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What's Your Scariest Moment in the Shop

Mine came about 30 days after I bought my first jointer. I had asked forum members with more experience on these machines than I for advice. Everyone warned me not to settle for a 6" jointer for the type of work I was doing. Everyone was right and I had to take a loss, pay for what I should have gotten in the first place and suffer the angst and delays that accompany that sort of disregard for seasoned experience. I make peace with it by trying to share the error of my ways here and encourage others to take experienced advice seriously; even though we all like to think that we are the special one who just inherently knowns better. :D
 
Mine have been mainly kickbacks. The worst one was at a shop I worked at. I was cutting some reclaimed chestnut on a 14 inch powermatic table saw. All I can say is that its a good thing it was only running on 1 of the 3 drivebelts. The board decided to explode when my hand was between the blade and the fence and said piece caught the back of the blade and tried to come back at me. Fortunately it had wedged enough that I was able to shove it out the back. (I hated that saw) After shutting down the saw and clearing up the pieces when I turned back to cut the next piece I bumped the table and found out very painfully I had a 12inch piece of chestnut sticking out of my abdomen. I didnt even know I had been impaled it happened so fast. Luckily I have spent a lot of time developing said abdomen and there was plenty of cushion there to prevent serious injury but about a week later I discovered rather explosively that a piece of the chestnut about 2 inches long had remained in the cut.
 
Cynthia White said:
I didn't know planers kicked back! :eek: What was the end result with the router fiasco?
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Both times it was doing things I knew I shouldn't. The router was a climb cut and it chewed up three fingers. A trip to the ER and "we don't stitch flaps" they bandaged them and one tip is still sensitive.

With the planer I was trying to plane end grain an took to big a cut. I don't plane end grain anymore.:) I was at my family Doc about 3 month later for something else and happened to mention it to him. He x-rayed it and said I didn't break it but I more than likely tore the ligaments.
 
Without a doubt doing stupid stuff on a drill press. Drilling a piece of steel and holding it freehand only to have the drill press grab it and turn it into a spinning object looking for a hand to hit... :doh:
 
Using a router and not thinking about the full path it would cut and having it wreck the bit when it cut into a screw supporting my micky mouse templates made of scrap. Basically 100% my fault for not
a) Being patient ,
b) Not making a template
c) Not wearing protective eyewear.

Lucky only wrecked the bit.
 
Rich Soby said:
Mine have been mainly kickbacks. The worst one was at a shop I worked at. I was cutting some reclaimed chestnut on a 14 inch powermatic table saw. All I can say is that its a good thing it was only running on 1 of the 3 drivebelts. The board decided to explode when my hand was between the blade and the fence and said piece caught the back of the blade and tried to come back at me. Fortunately it had wedged enough that I was able to shove it out the back. (I hated that saw) After shutting down the saw and clearing up the pieces when I turned back to cut the next piece I bumped the table and found out very painfully I had a 12inch piece of chestnut sticking out of my abdomen. I didnt even know I had been impaled it happened so fast. Luckily I have spent a lot of time developing said abdomen and there was plenty of cushion there to prevent serious injury but about a week later I discovered rather explosively that a piece of the chestnut about 2 inches long had remained in the cut.
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That's the topper so far :eek:
 
Id rather not discuss my dumb errors in my shop, its a dangerous gig all the time.

I believe a reason I have a fear of blades is because of the manufacturing business my stepfather had when I was a teenager.

As soon as I got my drivers permit, my stepfather put me to work driving his delivery van.
He had a woodworking factory, that manufactured commercial displays.
When I was around 16 and a half, I walked into work from high school, and he started yelling at me to quickly go underneath a tablesaw and find one of his workers fingers, I have to rush him to the hospital and take the finger with me.
I didnt want too, but he started yelling louder, and I yelled back on my way out of the office, which TS, he screamed, the one with all the blood on it!
There was no dust collection, there was 2 feet of sawdust piled under a huge TS and outfeed table. I crawled around the sawdust following a blood trail, and pulled out the stump of the guys thumb, and two next fingers, on his right hand,
he severed the hand almost inhalf, and I was amazed he was calmly standing waiting for me with a towel and ice wrapped around it.
I almost puked at it, but picked it up and rushed him to the local hospital.
He was taken by ambulance, to another hospital up in the bronx where I believe they reattached the stump, or did the best they could.
I was only a partime worker, although I asked about the guy, told he was ok, I never saw him again.
It was scary. Almost painful for me, and enforced my fear about blades and fingers.

My stepfather eventually got out of the manufacturing end, and decided to import the units from Asia.
He passed away in 1984, and that was basically the end of the business.
I never got invovled much with anything to do with the woodworking end, and besides, it was all cheapo particle board and pegboard, never saw a piece of hardwood in that place, and never saw my stepfather build anything out of hardwood, besides some doll furniture, a piece I still have (cradle) that needs to be repaired.
 
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I didnt want to be gross about it... but Im sure we all know how our bodies get rid of splinters? well grow that up to a 2" splinter......
 
anytime I smell smoke ! My shop is like a chemical bomb waiting to happen. Even though I have a sprinkler system and grounded lacquer drums and explosion proof cabinets (4) I still freek when I smell smoke of any kind.
 
I realize this thread is a bit old, but was looking at sawstop saws and it got me thinking, and then i found this thread... ;)

Anyway, about 3 decades ago I was using a bandsaw to make a very intricate cut, got distracted ... looked away for just a split second, and my hand moved and the bandsaw just nicked my fingernail and left a nice kerf in the top of it... didn't hurt a bit, scared the everliven daylights outta me when i thought about it. Ever since then, I look at every single power tool I use and know it has the potential to do serious bodily injury. I'm not afraid of power tools, but I give them every bit of respect they deserve and always try to do things the safe way. I've had boards kick back in table saws and smack me good, but for some reason, the scariest thing that ever happened to me didn't actually hurt me at all, just gave me pause. As I remember it, I just turned off the saw and went hunting that day instead ;) (Cause you know a high powered rifle is obviously safer than a band saw lol). I was still in high school then, had a fabulous shop teacher, he was ALWAYS ALWAYS saftey first. Several years later, he was giving a demonstration about bandsaws, and while he was giving the demonstration, he removed three of his fingers because he wasn't paying attention. That was yet another reminder to me to always pay attention to what I'm doing and never let distractions intterupt me when I'm using power tools.

http://safetygearonline.co.za/nosa-industrial-assorted-signs/926-ten-best-tools-sign.html << has some good signs for those of us that need reminding once in awhile ;)
 
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