Be safe!
I have been using power tools since I was 16 (1967) and had only a few minor nicks and cuts, until about 2 weeks ago.
I have been renovating/flipping a house including building 30 cabinets, framing, 39 drawers, etc. using my 31 year old Craftsman TS. I was using a cheap saw I bought to leave at the house so I could make simple cuts on the job. I was cutting the last piece of ply for the countertops, a simple 9″x36″x3/4′ piece, (the LAST piece!!!) and I had my first kickback in 40 years. I cut 3 fingers, one badly but all still attached. It happened so fast I still can’t remember exactly what happened. I am recovering OK but will loose movement in one knuckle.
I am really disappointed in myself for not having the warning bells go off in my head before it happened.
The mistakes I made, in hindsight:
1) Because the house was empty I do not leave anything of value over there. I bought a cheap table saw (Task Force $99) with the thought that if it’s stolen, who cares.
2) Did not install the guards, crappy as they are.
3) The table is too small, virtually no outfeed area. I didn’t build an outfeed table.
4) The throat plate was cheap plastic that deflected with any pressure.
5) Because of no outfeed table I should have cut half way, turned off the saw, flipped the piece and completed the cut. I didn’t and made the cut in one pass.
6) After completing the cut should have turned the saw off, then let the piece fall. I didn’t, and kickback!!!
7) The saw is top heavy. I used a bag on concrete to weight it down. Should have built a good base for it.
8) I had the blade too high for the cut. I was taught no more than 1/8 above the board.
Maybe more as I keep thinking about what happened. What a dummy.
My plan was to buy a PM2000 with any profits from the flip but now I think I MUST go with the Saw Stop. Looking at my hand and what COULD have happened, money is irrelevant. A riving knife would have prevented the accident, but so would PAYING ATTENTION!!!!
That cheap %&*$# saw will be destroyed in the near future, never sold or given away. It will be a while before I can or want to use the Craftsman.
40 Years without an accident does not mean SAFE! Always have your cell phone in your pocket.
Embarrassed, scared, older and wiser.
Jim
PS: Thanks to Knots and Breaktime for a multitude of help and advice over the years. The cabinets look great because of Knots advice.
Monday 10/15 Update: Got the stiches out and things are healing OK. Fired up the Craftsman TS this weekend to make one cut on a cabinet end panel. Finished spraying 55 cabinet doors and now I have to figure out how to hang them with one hand. Like my grandfather used to say “have to get the fam damily involved”
Edited 10/15/2007 10:28 am ET by notatexan
Replies
Words of wisdom! Get well soon!
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Wishing you a speedy recovery, and (hopefully) full use of your fingers again.
Best of luck,
Lee
Glad you kept your fingers! Great post - thanks for the info.
Mike D
Thanks for sharing your story Jim. Makes young guys like me more appreciative of the "safety first" motto. The only thing to make your story more rememberable is to post a picture of your hand (however it may be too gruesome to look at and deleted by the moderator). I too will be buying a SawStop as my next tablesaw. My fingers are worth more than $3000.
mike
Edited 10/11/2007 1:16 pm ET by mvflaim
It was kind of fun watching the people in the ER as I was wheeled through with a bloody shirt. May have been the morphine.
Funny you mention pictures (I didn't take any). I was in the doctor's office last week waiting to get the bandages removed and a friend came out from his check-up. He lost a finger to a dado blade, and he had pictures he took in the ER. I chose not to look, thank you.
He had done something really dumb and made me feel a little better about my dumbness. My stitches come out tomorrow.
Not sure if I should go TS shopping with a bandaged finger. A too easy sale.
Jim
I hate dado blades... I get antsy everytime i use one.. i think it's been about three years since i have... there's no reattaching a finger with a 3/4" gouge through it..
Thank your lucky stars it was not worse get well soon, Excellant post it may help to remind others to be viglant at all times.
Good luck with the new saw,over here we have the riveing knife as standered and T G I've had no bad scares as yet .Get well soon Regds Boysie Slan Leat.I'm never always right but i'm always never wrong. Boysie
This is not my accident but it is far more horrifying. I still tremble when I see it. Be strong.
Edited 10/11/2007 5:55 pm ET by notatexan
I'm wiping away tears as I speak... Oh the humanity!
Oh, the horror, the horror!!"There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other is that heat comes from the furnace." - Aldo Leopold
Oh NO! That's one of my two favourite poisons. I would rather have seen blood and guts!
If you also have horrific pics of Guiness, please keep them to yourself. ;)
Andy
Man, that was a beer of an accident .
Hope you recover chop chop.Philip Marcou
Edited 10/13/2007 1:50 am by philip
Here's hoping you are healing well. I'm sorry for the accident. Get well soon. Tom
I hear you and I can state I 'never knew what happened' either.
I have never cut a finger but 3 as in THREE nasty kickbacks in my years woodworking. I like you was alone and once I got hit with a hunk of Ash in the chest and I COULD NOT BREATH for ALONG time! I saw blood but that did not matter at the time!
I hope you are like me and heal well and quick. Amazing is it not, how quick it happens!
I am glad that you are retaining as much of the usefulness of the hand as possible.
I suspect that such accidents often happen to the more senior woodworkers as we become overconfident of our skills such that we do not need to follow the rules. Doctors are notorious in this regards when it comes to treating themselves.
I had a lab tech whose father worked at a cabinet shop for forty years when he managed to have his first accident and clipped off the ends of his fingers on one hand.
Hello Jim , I can relate oh too well to your story . I too had an unfortunate accident recently with a table saw . Back in late March and again like you the very last piece to cut for trim on a utility cabinet . What I thought was a safe enviroment and all safety items in place blade guard , push stick , etc . The piece was 3/4 of the way through when out of nowhere instant kick back ! The piece went flying and knocked the push stick out of my hand everything went flying in slow motion . End result was my right index finger going into the blade . Now being 1 knuckle short ( makes for a good 3/8" gage ) I went back to the saw after returning from the hospital ( investigating ) found a carbide tip had came off of the blade ( defective ? ) and I can only assume was the cause of the kick back . I have looked at the new saws that stop if you engage with the blade , looks like the way to go . Doing very well with the hand though ( great therapy ) getting better by the day . And has not detured me form this great hobby of ours . I wish you well with your recovery .
Gary
It isn't likely that the missing tooth caused the kickback. The opposite is more likely: the board was caught by the now missing tooth and the tooth broke off from the stress.John White
Yestermorrow School
FWW Experts column contributor
Hey thanks for your input !
Jim,
Was your hand "uphill" (past) the blade and then got drug back over, or into, the blade when the kickback occured? That's what happened to my left index fingertip. It seems to me now that one should never let an bodyparts go uphill of the blade, except maybe at the end of a cut when the workpiece is clear of it. Anybody agree? Anyway, good luck with your recovery. It just takes time.
First, I thank the person that posted the pic as an attachment and not inline. That way I don't have to look. Some of us are squeemish, you know.
In my so far short woodworking history, I had the saw kick back once but, correctly, I was standing to the side and the wood only hit my forearm. Brushed that off as I used to hurt myself every time I worked on cars too. However, I don't plan on doing this again in the woodshop. (Couldn't get enough broken fingernails with wrenches and pneumatic tools so I pick a hobby with large motors and blades, eh?)
I know this info is available elsewhere, but do you think you guys could summarize here the possible causes of kickback on a TS that we may avoid them in future?
thanks,
Andy
"First, I thank the person that posted the pic as an attachment and not inline. That way I don't have to look. Some of us are squeemish, you know."
Andy, you should look at the picture. It's not what you think.
Andy,
My next saw will have a riving knife that prevents most(?) kickbacks. In my case the board was not supported by an outfeed roller or table. The slightest side motion will push it into the blade. BAM!!! Bloody fingers.
PS: Don't tell anyone but the picture is a joke. I'm trying to find some humor in how stupid I was.
Jim
"Don't tell anyone but the picture is a joke."
You mean it's not real? That's just stage beer?
-Steve
Last winter I decided to jump into woodworking and began building a sideboard for my dining room. It turned out pretty well, but I also suffered a kick back injury.
The doors I made were a touch too big for the opening so I ran them through the table saw. Guard was off, of course. The cut was uneventful until I heard the door hit the floor behind me. Then I felt the pain in my left wrist. Undeterred, I bent over to pick up the door and noticed that it was ruined. At the same time, I saw blood soaking through my shirt just above my navel.
I dediced to call it quits for the day when my wrist began to swell terribly. Four hours later I emerged from the ER wearing a splint and suffering my first bone contusion.
At least I had a laugh out of it. When I checked in at the ER the nurse asked what the problem was. I told her that I had hurt my wrist. She asked which one. I told her that it was the one with the ice pack on it.
The next day I went back to the shop as nervous as a cat, but with the guard installed.
Brian,
Yes, I reached past the blade to grab the board with my left hand. I knew better but I did it anyway(???????) I guess I was thinking of the next cut to trim it to length.
Stitches out this afternoon.
Jim
Notatexan,
More than twenty years ago I too managed to nick a finger pretty good on a Craftsman table saw with a kickback. About two and a half years ago I bought a SawStop and have used it heavily in that period of time. Not once have I had a kickback from that saw. The shutdown mechanism is reassuring to know it is there; however, the riving knife is perhaps the finest feature on the saw. In my mind the precision of the larger heavier cabinet saw adds to the safety as well. So, get the SawStop and you will not regret it, far far cheaper than the bill from the plastic surgeon and much more satisfying.
Moksha
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