Ed Garrett
08-07-2007, 8:37 PM
I’ve found a website which documents a multitude of real-life woodworking accidents. Makes great reading, and I predict it will help my focus on safety in the shop.
The site is: http://www.woodworking2.org/AccidentSurvey/search.htm
Below is an excerpt of a contribution I made to the site:
Describe how the accident happened.
I sometimes use a sanding disk on the table saw to put nice edges on medium and small pieces of wood. My technique was to lightly skim the board edge against the forward part of the disk where the sandpaper plunges into the insert. This technique failed me and was aborted about 13 years ago.
The accident happened when I pressed a straight/narrow board (approximately 18" long) a little too hard into the spinning disk. The back part of the board caught the (upthrusting) back part of the spinning disk, flipping the board into the air so quickly that my middle finger kept moving toward the sanding disk as if the board was still there. I only lightly touched the medium grit sandpaper with one finger. Only about one eighth of an inch of finger was ground off.
For about four seconds as I looked at it, I briefly thought the injury was trivial. By the 5th second it felt like the end of my finger had been shot off and it looked like a spigot for blood had been opened. I spent the rest of the day at the emergency room and got some type of small skin graft. The finger initially healed with a flat end, but eventually it rounded out again. The treatment worked well and the finger and is now fully functional. The only lasting medical effect is that the skin at the injury site sometimes splits in cold/dry weather.
Ironically this same finger was cut off (by a slamming door) and successfully reattached when I was in 2nd grade. You could say this is my lucky finger.
Advice you would give other woodworkers.
For about a year after the accident I suffered from some type of post traumatic stress which made it impossible for me to get my fingers near a spinning saw blade. It was as if an invisible glass dome or force field would block my hand from coming within about 10 inches of the blade.
Since then I have developed various push sticks, sleds, jigs, and techniques that don't require fingers near the saw blade. I also never put my hand behind the blade, over the blade, or between the blade and the fence.
Lastly, I always (with through cuts) use the blade guard. I modified it so that it's faster/easier to attach and I keep it clean. I've heard so many people say they never use the blade guard. To them I would say, "Not using a blade guard is like pointing a loaded gun at your hand."
Sincerely,
Ed Garrett
Tallahassee
P.S.: This accident may have been a good thing. Perhaps I have all 10 fingers now because of the aforementioned “warning” 13 years ago. My wife knows what a Sawstop is and has "ordered' me to make that my next TS when we get a new shop built. I was planning on a more modest saw. I tell her I’m an exceptionally safe guy, but she says, “You are in denial.” I think Sawstop would do well by marketing to spouses of woodworkers....
The site is: http://www.woodworking2.org/AccidentSurvey/search.htm
Below is an excerpt of a contribution I made to the site:
Describe how the accident happened.
I sometimes use a sanding disk on the table saw to put nice edges on medium and small pieces of wood. My technique was to lightly skim the board edge against the forward part of the disk where the sandpaper plunges into the insert. This technique failed me and was aborted about 13 years ago.
The accident happened when I pressed a straight/narrow board (approximately 18" long) a little too hard into the spinning disk. The back part of the board caught the (upthrusting) back part of the spinning disk, flipping the board into the air so quickly that my middle finger kept moving toward the sanding disk as if the board was still there. I only lightly touched the medium grit sandpaper with one finger. Only about one eighth of an inch of finger was ground off.
For about four seconds as I looked at it, I briefly thought the injury was trivial. By the 5th second it felt like the end of my finger had been shot off and it looked like a spigot for blood had been opened. I spent the rest of the day at the emergency room and got some type of small skin graft. The finger initially healed with a flat end, but eventually it rounded out again. The treatment worked well and the finger and is now fully functional. The only lasting medical effect is that the skin at the injury site sometimes splits in cold/dry weather.
Ironically this same finger was cut off (by a slamming door) and successfully reattached when I was in 2nd grade. You could say this is my lucky finger.
Advice you would give other woodworkers.
For about a year after the accident I suffered from some type of post traumatic stress which made it impossible for me to get my fingers near a spinning saw blade. It was as if an invisible glass dome or force field would block my hand from coming within about 10 inches of the blade.
Since then I have developed various push sticks, sleds, jigs, and techniques that don't require fingers near the saw blade. I also never put my hand behind the blade, over the blade, or between the blade and the fence.
Lastly, I always (with through cuts) use the blade guard. I modified it so that it's faster/easier to attach and I keep it clean. I've heard so many people say they never use the blade guard. To them I would say, "Not using a blade guard is like pointing a loaded gun at your hand."
Sincerely,
Ed Garrett
Tallahassee
P.S.: This accident may have been a good thing. Perhaps I have all 10 fingers now because of the aforementioned “warning” 13 years ago. My wife knows what a Sawstop is and has "ordered' me to make that my next TS when we get a new shop built. I was planning on a more modest saw. I tell her I’m an exceptionally safe guy, but she says, “You are in denial.” I think Sawstop would do well by marketing to spouses of woodworkers....