Charlie M. 1958 wrote:
WouldWerker wrote:


I hope you're joking... alcohol and power tools are a dangerous
combination... I speak from the experience of recently cutting the
back of two fingers severely with a plate joiner; partly due to having
just drank a beer on an empty stomach. This caused me to be a little
less cognizant of what I was doing... and I did the dumb thing of
holding a small piece of wood with my left hand, plunging down on it
with the joiner, joiner grapped and ran across my finger (took 18
stitches, including 2 to hold tendons together). Again, in retrospect,
I believe the beer dulled my thinking enough to have me do something I
would probably have thought otherwise. BTW, this was the first serious
accident in 30 years of woodworking.

Chris



Let me add a couple of things:

1. I'm actually thankful for the accident... It was bad enough (i.e.,
I still have my fingers) to wake me from being too casual about what
I'm doing in the shop. I now have my mind more in the "is this the
safest way to do this" set.

2. There's a reason the plate joiner has two handles... use both
hands. When that thing graps, it takes off as bad as an out of control
router.

Chris

PS... I still enjoy my beer; but only after shop time.