Sometimes I forget how dumb I can be.

[Vic Baron]

Bought a couple of extra long up spiral router bits for my mortising jig. Decided to try some template routing so installed the bushing and collar and bit in my M12V - a brand new one I had in a drawer so I hadn't reworked the plunge springs etc.

IAC, I had the router on the bench and was checking to be sure it wasn't rubbing on the guide collar so I pressed down on the router plate and compressed the springs while I grabbed the bit (by the business end) and started to rotate the bit between left thumb and forefinger. It was rubbing the collar so I released a wee bit of the pressure I was holding on the plate with my right hand and wham! - the strong spring load slammed the plate to the top of its travel, pushing my left hand along with it. This is the hand that was clutching bravely to the bit.

Those suckers are SHARP!

And for those who haven't tried it - getting bloodstains out of white oak is a PITA.

Walked around the shop for the rest of the day saying "Dumb!"

Moral of the story - routers can bite you even when they're not plugged in.

Vic

[Robatoy]

Well, Vic.....I know exactly what you're talking about... right down to the make of the router..yup.. happened to a friend of mine..yea, that's the ticket... a friend of mind..yup...

[upscale]

Similar thing happened to me this past summer when I was building those garden benches. Only in my case, it was a new, really sharp hand saw that I'd bought at Lee Valley and I didn't even know I'd cut my hand. While assembling a bench, I noticed streaks of red on it and was confused as hell trying to find out where all this 'red' was coming from.

[TD]

Vic ...

This is a good cautionary tale for me as I am still making friends with my first plunge router -- a Milwaukee -- and getting ready to make about a dozen mortises for the latest project.

Larry

Vic Bar> Bought a couple of extra long up spiral router bits for my mortising

[RicodJour]

Sounds like the cuts I get from my scraper planes. I am totally aware that the things have a taste for blood, but they still get me. I'll just barely touch one, and then it's the waiting game to see how long the cut will take to start to bleed. Sometimes I'm pulling the cut open and it still doesn't bleed, so I think I got lucky. Next morning there's a sore spot and the start of a scab.

R

[Robatoy]

The creepiest explanation of 'sharp' I ever heard was from a 5-foot German machinist with round wire-rim glasses who was talking about planer knives and with a thick german accent said: "Those knives must be so sharp than when you touch them, they schtick to you."

[RicodJour]

Did the guy work on Dustin Hoffman's teeth...?

R

[Robatoy]

Call me uninformed....but huh?

[RicodJour]

The last thirty seconds or so:

[Robatoy]

*shudder*

[Puckdropper]

"Vic Baron" wrote in news:TmOBm.35816$ [e-mail]:

I never touch the business end of a router bit without leather gloves. I've been bitten a few times, and prefer to avoid it. A good pair of leather gloves runs about $10. Cheap enough to buy two (pairs!)

Puckdropper

[EXT]

The worst of all is to change a cutting blade on a paper cutting guillotine, the blades are about 1/2" thick, several inches tall and range from 30" long up to 48" long and can weigh several pounds. A newly sharpened blade is as sharp as a razor blade, move the blade the wrong way or grab it wrong can sever fingers or tendons. No one was allowed to go near the guy who got to change the blade while he was working on it as he could not afford to loose his concentration.

[Joe]

Reminds me of the blade on a big offset press I used to work on which was set up to cut magazine cover stock on the fly (couple/few thousand fpm). five foot (at least) long blades rotating on a cylinder. cover stock went between this blade and a fixed piece of steel. the blade and the fixed piece never touched, but they severed that magazine cover stock neat as you please. I never did ask what the tolerences were between the two. I wish I had. Certainly, it was something that you'd never want to get too close to with a finger.