bought a splint and wore it for quite some time. For some strange reason that finger just doesn't seem to want to bend the way it used to.

John

[john dennis]

I was recently told that the two most dangerous tools in your shop are:
1 - the tool you're most afraid of
2 - the tool you fear the least
It was a long story, but that should keep you thinking for awhile.