Didn't get as much done, due to a shop mishap
Well, my wife and son went out of town for a few days, and I had the day off (Monday). So I set out to finish up several things I was working on in the shop.
The Mishap: (All fingers are still attached
)
I was loosening the collet on my router while it was in the router table. I had a carbide tipped pattern bit in the collet at the time (bearing near the table). Apparently I had tightened it more that what I remember. When the collet finally loosened up, it caused my arm to move fast. Not only did my arm move with the wrench fast, but it dragged across the tip of one of the carbide edges of the bit. I ended up with a decent cut about 4 1/2 in long on the inside of my right forearm.
It was one of those where it didn't bleed right away. This gave me a chance to look at it. About 2 inches looked bad enough to warrant stiches. The ER was not where I wanted to spend my day. Going back to my Boy Scout days, I immediatly grabbed it as tight as I could with my left hand. At that point, I realized that I probably wasn't going to be able to handle this by myself. As I was all alone at home, I called my Mom for some help. Don't laugh.... She's been a nurse for over 30 years. She also was about 10 minutes away. I continued to keep a death grip on my arm with my left hand. When she arrived, cleaned it up and looked at it, apparently the direct pressure did the trick. She said that if I hadn't done that, I would have definatly needed stiches. She steri-striped it back together, bandaged it, and I went back to work. I guess the good thing was that it never really hurt that much. Actually for a while my left hand hurt more from the 20+ minute direct pressure death grip.
Things that I accomplished after the mishap:
Built a Push Block along the lines of what Stu showed in the following link:
http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1114
Revised and Finished my Rail Coping Jig that has been in pieces on the bench for a while now.
Made 2 Zero Clearance Inserts for my table saw. This was the first time I have done this.
Unfortunatly I can't post any pictures just yet, as my wife took the camera out of town with her. I will post what I did when she gets back.