I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a
near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of other's
mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this thread dies
with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or more?

Mine: I was using a Dremel Tool (high speed rotary) for sharpening my lawn
mower blade. I was wearing the safety goggles, but it was hot out and I was
sweating into them. When I was done I checked the balance of the blade and
thought I could use a smidgeon off the very end of the blade to make it
balance perfectly.

The goggles were at the other end of the room. I figured it was a sec or
two of grinding. I got possitioned over the blade too close with no eye
protection. I *knew* the spin direction would throw the shards downward,
I've been doing it for nearly 20 minutes. But I figured that I might as
well get used to a no-exceptions rule, so I walked across the room, cleaned
them out, wiped my face with a towel, and put them on, all the while cursing
myself for being so safe.

I had lost track of the position of the dremel tool and the side of the
blade I was using. It actually was spinning up toward me in that position I
would have used. Shards of metal struck my eye goggles, and peppered much
of my face, at a very high rate of speed.

Thu, Aug 9, 2007, 5:57pm (EDT+4)

(Thomas*G.*Marshall) doth query:
snip Perhaps it's been done 100 times or more? snip

Yeah. Check the archives.
http://groups.google.com/advanced_gr...g&lr =&num=30



JOAT
I do things I don't know how to do, so that I might learn how to do
them.
- Picasso

Several years ago I was doing an inspection in a plant where premanufactured
construction was being done. In the area where they were building floors, a
young Amish kid was framing with a hammer and 20d spikes. He and a friend
were showing off by seeing if they could drive the spike in a single blow
(they were able to do it by the way.) Anyway, he hit one of the spikes and
it flew. No harm and they both laughed. He set up the next one and took
swing. He hit it slightly off and it flew directly back towards him. He
screamed and grabbed his face. Some type of milky liquid came running out
between his fingers and I could then see the nail sticking out of his eye
socket. The eye itself was gone. They rushed him to the nearest hospital and
he was then airlifted to a better hospital a few hundred miles away (forget
which one, either Indianapolis or Cleveland). Wasn't able to save it. They
did rebuild the eyeball, but after that he was only able to see light and
dark out of it; nothing else.

Over the years I've seen inexperienced framers cut off fingers, get blown
off roof while carrying decking (he was killed), and other stuff. All it
takes is a moment of carelessness to cripple or maim.


"Thomas G. Marshall" . com
wrote in message news:qAIui.3596$9F4.2407@trndny04...

I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of
a near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of
other's mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this
thread dies with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or
more?

Mine: I was using a Dremel Tool (high speed rotary) for sharpening my lawn
mower blade. I was wearing the safety goggles, but it was hot out and I
was sweating into them. When I was done I checked the balance of the
blade and thought I could use a smidgeon off the very end of the blade to
make it balance perfectly.

The goggles were at the other end of the room. I figured it was a sec or
two of grinding. I got possitioned over the blade too close with no eye
protection. I *knew* the spin direction would throw the shards downward,
I've been doing it for nearly 20 minutes. But I figured that I might as
well get used to a no-exceptions rule, so I walked across the room,
cleaned them out, wiped my face with a towel, and put them on, all the
while cursing myself for being so safe.

I had lost track of the position of the dremel tool and the side of the
blade I was using. It actually was spinning up toward me in that position
I would have used. Shards of metal struck my eye goggles, and peppered
much of my face, at a very high rate of speed.

"Thomas G. Marshall" . com
wrote in message news:qAIui.3596$9F4.2407@trndny04...

I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of
a near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of
other's mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this
thread dies with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or
more?


A couple of weeks ago a buddy came over to use some of my tools. He's
probably got 2x the experience I do in woodwork and around a shop, but he
made a mistake. He was using the router in the router table, and put the
work pin on the wrong side of the router bit. Instead of giving him
protection from being drawn into the router, the pin served as a perfect
pivot to throw his small workpiece into the bit. His finger (or thumb, I
don't remember) hit the follower bearing on the bit instead of the cutting
surface, so he wasn't harmed. He was probably 1/4" away from losing part of
a finger. And routers, like belt sanders, don't leave pieces that can be
re-attached. They leave meat dust.

A few weeks ago I was on a job where another fellow was installing
some baseboard. He is 61, been a "handyman" for years. He was
cutting some baseboard with his 10" chop saw. He was holding the
board with his left hand and had the blade turned to 45. What i think
happened was that he was used to making straight cuts and was holding
the board pretty close to the blade-then when he turned it for the 45
he didn't realize that the back of the blade was now that much closer
towards his hand. Left index finger cut about halfway through. He
cut a tendon and was heading to a hand specialist last I heard, likely
to surgery after that.

mattblack wrote:
A few weeks ago I was on a job where another fellow was installing
some baseboard. He is 61, been a "handyman" for years. He was
cutting some baseboard with his 10" chop saw. He was holding the
board with his left hand and had the blade turned to 45. What i think
happened was that he was used to making straight cuts and was holding
the board pretty close to the blade-then when he turned it for the 45
he didn't realize that the back of the blade was now that much closer
towards his hand. Left index finger cut about halfway through. He
cut a tendon and was heading to a hand specialist last I heard, likely
to surgery after that.

I had a similar thing happen to me a few months ago.
Knocked a good piece out of my left index finger. Just a momentary lack
of concentration and bang, those machines never apologise.
Went up to the house, poured betadine all over the finger wrapped it in
a dressing and drove down to the local hospital. Was a fun drive as the
ute is a manual 4sp column shift.(We shift with our left hands in Oz)
Nothing much they could do at the hospital as there was nothing left to
stitch over the wound, so a more professional dressing was applied and
home I went.
The finger has a dent in it is still tender
regards
John

On Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:57:42 GMT, "Thomas G. Marshall"
. com wrote:


I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a
near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of other's
mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this thread dies
with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or more?

Yeah you can get a nearly infinite list of accidents and near
accidents from a google search, but it never hurts to repeat this
stuff either.

My most serious incident was at the band saw. I was resawing a short
board that was a lot higher than my makeshift fence. I was using a
push stick, but because of the low fence I had to push low on the
stock. Because I was pushing low, and it was a short piece so there
wasn't much weight, it started to lift up at the back end.

So now I was paying more attention to what was going on behind the cut
than at the cut, which completed unexpectedly. The stock, the push
stick, and my hand all shot forward, and my knuckle was introduced to
a 1/2" 4 TPI bandsaw blade. Fortunately it didn't go very deep.

It's not usually one thing going wrong that causes problems, it's when
a bunch of little things accumulate that you suddenly find yourself in
an unexpected situation. At those times, just hit the damn red button
and regroup.


-Leuf

On Aug 9, 1:57 pm, "Thomas G. Marshall"
. com wrote:
I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a
near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of other's
mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this thread dies
with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or more?

Mine: I was using a Dremel Tool (high speed rotary) for sharpening my lawn
mower blade. I was wearing the safety goggles, but it was hot out and I was
sweating into them. When I was done I checked the balance of the blade and
thought I could use a smidgeon off the very end of the blade to make it
balance perfectly.

The goggles were at the other end of the room. I figured it was a sec or
two of grinding. I got possitioned over the blade too close with no eye
protection. I *knew* the spin direction would throw the shards downward,
I've been doing it for nearly 20 minutes. But I figured that I might as
well get used to a no-exceptions rule, so I walked across the room, cleaned
them out, wiped my face with a towel, and put them on, all the while cursing
myself for being so safe.

I had lost track of the position of the dremel tool and the side of the
blade I was using. It actually was spinning up toward me in that position I
would have used. Shards of metal struck my eye goggles, and peppered much
of my face, at a very high rate of speed.

20+ years ago I was putting the railing on my deck and I used a couple
36" flat bar clamps to hold the railing to the posts temporarily. I
attached the clamps with the bars pointing out into the yard, not back
over the deck. I stepped back a few feet for a visual and then
walked towards to railing to adjust it. My eyes were focused on the
railing, not on the clamps, so I never saw the end of the steel bar
until it hit my safety glasses. It knocked them off and put a rather
large gash in my forehead, just above my left eye.

After I bandaged myself up and retrieved my safety glasses, I found a
deep scratch that started dead center in the left lens and extended up
to the frame. If not for the safety glasses deflecting the bar up
into my forehead, it would have gone straight into my left eye.

I still have a scar (and the railing) to remind me how important
safety glasses are.

On Aug 9, 9:12 pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Aug 9, 1:57 pm, "Thomas G. Marshall"





. com wrote:
I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a
near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of other's
mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this thread dies
with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or more?

Mine: I was using a Dremel Tool (high speed rotary) for sharpening my lawn
mower blade. I was wearing the safety goggles, but it was hot out and I was
sweating into them. When I was done I checked the balance of the blade and
thought I could use a smidgeon off the very end of the blade to make it
balance perfectly.

The goggles were at the other end of the room. I figured it was a sec or
two of grinding. I got possitioned over the blade too close with no eye
protection. I *knew* the spin direction would throw the shards downward,
I've been doing it for nearly 20 minutes. But I figured that I might as
well get used to a no-exceptions rule, so I walked across the room, cleaned
them out, wiped my face with a towel, and put them on, all the while cursing
myself for being so safe.

I had lost track of the position of the dremel tool and the side of the
blade I was using. It actually was spinning up toward me in that position I
would have used. Shards of metal struck my eye goggles, and peppered much
of my face, at a very high rate of speed.

20+ years ago I was putting the railing on my deck and I used a couple
36" flat bar clamps to hold the railing to the posts temporarily. I
attached the clamps with the bars pointing out into the yard, not back
over the deck. I stepped back a few feet for a visual and then
walked towards to railing to adjust it. My eyes were focused on the
railing, not on the clamps, so I never saw the end of the steel bar
until it hit my safety glasses. It knocked them off and put a rather
large gash in my forehead, just above my left eye.

After I bandaged myself up and retrieved my safety glasses, I found a
deep scratch that started dead center in the left lens and extended up
to the frame. If not for the safety glasses deflecting the bar up
into my forehead, it would have gone straight into my left eye.

I still have a scar (and the railing) to remind me how important
safety glasses are.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I always wear safety glasses anytime I am working on a project or
using a power tool. I even wear safety glasses when I mow the lawn.
However I was careless at my table saw once and the damage cost about
$3000. I needed to cut out some drawer bottoms from a 1/4" piece of
plywood. Carelessly, I didn't set the blade to the proper height and
I was a little careless holding the plywood against the fence. I was
wearing safety glasses. The peice of plywood kicked back and struck
the fore finger on my right hand. It stung for a moment but the pain
went away quickly. When I looked down at my hand the fore finger was
bent where there is no knuckle but the skin was not broken. I walked
from my shop to the house (about 100 yds) and had the wife take me to
the emergency room. The bone in the finger had a clean break. It
required surgery and a plate and screws were used to repair the
break. The finger still has a lot of scar tissue but it works
normally, no tendon damage. Always take the time to set the blade at
the proper height on a table saw. If I had set the blade at the right
height the kick back would not have been as severe.

Thomas G. Marshall wrote:
I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a
near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of other's
mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this thread dies
with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or more?

When I was a noob, I was using a fence mounted stop block to cut equal
length parts. A properly sized stop ends well before the blade starts.
Unfortunately, my stop was too long, extending to the area between the
fence and blade.

A cutoff got trapped between the blade and fence, and was launched like
a pitching machine. I got hit in the lower gut hard enough to
initially believe I would soon die. Luckily, the wood had hit my thumb
first. I broke my thumb, but the emergency room folks thought it took
some of the energy away from my abdominal impact.

I've been hit by frozen pucks, hockey sticks, linebackers, the ground
and curbing during serious bicycle crashes, I've stuck my hand into
large scale r/c propellers and had one serious auto accident. This
injury hurt worse than any of that.

A second thought and review of the procedure before the first cut would
have prevented the accident.

Let's be safe...

Thomas G. Marshall wrote:
I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a
near-miss.

A quick point about eye wear.

Obviously, eye protection helps protect our eyes from direct damage.

A less mentioned benefit is that even nuisance dust can cause an eye to
blink, blur or heavily tear. Even though light dust irritation is
usually recoverable and only a nuisance, the thought of having my eyes
closed while my hands are near spinning blades and bits, or my bicycle
is traveling at decent speeds gives me the heebie-jeebies.

A couple of weeks ago i was routing a curved piece of 3/4 MDF on the
router table for a form. i was wearing goggles and told my son to
leave the workshop until i was done. the edge caught the bit and i
let go.... the bit grabbed along the entire length of the heavy piece,
accelerating it and shooting it accros the room into a radiator cover
i was working on. the impact was as loud as a shotgun, and knocked
the radiator cover off the workbench with tremendous force. it was
scary and a reminder of what can happen. i was able to fix the damage
on the radiator cover, and will make sure my son is always out of
harms way.....maybe my wife would like to hang out in the workshop
next time

On Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:57:42 GMT, "Thomas G. Marshall"
. com wrote:


Even when it is late at night, even though it is the last cut of the
night, even though you're tired and want to finish up and hit the
sack, you still need to move the fence to the other side of the blade
to make a safe bevel cut on a right tilt table saw.

The bruise in my side went away after about three weeks. The hole in
the shop door was fairly easy to patch.

Frank

The problem I see with accidents and the young people around here, is they
do not want to follow rules. Any rules!

The respect they get from their friends grows with the severity of the
accidents they have. The worse the accident, the more "respect" they get
from their "friends".

Their thinking is: Don't read any rules. Don't follow any rules. Do the
opposite!

What they don't understand is that many rules/laws are in place to protect
THEM. This is advice handed down from others who have had accidents or by a
community which wants to prevent such accidents from occurring in the
future.

I'm talking about safety rules in the front of instruction manuals, OSHA
rules, driving laws/rules, building code rules, etc.

No one ever thinks about WHY rules/laws were created in the first place. Why
it says to wear safety goggles. Why there is a speed limit. Why you should
wear a safety harness when working high up. Etc.

Actually these rules/laws are a detailed history of accidents which have
happened in the past. So when it says to wear eye protection, this is
because someone has used that piece of equipment in the past and had an eye
injury. Or the electrical code says to do your wiring in a certain manner -
well someone died in the past or was electrocuted because the wiring was not
done in this manner.

So these young people can start their lives by reading and following
rules/laws. Or they can place their lives in the hands of Darwin... (In my
area, Darwin has claimed the lives of 3 young people already this summer.)
Needless...

on 8/10/2007 11:11 AM Bill said the following:
The problem I see with accidents and the young people around here, is they
do not want to follow rules. Any rules!

The respect they get from their friends grows with the severity of the
accidents they have. The worse the accident, the more "respect" they get
from their "friends".

Their thinking is: Don't read any rules. Don't follow any rules. Do the
opposite!

What they don't understand is that many rules/laws are in place to protect
THEM. This is advice handed down from others who have had accidents or by a
community which wants to prevent such accidents from occurring in the
future.

I'm talking about safety rules in the front of instruction manuals, OSHA
rules, driving laws/rules, building code rules, etc.

No one ever thinks about WHY rules/laws were created in the first place. Why
it says to wear safety goggles. Why there is a speed limit. Why you should
wear a safety harness when working high up. Etc.

Actually these rules/laws are a detailed history of accidents which have
happened in the past. So when it says to wear eye protection, this is
because someone has used that piece of equipment in the past and had an eye
injury. Or the electrical code says to do your wiring in a certain manner -
well someone died in the past or was electrocuted because the wiring was not
done in this manner.

So these young people can start their lives by reading and following
rules/laws. Or they can place their lives in the hands of Darwin... (In my
area, Darwin has claimed the lives of 3 young people already this summer.)
Needless...

All kids are immortal and immune to things that happen to other people.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

"Thomas G. Marshall" . com wrote in message
news:qAIui.3596$9F4.2407@trndny04...

I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a near-miss. Then I
figured that what I really wanted was to read of other's mishaps and close-calls to know what is
dangerous. Maybe this thread dies with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or
more?

Mine is a table saw kick-back story. I had removed the blade guard since I was cutting a lot of dadoes
(I know, I know, but Norm does it!).
Turns out the fence was slightly out of alignment with the blade, and a piece of plywood I was cutting
bound up on the back of the blade. The blade lifted the plywood and the top of the blade caught it and
hurled it at my stomach. Ripped a perfectly good plaid shirt, and raised several lumps, though no
breaks in the skin. The plywood was all dinged up afterwards too.

Moral of the story. Check the alignment of the rip fence with the blade weekly. Use a ruler, and align
with the same tooth at the front and at the back.

"B A R R Y" wrote in message
...
Thomas G. Marshall wrote:
I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a near-miss.

A quick point about eye wear.

Obviously, eye protection helps protect our eyes from direct damage.

A less mentioned benefit is that even nuisance dust can cause an eye to blink, blur or heavily tear.
Even though light dust irritation is usually recoverable and only a nuisance, the thought of having
my eyes closed while my hands are near spinning blades and bits, or my bicycle is traveling at
decent speeds gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I find the glasses steam up after a few minutes, especially wearing a mask filter too. One of those
whole-face guards that the Normster uses on the lathe is much better. Can't afford a sealing version
with the filter and motorised fan though.

In article , B A R R Y wrote:
Thomas G. Marshall wrote:
I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of a
near-miss.

A quick point about eye wear.

Obviously, eye protection helps protect our eyes from direct damage.

A less mentioned benefit is that even nuisance dust can cause an eye to
blink, blur or heavily tear. Even though light dust irritation is
usually recoverable and only a nuisance, the thought of having my eyes
closed while my hands are near spinning blades and bits, or my bicycle
is traveling at decent speeds gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Another less-mentioned -- and less-appreciated -- point is that there are
other parts of your face besides your eyes that should be protected. I don't
believe I'd much enjoy catching chunk of wood in the teeth, or the nose.
Hence, I always wear a full-face shield when operating power tools -- and some
hand tools, too, like hammers.

--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

In article , willshak wrote:

All kids are immortal and immune to things that happen to other people.

My son (just turned 16) received a painful reminder of his own mortality from
a lawnmower at the end of June:

http://www.milmac.com/MangledShoe.jpg WARNING: not for the faint of heart

Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt, and has almost completely recovered. His
left big toe is about 1/4" shorter than it used to be; other than that, he's
fine, and has been playing soccer again for a couple weeks now.


--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.

If I start working in the shop at 10:00 AM (after my pain meds kick in) I
can go for up to three hours and still able to do accurate work, but by
1:30 to 3PM i'm starting to make mistakes and I know it's time to quit for
the day.

On 2007-08-10, Doug Miller wrote:

Hence, I always wear a full-face shield when operating power tools
-- and some hand tools, too, like hammers.

How do you find that to work for you? I've found my face shield is
easily scratched (polycarbonate) and gets dusty very easily. So using
it is rather a nuisance, is there any way to reduce that?

Thanks, Wayne

Doug Miller wrote:

Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt, and has almost completely recovered. His
left big toe is about 1/4" shorter than it used to be; other than that, he's
fine, and has been playing soccer again for a couple weeks now.

I didn't look, thanks for the warning. It's good to hear he's OK!
Lawnmowers can do ugly things.

on 8/10/2007 2:28 PM B A R R Y said the following:
Doug Miller wrote:

Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt, and has almost completely
recovered. His left big toe is about 1/4" shorter than it used to be;
other than that, he's fine, and has been playing soccer again for a
couple weeks now.

I didn't look, thanks for the warning. It's good to hear he's OK!
Lawnmowers can do ugly things.

The pic is not that bad. No foot in the pic, just a sneaker and sock. My
Golden Retriever, as a pup, did more damage to one of my shoes than that
mower. :-)

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

In article ,
(Doug Miller) wrote:

In article , willshak
wrote:

All kids are immortal and immune to things that happen to other people.

My son (just turned 16) received a painful reminder of his own mortality from
a lawnmower at the end of June:

http://www.milmac.com/MangledShoe.jpg WARNING: not for the faint of heart

Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt, and has almost completely recovered. His
left big toe is about 1/4" shorter than it used to be; other than that, he's
fine, and has been playing soccer again for a couple weeks now.

With a little luck, the wisdom he got from that will help him reach his
17th birthday (and many more).

I've seem most of the ones listed but there is one I
didn't notice.

I was death on my men laying a Skil saw down on the
guard. To start with, you can spring the guard that
way but I once saw a man lay it down on the guard and
the guard was stuck UP. It came right across the top
of his shoe. He was lucky that the blade was stopping
and it didn't get through the shoe.


"Thomas G. Marshall"
. com
wrote in message news:qAIui.3596$9F4.2407@trndny04...

I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear
with my quick story of a near-miss. Then I figured
that what I really wanted was to read of other's
mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous.
Maybe this thread dies with 1 post, I hope not.
Perhaps it's been done 100 times or more?

I've got three - all the results of flat out ignorance.

The first involved a bandsaw - and a bandsaw blade with
what I NOW know was a bad weld. Though I'd heard the
tic-tic-tic of the bad weld as it passed the blade guides,
I lacked the knowledge to interpret what that sound
meant. When the band's weld failed the resulting noise
as it accordianed into the blade quard stopped my ability
to breath and I think it stopped my heart - for several
moments. The thought of what would've happened if
the broken band hadn't been constrained in the blade
guard causes shudders.

The second involved a 12" sliding compound miter saw.
I had a piece of wood about 8" wide and maybe 6" long.
I needed it to be a 6" square. I hadn't acquired a table
saw yet and couldn't figure out how to hold the stock
so I could rip it to the desired width with a handheld
circular saw. SO - I pressed the 8" width against the
SCMS fence, and holding it "firmly" with my left hand,
tried to cut 2" of the width of the part. BIG Mistake!
A "moments diagram" would have shown me that the
force I was applying with my left hand 4" from the
fulcrum of an 6 inch lever and the force applied by
a 1 hp, 12" diameter circular saw turning at maybe
6-8000 rpms at 2" from the fulcrum (2" of the part
was passed the SCMS's fence) was no where near
the same. The saw won, I somehow didn't break my
thumb, or fingers, or wrist - and I miraculously was
not struck by either flying piece of wood - nor
did any part of me contact any of the spinning
pieces of sharp carbide. The memory of that really
stupid move causes both a shudder AND rates up
there as a 9 on The Pucker Scale.

The third easily avoidable Dumb Move involved
a tight mortise and tenon joint. A blow to the
head can actually cause you to see stars.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/OOPS/OOPS1.html

Woodworkers Central has an Accident Survey page
worth exploring
http://www.woodworking2.org/AccidentSurvey/search.htm

And here's some stuff I put together on "kickback"
which may save someone some grief

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/K...KickBack1.html

charlie b

wrote in message
ups.com...

....[snip]...

[...] Always take the time to set the blade at
the proper height on a table saw. If I had set the blade at the right
height the kick back would not have been as severe.


Is there a proper height rule-of-thumb for hand-held circular saws? I've
often wondered what was optimal, safe, or both.

"willshak" wrote in message
...
on 8/10/2007 2:28 PM B A R R Y said the following:
Doug Miller wrote:
Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt, and has almost completely recovered.
His left big toe is about 1/4" shorter than it used to be; other than
that, he's fine, and has been playing soccer again for a couple weeks
now.

I didn't look, thanks for the warning. It's good to hear he's OK!
Lawnmowers can do ugly things.

The pic is not that bad. No foot in the pic, just a sneaker and sock. My
Golden Retriever, as a pup, did more damage to one of my shoes than that
mower. :-)

Best dogs ever. Will love you to death. Both sides of our family have had
them from way before they were popular. Lots of great stories. But them
razor puppy teeth......they're like a buck saw on anything they happen
across...

"bob" wrote in message
news
If I start working in the shop at 10:00 AM (after my pain meds kick in) I
can go for up to three hours and still able to do accurate work, but by
1:30 to 3PM i'm starting to make mistakes and I know it's time to quit for
the day.

I've trained myself to detect when I'm about to apply (and believe) the
logic that says "just one more and then I'll go to bed" means "it's the last
one and therefore it can't hurt me".

This applies to motorcycling, sawing, climbing the ladder, etc., etc...

I've heard that professional skiers watch for this reasoning as well.

"Glenn" wrote in message
...
I've seem most of the ones listed but there is one I didn't notice.

I was death on my men laying a Skil saw down on the guard. To start with,
you can spring the guard that way but I once saw a man lay it down on the
guard and the guard was stuck UP. It came right across the top of his
shoe. He was lucky that the blade was stopping and it didn't get through
the shoe.

I always do that, and always feel funny about it.

The guys who built my deck had removed all the blade guards, because
apparently they felt they got in the way. So they were regularly flipping
them upside-down on the deck, spinning teeth free to hit anything.

Also, not one eye goggle. Not one mask (the holding structure was PT).

You lay it on it's side. of course to the mod 77.


"Thomas G. Marshall"
. com
wrote in message news:lE4vi.12$eb4.5@trndny08...

"Glenn" wrote in message
...
I've seem most of the ones listed but there is one I
didn't notice.

I was death on my men laying a Skil saw down on the
guard. To start with, you can spring the guard that
way but I once saw a man lay it down on the guard
and the guard was stuck UP. It came right across
the top of his shoe. He was lucky that the blade
was stopping and it didn't get through the shoe.

I always do that, and always feel funny about it.

The guys who built my deck had removed all the blade
guards, because apparently they felt they got in the
way. So they were regularly flipping them
upside-down on the deck, spinning teeth free to hit
anything.

Also, not one eye goggle. Not one mask (the holding
structure was PT).

I haven't used it myself, they make a spray for motorcycle goggles that
creates a no-fog, no-static barrier for plastic. I've heard of others using
it on their face shields and the no-static surface no longer attracts dust.
(The dust is attracted by static).

"Wayne Whitney" wrote in message
...
On 2007-08-10, Doug Miller wrote:

Hence, I always wear a full-face shield when operating power tools
-- and some hand tools, too, like hammers.

How do you find that to work for you? I've found my face shield is
easily scratched (polycarbonate) and gets dusty very easily. So using
it is rather a nuisance, is there any way to reduce that?

Thanks, Wayne

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:02:17 GMT, "Thomas G. Marshall"
. com wrote:


wrote in message
oups.com...

...[snip]...

[...] Always take the time to set the blade at
the proper height on a table saw. If I had set the blade at the right
height the kick back would not have been as severe.


Is there a proper height rule-of-thumb for hand-held circular saws? I've
often wondered what was optimal, safe, or both.


As in never higher than your shoulders?

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:39:38 -0700, charlieb
wrote:



The third easily avoidable Dumb Move involved
a tight mortise and tenon joint. A blow to the
head can actually cause you to see stars.


I laughed when I read that one...


A few years ago I was getting into my truck, a good climb up. Winter,
lot's of ice, and my legs shot out from under me, and went under the
truck, and down I went, seemingly head first.

My head hit the ice, and I *heard* the most incredible 'boing' sound
ever. I never knew the skull was resonate until that day, but you saw
stars--I heard bells ringing.

Funny thing was that I didn't even get a headache, but it sure scared
the living daylights out of me--I figured I'd fractured my skull. bg
I'm now much more careful about getting in and out of the truck too.

on 8/10/2007 5:11 PM Thomas G. Marshall said the following:
"willshak" wrote in message
...

on 8/10/2007 2:28 PM B A R R Y said the following:

Doug Miller wrote:

Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt, and has almost completely recovered.
His left big toe is about 1/4" shorter than it used to be; other than
that, he's fine, and has been playing soccer again for a couple weeks
now.

I didn't look, thanks for the warning. It's good to hear he's OK!
Lawnmowers can do ugly things.

The pic is not that bad. No foot in the pic, just a sneaker and sock. My
Golden Retriever, as a pup, did more damage to one of my shoes than that
mower. :-)


Best dogs ever. Will love you to death. Both sides of our family have had
them from way before they were popular. Lots of great stories. But them
razor puppy teeth......they're like a buck saw on anything they happen
across...

....and except for the hair. Sheds 24/7/365. Vacuum one day and have
little tumbleweeds in the corners next day. We have a central vacuum and
the app. 25 gallon can gets filled to the top with hair every couple of
months. Enough to build another dog.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:45:07 -0400, willshak
wrote:

on 8/10/2007 2:28 PM B A R R Y said the following:
Doug Miller wrote:

Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt, and has almost completely
recovered. His left big toe is about 1/4" shorter than it used to be;
other than that, he's fine, and has been playing soccer again for a
couple weeks now.

I didn't look, thanks for the warning. It's good to hear he's OK!
Lawnmowers can do ugly things.

The pic is not that bad. No foot in the pic, just a sneaker and sock. My
Golden Retriever, as a pup, did more damage to one of my shoes than that
mower. :-)


I've got a golden retriever/yellow lab cross..... 13 year old yellow
puppy. As a 1 year old puppy, he ate every peice of vinyl he could
touch..... spa covers (3, not the styrofoam, just the vinyl cover, but
ALL of it), the fill spout on my waterbed matress.... whatever. Not
to mention my daugters' barbies, socks and panties. AND an entire
backyard of redwood bender board. I don't mean "chewed up", I mean
"ATE". And left the evidence behind for me to pick up later.

-Zz

My most scary accident invloved TS kickback. I have a small shop, and
to rip anything over about 16" long I have to open the garage door (an
aluminum roll-up). I was working late, and went to trim a square
piece of 3/4" plywood that was about 14 X 16 inches. What I hadn't
accounted for was the vertical aluminum channel on the garage door,
which the plywood encounted, stopping the cut. Next thing I knew, the
plywood was gone, and my hands were holding air over my TS. The blade
had thown the board back at me spinning like a Frisbee, hitting me in
the stomach and side. Luckily, the spin was sympathetic, so it rolled
off me and continued into a stack of plastic totes, totally
demolishing them. A bruise on my belly, and a wake up call.

-Zz

Mine involves 3 seperate incidents. Did I learn from them, yes and no.

The first is when I was using a RAS to rip some wood. I know, I know
shouldn't have done it, but it was that or a hand saw. Anyways, the wood I
was ripping grabbed and sucked my finger in with it. It left a nice little
dent in my right index finger that the ER could only clean up. Leason
learned: Don't use the RAS to rip lumber.

The next one comes from the "why kids shouldn't be allowed in the shop
unless they have warning lights and 120db sirens on" department. One nice
winter afternoon, I was tuning up my jointer. I had just finished setting
blade height and decided to run a test piece through. I didn't hear the door
open when my daughter decided to come in. I started the jointer and began to
run the piece through when I hear a big loud "BOO". Startled, My hand tries
to reach for the on off switch but instead comes in contact with the spining
blades. I get it shut off and look at my finger expecting to see it mangled.
I was surprised that I didn't even have a scratch. Leason learned: Lock the
doors while using power tools.

The last is from the "you should practice with the machine off" department.
I finally got a new table saw. I spent the better part of the day putting it
together and came time for the first cut. I practiced using the miter guage
and sliding it because the table was shorter than what I was used to. I
turned the saw on and instead of doing it the way I practiced, I decided to
freehand it. Well I lost the hand position to blade spatial relationship and
I felt the nick in my finger. Needless to say I knew there wasn't anything
the ER could do. Took 2 weeks before I used the TS again. Leason learned:
Alcohol, power tools, and a late night don't mix.

Allen

"Thomas G. Marshall" . com
wrote in message news:qAIui.3596$9F4.2407@trndny04...

I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of
a near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of
other's mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this
thread dies with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or
more?

Mine: I was using a Dremel Tool (high speed rotary) for sharpening my lawn
mower blade. I was wearing the safety goggles, but it was hot out and I
was sweating into them. When I was done I checked the balance of the
blade and thought I could use a smidgeon off the very end of the blade to
make it balance perfectly.

The goggles were at the other end of the room. I figured it was a sec or
two of grinding. I got possitioned over the blade too close with no eye
protection. I *knew* the spin direction would throw the shards downward,
I've been doing it for nearly 20 minutes. But I figured that I might as
well get used to a no-exceptions rule, so I walked across the room,
cleaned them out, wiped my face with a towel, and put them on, all the
while cursing myself for being so safe.

I had lost track of the position of the dremel tool and the side of the
blade I was using. It actually was spinning up toward me in that position
I would have used. Shards of metal struck my eye goggles, and peppered
much of my face, at a very high rate of speed.

A white sheppard puppy can do some dammage with teeth too, they razor sharp
and curved, ours caught me right at the edge of my finger nail while I was
feeding her something, it sank in and I jerked back, OUCH ripped out some
meat there with it also, hurt for a month.
"willshak" wrote in message
...
on 8/10/2007 2:28 PM B A R R Y said the following:
Doug Miller wrote:

Fortunately, he wasn't badly hurt, and has almost completely
recovered. His left big toe is about 1/4" shorter than it used to be;
other than that, he's fine, and has been playing soccer again for a
couple weeks now.

I didn't look, thanks for the warning. It's good to hear he's OK!
Lawnmowers can do ugly things.

The pic is not that bad. No foot in the pic, just a sneaker and sock. My
Golden Retriever, as a pup, did more damage to one of my shoes than that
mower. :-)

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

While helping rebuild a porch, using a palm nailer, my dad pulled a good
one, I had been using it a bit so I kinda had it figured out, BTW the palm
nailer is a great little tool in tight spaces, and uses common nails, told
my dad how to use it, told him to place the nail into the snout of the
nailer and then press the nail where you want to nail it and push in on the
nailer, guess age is catching up with his hearing, or he condensed it to
push the nail into the nailer, anyway, next thing I hear, the palm nailer
went off, I turn back, he is looking at it like, "what happend" he pushed
the nail into the barrel a bit too hard and it fired the nail out of it,
good thing he was pointing it away from him at the time, we never found that
nail, got the porch done with no more runaway nails.
"Thomas G. Marshall" . com
wrote in message news:qAIui.3596$9F4.2407@trndny04...

I wanted to urge people to use protective eye gear with my quick story of
a
near-miss. Then I figured that what I really wanted was to read of
other's
mishaps and close-calls to know what is dangerous. Maybe this thread dies
with 1 post, I hope not. Perhaps it's been done 100 times or more?