dumbest thing Ive ever done.

allen levine

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new york city burbs
Ive made a lot of mistakes during the course of my 8 years of woodworking.

Some have hurt me physically, some have cost me money.

the good news is, I have all ten fingers and learned a valuable lesson, once again.(did not help my phobia of blades though)

Decided I wanted to cut some pieces to attempt a segmented bowl, so I decided to reset and calibrate my new incra5000, as I only did it without reading the instructions thoroughly the first time.

I had all afternoon, no rush, read everything, set it all perfect, noticed I was off ever so slightly on my original setup, figured that was my reasons for a tiny bit off angles.
(I shined a light on top while I was working on it so I could see when I lined up the fence)

satisfied I took the strips of plywood I cut as practice, carefully loaded one strip on incra sled, clamped it down, was set to go, turned on the saw.
Boom! sounded like a slightly muffled nine millimeter handgun pop, the brake kicked in and locked the blade.

I am an idiot. I left the second clamp on the board, loose, when I turned on the saw, it must have caught a microscopic edge of it, since it didn't move, and I don't see a real nick in it, maybe just a discoloration of paint, so it must have caught just enough to trigger the brake.

Scared me.

so now Im out whatever the brake costs, a new blade, and a little time off my life when that thing popped.

getting the blade and brake cartridge out was no easy chore, I called sawstop to see if there was a trick to it, turns out, you just have to kind of walk it off together, stick the wrench in, nudge the brake, then nudge the blade, and so forth until it comes off.

what an idiot I am. first rule of woodworking make sure your work space is clean and clear of any obstacle.

a 200 dollar lesson, probably a good one for me, as I tend to be a messy/disorganized woodworker.
this is what it looks like.

its just funny, I finally feel the knee is good enough to put in a few hours in the shop, and well, my life story, one step forward, 3 steps backwards.
 

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Guess Ill be back to penmaking for a few days again.

Im a bit ashamed of myself, embarrassed Im did this, but felt it necessary to share it because the results could have been worse.
 
I'm certainly glad no physical damage just your nerves. Yes I don't like spinning blades much either but
it it is faster and smoothier than the hand saw.
Lathes kinda scare me also so I don't have that tool in my arsenal.
Change your britches and go back to work.����������
David
 
Gee Allen....you are the first woodworker who's ever done anything unsafe or half-hazard!:rolleyes:

Of course I am being facetious!

Did I mention the scar on my right wrist where I turned off my handheld router with a pattern bit in it, unlocked the plunge depth lock, flipped it over and as I pushed down on the base while the bit was still spinning down, looked at the phone thinking of the phone call I got just a minute ago? Well the still spinning bit was stopping but hadn't yet. After shutting my dust collector off, grabbing a clean rag out of a cabinet, opening and closing the shop door one-handed, I managed to find a neighbor at home to take me to the ER. The good news is the bit missed most of the nerves in my wrist and it only took 13 stitches to close the wound. My hand works normally but I do have a numbness in one very small area on the palm of my hand.

We all make mistakes....Don't feel bad. It takes courage to report it so someone else can learn from our mistakes.

Glad you weren't injured!
 
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when I stuck my fingernail portion into the bandsaw blade, it hurt, there was a lot of blood, but it was silent, when I pushed a piece on the router table and my pinky caught the spinning bit, it hurt like hec also, a lot of blood, but when I composed myself, I realized everything is still there, be more careful.
today, the first thing I did when after that pop, is check my fingers, and I noticed 2 small cuts, one on my outside of pinky had blood, and inside of same hand, right hand, had a scrape and blood, but I didn't really feel it. Im always getting small cuts when I handle plywood and rough wood. I never panicked, just stopped, took a breath, said all ten are there, what the hec happened?

I think that blade cost me close to a hundred if not more, catridge is 70.

My wife just got home from work, she loves her new cherry bowl, wasn't a total loss today. shes easy to please

its an hour later at least, and Im still a bit shaken up over it, not sure why, I didn't get hurt.
 
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Glad you weren't physically involved, emotionally it will be a good teacher...I stupidly made the TS eat a portion of my index finger and scared a few others by not paying attention and thinking thru the process before beginning...I now see the TS in a whole different light when I step up to it. Count your blessings, throw away those shorts:eek: :D and thanks for sharing, reminders are always welcome! :thumb:

A couple hundred bucks is a whole lot cheaper than an ER run....;)
 
Running to action before the blade is all together in gear is something we all do. Sometimes the consequences are not good!

Glad you are more 'scared' than hurt.

Glad your pocketbook came out relatively well. ER's are very pricey.

Shorts are not too expensive and that pair will never be your favorite pair again!

Glad the SawStop did exactly what it was built to do.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Your experiences benefit all of us in a good way.

And...BTW, no one is laughing. We all do dumb things occasionally. Some of us are more willing to own up for the benefit of others. Thanks for being the brave guy. We need more like you.

And thanks for the lesson for all of us to employ a flight check before turning on the switch.
 
first rule of woodworking make sure your work space is clean and clear of any obstacle.

Just to make you feel better . . . sometimes even this will not even stop a really determined idiot like myself. I had reduced the size of a table top on a work table I was giving to my dad. I was cross cutting the trim I had removed so it would fit back on to the newly dimensioned top. I had failed to separate the piece of trim that had the metallic tape measure stuck to it. I set the metal tape side down against the table without realizing and using the miter gauge I proceeded to make a very expensive crosscut. To add insult to injury, I didn't even get to complete the cut :rofl:. I have the blade and cartridge intact hanging on the wall as a reminder.

On the upside, I have never forgotten again and now disable the safety circuits and make a test pass on any operation I am not sure of. Things like new sleds or jigs that contain metal fasteners or tracks, the Incra i-box and so forth. So far I have not had any 'questionable' operation trigger the lights to show that I would have triggered the brake but, at least I know before making the cut and it only costs me a few moments of time.
 
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Allen, glad to hear you can still count to ten using your fingers!!!! Like Sayer, I would bet as quick as your saw detects interference, with a regular saw, $200.00 would have been cheep. Of course there is the cost of the underwear to be included:eek::rofl:!!! Sounds like the saw did its job and I am glad you were not hurt other than in the pocket book.
 
Im taking a break.
first, the catridge was 69 plus tax, the blade 50.24, might have been able to get it 4 or 5 dollars cheaper on the internet, but I wanted it this morning.
Cost wasn't prohibitive, I picked up a few other items.

but the day didn't end as I would have liked it to.

as much as I hate to say this, anyone interested can just pm me, I don't think its wise to discuss the problems I had today on a public forum, I don't want to make waves for anyone just yet.
Im sorry I cant say anymore currently.
 
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As someone who has made mistakes in every aspect of life, I can tell you it's not the mistake, but whether you learn from it. If you aren't making mistakes, you're not learning.

A very wise man who I don't remember who at this stage of my life, once told me "Show me a man who's never made a mistake... I'll show you a man who ain't doing nothing".
 
If you can get the blade out of the brake (destroying the brake but without bending the blade) a good sharpening shop can replace any damaged teeth for a couple dollars each, plus the sharpening (to get all the teeth aligned.) So if you want a spare blade, your total cost just went down.
 
yep, but for 20 dollars more, I got a new blade. Sharpening is over 20 bucks here, used to pay 17, now all the guys near me are gone and the tool guy charges something like 23, plus if I have to repair teeth at probably 2-4 dollars each, I just purchased a new blade.
I haven't found a good guy who sharpens that good anyway, tried 2 different ones, didn't find much difference at least I thought.
 
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