So I started the day ripping down some 2X4 material to use as backing…
As usual I utilized the 16′ long ripped piece in my hand to flick the remaining material off the table saw – blade hooked the piece in my hand as I was moving it across the table and WHAM – got it in the collar bone. Blink of an eye.
Bit bruised with a couple of scratches (three layers of clothes – still chilly in Revelstoke). I’ve never been hit by anything on a site – what a shocker. 4 inches higher and I would have spitting chicklets…
Lesson – don’t be too lazy to go get your push stick.
M
Replies
did you ever notice how getting hurt and the word lazy is used in the same sentence.whenever i get hurt either lazy or stupid pretty much covers all the base's.
larry
if a man speaks in the forest,and there's not a woman to hear him,is he still wrong?
i'm not gonna argue the "lazy" being involved, but the one i seem to notice is "hurry"
do you know the difference between involvement and commitment?
its like bacon and eggs, the chicken is involved. the pig is committed!
The two words for me are tired and hurry.Some years ago I was ripping some plywood on my little Makita TS. I had failed to check to see if the fence was perfectly aligned (this was before the Rousseau setup). It wasn't. A good size piece kicked back and nailed me right in the jewels. I went down and stayed there not even able to reach up and turn the saw off, I just let it run for a while 'till I was more mobile.Lesson learned: Pay attention to the physics involved with TS, keep to the side a bit, always use push stick.
Again, do not let the mind wander.
Ya never know and ya can never be too cautious. I've been lucky a few times and it always seems like I should have known that was going to happen.
Hope you heal up well.
I'm a beleaver. Had a 4"x4"x1"piece of oak kickback and crack my lowest rib last summer. Even though the t-shirt wasn't ripped, there are inch long scars to either side of the rib.
That, combined with a friend losing a few fingers last summer, changed the way the saw is used.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
I've been leary and very careful around tablesaws since I was in high school. Was ripping a decent sized piece of oak and the kid on the other end tried to pull on the piece as I was pushing it through. Luckily I was standing off to the side but as it went by it caught just a piece of me right above the belt... too close for comfort and quite a sting!
Glad to hear that your shoulder is all that hurts and not your head. This stuff happens in a fraction of a second and sometimes changes your life.
Had a decent sized square of 1/4 ply crack me close enough to my nuts to be there but not in 1986. Lifetime lesson & respect learned there. I still use the TS regularly but never without thinking of that moment.
Another moment never forgottne was the same year. I trimmed a finger nail with the chop saw. 1 more life time lesson learned as well.
Had a customer a year or 2 back come by the shop to cut a piece of 3/4 ply for some home project. While I'm asking him what size he wants etc. he's telling me about a basement remodel he did before he moved here and how he wants a mid-life career change. Turns out he was fishing for a job and would I let him cut-up the ply. I shouldn't have let him use the saw but I did..... He pushes the 1/4 sheet of ply through and as soon as it clears the front of the blade and before I could hit the off switch he starts to pull it back. Takes off like a shot, hits him right in the gut- he goes down like a sack or potatoes. The whole crew comes over to see if he is alright. He gets up shaken but not hurt. Never heard another word about a job, just thankful he left with all his fingers.
20 years ago I was working with my father--he was doing exactly as you were with one of those early, mean little makita saws.
The rip shot back and hit him in the chest.
He said he was ok. Shaken.
Later he took a smoke out of his breast pocket--half a cigarette.
Another, Half.
Another, Half.
The pack had absorbed the blow.
He still says that's the day smoking saved his life.
;-)
"Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing..."
Glad you're ok.
At the shop where I learned to work with big unisaws, there was a metal roll-up door behind the mother saw. It had a scary amount of big dents in it. I always try to stand a bit to the side...
k
The first saw I ever operated professionally was a big old saw (40" blade) that cut metal pipe. Every once in a while it would toss the cut off end piece off the wall behind it. The wall was about ten feet back and that gave me enough time to duck if the chunk of steel rebounded at me. It happened a lot. If the pieces that were binding were too big to finish chopping through, the big old blade would just lurch to an instant stop and everything would shudder a bit. It was quite an experience. Being young, I didn't think much of it. When I was cutting tube steel, I was far less cautious. When I was cutting pipe steel (much heavier) I'd try to eliminate the reasons of why it would bind.The binding occurred when there were burrs on the end holding the pipe up at an angle. The fix was to chip or grind the burr off so the pipe would lay flat. Of course I was young and impatient and often would rather just fight through the binding effect and hope the piece wouldn't be slung off the wall. Fun stuff....I'll tell you how many hole punchers I shattered in the Ironworker machine some day... Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
40" blade... omg.
One time I actually watched a guy walk up to the rear of the unisaw in the shop and try to feed a piece of oak in from the back. My mind couldn't actually believe he was doing what he was doing, so I didn't try to stop him. That sucker got launched, baby. Somehow, he didn't lose any fingers... just another dent in the wall...
I marvel that I'm (reasonably) healthy after everything I've seen. I give (non-denominational) thanks every day...
k
I'm guilty of that...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Ok, how many hole punchers?
be black boogers and that wonderful cutmetal smell.
Click here for access to the Woodshed Tavern
how many did ya say????
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Glad you are okay...and lucky. Took a 12" square piece of plywood off the cabinet saw in college while doing an independant study of furniture design/construction. Hit me right below the belt...requiring surgery to repair the parts. Needless to say, I am always careful around the table saw and find myself twisting a little to the right just in case something comes back out of the saw.