Today I gave new meaning to carving turkey....

[Michael Costa]

I always joke about safety coming in 2nd place to having a wicked pissah time. Today that caught up with me.

This morning I was milling down 2x stoch to 1" thickness on my table top jointer. I got lazy and started to pull the pieces thru instead of push them thru.

When I went to pull a board my hand slipped off the piece of wood and my jointer decided to take the top of my left middle finger off.

I'm home alone as my wife is visiting her mother. After pacing around a bit, I sat down, lit a cigarette and bled while dreading the ER. I didn't even look at my finger until after my cigarette. I didn't want to know how bad it was.

I got myself together (my house looks like a murder scene), light wrapped the hanging chunk of beef in paper towels and spent 3 hours there while they sowed my finger back together. It was the entire pad, didn't catch bone (I don't think).

Moral of this story. Don't smoke! It's bad for you.
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And these aren't the good pictures.

[Zac wingert]

As uncomfortable as it is, it’s always educational and a reminder to hear of these type of accidents as a reminder and wake up call to always be careful. I hope your finger is ok.

Whats interesting is is I had a table saw accident (didn’t get stitches but took a month to heal and refused to go to the Er) with what sounds like similar damage to my thumb a few months ago and my reaction was the same: wrapped it up in paper towels, paced around, refused to look at the damage for a good amount of time. I didn’t like a cigarette, but opened a beer as a way of trying to avoid addressing my situation. Hope it works out for you

[Philipp Jaindl]

Aye good reminder that Routine jobs, rushing and generally getting lazy and not paying full attention can go south rather fast. I had some close calls on the Jointer aswell, its easier to slip on roughsawn wood than you'd like sometimes.

speedy recovery to you Michael.

[Frederick Skelly]

My God Mike! I'm so sorry to hear you were injured. I hope it heals quickly and that the pain is manageable.
Fred

[Jim Morgan]

Yee-ouch! Sorry to hear about your accident. While you are healing, you may find these useful. DAMHIKT.

[Brian Holcombe]

Sorry to see this, Michael. I wish you a speedy recovery.

[Matt Day]

I’m sorry to hear about your injury too! Heal up fast!

Hope you learned your lesson. I’ve never even heard of anyone pulling material through a jointer. Probabaly does a poor job too. Maybe this is an excuse to buy a bigger heavier, safer, jointer that’s not in a bench. Seems a bench top unit would be too high to properly apply downward force.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Michael, so sorry to hear of your injury! Here's wishing you a speedy and complete healing!

Distractions and inattention can be dangerous when working wood! I know, a few years ago I was routing lap joints in 2x4s for my lumber rack. I had a welcomed phone call indicating a family member had successfully come through a complicated surgery. I shut off my plunge router, unlocked it, flipped it over and as I looked across the room at the phone thinking of the call, I pushed down on the router base plate. The pattern bit hadn't stopped spinning yet. The floor in my shop looked like your photo. A couple hours later, and 14 stitches in my wrist, I was home. Luckily for me, there was little nerve damage and even the small numb spot in the palm of my hand eventually went away.

[Brian Holcombe]

Slightly off-topic but it's worth putting a sign on your door also when you're in. I've had a rash of people walking up behind me and startling me lately, so I may be forced to take my own advice.

I remember my father making it incredibly clear to everyone in the house that when he was working he was not to be startled. Not that you could not walk into the shop, but just stand on the side until he notices you and he would stop what he was doing.

On-topic: I've been using a gripper push block and that has been very good, really happy with it as I sometimes joint a lot of small pieces when doing box work (thin, not short) and important to adhere to the minimum length recommendations of the manufacturer. I use the same block on my bandsaw.

[Matt Day]

I’ve tried some of the Grr Ripper push blocks as well and they are great.

I think it was Van who came up with this, but I attached a mending plate to my stock jointer push blocks and it makes a world of difference.

[Mark Hennebury]

Michael, i hope that you heal quickly.

Could you take a photo of your jointer and the placement of your stock and hand at the time of this accident.

I often dress lumber from either end of my jointer. it is a 20" wadkin, so a little different situation to yours. But i am interested to see how your accident happened.

The closest I came to getting injured was when i was working in another shop and one of the other employees decided to "help" as he was walking past; I was minding my own business happily zipping 2 x 8 x 10' from the "correct " end concentrating on what i was doing, when the guy grabbed the end coming off of the outfeed and pulled it, startling me and almost causing an accident.

[Michael Costa]

The gripper push block I have doesn't grip. I'm going to either buy or make push blocks that will hook onto the end of the wood.

I've also decided to buy a Dewalt planer. I'm doing that later today. I've been wanting one and this is motivation to do so. If I wasn't making a million passes on the jointer this wouldn't have happened. That and stupidity.

And, at the top center of the fence (just above where it says "warning blade between these two points") I affixed my hospital wrist band and have no choice but to see it. A reminder every time I use it now.

[Jim Becker]

Sad that you had this accident. 'Hope you heal fast!

It's so easy to "have a moment" that goes wrong, so it's important to develop "a paced routine" that will help reduce the change of a repeat "moment".

[Dan Friedrichs]

Wouldn't have taken much for this have been the start of you spending the rest of your life unable to type, shake hands, write, press buttons, etc.

[Bill McNiel]

I cannot believe you stopped to take a picture.