Be careful with all tools...

[Jim Vidler]

The following email was just sent around my company notifying of the loss of a loved one. I work in a fairly large company and don't know the individuals involved, the ages, or the details. I'm relaying it because I think most of us would not have considered drilling a potentially fatal activity.

"'s son, Ryan, passed away this week. Ryan was at home building a crate or box to house an injured animal, drilling holes in the lid when a piece of material broke off and impaled into his heart."

As a woodworker, my curiosity up to know the details. But there's no way I'm asking, so don't ask me too.

-Jim Vidler

[SonomaProducts.com]

I consider the RAS and the drill press to two most dangerous tools in the the shop. The RAS is obvious but that drill press is a sneaky bastard.

[Teamcasa]

The dangers of working with any power tool is axiomatic. However, IIRC, the tablesaw has the highest number of accidents. I am not counting the numerous less injurious cutting tools like chisels, knives and blades.

Dave

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[Jim]

Last survey I saw indicated the bandsaw was the leading stationary power tool involved in workshop injuries. I think bandsaws are so quiet, compared to most of the other shop tools, that we become a bit careless. I can't tell you how many times I have almost pushed my thumb into the blade. Thankfully, I have always caught myself in time.

Jim Ray, President McFeely's Square Drive Screws

[longshot]

but the TS will suck you in & spit you out.

[Leon]

Actually, It will not. I know this from experience and for piece of mind, I experimented with pushing an empty leather glove into a spinning TS blade. The glove was only being cut as long as I pushed it and is simply sat in place when I stopped pushing the glove into the blade. Your skin and bones are way softer than wood and simply "dissolve, so to speak" as they hit the blade much like the glove did. The TS will however cut your personal body parts as fast as you can feed them, no problem.

[Leon]

Probably because TS users out number RAS users many times over. I'd bet that the TS accident ratio is far below that of the RAS.

[Guess who]

...which is, of course, patently untrue. Your description of reality was bang on.

But we unfortuantely usually feed them to some extent, as we are usually pushing in that direction at the time.

[DaveH]

I do not own an RAS and am curious to know what makes them unusually dangerous? Seriously -- I competely believe it -- if you could just offer some discussion? Dave

[loutent]

I think the band saw is very dangerous too - just because it seems so "harmless" (in some ways).

Every time I fire it up, I hook up the shop vac to be sure I hear something through my ear protection. The saw looks almost harmless when running IMHO.

Then I think of a post here a few months ago where someone shut off his bandsaw and simply brushed off some sawdust while the blade was still in motion- with a terrible result...

I want to thank him for that mental image.

I also think that a woodworkers wort enemy in this regard is fatigue. The worst things happen toward the end of a shop day (however long that may be for you). If you're lucky it's just a bad miter or something like that.

Lou

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 04:17:52 GMT, the inscrutable "J.B. Bobbitt" spake:

The "OUCH!" factor.

Before it was Yuppieized it was called "common sense", and IIRC, our

8th grade Metal & Wood Shop teacher, Mr. Workman, presented it to us something like this:

"Pay Attention, Dipsticks! You'll -need- those fingers and hands for the rest of your lives."

Yes. Use whatever works!

---------------------------------------------------- Thesaurus: Ancient reptile with excellent vocabulary

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[Andy Dingley]

Only if you qualify the meaning of dangerous.

Most likely to have an accident ? (hammer, chisel, stacked heavy things)

Most serious, if you do have an accident? (spindle moulder, jointer)

[Andy Dingley]

One of my shelves committed seppukku last week and took out the shop radio. I was asleep at the time.

[mac davis]

damn... I realized after reading your post that my right hand was CLENCHED so hard I had to open it with the other hand... I try to maintain a healthy balance of fear/respect for all sharp objects, but the image of a spinning blade cutting through hands or fingers just chills my shit.. *shiver*

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[mac davis]

good point, Max...

"saws don't maim people, people maim people"?

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Unquestionably Confused]

was asleep at the time.

Marking knife or pull saw?

[fredfighter]

It also has a relatively small table compared to most table saws. With many typical table saws, you hav eot reach a bit to get your hand to the blade.

That's feature the bandsaw shares with the drill press.

Supposedly the most commonly reported injury with a RAS is the amputation of the left thumb by a person operating the saw with his right hand. I was taught to operate a RAS with my left hand, using my right to steady the workpiece. That way to put my hand in the path of the blade I'd have to reach across my body. It also means that my entire body is to the right of the blade with no part of my body inline with the blade. That, in turn, helps to prevent what is supposed to be the second most common RAS injury, dislocation of the shoulder when the saw kicks back. 'Kickback' in the case of RAS is kicking out toward the user.

Using the RAS left-handed sounded silly and awkward at first. It's downright unnatural. It's not the way Nahrm uses his. But after making one cut that way I was convinced it was the right way.

[Badger]

Accross the whole engineering/woodworking sphere in the Uk the drill press has the most injury incidents. Having had one throw a pound of cast iron at me, that was clamped, I can well believe it....

Niel.

[Badger]

Your so right, using a recip (sawzall) this week on sheet steel when getting tired I had to stop and think when I realised just how stupid the cut I was attempting to make was...9 hours in to the third 11 hour day rebuilding the wifes car (rusty land-rover).

Niel.

[Australopithecus scobis]

Except for the plastic tubing air lines, and the static charged dust collector...