hearing loss

What was your hand doing in the way of a kickback, in the line of fire so to speak?

IMO, not wearing a ring is the wrong lesson to take out of this experience. The right lessons to take out of it would be to take steps to prevent kickback, and ensure that all of your body parts are well out of the way should one occur.

Subject to your correction, I'm guessing that this occurred on a table saw, with no splitter, and no push sticks in use either.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

Reply to
Doug Miller
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No, it was in my early days of woodworking. I was ripping on a radial arm saw. Not even sure how it wound up smashing my fingers, it happened too fast. I have since replaced that RAS with a table saw and a compound mitre saw. And I always use push sticks. Still no ring though...

Reply to
Nancy A. Kroes

Incredible. Doubtless you also believe

- Woodturners who dropped a gouge that stuck in their foot because they were wearing sandles shouldn't wear boots, they should just be more careful to avoid lathe catches.

- Woodworkers who trip on electric cords on the floor should just walk more carefully, not take actions to remove the hazard. (I have 3 extension cords running along the ceiling of my shop because I got tired of the tripping hazard -- do you think I should take them down & just be "more careful"?)

People have posted here, "Something bad happened while I was working with my hands. The injury was *worse* because of a circle of metal on my finger. I'm not wearing rings in the shop anymore." Seems reasonable to me. It's a personally-proven technique of reducing the chance of injury.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

Greetings and Salutations... While it is great advice to keep one's hands out of any situation where a ring might get grabbed, it is not always possible. Accidents happen. So... my rule is "no jewelry in the shop". But then...I got out of the habit of wearing rings some years ago when I was more heavily involved in working on electronics and cars. It is just not a happy thing to stick one's hand into a piece of equipment and have a ring short something out. At best, it dings the equipment...at worst, it tries to weld the ring to the frame...which is NOT a pleasant experience. Regards Dave Mundt

Reply to
Dave Mundt

Same here (well, except that the ring doesn't have that much sentimental value). I always take my ring off, pop it onto my watch band, re-do the watch band, and put the pair of them on top of the microwave in the kitchen (right on the path to the gara^H^H^H^Hshop). Same thing I do in the shower, at night, and any other time I don't want to wear them (excepting that they might be on the headboard or sink, instead). Keeping a pattern -- and attaching the ring to something else! -- prevents it's loss.

--randy

Reply to
Randy Chapman

[snip]

Ahh, I see. Still IMO "no rings" is the wrong lesson to learn from this.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

Reply to
Doug Miller

Nope. I believe that anybody who wears sandals in a woodshop isn't too bright. There are just too many things that can land on your toes. Wearing shoes is just one of those things that falls into the category of "reasonable precautions", along with using a splitter and push sticks on a TS, and keeping your various body parts out of the line of fire.

You really should pay a bit more attention to posts before you respond to them. I never advocated leaving obvious safety hazards in place, and for you to conclude that I would, is quite a stretch of the imagination.

Keeping your hands away from things that can hurt them is also a proven technique, and IMO a better one, of reducing the chance of injury.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

Reply to
Doug Miller

I have seen 2 accidents involving rings. One involved a drill press; I don't know exactly what the guy did, but the ring was cracked (making a 'C' shape instead of an 'O') and the two ends thus created had punctured the wearer's fingers. One of the older and calmer guys in the shop grabbed 2 pairs of pliers and pulled the ring open to remove it from the finger.

The other time, an automotive mechanic accidentally let his wedding band complete a 12 volt circuit. That was around 15 years ago and he still has a circular scar around his ring finger.

Reply to
Lawrence Wasserman

Not trying to pick a fight, or insult, or engage in a long subthread.

IME wearing a ring in the shop *is* a safety hazard. If you don't agree, fine. I hope you never have to wish you had not had it on. It's really un-fun getting a ring off when the skin is no longer continuous under it.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

I have no idea what "the right question" is.

But the right answer is don't wear rings in a workshop.

-- Do whales have krillfiles ?

Reply to
Andy Dingley

wrote: >

And what will you do when you find yourself in a situation where you'd LIKE NOTHING MORE than to keep your hands away from harm's way, but an unfortunate circumstance and a powerful machine have different ideas? Haven't you read the stories about limbs getting dragged into hungry machines because something got hooked onto a ring or a watch or a piece of loose clothing? Wearing jewelry around any kind of machinery is just dumb, no matter how "careful" you are. Picture having a stout splinter of wood catch under your ring while feeding a board into the planer. A contrived example perhaps, but you never know what kind of shit is going to happen. Better safe than sorry.

Reply to
Steve Turner

I've had my wedding band on for so long, I couldn't even get it off if I had to. I always wondered why my finger is black and blue!

Reply to
Jerry Gilreath

One of the first lessons drilled into my head when I started work (early

70's) by our instructor was about safety (and so it should be). No rings, no loose clothes, no long hair. These came before safety glasses and safety shoes................

Rings are inherently dangerous - it's all to easy to catch a ring when you least expect it. I've heard all the arguments that your finger shouldn't be near the blades / drills etc., but the consequences of a minor mishap are too high - rings can rip a finger off.

Don't get me started about those videos of long hair in a drill press - makes you want to run out and get one of those geeky hair nets.

Play safe - don't argue it shouldn't happen - no accident should happen, ne careful - no rings, no loose clothes, not loose long hair and use eye protection.

Ian.

Reply to
Ian Wheeler

Note that tacking extension cords along your ceiling is a big safety no-no according to the electrical codes. Now is it really a problem? Well, it's probably safer than having them on the floor, but the right thing to do is to have permanent wiring sufficient that you don't need extension cords.

I'll bet you that the fire marshal would give you a lecture about those extension cords on your ceiling that sounds an awful lot like the way you are lecturing everybody about wearing a ring around a saw. Is it a big deal? No, but wearing a ring around a saw isn't that big a deal, either. There are situations in the shop where a ring could be dangerous, just as your cords could be dangerous if they are overloaded. But neither the ring nor the cords wiil lead to disaster if some care and common sense are exercised.

Tim Carver snipped-for-privacy@twocarvers.com

Reply to
Tim Carver

Sorry, my practical experience is different. The extension cords on the ceiling reduce a tripping hazard that existed when I ran them on the floor Ideally, of course, I'd have outlets wherever needed. But the panel and subpanel are maxed out. When I rewire the house I have to get a bigger cable from the power company.

Power in this house is a bummer. I have the extension cords (heavy, rated gage) to avoid problems. The utility room with its washer is on a separate

15A circuit. I unplug the washer and plug my TS into that circuit. I can't run the TS and shop vac on the gara^H^H^H^Hshop circuits and do any heavy cutting or the 15A breaker trips. Sometimes I "steal" power from one wall of the kitchen, which is also on its own circuit.

IMO the ring is an ever-present hazard, like wearing floppy clothing in the shop. 25+/- years ago my ring finger was dripping blood from an accident that (IIRC) could not have been forseen or prevented. The rest of my hand was sore but not bleeding. Chalk the accident up to random quantum fluxations.

Perhaps I'm more "attached" to my fingers than others. I'm a piano player and 75+ WPM typist. I'd rather lose a leg (I think) than a finger.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

P.S.

The overwhelming majority of my income the past 20 years has come from my ability to type computer programs and documentation. I really want/need to keep all 10 fingers!

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

Like others have written, the power cord that came with my Grizzly contractor saw is barely long enough to touch the floor. Likewise, my two electric drills have laughably short cords. Only the Sears shop vac, the DW router and PC router have long enough cords to be reasonably expected to plug into a wall socket and not require the use of an extension cord.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

Why did you not just snip or cut one section of the ring and widen it to get it off? I can't remember why it happened, but I remember crushing my ring one day. Used a pair of tin snips to cut the thin part, spread it and had it off easily. It was fairly cheap (e.g. $15) to have it repaired at the jewellers.

Reply to
Upscale

My table saw placement would require floor outlets or overhead outlets. I do not like floor outlets for anything in a woodshop and I don't like overhead outlets because they create another problem with materials catching on the hanging cables. Ergo, a 12' extension cord to my Unisaw works. I use extension cords on the floor from time to time, but try to remember toremove and recoil them as needed. I've got a total of more than 40 outlets in my shop, but there always seems to be a tool placed where some kind of extra cord length is needed. That's often because the manufacturer builds the tool to a bean counter's list and cuts 2-3 feet off the cord to save 15 cents or so.

Charlie Self "Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves." Dorothy Parker

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Reply to
Charlie Self

An ER doc had a photo on his site a few years ago of a left hand that got hit by a slab of wood that ended up with fusing of the joints of a couple of the fingers, one wearing a ring. It is taped to the front of my saw near the switch.

Reply to
Bob Bowles

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