What's Your Scariest Moment in the Shop

I saw this thread on another forum, and I thought it was very interesting. What's your scariest moment in the shop?

Mine is when I was ripping perfectly nice hickory and it got bogged down and the blade actually stopped on my TS. I was using a GRR-ripper and I slowly and carefully backed it out. I told you guys about it here....must have been some internal tension or twisting in the wood......SCARY. But I didn't panic, and shut off the machine as quickly as I could.
 
Like you, I've had scary moments when a board started twisting while ripping it on the table saw. Holding onto the workpiece while turning off the saw can be an issue, so I added a "kick plate" that I can hit with a knee or toe.
 
When I was talking on the phone to someone and looked out into the shop and seen a big red ball of fire going up the wall in my make shift paint booth was lucky enough to have put up some fire extinguishers close to it. Grabbed it and was able to put it out without much damage. Went and had the extinguisher recharged and that's when they told me it was a good thing I didn't need to use it as it was caked up and wouldn't have sprayed much :huh::huh:

Jay
 
while squaring up a ply panel that was around 24" x 32" it got pinched and kicked back at me ..richocheted of my stomach and hit the garage door behind me which was 6 ft away.. all i got was a bad bruise and the daylights up stairs came on:) probally wont be my last kick back but i hope the next one isnt like this one was,..
 
Mine was when kickback caused me to lose the tops of my fingers. Never again will I allow that to happen. Not so much the pain and disfigurement I experienced, but I felt horrible putting my wife through that kind of trauma. I promised her I would NEVER put her through that again.
 
There's a couple above that I've rode along with...dummy putting my hand in the wrong place losing some meat/feeling using the TS...and another where I stupidly tried to get one more cut out of a ridiculously dull CMS blade and the heat/friction ignited the shavings :doh: small fire, huge heart rate increase.
 
My moment came about 25 years ago when my stomach was the target of kickback while using the radial arm saw of a friend to rip an 2x6 oak board. I hav never touched a radial arm saw since and would strongly advise those who do use one to confine them selves to crosscuts.
 
Mine would be the Christmas Eve when I got a gloved hand pulled into a Forstner bit on my drill press. Got cut up, but it could have been a lot worse.

Drill Press Glove 1 800 LR.jpg

Aside from the torn flesh, the part that worried me was the way it wrapped my wrist and arm around the spindle of the drill press. I tried to pull my hand free, but by then my sleeve was also caught and adding to the problem. I fought the 1 hp motor to the point of squealing the belts and stopping the spindle before I was able to hit the Off switch (which was right in front of me). By the time I hit the switch, my head and face were awfully close to the spindle, too. As quickly as things happened, I could have easily also gotten my hair wrapped up in it. (Since that night, I always tie my hair back when I'm doing anything with machinery in the shop.)
 
Mine was on a RAS about 30+ years ago. I was ripping a board and the saw grabbed it and shot it across the garage into the door. I mean into the door. My son who was about 3 or 4 at the time was standing near the spot about 5 minutes before it happened. I still get the shakes when I think about what could of happened.

I had a kick back on my TS about 6 months or so ago. I had a huge black and blue on my upper right arm and chest.
 
Mine was when I tried to cut a nice cove profile with the router table on three of my fingers! The most long lasting was from a kickback with the planer. I got whacked in my left index finger two years ago this month. I still can't close my finger all the way.:(
 
I guess it's kind of odd when my scariest moment in the shop is wondering if one of my projects will make it thru a hurricane!

I guess for me it's trying to learn how to use the skew on a lathe and wondering if it's going to catch.
 
So far to date there has been no scary moments in the shop. I must have nerves of steel.:thumb::thumb::thumb:
In the field how ever it's a toss up between watching a 60 x 80 barn fail over and realizing I hadn't run quite far enough. :doh: Or watching a 1500lbs pack of purlings fall right into the windshield of the cat I was sitting in. The only thing that keep them from coming right in on my lap was a (now bent up) piece of 5/16 rod that made up the windshield guard.:eek: :thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
... By the time I hit the switch, my head and face were awfully close to the spindle, too. As quickly as things happened, I could have easily also gotten my hair wrapped up in it. (Since that night, I always tie my hair back when I'm doing anything with machinery in the shop.)

I am glad you mentioned that. I have been pulling my hair back if I knew I would be working with my head close to the work (like small pieces on the lathe). I had not considered getting pulled close due to other issues. Thanks for the eye opener.


Oh - scariest moment was kickback for me. Using the ggriper and switching hands - removed one before placing the next and watched a board shoot right past me. Lucky I was standing out of the line of fire.
 
I am glad you mentioned that. I have been pulling my hair back if I knew I would be working with my head close to the work (like small pieces on the lathe). I had not considered getting pulled close due to other issues. Thanks for the eye opener...

I've now gotten into the habit of tying it back pretty much any time I head out to the shop to do any work.

In the case of the drill press incident, I broke several rules. I had gone into the shop to just slightly enlarge the opening on a tea light holder. It was one of those "just take a minute" things, so I had my hair down, my wedding ring on (which I usually never wear when working in the shop) and instead of clamping the workpiece to hold it, I put on a mechanic's glove for a better grip and started drilling. Enlarging an existing hole with a Forstner bit can be pretty catchy, as I found out. It's often those "just this one time" things that come back and bite you in the butt.
 
When Jay came to visit. :rofl: Not really, but I couldn't resist. ;) This is a serious thread.
Really, mine was probably the first day I tried to do stuff in my shop. No previous woodworking experience to speak of. I was trying to cut equal lengths of 2x4 on the table saw using the fence as a guide.
First piece I cut kicked back, hit me in the solar plexus very hard. I blacked out and went down for about 15 minutes. Hurt like the devil for hours. I related the experience here and learned a table saw fence is really a "RIP FENCE" and should not be used for cross cutting. I try to be super safe in the shop.
 
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