Accidents in the Shop

[genek]

Just got back from taking our Neighbor to the Hospital.. He did this with a hand saw. His wife came running to our old shop screaming.

[kubotaman]

Done the same thing on my table saw. Well after $21,000 my thumb is lucky to be still on my hand. I had my accident about 8 years ago and the doctors had to pin it. Besides not being able to bend my thumb I get along just fine. Tell your neighbor that he is lucky. If a person loses a thumb that is really bad!! You can't pick up things without a thumb. He will recover with time and of course be more careful with time. Good luck!!

[jTr]

Seriously? a hand saw?
Do you have any photos of the type he was using, or did you mean hand held circular saw or equivalent?

We all wish him well, and appreciate the reminder, albeit grizzly, of how mindfulness and focus are necessary mental attributes to hone along with all our other skills.

jeff

[genek]

Seriously? a hand saw?
Do you have any photos of the type he was using, or did you mean hand held circular saw or equivalent?

We all wish him well, and appreciate the reminder, albeit grizzly, of how mindfulness and focus are necessary mental attributes to hone along with all our other skills.

jeff

IT was a hand held curcular saw, from what I gathered he had taped the trigger on so that he could do some old cut overhead, I really did not expect that he would keep the Thumb. His wife posted the pictures on her face book after they had sewed up his hand. She told me that they are going to have to go to another hospital to have some more surgery they just closed the wound up till he can get in with another doctor tomorrow.

[myxpykalix]

This seems to be a clear lack of communication with his common sense. When i find myself doing dangerous or stupid things my common sense speaks to me loud and clear and i usually stop.
I'm sorry for the pain and suffering he will go thru. But it is a good reminder to all of us.

[rb99]

Done the same thing on my table saw. Well after $21,000 my thumb is lucky to be still on my hand. I had my accident about 8 years ago and the doctors had to pin it. Besides not being able to bend my thumb I get along just fine. Tell your neighbor that he is lucky. If a person loses a thumb that is really bad!! You can't pick up things without a thumb. He will recover with time and of course be more careful with time. Good luck!!



In Canada we can make mistakes and not go into debt, as our province picks up the bill. I wonder if that is an incentive to be careless...

[Brian Harnett]

I never had a bad accident with tools I really try to be mindful of what I am doing and stop if tired even if I am falling behind, thats usually when mistakes and accidents happen.

Though last year I severed both tendons to my index finger and one to my middle grabbing for a jar the slipped out of my hand it shattered on the counter and a piece of glass went right in. I had a good surgeon and hand therapist I got most of my use back.

[chiloquinruss]

In a past life I raced motorcycles and my nickname among my crowd was 'crash'! So over the years I have developed a deep respect for all things pertaining to PAIN! I therefore operate my toys with some extra incentive to not create PAIN!

I think a lot of shop accidents are also the result of shop clutter not necessarily carelessness. I can't tell you how many times I have slipped on a stray piece of cutoff lying on the floor and if that happens while using a power tool, Oh well!

I hope your neighbor gets the help he needs and recovers from his ordeal. This should be a heads up for all of us. Russ

[Sk8MFG]

Whoo that is a nasty one. I tend to work solo, long made habit of taking that extra second or two to don the appropriate PPE, or think through catastrophic failure.
Thank you for posting this, a reminder to all of us bad things happen quick.

Stick with the physio!



In Canada we can make mistakes and not go into debt, as our province picks up the bill. I wonder if that is an incentive to be careless...

Wouldn't call it an incentive, pain is a pretty powerful disincentive. And for folks like us being unable to work may end up being just as expensive.. but at least we don't have bills on top of that.

The system down there really boggles my mind. It just doesn't make sense in the big picture.

[bleeth]

There is a darn good reason why circular saws don't have constant on buttons!
This clearly happened from blatant misuse of the tool.
A very expensive lesson regardless of the financial impact.
Temporary (hopefully) loss of use, pain, inconvenience, etc. are all the results of doing things unsafely.
I've also had a couple "dummy moves" over the years that ended up with stitches and loss of feeling in the area and consider myself lucky that that was all.
I am known for walking out in the shop and if seeing unsafe operation giving a one time warning to shape up or get fired.
The one time I didn't put it in writing the guy went ahead and continued doing it "his way", ended up damned near losing a finger, and then sued over loss of job. My carrier "settled" to get rid of the lawsuit.

[MogulTx]

I wish him well. That looks pretty rough.

[Xray]

Ouch, costly and painful mistake, I'm sure the lesson was learned instantly. Circular saws are pretty safe tools, you'd really have to work at it to maim yourself like this with one.

Out of 10,000's of hours working with potentially dangerous tools on the job and in the shop, worse injury I ever had was slicing through my palm with a razor knife. I even foresaw what would happen if I wasn't careful, urged myself to be careful, yet what I foresaw and warned myself about happened in a blink of an eye and I sliced through my palm almost down to a tendon. Was more embarrassed than anything, wrapped it up and kept on working but the next day my foreman noticed me changing the dressing on a break, sent me to the medical office and they insisted I go to a hospital ,,, Glad they did it was worse than I had thought, took about 14 stitches.

Had a guy drill through his hand just last week on a job ... Had a 2.5" wood screw drilling through about 2" of material, we were in a lift and he was drilling right handed and holding the material tight with his left. Happened real quick, .5 screw hole in your palm can ruin your day.

[harryball]

Ouch. To state the obvious, triggers are there for a reason, never tape them "on". I don't want to see more pictures like that from anyone on the forum.

I approached my table saw yesterday to do a free hand cut on an odd shaped piece... it was like something was pushing me back the closer I got so I "listened" and stepped away to think about things. I'm not fond of free hand cuts but this piece was suitable. I went over what I was doing and realized I was about to try to do the cut "backwards" which would have resulted A) my hand being too close to the blade or B) having to stop mid cut unable to proceed without getting too close to the blade. I reversed my work piece transferring the line to the other side and safely made my cut. Always LISTEN to your internal warning system. If you don't have one... maybe you should find a different line of work.

[Xray]

Freehand cuts on a table saw is almost asking for an accident.
While candor is to be lauded, probably best not to post examples of getting away with highly unsafe working practices.

To keep all fingers permanently attached and to avoid workpeices becoming high speed projectiles, the right tool for the right job is more than just preferential, but essential. And the bandsaw is the proper tool for freehanding.
I know you know all of this Harry, and I do appreciate you walking through your thought process here and minimizing the risk, but it is a terrible mindset to get into. Don't want to come across as preachy, we all improvise and do unsafe things at one time or another ,,, But I am often in charge of safety meetings on union jobs, something like that would get a guy thrown off a job or maybe even enough to pull a guys journeymen card down to apprentice.

Residential, thats different. Used to see all sorts of unsafe working practices when I worked residential including table saw antics, part of the reason I got out of it. Was like the wild west of woodworking, name of the game was to get the most work done in the shortest time possible, then on to the next job. One guy took the guard off his circular saw because it hampered his monster ripping ability, and this guy was a ripping machine. I told him he really ought to put it back on, he smirked and said hey, don't like it don't use it I know what I'm doing. I didn't like it and didn't use it, I brought my own in the next day. Took about 3 weeks during which time he made 100's if not 1,000's of cuts. One fine morning he sawed about 2 inches into his leg just above the kneecap. Even worse, he wasn't even on the ground but up in the trusses and it took some heavy improvising to get him down. I didn't say "I told you so", but looking into his panicked eyes as he was nearly bleeding out and going into shock, he didn't need to be told - Lesson learned, and a very costly one.

[waynelocke]

I hate to sound like an authoritarian but a freehand cut on a tablesaw is never appropriate. Cuts on a tablesaw always have to be guided I.e a rip fence, miter gauge, jig, etc. It is asking for a major kickback, especially on an industrial saw, and kickbacks are a major component in amputations. You need to train that little voice to scream at you whenever you might consider it.

[myxpykalix]

I have found myself on occassion having my common sense slap me up side my head and scream "Hey knucklehead! you're about to lose a finger!!!" and i'm glad i've gained a healthy respect for the common sense I have about stuff like this.

I forget who's moniker it is here that goes something like this..."10 fingers in, 10 fingers out means it's a good day in the shop" or something like that. We should all carve that sign and hang it on the wall to see when we go in...

[Xray]

Thats the thing, we can get away with hazardous practices a dozen times, maybe 100's - But if you get amputated on unsafe cut #447, all that goes out the window.

So many variables between different woods, even identical woods and one might have a nasty semi invisible knot that will take the piece right out of your hands in a flash unless properly guided. Plastics/ metals, different blades, different blade conditions. HP in the saw can make a huge difference as well. I know or at least knew guys who do this regularly, they'll tell you no, I don't advise you do it but I am a pro. I can tell just by the sound of the blade if I'm getting out of true and instantly adjust ect ,,, Gents, these things happen so quick there is no possible way anyone is going to react in time if something goes wrong, most guys who get seriously injured on saws can't even recall exactly what happened ... Really just not worth it, 100% safety cannot be guaranteed, but safe working practices can and absolutely do minimize the chances of serious injury.

Here is a sobering article, stats are from 2001 but I imagine if anything they have gotten worse. Don't take the chance of winding up on a stat sheet like this, please.

https://www.cpsc.gov/PageFiles/101800/powersaw.pdf

[Brian Harnett]

I hate to sound like an authoritarian but a freehand cut on a tablesaw is never appropriate. Cuts on a tablesaw always have to be guided I.e a rip fence, miter gauge, jig, etc. It is asking for a major kickback, especially on an industrial saw, and kickbacks are a major component in amputations. You need to train that little voice to scream at you whenever you might consider it.

I agree 100 percent there is no freehand cuts on a table saw period.

Saw a few bad accidents at the shop I used to work at all were from unsafe shortcuts one lost a thumb and index in the shaper nothing left to sew back on. Horrible thing to see.

[harryball]

I see I forgot to mention I was cutting 1/2" blue foam board. No possibility of kickback and hands never any closer than 12" to the blade. That's what I meant when I said the piece was "suitable" for freehand cutting on a table saw. I would never cut something solid freehand on a table saw.