A lesson learned

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George Foweraker

George Foweraker

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17 Jul 2009
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Location
Burnham on Sea Somerset.
All.

HiLast Thursday afternoon i decided to make some Tea light holders for Christmas.
I turned down some nice spalted Beech about 18" long x 2" dia.
Finished it and polished then cut it up into approx 2" pieces.
Because i thought it would be nice to cut the holes for the candles off centre i decided to do it on the pillar drill.
Well this is where it all went **** up.
I started drilling with a 30mm forsener bit holding the piece with my right hand.
The piece of wood started to spin and as it did it twisted onto its side.
The result was that my index finger went under the bit and the end of it is mulched.
The bit cut through my nail about 2/3 up right through to the bone breaking it.
I went to A & E where a very nice doctor spent an hour and a half stitching all the bits together and taking of the nail.
I am told it will take from 4 to 6 weeks for the bone to mend.
The doc made a very neat job of the stitching so most of it will be under the new nail.
I have not put this up to receive sympathy or to make you feel sick i have put it up so that you will see how quick these things happen.
What i should have done is clamp the piece and stay safe.
It just never dawned on me that this could happen.
Stay safe dont make the same silly mistake that i did.
Incidentally a mate of mine an ex engineer said a pillar drill is the most dangerous machine in the workshop.

Regards George,

I was only joking about not wanting sympathy I WANT LOADS :cry: :cry:
 
I saw an almost identical accident happen many years ago when I worked part time for a cabinet maker whilst I was doing part of my apprenticeship.

I had just turned a number of yew components for a spinning wheel which he was making and he went to his pillar drill with a saw tooth bit fitted to cut the holes in the outer wheel for the spokes to go into,
The saw tooth drill bit into the yes and it kicked out but his hand ended up under the bit and he ended up with nasty lascerations across the back of his hand.

About three weeks after that he managed to sever a finger off his other hand on his table saw too.

Luckily to date I havnt had his misfortune.

Anyway back to George - Sorry to hear of your accident - I hope you hand heals quickly and you can get back to your turnery

Dodge
 
Hi, Geroge

Ouch :shock:

We have all had things catch and spin in a drill press, most of the time with out injury, I guess we will all be a bit more carful now.

Any pics?

Get well soon.

Pete
 
Sorry George but no sympathy from me, sorry to hear that you have had a serious shop accident and am glad all is expected to mend, but what you attempted would have got you seriously disciplined in an engineering apprentice shop in my day.
And no doubt you knew you should not have attempted it?

Thanks for fessing up and posting though, hopefully others will experience enough cheek puckering to take note for the future.
 
Ooh that sounds a bit nasty George :sick: Hope it heals up ok. We're all guilty of taking the occasional stupid shortcut and 99.9% of the time get away with it but then there's that other 0.01%..........

JT
 
A couple of little things that stuck with me early on being exposed to machines, a fellow apprentice hit his finger with a hammer, no problem, but when he tried to drill through his nail on a pillar drill to let out the blood blister he failed to realise that there was play in the spindle rack and when the drill broke through and the chuck dropped an extra 1/16 th or so !!!!

Then there was the other one who tried to slow a large geared head lathe chuck with his finger, by brushing away swarf between the tool tip and part before it had spun down. Still to this day I grab a set of cheap paint brushes from IKEA or the like whenever I see them and have one in the metal lathe tray.
 
It's the sort of thing that we do after turning for a while and get all blase because we haven't had an accident isn't it. I have had things spinning on a pillar drill though never had the misfortune you have had. Silly thing is the clamp is right by the side but it seemed a pain to clamp each piece much quicker to just hold it....not counting a trip to the hospital of course. I think my camp will see some use from now on

pete
 
george - ouch - i hope you get better soon

and there but for the grace of god etc .. last week our pillar drill died while we were using an 80mm forstner to cut waymarker rebates, and i unwisely tried to finish the job by mounting the forstner in a hand held makita 24v drill and hold the work down with my foot - the forster caught, jumped out of the rebate and skated accross the top of my boot, ripping it all to hell and gone.

Fortunately i was wearing 'tectors so although the boots are trashed my toeseys are still all in one piece - lesson learned.

We eventually finished the job by using our morticer as a drill - probably should have thought of that originally :roll: :oops:
 
Talking about toes.

Many years ago i was working on loft conversion works and there was a chippie there i cant remember his name.
He was cutting up floor boards with a 12" skill saw when it run back over his foot taking off all his toes.
What a bloody mess.

Regards George
 
George Foweraker":euib51hl said:
Talking about toes.

Many years ago i was working on loft conversion works and there was a chippie there i cant remember his name.
He was cutting up floor boards with a 12" skill saw when it run back over his foot taking off all his toes.
What a bloody mess.

Regards George
Click to expand...

:sick:

ooff -most workboots are 'tectors for a reason

saying that a bloke who i know recently shot himself in the foot with a air powered nail gun - the nail went throught the toe cap, and right into his big toe bone :shock:
 
Whilst we're on the subject of 'fessing up, I was putting some stuff away a week ago (hadnt even been doing any woodworky things, just moving stuff from point A to point B). One of these things was a chisel roll, and I hadnt noticed a blade slightly poking out of the end.
It turns out that my chisels are very sharp, and the edge of my thumb offered very, very little resistance.
The end result was not a particularly large cut, but it bled like stink and sliced clean through a terminal nerve.
I had an op on monday, lasted about an hour, to repair the nerve (as all sensation down one side of my thumb had gone), and my right hand is immobilised for best part of a month. Using your left hand only to do everything when you are right handed aint easy. Surprisingly tooth brushing and bread buttering being especially so :)
It also means I am off work for a month, and am not going to be able to turn a few bowls folk had requested for christmas.

Ho hum :)

I guess the moral of this story (apart from things going wrong even when you arent doing anything) is that keep your chisels blunt, and never, ever tidy up!

Take care,
Adam S
 
George Foweraker":1b12fmqd said:
When i am talking about there was no such thing as toe tecters
Click to expand...

ahh, i'm not old enough to remember those ancient days of yore
 

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