A wonderful thing to think. I often consider myself safety conscious in my work, but now realize that I’m not nearly as much as I thought.
I started using the guards on my circular saws, yet not on my table saws. Used to do crazy things with heights, roofs and ladders, but I’m too afraid of the height now.
But yesterday sealed the deal for me. Tried to thin an oak carpet strip. Used my Bosch planer. PORTABLE planer. Knew it was a bad idea. Knew it a month ago. Brought the piece home to try to do it safer. Procrastinated.
Now here I am, 28 miles from home, doing something I know to be stupid. But, hey, I’m a reasonably intelligent man. I know enough to not hurt myself. I’m safe.
Yeah. For the first pass. Using the plane more like a joiner, I hold the trigger with one hand, while using the other to move the 3′ strip along. That wasn’t so bad. Still too thick. Do it again, but turn it around because going slow caused some burn marks.
Here we go. Now I know this is safe, because the first time worked.
Oh boy. No brain activity involved in this operation.
Six inches in ( I hadn’t noticed that the grain was now pointed into the blades), the blade caught the strip and sent it flying back. My fingers were doing the Yellow Pages walk, walking the piece along the planer. OOPS!
Fingers slip and the planer takes half the thickness of my right index finger. Not a pretty sight. Not that I was GQ material before this.
Blood, pain, anger, stupidity. Call a friend. “Go to the ER. They’ll stitch it up.”
Stitch what up? There’s no skin there! Thankfully, my LB (Sorry, I’ve always called her my Lovely Bride) works in the same town. Called her and she took me.
“Reason for accident?”
Pure stupidity.
Replies
Yeah, my dad lost a fingertip on a jointer. Wasn't even (that I know) doing anything stupid like you were.
I'm hoping admitting my stupidity is the first step to a cure.
If you hadn't gotten hurt it would be the first step to ridicule. As it is it does gain you a bit of sympathy, and some "there but for the grace of &diety go I" thoughts.
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. --James Madison
No, I don't want sympathy. I'm not a 'Look at me" kind of guy.I'm angry at myself for the daredevil atitude I sometimes have, beacause now I can't do certain things. But I definately don't want to have someone else do it for me. Especially out of pity.But I do think all of us at some time or another do stupid things to save some time, or for some other reason. And sometimes it works.But this time, it didn't.No sympathy. Just a re-telling of why we really should be careful out there.
Sorry to hear about the injury. Hopefully your sharing of this will prevent someone else from repeating it or something similar. We've all done stupid stuff & not all of have paid the same price that you have, some have paid more, but no one is immune from it. do what the Doc says and it will heal eventually.
Got any pictures?
No. Didn't think of the educational value before it got bandaged.I'm supposed to change it after seven days, so perhaps I'll try then. Then someone here can tell me how to post pics.Funny that last night I kept reliving it, and, thinking about it today is making me ill.
About twenty years ago, a friend of mine (good, experienced carpenter) ran his palm over a joiner set at 1/16". Yep, his whole palm, fingers and all. The worst part was he couldn't work for about 6 months. His hand became a claw as the healing skin shrank. Then there was PT. He never had a serious accident after that.
It's too easy to get overconfident and loose with our practices around dangerous tools. Don't get down on yourself, just don't do it again.
As my old friend Will Slayton used to say, "Education is only good when it takes." Likely it will in this instance.
Let's hope so. I have gotten safer in general, but my skull seems to be pretty thick.