I cut myself on the planer. Seems impossible assuming any common sense on the part of the operator, huh? Well, maybe so, but…
I had taken precautions; the machine was unplugged, the manual open and followed. I was levelling the in-out tables, and zing! Somehow, I just moved my hand the wrong way and hit a knife while my hand was moving across the machine. I had just installed new knives–razor sharp–and sliced through the top of the nail on my left middle finger and well into the nail bed below. Hurt like blazes, and bled like crazy.
ER doc says I’ll be fine. Offered a cosmetic treatment that involved numbing the entire finger and removing the nail, then repairing the nail bed below. It sounded excruciating, so I passed.
There’s a cheap lesson, for me, anyway. They don’t have to be powered up to be dangerous. Just wanted to share. After the post from the guy that caught a couple of fingers on the TS a week or 2 ago, I’ve been extra cautious and have purchased more safety equipment; I’ve experimented with different suggested safety techniques, like the ice picks. I thought this might be useful, too. And I’m thinking about kids; you take the key out, or unplug the machine and think they’ll be safe. Then again, maybe not.
Good luck and stay safe,
Charlie
Replies
sorry to hear that I hope it is not to bad
When I was 12 I cut the back of my hand with a radial arm saw. It took 10 stitches to close it. Three of the stitches hurt more then the cut from the saw.
My parents had to answer a lot of question as to how I cut it. There was 3 nurses and 2 doctors asking my mother.
Plus they all were asking me how I done it. It was as if they did not hear me. I was getting a little unhappy about people not listening to me
The only good thing was the saw was not running. I had just reached for some thing under the blade and caught a tooth of the blade.
Edited 9/2/2003 9:44:07 PM ET by fredsmart
You should have let him do his thing. I cut my thumb while using a handsaw. It was a bad cut that went down to the bone at the knuckle and proceeded to go through the nail too - all in a straight line. ER doc told me the nail would really be boogered up if I didn't let him remove it. I did and it grew back PERFECTLY.
Really? I could still make that choice, I think--not too late.. The treatment wasn't too painful? I don't really care much how it looks, as long as it's functional. But I've heard that a digital block (numbing a finger or toe) is horrible...
Ch
How recent is the info about the pain level of a digital block? Lot's of procedures that once were excrutiating are now merely <g> painful. My inclination would be to at least look into it. Of course, you could circumvent the entire medical procedure by simply hitting it with a hammer or slamming it in a car door -- guaranteed to make the nail fall of all on its own!
Hope all heals well and you're on your way soon!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Well, it was actually an ER doc that told me this a few years ago.
I had gotten a splinter under a nail, and thought I'd gotten it out, but had left a small piece. Soon, a thin line--harbinger of doom--started creeping under my nail back in the direction of returning blood flow, a sure sign of infection under my nail. The doc had a positively mideaval (sp?) tool that was basically an electrically heated wire; thin but stiff, and red hot. She tolds me that the idea was to quickly burn a hole through my nail to let the infection drain. Aghast, I asked for a block, and she told me that that would hurt far and away more than the procedure itself. OK, I'm the first to admit that I'm a big baby about pain (you'd think that would make me less prone to self injury. Sigh...)
Anyway, she sat on my hand and did it, and to shorten a lengthy tome, I didn't like it AT ALL. Now, if a digital block is far and away worse...well... So that's where I got my info. You may be right, but if the only benefit is cosmetic...
Ch
Of course, you could circumvent the entire medical procedure by simply hitting it with a hammer or slamming it in a car door -- guaranteed to make the nail fall off all on its own!
Yikes!!! I'm sure glad you never decided to enter the medical profession FG. Is your fiancee aware of this "little" sadistic streak???
Jeff
Sadistic? Me? Oh surely not. I speak simply from experience! Hmmmm, sadistic -- would that explain why I occasionally plant my ice-cold wintertime feet where they're not wanted? Tee hee.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
My favorite version. After coming in from outside on a January day, I quietly walk up behind my father and place my ice cold hands on the top of his head - which hasn't had a bit of hair on it for 25 years. Amazing that the old man still has such good reflexes. (Wonder what Freud would think of that?)
Jeff
FOREST GURL, I had to jump into this thread with a tale of woe connected with hand tools. Some years ago,( '55) I suplemented my income by finishing basements for friends and neighbors also installing air conditioners through the wall.
One neighbor, (Who was quite chubby and bald , Used to float on a truck tire tube in his pool sporting a floppy hat and a pair of wrap around shades) '....all the while smoking a big cigar and holding a brew in his free hand.
THINK RODNEY DANGERFIELD! BUT I digress.....
Harold and I decided to finish his little basement working a few hours each evening.
Having had little experience at building or anything mechanical, he just helped me while I did the lion's share of the work.
The day came when I finished up the job making and installing a built in set of sliding doors (To hide the gas meter and fuse panel)
Harold was so happy he couldn't contain himself. He confessed he was feeling guilty about not really doing any work and insisted in joining in while I sanded the plywood sliding doors.
I had to show him how to fold a sheet of sandpaper into a four ply 'Book' and stoke the plywood edges.
He managed a burst of energy and jumped in with gusto.
A scream escaped his very soul as he held up his nicotine stained hand. Two of his fingers were joined together with a splinter the sice of a toothpick. (Sans the olive.)
I could see his face turn to a fine alabaster hue and his eyes starting to roll back in his head ,suggesting a fainting spell about to happen.
I quickly grabbed his puffy little hand and yanked the nasty barb out of his didgits and he snapped out of his trance. He has since been seen smoking his stogie using his other hand. (The beer holder)
It has been fifty years since then and I often think of Harold (The Impaler)
Steinmetz
Edited 12/16/2004 9:23 pm ET by steinmetz
Edited 12/16/2004 9:48 pm ET by steinmetz
Edited 12/16/2004 9:59 pm ET by steinmetz
Too funny. Sounds like it was good thing he never took on anything more challenging than hand-sanding!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Splinters like that are the big reason to never run a hand along an edge when the condition of the wood isn't known. I know it happens, and there's always the temptation to see how smooth we have made it, but some woods just don't play well with others, do they? Like white oak that has been planed but the edges are still rough and the guy who looks suspiciously like me got a couple yesterday. The finger is doing well, but it was really uncomfortable playing my guitar for awhile.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Jamie,in reference to the guy who noted he has had a few carpenter's fingers,
There's nothing as painful as a smashed thumb or finger nail.( Been there done that many times)
. After the thumb's nail turns blue, then black , it throbs and keeps you awake at night. I finally found the solution ; I would drill a 1/32' hole through the nail 'till I broke through and blood spewed out ( AHH ! Instant relief)
Before you cringe, let me 'Splain'... No corded drill no cordless drill either. .Just twirl the small bit with your 'Good' hand's fingers.
It takes a while, but doesn't hurt a bit. A couple of times, a few guys (Who had observed me boring a hole in my finger, thought I had finally 'Gone off the deep end'
In another forum, I advised machinists as how to remove those pesky grindstone flakes out of one's eye. but thats aother story for another day. Steinmetz
Or if you care to , I'll tell you about a guy I knew who had a drywall screw driven right through his
Edited 12/17/2004 11:32 am ET by steinmetz
I learned about that technique when I was a little girl -- mom explained it to me, but it was the doctor that did the drilling. Fortunately, I've never had to use the technique, LOL.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Now, just a minute..! When I had an infected splinter under a nail, the ER doc insisted the best way was to burn through the nail with a RED HOT WIRE! Are you saying there's a painless way to do it? I see a malpractice suit coming here! I was traumatized for life after that! Female ER docs, red hot wires, splinters under my nails--all these make me curl up into a fetal position and whimper.CharlieI tell you, we are here to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different. --K Vonnegut
What did you say to her? When I was a kid and smacked my thumb with a hammer, my dad asked if I knew how to stop that from happening. When I said that I didn't, he told me to hold the hammer with both hands. I was in too much pain to see the humor in it. Later, when I worked at a lumber yard and was making pallets out of hardwood and 3-1/2" twist shank nails, I skipped the head of a 24 oz off the nailhead onto my thumb. I beat the crap out of the bunk of plywood we were using to rest everything on. Didn't need to drill, either, since the nail cracked under the skin. I'm pretty sure that was the most intense pain I have experienced. Cold sweats, nauseous, headache- the whole bit.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Charlie, its ABSOLUTLY painless and so is putting a needle through a 'Yankee blister"
You get them from the first cordless screwdrivers (Called Yankee screwdrivers)
I still have about six of them. (Screwdrivers NOT blisters.) Steinmetz
Figure I had a good story to tell maybe some younger readers can appreciate. In my younger days or at least less experienced days. I was drilling a hole out of a piece of wood for a smoking utensil. I was using an old black and decker electric drill and I had really long hair. Well I was very cautious about the long hair having been in college for construction and woodworking however fate was working against me this day. I finished the hole put the drill down picked up the piece to examine the finish and next thing you know i felt like I got whacked in the head by Mike Tyson. When I shook off the stars and stood up from the bent over position I was in. I realized that I had an excruciating pain in my ear I put my hand up to my ear and felt a black and decker drill where my ear should be. It was wrapped so tight around my hair that it was pinned to my head! After screaming like a girl for a minute my brother came in the room and started laughing he pulled a knife out and said ok. After telling him to just turn the chuck backwards instead of scalping me we had the drill off. So the moral of the story electric brakes in drills are a good thing. This is a funny story to me now but at the time it hurt like hell. My brother and I always get a kick out of it. Just one blunder in a life of many.
later
centaur76
CENT, I' ve gotten my electric drills wound up in my pants leg many times thank God it never happend with my Milwaukee hole shooter!.... I call it my wrist buster.
A few posts back in this vein, I started to relate a funny tale about two of my carpenter pals who worked as a team installing sheetrock over metal studs. Donald was on one side of the panel and George was on the open stud side
Those days , only one side was enclosed so the electricians could pull their wires in before they closed up the wall.
They had the panel in place and Donald shot the first screw into the stud shared by the previous panel
Now, Don quickly shot the next screw about 16 or 32 inches to catch another stud
Unfortunatly he missed the stud and George yelled, " To your left". Don chose a spot about 1/2 inch to his left. " No No ", shouted George," The other way"
Donald tried another spot and George yelled" OY OY OY!" at the top of his lungs.
Donald realized the screw went right into George's hand and instinctivly reversed the screw out.
Donald shouted to George , "I didn't KNOW you spoke Spanish George???
Dry wall screws are 1-5/8" long and the 'Rock' was 5/8" thick
Steinmetz
"I was drilling a hole out of a piece of wood for a smoking utensil."
That's a subtle way of saying it. We called them pipes and bongs... as in Tommy Chong...
stein,
Back in my younger days, I was pumping a bit too energetically on a Yankee pushdrill, and it hopped out of the hole and onto my thumbnail. The next push put it through the nail and pinned the edge of my thumb to the block I was drilling. Didn't make too big a hole, but it hurt like he//. Then the boss made me go to hospital to get a tetanus booster. Poked twice in the same day!
Regards,
Ray
The shot to deaden it hurt like a son-of-a-bitch; I have a high threshold of pain and I swear it hurt so bad that I got light headed. The doc gives an injection into your cuticle or just above it - it's not good.
Mangled hands are really the hallmark of post-Industrial Age woodworking. That's not an image I'm trying to project in my business. But with that said, the worst accident I've had in the shop was with a handsaw (same incident I mentioned above). I don't use electric tools in my woodworking. However, I'm quite positive that I'll never loose a digit unless I go off the deep end and handsaw a finger until it falls to the floor like an off-cut.
Edited 9/3/2003 12:09:04 PM ET by CHASSTANFORD
Handsaw accidents must have always have been a pretty common occurence, enough so that there used to be a condition known as "Carpenters Thumb" though it isn't seen that often today. If the injury cuts one of the tendons in the thumb, it won't bend properly, causing problems with gripping. Fortunately, these days surgeons can repair the damage.
John W.
Hi Charlie,
I'm the other one handed typist ... sorry to hear about your accident but I know how easy that is to do - thank God it wasn't powered on. I don't actually have an opinion about the nail in your case - that's a choice only you and your doctor can make. The nail on my left index finger was chopped up so it is a triangle only about 1/8" long but it survived and is a good pink color and growing. It's been 5 weeks since it happened and yesterday I started to use all fingers to type - I'm not as accurate as I used to be but it's getting better each day. The two injured ones are still swollen and not very pretty (25 sutures removed in two sittings within the last week or so) but they are becoming more useful each day - I started a project over the weekend. One is quit3e a bit shorter than it used to be which takes some getting used to so I think I have a pretty good idea of what you are going through. It's never as fast as we'd like, but it doesn't really take long for the body to make repairs. The intense pain passes quickly enough in hindsight but when I was going through it time seemed to stand still. After awhile it lessened and I got to not noticing it much which was a blessing. I guess the best advice I can offer is to let it heal for a time but once you feel you can start to stress it with use, do so. My guess is that it will swell up and that will take some time to abate but exercise helps.
Good luck. Be safe,
Ken
I have been particulaly carful since I read about your accident. Like many others here I thank you for that. Being carful dosen't eliminate surprises. I was ripping a piece of pine on th TS, the blade cut through a knot that was not visable on the top surface. A wedge about 1"x1" flew off and stuck in my right forearm. I was standing off to the left side. had on a face sheild, and was usuing a good push stick. It bleed a lot but lucky for me it didn't hit a vein, it was in pretty deep. I probably should have got some stiches but it seems to be healing well. I saved that wedge and put it were I will see it to remind me to expect the unexpected.
Len
Hi Len,
I'm glad my injury that I spoke of in the thread about table saw safety and the unfortunate incident that led to this thread may have helped anyone think just a moment before making a cut and possibly preventing an accident. Chastanford above made a very good point about the off hand. Over the last month I have run into a good many other woodworkers who have injured digits ranging from missing them altogether to less serious injuries. The interesting thing that I noticed was that the injury was almost invariably to their off hand which leads me to conclude that our brains can only pay close attention to one thing at a time and that is going to be your strong hand - not the other one. That can lead to it wandering somewhere it shouldn't and is something we should all consider before doing anything remotely dangerous. In my case I have been making various jigs with clamps to hold pieces so my hands will be grasping something far away from the dangerous places.
All the women in my life tell me I need a lot of watching ... I guess I can relate to them because I feel the same way about my left hand. :+)
Be safe,Ken
Charlie,
I've had the same experience, although with only minor cuts. When I teach jointer maintenance, I recommend running a strip, or two, of masking tape over the knives while other work is being done on the machine.
John W.
My worst accidents have been with handtools thus far, although this weekend a 1/4 inch piece of plywood shot off my tablesaw just grazing my right hip and went crashing into the wall. That is the first kickback I have had with my new contractors saw. The saw's guard and splitter were off from a previous cut that required its removal. I should have known better and now I do. I hope you heal up soon.
I agree, hand tools. Somehow my brain just doesn't accept the fact that they're as dangerous as power tools. Never come close to hurting myself with a power saw. Gotten a few good cuts from chisels.
Same thing with sanders & grinders, somehow I've gotten it ingrained in my head these aren't very dangerous. Now, I know that's wrong and stupid, but I've still skinned my fingers several times with these tools.
Now power saws, routers, ect. Those I watch like a hawk, but the belt sander I have to really force myself to be careful with that.
Don't quite get how the brain works. I'm gradually gaining more respect for these tools. . . . . . . . . . . One boo boo at a time.<G>
With hand tools you get lots of (usually little) injuries that run the gamut from nicks to nasty gashes. What you don't get are severed digits and potentially lethal kickback.
You can eliminate a lot of injuries in a hand tool shop by never using your off-hand to hold a workpiece. Use clamps. Never hold a workpiece with one hand and power a chisel with the other - chisel slips, off hand gets nasty gash. Same with hand sawing - hold the work in some manner and put your off-hand in your pocket or rest it lightly on top of the handle of the saw. No way you can get cut.
I've learned it the hard way.
One additional note FWIW: For me the occurence of nicks and cuts from handtools goes up exponentially when I'm in a hurry or trying to build some thing to meet a deadline. If I'm taking my time I never cut myself with a chisel.
No doubt about that at all.
Here's what I think of handtool injuries,the vast majority of injuries happen because people are using a dull,unsharpened tool and have to apply way more pressure than is required to do the job. I usually step back when guys think if I push harder the tool will get the job done,a sharp tool used with proper technigue is not going to hurt you. I was totally amazed at the difference in tools when I took the time to learn how a sharp tool works and the almost magical feeling you get from using them,so don't put the blame on the tool until you've learned to sharpen it.
Somebody once told me that the most dangerous tool in the shop was a straight-bladed screw driver...and I don't doubt it. It is around the most common and familiar tools that we let our guards down.
Sorry to hear about you accident.
I somehow stuck two fingers in my buscuit jointer.
Getting sewed up wasn't so bad, but I got tired of having to explain to every nurse in the hospital that I wasn't making biscuits when I did it.
It is amazing how the brain/mind can concentrate so much on one thing and ignore something more important at the same time. Of course, that figures since it keeps telling us that it's the most important organ in the human body, right? The off-hand being hurt is definitely the one that gets it in most cases, unless we try to "just do it this way to get it done" and use the weak hand to work the tools. I was trying out my brand, spankin' new T&G bit in Feb and after doing a couple of cuts on the side of a piece of maple, I decided to try an end cut. I was absolutely convinced that I was doing it safely. At the time. It was kind of surreal when it kicked the piece out of the way and narfed my left index fingertip. Didn't really hurt, just went numb with a little sting when I touched it. Wrapped it in paper towel and electrical tape, turned off the lights and drove to the hospital for them to look at it. 5-1/2 hours later I was on my way home on a beautiful, sunny, warm afternoon in February. What a waste! They prescribed antibiotics and Vicodin. Never touched the Vicodin at all. The Novacaine stick hurt more than just about anything else. About 4 days later I went out to get some work done (seeing that it didn't hurt much) and when I got to the router I said, "So, we meet again". Everything is normal except the area where the skin was cut away (no fat layer to provide circulation, so it had to go). The print is gone and the feeling is getting back to normal. I was very lucky that it was really minor compared to what could have happened.
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Kickback from a router is really, reallllly scary stuff. Hopefully, some newbies are seeing this thread and paying attention to the fact that the end-grain operation needs extra care. Glad it wasn't too, too bad!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
How about this one... 9th grade mowing a wet lawn with an electric lawn mower. Tripped on the cord, fell and my hand went under the mower. Kachunk, kachunk, kachunk. Mom! I cut my finger off. The doctor told them to find the missing piece. Wasn't really anything to find. Only took off about the first 1/2" on my left middle finger. Watched the military doctors "experiment" on me. Skin graft and all.
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