Yesteday I had my first “moving blade” accident on the table saw. I was ripping maple boards to 5″, and while bringing a just-cut board back over the blade it slipped out of my (right) hand. Like an idiot, I grabbed for it with my left hand so it wouldn’t hit the moving blade. In the process I brushed the tips of my middle, ring and pinkie fingers across the moving blade.
I was extremely lucky, because all I lost was the tissue on the tips of my middle and ring fingers. Didn’t hit bone or the nail. At the ER they decided there was nothing to suture, so I came home with bulky bandages on three fingers, which I’m screwing up the courage to change as I write this…
Since I’m now making cabinets on an almost full-time basis, this has been a real eye opener. I’m trying to figure out what I can do in the future to prevent a recurrence: should I turn off the saw after each cut before retrieving the cut board, or should I walk around the saw to fetch the board? Should I buy one of the new saws that won’t cut flesh (or hot dogs, anyway)?
I know that when you drop something in the shop the last thing you should do is try to catch it. But this reaction is so automatic that I’m not sure that element of my reflexes can be trained to shut down while I’m in the shop.
My question to the Forum: when ripping boards on a table saw, how do you retrieve the cut material from the back side of the saw? I welcome your comments, and will humbly accept any jabs at my intelligence.
PS It’s a pain to type with only one finger of my left hand, since the fingers on thr right hand have a hard time waiting…
Replies
Two words : outfeed table.
The stock comes to a rest on this, and then you walk around and move it to the next operation.
Sorry about the mishap,glad you are eager to learn from it.
Glad you're OK, and avoided permanent injury.
Sounds like you need to put the blade guard back on your saw. Or, at the very least, change your work habits. I had an incident like yours about 10 years ago. I was trying to finish a christmas present, and I was in a hurry. I stopped work right there, and resolved never to be in a hurry again, while operating machinery which can cause me serious injury. So far, this policy has kept me safe. If I find myself rushing, that's my cue to quit for the day. This may be harder for you to adhere to, being in a production environment, but I've found that all my fingers come in handy from time to time...
Your reflexes NOW will tell you to stay away from a whizzing 60 toothed demon
Too bad the same braking by flesh on machinery feature cannot be activated by sonar detection of approaching throbbing nicotine fingers.
Capacity operated relay? Steinmetz
lofton,
Two things, now that you know what most of your cutting will be...perhaps it's time to put the plastic guard back on. Also, I always walk around to retrieve it on the other side...no time to get lazy...and with a sled I always turn the saw off before moving a muscle to move the board or cuttoff. Being too close to the spining blade scares the hell in me...maybe something would fall out of my pocket..
Thank God your experience was so limited...
Glad to hear you are ok. I would parrot the others and say keep the splitter and guard on. I once had a nasty kick back incident. I was making some screen printing frames and was in a hurry and tired (bad combination). Removed the guard to speed things up. Needless to say, I was behind the blade when the yellow pine pinched and came back in a hurry. Luckily it caught on something and hit me broadside instead of like a spear. Knocked me senseless (wife said it knocked since into me). I've been extra careful ever since, and I have not disabled safety equipment to this day. Good luck and hope you have a speedy recovery. With those fingers bandaged, how on earth did you type?
Lofton,
I am so sorry to learn of your mishap, and just glad it was not worse.
I just reach over the saw and grab the piece, from my outfeed table, but if I recall correctly, you do have an outfeed table. Needless to say, I am careful, but I don't shut the saw off for much. Only if the board is heavy do I walk around to get it.
I was reading an old FWW on the patternmakers trade, and the author, himself a patternmaker, was commenting on the precision required of that profession, and the pace. He said: When I work fast, it is either becaue I am making a mistake, or fixing one.
Strikes me that speed, or the preceived need for speed, is what nicked you. I don't run a guard, and have no use for one. I think they get in the way, obsecure vision, and few I know keep them on. I will say that the new micro-jig splitter is a handy guy, however.
This is just the way that I work, and would not presume to recommend it to others. I find that speed is the thing that causes errors, including ones that injure.
Recall the tortise, and be safe.
By the way,
Alan
http://www.alanturnerfurnituremaker.com
Thank you very much, Alan, and to everyone else who responded so far. Indeed I am a very lucky dude!
I think you are right about speed being the culprit. Normally I work slowly and deliberately, and my hands don't go near the blade. Yesterday I was trying to "knock out" the piece in a hurry so the architect wouldn't make more changes...it's past due time to get started on doors and drawers.
Like you, I've never used the blade guard...but then, I didn't throw it away, either. I've got at least three of them. I'll drag out the one for the Unisaw and see if it might have helped the situation yesterday (probably yes) and whether it will interfere with other operations (an even more probable Yes).
The outfeed table is a great helper, as you and others suggest.
Give me a call when you have a moment. Being right handed we can still organize that shoot-out between my Omer and your Senco pin nailer. I'm gonna win.
Lofton
Lofton,
I'm glad to hear you got away relatively unharmed.
I had a similar kind of thing happen to me a while back. I was widening a groove on a door stile, using my router table. I miscalculated which part of the groove was hitting the router bit, and the router bit pulled the board out of my hands very hard and very fast. Like you, my first reaction was to grab for the board. Luckily, in my case, the board was gone so fast there was nothing to grab and the instinct got turned off before I made contact with the bit. But I had nightmares for weeks about what COULD have happened if my hand had made contact with that bit!
I knew that something like this could very well happen again, so I decided I would be prepared next time. I just mentally trained myself, saying, "IF SOMETHING FLIES OUT OF YOUR HANDS, LET IT GO!
If you get to have a lesson without injury, consider yourself lucky. But make good use of the situation and do some self-training.
Let that be a lesson to you. That said, I'm sorry it happened, and you got off lucky this time.
Never reach *over* the blade, never reach around *behind* the blade to pull a piece the rest of the way through. Build yourself a good outfeed table, and push the piece past the blade out onto the table. From there, either step to the left and reach safely for the piece, or pick it up and move off the saw&table.
At no time should anything pass over the top of a spinnig blade.
Another suggestion would be to drop the blade below the table, unless there is a reason that you couldn't do that.
Here are couple of other thoughts to add to the tips and warnings. But first let me also say I am sorry for the accident -- but glad the damage to your fingers is not worse than it is (which I imagine right now, must feel bad enough).
15 or more years ago, I read a piece by a doctor/woodworker (I am pretty sure it was in an early issue of FWW). He studied woodworking accident patterns, and found the great majority happen to people who had been engaged in the activity for about 7-10 years. Newbies are extremely careful, and therefore have fewer accidents than people who have probably ripped thousands of boards.
The moral of this tale is the more experienced and confident you are, the more careful you should be.
The second thought is about training yourself to be cautious. Years ago, I had a young gymnast in the family, and she shared with me what she had been taught about visualization. Just before she did a routine, she quickly (in a matter of seconds) went through the steps mentally (how high she had to elevate to do that double flip, etc.). She was a two-time state champion, so I figured I should listen pretty carefully.
Anyway, I took that visualization technique to the shop. So for every potentially dangerous operation, I quickly reviewed the steps, what could go wrong, what I would do, etc. It is the best means I have come up with to fight off natural, reflex reactions -- like reaching for a just ripped board, pulling it back, and then grabbing the board if it slips from your hand.
I don't know if all that makes sense to you, but it is a nifty technique. Once locked in your mind, you can do the exercise in less time than it takes to exhale. I never, ever, for instance, ascend a step ladder without first giving it a little shake to make certain all four legs are firmly on the ground.
Hope you get better soon -- and get back to making sawdust, as a wiser man.......
Thank you for the suggestions, nikkiwood. I agree totally, except that I must be a little slow...it took me closer to 25 years to get sloppy! The visualization technique is a great one, however I tend to stop doing that after multiple repititions of the same operation (like ripping lots of boards).
Maybe there's a formula that predicts the likelihood of an accident:
# years in shop X # repititions = increased risk
Yesterday I headed down to the shop (after reduxing the size of the bandages so I could bend the three injured fingers out of harm's way) and with not a little trepidation went through the motions that led to Sunday's accident. I quickly realized that I have been ignoring my own sense of (considerable) unease every time I reached over the blade to grab the just-ripped board. This told me I should have been paying closer attention to my natural instincts, which fortunately are still operating. That was lesson #1.
Lesson #2 was that the time required to step around the saw and retrieve the cut board from the outfeed table was truly insignificant. And it felt oh so much safer!
Again, thanks to all for the kind words and suggestions.
As some wise Roman said, Experience is a cruel teacher: you get the test first, and then the lesson.
Well said............ I'll have to put that in my mental book of useful aphorisms.
"should I turn off the saw after each cut before retrieving the cut board, or should I walk around the saw to fetch the board? Should I buy one of the new saws that won't cut flesh (or hot dogs, anyway)?"
Lofton, Lofton, Lofton! What little maternal instinct I possess is raging within me. Get a blade guard! And practice good technique as described in posts above. If you're doing cabinetry full-time now, it's time to "get real," so-to-speak. Reaching over the blade is....uhhhhhh.......nuts!
OK, sorry to be so harsh. I, too, am sorry to hear of your accident and extremely glad to hear the damage was minor.
The outfeed table would seem like a must for your type of work. For pieces that are realtively small (less than 3 feet, maybe) and I don't have to work about getting a ding or two, I just push them through with the next piece of stock and let them fall on the rubber flooring behind the table saw.
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" .... :>)
Okay, Mom, I'll be more careful next time.
I have an outfeed table, so that part is in place. I also came up with a new procedure to retrieve ripped boards without violating the airspace over the blade.
I'm still not sold on using the current blade guard (although I concede that this accident would not have happened if it had been installed). Unfortunately it gets in the way of just about any other operation I perform on the TS.
Thank you for your notes, everyone. I'm a bit wiser thanks to you.
Three fingers missing would get in the way of a lot more.
Thank You.
>I also came up with a new procedure to retrieve ripped boards without violating the airspace over the blade.<
I find the safest thing to do is to push the board past the blade completely, step to the left, and slide the board away from the blade towards you.
The only time I have ever been 'bitten' was when I was ripping a load of cabinet door frame stock, roughly cut to length at 24-36".
I would push the piece through, and flick it to the left side of the blade with my right thumb. After about 75 rips, one time I zigged when I should have zagged, and ran my thumb into the back side of the blade. It felt like I was hit directly on the end of it with a framing hammer.
Fortunately, I just nicked the end a little.
Sounds like maybe your blade guard isn't an "overhead" style?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" .... :>)
If the blade guard had been in place I doubt this would have happened.
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