*sigh* One second after setting up my router and putting in an endmill I slide my hand under to tighten a clamp. I barely touched the stationary tip and it sliced a nice slit in my hand. Dumb.

Well, I got that out of the way.

No pictures?

Yep, I have an end mill bit in a case trimmer. MF is scalpel sharp!

BTDT, got the t-shirt!

RMD

At least it was stationary.

It could have been worse I know someone that was using the table saw and realized he was missing part of his thumb after he saw blood on his wood.

Made my sacrifice to the patron saint a couple decades ago.

Table saw.

Critical cut on a board to be part of a raised panel door. Holding it down with my thumb as it went through the saw. Had the blade exposed about 1/8" above the board. Left a 1/8 inch groove in the ball of my thumb. Shit like that happens when we get too nonchalant/careless working with power tools.

duct tape or superglue repair to the digit?

I've made blood offerings to that same deity. It's not a reciprocal relationship...

I think it is good to share such stories, maybe it will help someone else think twice before trimming their own digits.

Among other things, I am a shop teacher.

About 30 years ago I trimmed my right middle finger with an industrial over arm router. Razor sharp and doing some 20,000 rpms, it was quick. Why did it happen? I was distracted, thinking about something else.

Two months ago I trimmed my left (wedding) ring finger. At home, in my shop, on the Jointer (ouch!). Why did it happen? I was distracted, thinking about something else.

Get the picture? Focus. Stop, pause, let other things go, focus.

I am running out of fingers that are the same length. Try not to be like me.

When teaching, the kids are most attentive when I hold up a hand and say “DON’T do this”

Working on an LG dryer yesterday. Turned a difficult roller and brushed some sheet metal with a finger tip - gone.

So, that was my sacrifice to the penultimate deity.

Apparently opportunities to sacrifice to the gods of sheet metal edges are numerous.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris42:
I think it is good to share such stories, maybe it will help someone else think twice before trimming their own digits.

Among other things, I am a shop teacher.

About 30 years ago I trimmed my right middle finger with an industrial over arm router. Razor sharp and doing some 20,000 rpms, it was quick. Why did it happen? I was distracted, thinking about something else.

Two months ago I trimmed my left (wedding) ring finger. At home, in my shop, on the Jointer (ouch!). Why did it happen? I was distracted, thinking about something else.

Get the picture? Focus. Stop, pause, let other things go, focus.

I am running out of fingers that are the same length. Try not to be like me.

When teaching, the kids are most attentive when I hold up a hand and say “DON’T do this”

Some 65 years ago, in high school shop one of the teachers (an arrogant asshole) was showing the boys what NOT to do with a band saw. Sawed his right forefinger off at the second joint. Now there was a great teaching moment.

His students were laughing themselves silly for a couple weeks.

There is not a job worth doing that I don’t leave some blood behind.Every engine I’ve built, every suspension change, etc. I now think of it as marking my territory

quote:

I am running out of fingers that are the same length.

At least you have the tools you need to fix that little problem! Think about all those poor folk whose fingers are the length they "just growed to!"

If you haven't been there and done that, you probably are lazy and haven't done anything. We all get hurt from time to time

Me, I took a fall this afternoon. Lets just call it a face plant in my wifes garden. I needed some firewood up on the deck. Its split too wide to make the openings between the slats. So I figured I'd just toss it over. First piece went great, just like I planned it. The second was bigger and also made it. But the toss threw me off balance. Down I went. I tried to catch myself but only made it to the garden.

The ugly part was the rocks surrounding it. Not sure what my face hit, but it hurt. So I rolled over, back on the drive. I reached up to my face and the glove came away with blood. Then I realized I was hurt and couldn't get up. I was waiting for a cutie that had run down the road to come back. My plan was to ask her to do me a favor. But then my wife realized the noise outside had stopped so she came to investigate.

Her words were "oh grandpa". Disgustedly. I'm now banned to sitting in my recliner.

I've done it so often I now quip that a job isn't done till I've christened it. Don't exactly know what that says about me. Cut the end off my left index finger twice with a razor knife. They sewed it back on both times. Amazingly I still have feeling in it.

I *know* I'm a klutz, so I've never injured myself with a power tool - I'm so careful, I move like a sloth.

Regular hand tools, though! Sometimes I swear I could cut myself on a nerf ball.

I have given offerings to the deities of metal working several times. The latest was in the local purveyor of arms however. I was admiring a Benchmade with the thumb flick knob. It was a little tight and then jumped. Of course the blade turns in my hand and finds my thumb. Whomever put the edge on that one did a fine job! Didn't notice until it started dripping on the countertop.

quote:

Originally posted by jtedescucci:
No pictures?

Thankfully, seems so. The next attractive photo of a sliced appendage will be the first.

19 yrs as a meatcutter/dept manager,

fortunately never left more than skin on the cutting blocks and saws,

do have a handful of scars, and arthritis to show for it,


I was lucky, a lot of the older guys I worked with did not have all 10 digits,


as far as woodworking,

I used to watch the guy from NC on PBS, cannot remember his name, but think his show is called the woodwrights shop, or something similar,

he seemed to cut himself every show,

I never had more than a scratch in 25 years of working/owning a cabinet shop. A few employees had minor wounds though; pneumatic staple guns are notorious for finding a knot hidden in plywood and making a U turn. One of my men walked to the clinic next door: He related that they asked what was wrong and he held up his hand with a drawer side hanging from a finger. Stapled to the bone. No waiting.

One lady was cleaning a pinch roller without first turning it off. She had a perfect impression of her wrist watch for a week.

The former owner related a story about an employee being hit in the abdomen with a kick-back. Worked until quitting time but he got really sick that night. Perforated intestine. Lucky for all that the ER doc had served in Vietnam and recognized the symptoms.