My drill press taught me a lesson today. I was just beginning to drill 1/2″ diameter holes in 1/2″ X 2″ X 6″ birch ply strips for router bit storage.
Not knowing any better, I was holding the first strip with my left hand while cranking the spinning bit down with my right.
When the bit went through the wood it “grabbed” it and set it spinning.. taking two nice chunks of skin from the knuckle at the base of my left index finger and causing the area to bruise and swell.
The only other occassions I’ve had for using the DP was drilling 35mm holes in doors for euro hinges.
I went to Sears with my hand taped up and bought a Craftsman drill table vice to hold the ply strips. The rest of the job went smoothly.
I’m sure everyone else knows better.. but, just in case.
bill
Replies
I'm sure you've saved somone from banged up knuckles, Bill. I was lucky enough when I got my first DP to have read some kind of safety thing about whirring stock, so have never had that happen on a DP. However...when I was building my first wood storage thing, I was using a 1/2" drill bit (in a regular drill) on a piece of plywood with a short 2x4 block clamped to it (with one of those smallish bar clamps). The dam* 2x4 and clamp took off spinning at one point -- clamp whacked me in the knee realllly hard. Ouch! Lesson learned there too.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
It was my 1/2" Milwaukee drill and not a drill press that got me. I was boring a 1 1/2" hole for the conduit entrance to my new sub panel in my garage. Had my face too close and I didn't have hold of the secondary side handle on the drill. When it "bit" I got hit by the spinning drill. Broke off a junk of tooth. Learned a lesson.
bit
forestgirl, it never even crossed my mind that drills or drill presses were dangerous in this way. I've had bits come out of the chuck before but they were always still embedded in the wood when it happened. I do have a new respect for them now.. especially after learning from one of the posts that a drill itself can spin around and sock you.
BTW.. I'm now more "frozen" than ever on the planer and jointer decision. I'm waiting until the woodworking show gets to Houston in late March to see what I can learn about serious joinery. The way I figure it.. until I know about M&T and dovetail joinery, I won't have much use for serious furniture making tools.
"frozen" .... hmmmmmmm .... well, it is winter, LOL. I dunno, going to a convention center full of salesmen to get help making an educated decision sounds a little dangerous to me, ROFL!
Back on topic, yep those drills can be unexpectedly tempermental. I was absolutely amazed at the strength of that drill bit. In a hand-drill, I expect the danger goes up exponentially with the size of the bit and how much of a bite it has. Fortunately (in a weird way) I have a tendency toward tendinitis in my hands, so I rely quite a bit on clamps when I'm working stock.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Bill,
Welcome to the club.
Philip
Bill, Like all of you I've had my run in with my drill press but all of them were minimal compaired to the job the radial arm saw did on my shop door. I have an old Atlas "8 1/4 ts that was my granddads I always said that when the motor quit is when I'll buy a new saw. One day while in the middle of a major project that was supposed to be done in just a couple days the darn thing quit so hearing about others using their radial arm saws for ripping I decided to give it a try. Big Big mistake I no more than started ripping when that thing grabbed and shot the peice I was working on like a bullet I heard one of the loudest bags that Ive ever heard when I looked around to see what was damaged I didn't notice anything until I got ready to slide my door shut for the night thats when I saw the "2x"4 x "10 sticking through the door part was on one side and the other was sticking out the other. The sliding door is "4 thick so I could only imagine what would have happened if that thing would have come in contact with me or worse yet my wife or kids. Needless to say I've never used that tool for ripping again and last spring I got my new grizzly 1023sl cabinet saw so the insodent with the radial arm is just a distant memory except for the circle that I drew around the hole in the door on the inside of my shop just to remind me in case I ever get another dum idea to rip with that saw again.
I hope none of you other woodworkers get hurt doing somthing that we all enjoy doing so much...........lets all BE CAREFULL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sincerely: James Clark a.k.a "DOC"
Yep, I remember had the exact same thing happen when attempting to rip a 2x4 in half. Penetrated a 1/2 osb board covering a window opening 15 foot away. Sometimes not the smartest monkey in the cage.:O)Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
The other...proper application of risk.
Just read a post in the thread on table saws from a machinist that said the DP was the most dangerous tool in the machine shop! Hadn't thought about it but I know mine has whapped me.
Jim
It's best to let them smell the back of your hand first...
Beautifully said. There is a lot truth to this.
Smell the back of my hand first? Oh, yeah, I get it. Thanks, counselor.
And be sure not to forget about that "spinning the work" tendency if you try drilling a small piece of sheetmetal. You'll have an instant "hand" saw. Extremely dangerous.
jdg
Hi Everyone,
I've had my hand/wrist/arm yanked around more often by hand drills than by the DP. Finally I purchased the Milwaukee Right Angle Drill #3107 and it's been great!
It has some sort of clutch or other control mechanism in it that prevents it from getting away from you and wrenching your arm off. You can put a big self drilling auger bit on it and not worry at all.
It's some bucks but it's worth it.
Tom
is this something new on the milwaukee 3107? i have one and i'm always very careful to use the secondary handle and follow the instructions on how to brace it against kickback because it is a very powerful and fairly dangerous drill. especially since the "D" handle out on the end provides very little torque resistance. a plumber friend had a big self-feed bit catch while using his in a ceiling and it yanked him right off the ladder and spun him around- and he's not a small guy!
the 3107 is more than strong enough to break your wrist or at least make it damn sore- be careful. they're great drills but i don't know of any safety clutch or other mechanism to prevent accidents.
m
The Milwaukee D handle right angle drills dont have a clutch the Milwaukee right angle Hole Hawgs DO !!! Soo be carefull when using the D handle cause they do and will bind and can cause a world of hurt if they whack a vital body part...
ToolDoc
I still have tenderness in my right hand from a Bosch 1/2" hammerdrill i was using with a 2" hole saw to make access holes in sheathing for dense-packing insulation last fall. I don't know what happened, but the thing liked to rip my hand off starting with the thumb. No blood...lots of tears and wailing, though; luckily it was my own job so i could get away with that sort of behavior.
JDG,
When I was 17, a friend and I were putting in a car stereo in my '67 Mustang. We needed to use some metal strapping to hang the stereo, but the holes were too small. My friend grabbed the drill and held the strapping with his left hand while drilling the hole larger with his right....all unsupported!! Needless to say, the drill caught and wound the strapping right onto the drill bit, hand included. Lots of blood, an ER visit and 20+ stiches later, we both learned a lesson about the seemingly harmless drill.
Dr. Bill
Dear Bill,
A nice message to remnd us all. There are not many woods that I haven't drilled or sawn. (I don't use exotics that are endangered, otherwise any are fair game depending on the requests/bids.) The only thing I see in these threads is learning from our mistakes. All of us have had things happen that went awry with woods. Using common sense, we prepare for the next time, with a similar drilling/cutting/etc. The only thing that is free with aging is wisdom. It separates us from the others, rather proudly. We keep learning, ---a never ending story.
Turbo
Turbo.. I'm one of those guys who's learning as he goes and that has "earned" me a few knicks and bumps along the way.. but you're right.. a painful experience need happen only once. I'm clamping everything on the DP now.. and rethinking the use of my hand held drill, too.
Bill, you are a kind person. God Bless - Right on!
A good safety practice is to put the bulk of the work extending out from the hole being cut to the left side of the spindle, out towards 11:00. That way, when the work spins it goes into the column rather than your belly. Its a built in stop.
This approach works well with a loose vise as well. Put the work in the vise. Leave the vise loose on the table with the clamp screw pointing out at 11:00.
dave, what a great tip. Thank you, I truly appreciate it.
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