WW accidents. How often has ring finger been hurt

[clutch]

Yesterday, my uncle lost most of the first joint of left ring finger in a jointer. Last year I almost lost my left ring finger while adjusting lower guides on a band saw that was running with lower cover open.

For those that track these kind of things, which fingers seem to get bit most often? I'm thinking that thumb, fore finger, and index finger don't get hit as often as ring finger since we tend to work with those three vs all five.

I think we fixate on the key three and loose track of the other two per hand.

The whole point of this message is to remind people to think about all your fingers and not just the ones that are guiding your stock.

Wes

[WoodMangler]

clutch did say:

My only casualty is a thumb. Don't know what the stats are overall though.

[Donald Drew, Jr]

Last year my middle finger, left hand was trimmed by about the same amount as your uncle's ring finger and in the very say way. Boy, am I stupid!

Don

[George]

I did right ring finger knuckle. Almost lengthwise cut on the bandsaw.

When the doc, a woodworker himself, asked me how, I had to admit that I had turned off the saw, then went to brush dust away. Stupid for a moment, maimed for life.

[Doug Miller]

Seems to me that a better point would be to remind people not to adjust machinery while it's running. Hope you've recovered from your injury.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.

[Charlie Self]

WoodMangler notes:

Well, as clutch found out, adjusting blade guides on a running bandsaw is not conducive to maintaining one's full finger count for a lifetime.

I'm not sure how you would factor that into any stats.

Charlie Self "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." John Kenneth Galbraith

[nospambob]

High School chum using hid fathers TS has a sliver fall through the table and rest one end ON the blade under the table. Lost four fingers from first knuckle beyond palm attempting to flick them away from the blade. Mid 1940s when reattach was a dream. Couple of years earlier a lad lost similar finger when his older brother slammed the car door on his hand not realizing he was trying to get out of the car also.

[mac davis]

I think about my whole friggin' arm.. I've grown sort of attached to it and want to keep it intact... I've mangled a lot of different push sticks, but never any body parts..

[Jay Windley]

Every time I go into my shop I take a second to consider that most of the machines in that room are trying to kill me. Even though I'm just an amateur, I've tried to condition myself to the basic rules such as turning off and disarming equipment and letting it come to a stop before reaching near the moving parts. (Those little pull-out arming pins are a pain the neck and easily lost, but I very nearly turned on my band saw accidentally with my knuckles pressed up against the band.)

When I was eight or so I watched my dad sacrifice his finger and thumb tips in a fine red mist to a very sturdy jointer while building our house. (And he was using a pusher stick just as he'd been taught.) Maybe everyone needs to be indoctrinated into the reality of power tools at such an early age. But whenever I'm tempted to be cavalier, I try to think of how stupid I'm going to look sitting in the emergency room with a bloody towel around my hand.

Remember, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

--Jay

[Andy Dingley]

As an experiemnt, I once placed a couple of sausages into an old welding glove and went at it with the plasma cutter. Given that one day I'm inevitably going to try and plasma-cut my hand, it was quite a relief to find that leather and sausage is considerably more plasma-resistant than steel.

When I get the time machine working, I plan to cause havoc in the Boudiccan era

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Patience. You can spend 10 minutes cutting on the bandsaw or table saw but it seems so long waiting the 15 seconds or so for the blade to stop before moving away the scrap. Very tempting to just reach in and grab.

[firstjois]

Isn't that why you should have a push stick in each hand? I started out making neat push sticks maybe 18" long by about 3/4 and cutting a neat "v" or 45 degree angle in the pointed in and then round up the handle end to just fit comfortably in my hand. I'd take off a chunk here and chunk there and they'd get shorter and shorter 'til I'd throw them away. Now I make then a lot less often (fewer "Oops") and with a lot less fuss. The "shoe" type I haven't damaged at all so far.

Josie

[CW]

I spend the days working in a machine shop so, to me, the reflexive way of clearing a chip or offcut is the airgun. Mine is always in easy reach (though I do miss the 30 horse compressor when working at home).

[bridger]

I do a little metalworking in my woodshop. I don't dare use the airgun to move swarf- the last thing I want is airborne cutting oil around all of that wood. I do sometimes use it to clear stuff away from spinning cutters on woodworking machines though.

[Grant P. Beagles]

I never wear my wedding ring in the shop. When I was a boy, I met several men who were missing their left ring finger. They had worn their wedding ring to work in the mines. Left a lasting impression on me!

Grant

"D> Last year my middle finger, left hand was trimmed by about the same amount

[mac davis]

I was showing a friend that's getting into woodworking my old shopsmith push stick.. one of those red plastic ones with the notch in the end... it got retired years ago with too many notches and dings in it and better designs available, but it sure is a good teaching tool.. *g* I told him that every ding in it was one that wasn't on my HANDS, and to keep that in mind no matter how "safe" a tool seems at the time..

[nospambob]

[jim ryan]

Same exact injury to me, first (dip) joint, ring finger, left hand. Only on a dado blade in a table saw. Went to hold down a test piece. Beyond stupid.

-jtpr

[Prometheus]

I've gotten bit on the index and pinkie, and only with chisels when not clamping my workpiece. RIng finger has only been nicked by the belt sander.

[RonB]

Sounds like as an amature, you have developed the right kind of respect. Don't let the fear fade too much as it did with me a few years ago. I was cutting some small pieces for spacers on my table saw. I turned the saw off and as I was walking away, realized I had left some of them on the table. I absent-mindedly reached over to retrieve them and heard "tink-tink-tink" as the blade was being stopped by my right index finger. I was very, very lucky. In spite of the bloody towel and not having enought good meat to stitch, it was fairly superficial and healed in a month or two.

Oh, it is better than that. As we sat in the emergency room my wife commented "Didn't you tell me a couple of weeks ago how well you were doing?

30 years of power tools and no significant injuries!" (Grrrrr!)

Also, it was neat when I walked into work Monday with the big wad gauze and metal brace. So far it has taken 3 years to live it down.