Hazard of wearing gloves while operating a jointer
Dear fellow woodworkers:
Yesterday I lost the distal phalanx (first segment) of my left pinkie.
I want to help myself deal with it by sharing what happened and getting feedback that will prevent a similar injury for others.
I was jointing the edge of long lengths of rough 1 by 4 maple using my 6″ jointer. The safety guard was on and working. I had on tight fitting gloves (the type that have velcro tabs at the wrist). I was not using any type of safety push block because of the heft of the piece (10 feet) and because I reasoned my hands were 4 inches above the blade. I must have hung my left fingers over the edge of the board to push it tight against the fence.
In an instant I felt my hand go down and the damage was done. I think the glove tip of the pinkie made contact at the junction of the guard, wood and cutting head and instead of grazing the fabric, it grabbed and pulled the finger in.
So. Are gloves a hazard using this tool? Is this a case of me not keeping track of my fingers’ location near the blade? Both?
Thanks for responding, Bill
Replies
don't wear gloves
I sorry to hear about your accident. You now have a permanant safety reminder.
Your question about the saftey of wearing gloves while operating shop equipment should have been asked before using the equipment.
For safety reasons I've never worn gloves, rings, hats or loose clothing in the shop. Make sure you have no cords or laces or anything dagling from your clothing. If you wear long sleeves, make sure they are tight fitting and tuck your shirt tails in.
Lots of folks wear ear buds and listen to music while working. Be careful of the wires and having the music too load.
Be careful out there,
Bret
Shop hazards
I agree that wearing gloves or loose items when using shop machines is not advised.
IMHO one of the biggest causes for shop accidents is being distracted while operating power tools. For that reason I do not recommend wearing ear buds or audio-type ear muffs. Most of us can't concentrate on two things at once. If you loose concentration on where your fingers are it could result in an accident.
Ditto people trying to get your attention while a machine is running. My only mishap on the bandsaw (sliced thumb) was when my inspiration hollered my name from the shop door as I was just finishing a cut. All family members now wait until the machine is off before trying to talk to me.
shop hazards
Add long hair to the list. Listening to music can be dangerous. If the listener really "gets into" the music, it may divert attention from the dangers of his work. Much like driving a car with too much diversion.
Tom
I am sorry to hear about your accident.. I do sometimes wear gloves when the wood gives splinters. I use alot of that kind of hardwoods.
It is only my opinion.. I would think that the gloves have nothing to do with it. I use gloves doing many things. I would never think of welding without them or sawing metal.... OR using a Jointer with my fingers at the side of any board. AND I would never use (the type that have velcro tabs at the wrist). They do not come off!
My thought would be that you were either not paying attention to what you were doing or just in a hurry? Maybe both? I would think just in a hurry. I would think the same thing could happen even if you were NOT wearing gloves if your fingers were at the side of the board. Push Blocks are the best to use. And remember to keep the pads clean of old sawdust!
I could be very wrong!
I think gloves are very dangerous if you are doing something with rollers that may grab the tip and drag the rest in. Then again, any sharp object is dangerous. Especially if it is spinning!
to glove or not to glove
Sorry to hear of your accident, Bill.
I think the decision should be based on what you are doing and how it's being done. But, I also think the old rule against loose clothing of any kind, including gloves, needs to be given close attention, too.
I must say, however, that it doesn't sound like you were following good safety procedures, although the golves may have been a contributing factor. Plus, trying to joint a 10-foot board by yourself may have been the first step down the wrong path. With anything unwieldy, I prefer to either get help or make sure the piece is supported on both infeed and outfeed sides, so all I have to manage is the push block and any stabalizer block I might be using.
I've worked with a lot of splintery woods and often thought about using gloves. In the end, I always decided I'd rather pick splinters out of my fingers than pick my fingers out of a jointer.
Most of the replies probably won't make you feel any better about your situation, but I'm glad to see that you posted. Perhaps it will prompt others to think about the hazards involved with what we do and to consider safe ways of doing it.
I hope you heal quickly,
David
Gloves are OK
Bill,
I have to be in the minority here.
I have had 2 preventable injuries in my shop. One with gloves on and one without.
With gloves on, I looked away in response to an interruption while bandsawing.
Without gloves, I was cutting some box joints using the router and was not aware of where my pinkie was.
Gloves or not, both of these resulted from my not keeping my head in the game.
I wear the same type of glove as you, a very tight fitting deerskin with the velcro tabs. The difference in distance from my skin to the cutter is negligible. If my glove covered hand is to close, then my uncovered hand is certainly to close. Loose gloves are a different story, they can and will move independently from your hand.
In theory, a well fitted glove should enhance your ability to properly grip and feed the work.
I am terrified of my jointer. I look at those spinning knives and think that if I am not very careful that thing will keep slicing all the way to my elbow maybe to the shoulder. AGGG!
Hope you heal fast.
Don
An Accident Waiting to Happen
I have always understood and followed the rule that you should never wear gloves around power equipment - for exactly the reason you had the misfortune to discover.
This accident was not, as others have suggested, primarily a failure to pay attention. If you hadn't been wearing the gloves this accident would either have never happened or would have resulted in just a bit of skin taken off your fingertip. The glove changes the whole dynamic of what happens when you brush the cutter, with bare skin you get cut, with fabric you get pulled in and an amputation. As an ex EMT and a safety consultant I have read about and seen this type of accident fairly often, it is a recognized and well documented hazard.
Dear John, Don, David, and all others:
Thank you for your analyses and kind words. I think my mistake was two-fold: I should not have been wearing gloves, tight or loose, and I lost situational awareness of my hand. I felt my hand pulled into the cutter head. The glove did change the dynamic of this particular injury. If I had been ungloved I would have felt my pinkie hitting the guard, alerting me to pull the hand up. If I missed that warning and the fingertip was indeed 4 inches below the top of the wood, it would have probably been knicked only. Such was not my outcome and I am grieving the loss.
Best. Bill
Not a fight here BUT....
I still think that wearing gloves is NOT the cause of the accident.. I say that it is from NOT PAYING ATTENTION to what you are doing at the time.. I am probably as old, and maybe older, than you. I have worn gloves in metal working, welding, wood working, mechanics, electronics around acids, and glass work. Yes, I did and still do many things. I gave up glass. I never learned to cut it as I wanted it to turn out.. No artistic skills here!
I still have all, every part of all of my fingers. They do not work these days because of my age.. Not because of the gloves I wore while working. I never use gloves near rollers or spinning objects!
I still wonder how anyone would loose a tip of a finger on a Jointer IF they were using gloves and a push block. Or nothing but hands IF the hands were on top of the wood being cut. OK, you could if jointing the last 1/2 inch or so depending on the depth of cut used on the final pass..
I am NOT saying that a loss of a finger is 'nothing'.. OR do I say that he/she is not intelligent!
I found this and I think it is a good understanding of what we as humans can do without being hurt..
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence
Intelligence is an umbrella term describing a property of the mind including related abilities, such as the capacities for abstract thought, understanding, reasoning, planning, problem solving, communication, learning and learning from the experience.
I know that I am Intelligent. BUT I will never be good at Mathematics.I passed all my tests in college but I never knew what I was doing at the time... I'd bet most of us could NOT pass our grade school final exam or our high school exam today.. We never use it or at least never realize that we do use it in a different manner from the tests given.
JohnWW.. Truely not a fight.. I do understand what you posted.. You are NOT wrong and maybe not right with the way I think..
I remember that my old GrandPA yelled at me for hitting my thumb with a hammer and getting blood on the wood... He just walked away and told me to watch out for my fingers. I remember.. He said something like... We can get more wood.. Not sure how we can get you a new finger??
I'm with Will on this one
I hate that anyone gets injured ever. However, I too wear gloves to give me extra traction when applying force gripping a safety device moving through a piece of machinery.
IMHO I think the issue here was (and I'm not attacking here at all it's a tragic event) three fold. First, the material needs proper support you should not attempt to do two things at once i.e. guide the piece concentrate on that then also concentrate on keeping the piece level as you feed it over the cutting device.
Second, not using push sticks or some form of safety device is asking for trouble. I have two micro-jig Grr-ripper's that do a fantastic job at this function but their are cheaper or even homade jigs to perform the task.
Finally keep track digits at all times. Again, I hate the injury, but I just don't see the gloves as the culprit. I prefer the extra friction.
Injury
So sorry to hear of your injury - and the loss of "your old friend". Thanks for posting.
It was a particularly scary post for me as I almost always wear gloves when jointing 'raw' boards. I believe I handle them with more confidence when I can grip the board firmly w/o fear of a puncturing splinter. A dilemma.
I generally use push blocks. (plastic with 80 grit sandpaper on the bottom) Twice I have shaved off portions of a push block which is a serious reminder of the hazards of our machines.
Frosty
I wear bikers style gloves without fingertips sometimes. Not sure about the safety of that now.....
Get Well Soon!
Bill,
Sorry to hear about what happened, but I truly thank you for sharing the experience. I was working on the jointer today and because of your story, decided not to wear glove.
I do normally wear nitrile dipped gloves. They are fairly thin and form fitting and allow me to be able to grip and push wood, i.e. pushing and pulling boards across the jointer. I do, however, often think about the gloves getting caught and pulling my hand in, which is why I don't wear gloves at the table saw (imagine some wild kickback situation pulling my hand toward the blade)
I do wonder about your situation though. The jointer could have just as easily pulled your finger into the cutter head. The blades are sharp and of course have the pulling action. I have read about jointer accidents without gloves pulling fingers or hands into the cutter.
Again, thank you for sharing.
Gloves or no Gloves
Bill, Thanks for posting and sorry for you loss. I am more curious about the surgical repairs that you went through. Did they remove the finger to the digit section. Or just part way down the bone. Do you need further surgery? How long ago did you do this and how is it healing? I assume you are typing and having trouble with the QAZ key as well.
A 1by 4 on edge and smaller is always spooky. A 1by8 is up and easy to control. But when it falls below the fence I get nervous. I always try to keep my hands on the outfeed side and push down and through. Something about running your hands over the top of the cutters always seemed like a bad idea, glove or no glove. For my part no gloves... I use them for melamine and sheet goods only where they will paper cut the heck out of your hand.
Best of luck on the recovery Bill.
Morgan
Gloves
Heal up ASAP !
Probably more of a case of not paying attention.
Many thanks for reminding us of the dangers working with power tools.
Your story will certainly keep us more aware - thanks for sharing -
SA
Leather OK, Fabric Not
As an addendum to my earlier response, I overlooked the fact that it was fabric that got snagged in the cutter head. Woven fabrics are extremely strong compared to just leather, so like loose clothing should not be near anything spinning.
Also, many industries employ a practice called a Job Hazard Analysis or JHA. The words say it all. Identifying the hazard after an injury has occurred helps everyone except the person injured. Looking ahead, doing dry runs with machine off can help identify issues you might have overlooked. Where will you be standing at the beginning, middle and end of cut.
"If I can just reach out that extra few inches...."
Don
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