Dumbest use of a woodworking tool.

Can I jump in here with a 'dumbest use' of an old sheetrock mud bucket?

Woodnetters among you already know the answer...but short of it is DON'T use an empty sheetrock mud bucket as a step up onto a worktable that has wheels. Broken bones may occur. So here goes with my LEFT hand... :wave:

KC :eek:
 
Dumbest ever?

This qualifies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp-bQQl3FWY


As for my own ... cutting aluminum angle with my chopsaw. I didn't clamp, only taking 2" off, i can hold that! BANG!!! ... the aluminum caught the blade and spun - taking my thumb print off about 1/8-3/16" deep - it took 4 months for that skin to grow back ... yikes!

But I still say the above guy in the video was way dumber.
 
How many dumb things? :eek: Let me count. Well, lets not. Besides I'm at that age in life where I mostly only remember the good stuff.

However, this happened just this past September 2006. It will hopefully be a lesson to all that don't use the safety equipment provided by the manufacturer.

PICT0270.jpg PICT0272.jpg

I had been doing some prep work on the jointer. Face jointing and edge jointing some boards. I took a break and had some lunch. When I returned I looked at all the stuff and thought "I should just call it a day, because I just don't feel like doing any more". "Oh, wait. Here's one board that I haven't edge jointed yet." Well, I had been face jointing before I went in for lunch and had the guard off as I was jointing 10 and 11 inch boards. Figured I'd just run the one board through on it's edge and call it a day without putting the guard back on. It takes less than a minute to attach the guard. :doh:

Big mistake as you can see from the pictures. :eek: Ended up going to urgent care, but they really couldn't do anything other than get it to stop bleeding and send me home with some pain pills and gauze bandages. There was nothing to sew up, just a hole. X-rays showed it took a wee bit of the bone also.

Now, six months later the finger has healed and it looks almost normal. It's still tingles on the end and the Dr. said it may from now on. All because I decided to do some more when I really wasn't feeling good and I didn't take the time to install a piece of equipment that would have prevented the whole thing.

SAFETY EQUIPMENT IS THERE FOR A REASON. USE IT!!!!!

I consider myself extremely fortunate that it was just the tip of my pinky finger.

The medical bills were almost 1K. Thank goodness LOML has fantastic insurance.

Karl
 
Oh, wait - thought of another one.

Once watched a fellow cutting wood on a portable table saw, on the floor, in home depot - they were doing remodeling in the kitchen section, you know, where they epoxy the floors?

He was pushing the rip cut through as the saw was sliding away from him, as he walked on his knees to keep up.

Boy, did I have a long talk with the manager!
 
One router table, one climb cut, three fingers, 4 hour trip to the er and a "we don't stitch flaps" get bandage up and then chewed really hard by wife for the blood trail on the carpet later. All on Christmas Eve.
 
This was a woodworking tool butr not in the shop. many years ago installing an extension phone for a customer in their family room, I took measurments and proceeded to go outside and drill a hole with a brace and bit, the drilling was going very slowly so i went back inside to check and found out i had drilled into the backside of the customers upright piano. The house was a split level! I pulled the bit out installed the phone the right location. Never told the customer, never heard anything about it Gerry
 
I have at least two that beats all you guys for stupid:
1. Checking with my hand to see if a plastic grinding machine's blade had come to a stop (it usually took 5 minutes for the very large and very heavy 3 blade head to come to a full stop in order to clean it so you could grind another color of plastic waste) after about 4.9 minutes I stuck my hand in the out chute as the blade came to a stop on my middle finger cutting a horizontal slot. Lukily the blade was on it's last rotation and had allowed about 3/8 of an inch between the blade edge and the machine body....enough to not cut the bone....I was fired.

2. Trying to clean an oily belt while the the car was still on I figured I would hold the belt with a towel so it could slide on it and get cleaned up...this belt was the kind with notches on the back...it's not smooth...the notches catch the towel along with my fingers holding the towel and we do a whole revolution around the pulley..yes my index finger was cought between the belt and the pulley...I thought for sure I had lost my finger and the thought that went through my head was how the hell am I going to find my finger on the ground under the car in the dark (it was night time) and how far away is the hospital...God has great compation on us idiots...my finger was still whole but 5 times its normal girth for about 2 months.
 
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one more,

I was working on the engine of a 64 Volswagon Beetle...on the coil...if you remember the old beetles the bumpers where sheet steel formed...as I touched the wrong wire I get the incredable boost of voltage, amperage, wattage..what ever comes out the coil...the muscle in my arm contracted from the electrical shock and I ram my elbow..unvoluntarily...back against the edge of the steel bumper....the funny bone part....my arm was in increadable pain for weeks and buzzed long afterwards.

Got many more but time is short here.
 
Now wait just a minute here, if you want to get into "Stupid Motorcycle/Car" stories, I've got a few of them :D :rofl:

My Mom and the Orthopedic surgeon at the hospital were on a first name basis by the time I was 16!! :rolleyes: :D
 
Art, I wanna be there for that conversation as well. I am certain Bill Grumbine knows how to use a chainsaw as well as any on this board.

I think Julio wins for the story that makes me cringe the most. I can just picture his finger going around the pulley. (shudder)

And now, my entry for the stupid children tricks category...

This happened a couple years ago, I would hope he is smarter now.

Of course, I am out of the country when this happens, so I find out about it during an email at midnight that starts..."don't worry, we just got back from the hospital and our son is going to be fine".

It seems that my wife has the kids at the pool, and my sons asks mom permission to "jump off the diving board backwards". Mind you, this is before he can dive, so he basically wants to step backwards off the diving board and enter the water in a standing position. My astute wife does not think this is a good idea, due to our combined prior experience with our son hurting himself. She tells him no, and goes back to reading her book. The next thing she sees is my son running towards her with blood covering his chest, holding his chin. Seems my (not so bright) boy thought that even though he couldn't execute the requested maneuver off the diving board, it would be fine to attempt it off the edge of the pool. He didn't step back far enough, and caught his chin on the cement edge of the pool. Of course, the lifeguards call the ambulance, and they put him on a backboard, in case his neck was injured. It wasn't, but that was a good precaution anyway. 5 or 6 stitches (I forget) and he is fine, but in hindsight, if he had hit the diving board in the same manner, at least it would have had a little "give".

It was about this time that I began to wonder whether he would survive his childhood.
 
A long, long time ago, my Mother finally talked my Dad into building her the miniature house she had been pinging on him for years to build. Dad passed away before he could finish it. He managed to get the plywood walls up and a few shingles on the roof. It started as a kit and he was beginning to enhance it.
I took it home one day and told Mom I was going to try and finish it. It eventually took me over a year to do.
The house took up the whole dining room table and dominated the dining room with smaller tables for tools including a 4" Dremel Tablesaw that had belonged to Dad. My Ex was NOT happy. :rofl: specially when her parents came to visit.
I was cutting the sheet hardwood flooring to size on the little table saw and just about to quit when one of them ask me something, I had finished my last cut and turned to answer before I brought my hand back over the top of the blade. Did you know if you cut the end of your thumb off it grows back almost as round as it was? :doh:
Let me tell you, tiny tools will get you just as fast as the big ones. Just a bit closer and my thumb would be gone.

House001.jpg


By the way, my Dad made 95% of the furniture in that house.

DT
 
Maybe not really woodworking, but I'll hijack the thread a bit anyway. And it is my wife I'm squealing on. Day before yesterday she did some heavy duty house cleaning in anticipation of company. That night she told me that she, somehow, got a blue stain on our living room carpet and even with an hours scrubbing it wouldn't come out. She was very upset. Yesterday, I was walking through the living room and noticed a bottle of (blue) Windex sitting on the coffee table. The sun was shining through the window onto it casting a....you guessed it....blue light onto the carpet. When the sun went away, the 'stain' went away also. Bottle has been moved, 'stain' is still gone. I haven't the heart to tell her. But, I'm not going to introduce her to the operation of wood working power tools either. Enneyone who tells her I told you this is a dead man.
 
OK, if Frank is tellin' on his LOML, here's a story on mine. Love her dearly but she has no background on any tool. That doesn't keep her from going into the shop while I'm out and finding something to pry open a lid with - usually my best and sharpest chisel.

So, in self defense, on a pegboard rack right by the entry door I have placed in plain sight a beat-up old screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a HD chisel, a hammer, and a cheap but sharp saw (no dear, my Dozuki would not be a good saw for pruning your rosebushes...:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: )

Wish me luck:thumb: :thumb:
 
OK, if Frank is tellin' on his LOML, here's a story on mine. Love her dearly but she has no background on any tool. That doesn't keep her from going into the shop while I'm out and finding something to pry open a lid with - usually my best and sharpest chisel.

So, in self defense, on a pegboard rack right by the entry door I have placed in plain sight a beat-up old screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a HD chisel, a hammer, and a cheap but sharp saw (no dear, my Dozuki would not be a good saw for pruning your rosebushes...:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: )

Wish me luck:thumb: :thumb:


You let yer wife have sharp things? :eek:
 
These two incidents just spring forth in the oh my goodness,

he didn't do that dept.

A friend was installing a accessory switch in a dash board.

In his hand a 18v dewalt drill, equipped with a 3/8 brad point.

He stuck his finger behind the dash to locate the exact spot

and left it there. Drilled right through it, well that and kinda pulled it

through the hole too.

The extra stoopid part? I watched him do it.


Note, all of my friends are mechanics. Wood, metal etc.

Now the time my buddy was cleaning the main drain with a millwaukee

1/2 inch drill and snake would have gone unremarked had this fella

not wanted to keep his hands clean. By using those extra heavy duty

Playtex style rubber gloves.

When he grabbed on to the spinning snake (braided cable)with the gloves

the result was a world champion contortionist's act. And a broken wrist.

That thing kept spinning is arm and wrist , attached like those Chinese

finger cuffs. He was also so shocked by what was happening,

he did not let go of the trigger.

I stood and watched that too.

I forgot, he then tried to reverse the drill, what a mess.

Reread this, not braided cable, you know, like a a spring deal.

Per
 
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