How many times have you been in the middle of doing something with a particular powertool and have this little "moment of clarity" and say to yourself,"Holy crap! This is a bad idea."?

I had one of those today. I was using a router turned on end with a slot cutter affixed. No bigge. I do that all the time. Today I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with those strings that hang from each side of your neck. With the tool running, I made a little weight shift to better support my work. As I did this I noticed out of the corner of my right eye that dam'n string swing DANGEROUSLY close to the bit. I don't want to imagine what might have happened if that string had become tangled in the bit.

Look out ,face, here comes a router running wide ass open!


Be careful out there.

CHU.

All right, I'll bite. Why do you have it turned on end? I hope it's in a makeshift table or something. Or is danger your business?

Provided I have a flat surface upon which to upend my router,I see no particular safety issue in that particular application. When a router gets to speed,there exists a gyroscopic effect that tends to keep the tool stable. It works for me.

14 yrs ago I had one of those moments but failed to take heed. I was making a plunge cut on the table saw and put my left hand behind the blade to stabilize the wood. I kept thinking that something was wrong with this picture but my mind was to fuzzy because I had been working all day and it was near quiting time. So I complete the cut and because of my fuzzy thinking, I tried to slide the board out sideways. Of course it bound up in the blade and in a microsecond, kicked back at me with a wallop and drew my left hand into my brand new B&D pirahna blade. I didn't lose any fingers but did get a very nasty cut. Today, I pay much more attention to those "moments of clarity".

Meeting and speaking with guys who have had horrible accidents is probably the best "no experience" experience I have ever had.

I have a friend that chopped his left hand in two while he was "milling" an end with a miter saw. He got put back together ,pretty much. He runs a 6 man crew.

I know a trim guy that has cut off his thumb 2 times. He is an old timer,but dam'n, twice?

The most gross thing I have heard was a story a client told me. He came up in thye cabinet biz. He told me the tale of this kid pushing panels over a dado. Dado hit a knot,busted the plank and the kid's hand came right down on the dado. Cut his hand off at a 45. Right about the middle of the hand. Nothing left to sew back with that one.

Okay here goes. Late onne afternoon near quitting time I'm making a rip on the table saw and decide to reach back behind the blade and pull it through with my left hand. Plank hit a knot or something and kicked back pulling my hand into the saw blade. all I remember about the actual cutt was the motor on the saw making a weird "not supposed to be cutting this" sound. I got my hand out as quick as possible and looked up at the sky for what seemed like forever then glanced down an the damage and kinda made a grunting sound. index and thumb where mangled, looked like hamburger. cut my index like a snakes tongue..I was wearing 2 T-shirts that day (one of those bitter cold florida winter days )and took one off and wrapped it real tight. went inside the home and told my brother we needed to leave a little early and go to the hospital, he laughed and thought I was joking, then I showed him and he turned whiter than I was..

3 years latrer I have no real feeling from the last knuckle up and they are about a 1/4" shorter than nature intended, needless to say I now look like a welder when i head to the table saw..

Guess I've been lucky, though I've had that blade pretty close to my fingers before--close enough to take a little skin off but no blood. Plenty of kickbacks from the table saw(dull blade)--lucky again. Had 17 stitches from replacing a scraper blade--almost got a tendon.

Routers still spook me except the Festool.

I am paranoid about tablesaw kickback. I have been nailed in the....uh.....brains more than once by a scrap that flew back into my lap.

I almost never finish off a plunge cut or any type of "L -cut" on the saw surface. I get to within a 1/2 in or so of my mark,get the material off of the blade and just break off the waste piece.

Sean stuck his fingers in the table saw for a day off and so I would have to finish the stairs he was working on any thing for an easy day . But really his fingers were a mess the guard was on the saw and his hand got stuck between it and the blade and bounced around for a second or two.
This week I was also doing a set of stairs, I was outside about to start making the stairnoses, The homeowner is looking at my router and sets it back down on the table turned on, I plug it in and it goes crazy hops off the table saws and hits my arm, Lucky for me the body of the router hit me. I was wide awake the rest of the day.

my dear ole dad, rest his soul, always told me, "experience is the cheapest thing you can get, as long as you get it second hand".

what a guy.

Beelyhol:
"Experience" Definition? - "What you get when you don't get what you want!"
You guys be careful out there.
Charlie

Had a brief moment of clarity yesterday after mowing the lawn. Grabed the leaf blower to clean up and was about half way through when my shorts almost get ripped off. I had a pair on with a long drawstring and had not bothered to tie them up. Yep it got caught in the motor and wham all of a sudden the blower is trying to eat me. goes to show you never let your gaurd down even with simple tools.

i had a helper for some strange reason: steady the tread on a miter saw with his left hand line up the blade with his right hand. i heard the"im not supposed to be cutting this sound" saw him walk by the door doing the"walk" ( hand wrapped in a shirt between the legs. i told the homeowner we had to go and i would be back.LINE OF THE YEAR " gregg,,wait...YOU FORGOT HIS FINGERS...." yup,i dint see how bad it was ,he said we had to go and i dont mess with safty so we went,sure enough i looked down,there were his fingers laying by the saw. i remember thinking on the way to the hospital, and this is bad. I hope he didnt screw up the tread. to his credit when i returned to pack up my tools,he was right on the mark but unfortunatly his fingers got in the way. i hired a new helper the next day and told him" i dont care what you do,dont try to "catch" the piece from the board you cut. i go inside and i herWHAM,i run outside. he's fine. i say" what was that" he said "you told me to let the scrap fall.....

That injured helper could have had you paying for his rehab. Did you have workman's comp insurance on him?

yeah, we took him to a local hospital but we had to transport him to a world renound hand specialist in baltimore to get him fixed up. he lost one finger and attatched the other via pins and screws. the sad thing is he told me when hr started he was uncomfortable using all these saws,almost ironic it happened. i know him and his family well,when i called his mom to tell her what happened she was concerned for him but told me( between us) she was waiting for that call. i am fortunate my current helper listens to every word i say when it comes to opperating safely. his hand bills were fifty grand alone,plus time off etc. he eventually quit via not showing up one morning without a phone call or anything. i still to this day dont know why he had his fingers resting where the blade comes down. its not even a comfortable way to support the material. we just have to remember to be careful.