Share your accidents and close-calls so others can learn from them?

[Roy Smith]

With a little luck, the wisdom he got from that will help him reach his

17th birthday (and many more).

[Glenn]

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.

[charlieb]

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.

Woodworkers Central has an Accident Survey page worth exploring And here's some stuff I put together on "kickback" which may save someone some grief

charlie b

[Thomas G. Marshall]

...[snip]...

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

[Thomas G. Marshall]

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...

[Thomas G. Marshall]

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.

[Thomas G. Marshall]

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).

[Glenn]

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

[Dennis]

[PeterD]

As in never higher than your shoulders?

[PeterD]

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. I'm now much more careful about getting in and out of the truck too.

[willshak]

on 8/10/2007 5:11 PM Thomas G. Marshall said the following:

...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.

[Craig M]

[Craig M]

[bob]

Read somwhere that a lady was knitting sweaters ought of dog hair, wouln't that be a hoot!

[bob]

I used to spend more time setting up a cut than actually cutting, pissed of my foreman du-jour but I almost never had a re-do, and in twenty five years only had one accident. I was cutting a patch for a bathroom floor that had rotted out from around the toilet, a complicated shape that I was cutting with a porter-cable top handle circular saw (77s were too much for my old, arthritic hands, etc) and dur to the lack of space I was cutting freehand, well to make an unpleasant story short my saw opened up a sloppy ragged gash on the thick part of my right hand (where the thumb meets the wrist) and I wrapped it in my bandanna tightly and drove to the emergency room. I finished up the next day with 10 stitches and an ace bandage.

And yes I took the time to pack up my tools before I left.

[Peter Huebner]

Ah, Real Manly Men.

In this country you can see them standing in a field, next to their tractor with a big spraytank, putting poison on their pastures clad in nothing but ankle high boots, shorts and a sleeveless undershirt; hat is optionial.

Of course you find them on our building sites as well, but since our OSH has started to come down on the employers Really Hard, most cowboys find they have to buck up or butt out. Those guys of yours would mend their ways or find themselves to be unemployable here pretty smartly.

-P.

[John B]

Apparently, that is not new. The Scots used to use the shed and brushed fur from their collie dogs for jumpers. As I own a Collie I can attest to fact that she sheds enough to make a three piece suit every year :)

A Scottish breakfast

1. Porridge
2. Glass of Scotch
3. Collie Dog

The dog eats the porridge

regards John

[mail3277198]

I was using a can of spray paint and didn't point it in the right direction...you can guess the rest.

THis was when was about 20. I've used eye protection when painting ever since.

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[Charlie]

To be honest, I have seen more accidents in my 20+ years of commercial construction that were caused by careless "old timers" who were confident that they were in complete control. I have corrected safety issues with the younger guys on the site, but the seasoned vets believe they know more than I do and continue on doing it however they want.

Charlie