Lets see some damage.

[Allubo]

About 5 months ago I cleverly completely removed a finger nail at work by pushing the sliding table on the dim saw from the wrong place, my hand got caught underneath the carriage and ripped out the nail on my right ring finger.

Here's a photo 1 week after I did it.

I think I was quite lucky to only loose a nail, those carriages can carry serious momentum!
I took a photo everyday until it grew back and only finished last week!

Lets see what some of you lot have done.

 

[Jelly]

I don't have photos, but I've seen two unfortunate accidents, a brutal splinter and had an unpleasant near miss myself:

The first accident was caused by someone climbing on the mechanism of a jammed tilt hoist to clear it, when they freed it, it immediately began to cycle and dropped onto their lower leg. Luckily he only sustained a closed fracture and some tissue trauma, he made a full recovery in 4 months and was disciplined for breaching the H&S rules by entering the feed mechanism without locking it out.

The second was caused by a piece of metal banding that got caught round a drivers leg whilst he was boarding the cab of a sideloader, the other end became entangled in the wheel of the vehicle and when it pulled tight cut into his ankle, he was lucky not to sustain a traumatic amputation and that the band acted as a tourniquet on the injury it caused... He lost most of the function in his right foot though due to the nerve damage and extended period of interrupted blood flow.

The splinter was a 6" long wedge of redwood ejected from under the guard of a spindle moulder, the piece broke up after the cutter met a hidden defect and that segment was ejected into the palm of the hand feeding the wood (two fences and stops for cutting partial length rebate, as long as the guides and guard are in place the hand should never be able to reach the danger area, obviating the need for a push-stick). It didn't do any major damage, but still required an x-ray and attention by a surgeon to prevent tendon damage removing it... the spindle was also out of action until they devised an even closer fitting guard.

My near miss was with a big SET machine, again the cutters hit a defect and ejected a lump of timber 2"*3" which escaped the partial enclosure and flew into the walkway opposite... It struck me in the right pec and left a really deep brusing which eventually ended up extending over nearly a quarter of my torso, after the near-miss report was filed a small chicken wire fence was placed behind it to prevent any further material being ejected into the walkway.

 

[Jacob]

You should report all this to HSE esp the chicken wire. It sounds like a sloppy regime and only a matter of time before someone is killed. Isn't there a union?
"Obviating the need for a push stick"? obviously not and in any case it should be two push sticks. This isn't being over cautious and it actually makes the work easier once you are used to it, so it's doubly foolish not to use them.

 

[Jelly]

It should be noted those span three different employers over quite a long period.

I know the first two had to go through the full HSE investigation process and that resaw was taken out of action until the summer msintainance shutdown and extra safeguards (full cage with lockout on the gate) were built in when the site was moved and expanded.

I presume the accident with the spindle must have too, certainly they had fellows out to come see the scene and there was also talk of removing it entirely and getting a copy-router set up to do its job, but the management there were not as clear at communicating to their staff what was going on, and I doubt they'd have been willing to admit fault in front of us.

I was never really sure about the reaction to that near miss though, on the one hand further screening the machine was neccessary but chicken wire is very much a jury rigged solution... I would hope it was replaced with a proper polycarbonate or better screen, but I left them not long after that.

I could yammer on about the different management attitudes and the subsequent different ways employees related to safety regs. within my workplaces for ages... It seemed to me that when management cares about doing right by their employees, it fosters a climate of openness that helps maintain a safe working culture.

 

[jim_hanna]

Result of slipping off a step ladder in my garage workshop and falling from a height of not more than two feet onto a concrete floor. Compound fractures of right upper arm and elbow requiring two operations, metal plates in my elbow and lots of painkillers and physio for six months afterwards.
Luckily my employment is at a keyboard with a large public sector body but a warning for anybody who is self-employed. The nurses in the fracture ward told me the real heart-breaking cases are the self-employed tradesmen facing a dramatic loss of income and a huge struggle to regain the dexterity and muscle memory required for their profession. Comprehensive insurance should be a must if you’re self employed.

Regards

Jim

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I'm typing this with a cast on my right arm - broken wrist which needed surgery and a plate. Not woodworking related - did it ice skating. It's safer in the workshop, honest !

Quite concerned as to how long it will take to get back to some sort of normal function, and very glad at the moment that most of my income is earned at a keyboard ...

 

[RogerP]

Did on a planer this 35 years ago ...

 

[powertools]

Seeing the op's picture bring back memories of the day I had had a long day in the car repair workshop and just wanted to go home. When I tried to close the heavy steel cantilever door the bottom runner channel had some leaves in it and it would not quite close enough to allow me to put the padlock on.
Instead of clearing the channel I opened the door about 4 foot and slammed it as hard as I could and in the process I removed the nail and the tip of my index finger of my left hand that I had chosen to leave in the way.
The nail did grow back but the end of the finger still has no feeling.
Stupid things often happen when you are in a rush and you are not thinking.

 

[No skills]

No pictures but plenty of accidents over the years.

Lost my rag and kicked a nearly full 20l tin of paint as hard as I could, paint every where and broken toe #-o
Doing something stupid with a router, work piece kicked and the tops of 3 fingers got ogee'ed - luckly no permanent damage.
Cleaning spray system and got tangled in hoses and tripped... injected my hand with thinners, felt very sick and woozy for the rest of the day.

Theres more but thats a good taste for now..

 

[Dusty]

sliced my forearm on my chopsaw !! The guard broke when I cut a small sliver off timber and it shot round the blade and jammed in the guard , quite literaly blew the guard every where . anyway , I had only one more cut to make and as I picked the piece up after cutting I turned around , and then .......ooooh , that felt like a tickle , quick look and oh poo . Made a hell of a mess , cut it right down to the yellow meat .

wrapped it up , finished the job and went to A and E after work ( 6 hours later ) --I hate hospitals !! got one hell of a telling off by the nurse for not going sooner !! Had to super glue it as there was nothing really to stitch ! now i am the proud owner of a 3" long messy scar ......which I got when i was in the "boar war " .....well that is what I told my daughter lol .


But having said that a mate lost half his finger , down the middle ! he was at work ( employed ) late at night and rushing a job and putting a piece of timber through the spindle moulder and then profiled his finger . He ended up losing it to the knuckle !

Roger ....I used to know an old guy in my village , exactly the same as you ( fingers , not old ) . He did it on his table saw ! quick push and then "oh" !

Kind regards Sam

 

[Gwilym68]

Just over 3 years ago had an argument with my table saw, guess what................ the table saw won!

Lesson learnt the hard way.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well I have burned my left hand this evening. Cooking. Not hospital-burned, fortunately, just it-*&^%$-well-hurts-burned.
Not in the same league, I'll grant you.
S

 

[MrA]

Bloody hell!


I'm going to take extra extra care from now on. The worst I've had is a few splinters so far, I did nearly come a cropper when using a table saw sled when I pushed too far and nearly caught my fingers. I'm pretty sure I'd give up my new hobby if I had an accident like some of those in this thread.

 

[whiskywill]

Well I have burned my left hand this evening. Cooking. Not hospital-burned, fortunately, just it-*&^%$-well-hurts-burned.
Not in the same league, I'll grant you.
S

I did the same on Saturday evening after watching the rugby internationals in a pub. I accidentally dipped two fingertips into hot caramel when making tarte tatin but with my trusty Aloe Vera plant on standby, although I now have two huge blisters, there is no pain whatsoever.

 

[barkwindjammer]

I'm sure I read it on here, guy cutting sheet material with a circ saw-, had a brain fart, and put his free hand under the sheet to make sure the blade was through the depth of the sheet-while still cutting -Ouch!

 

[lanemaux]

I have been both careful and fortunate. Most of my original equipment is still where it should be and functioning well. However , I have had occasion to see some very near things happen around me. Some 20 yrs. ago I was employed at a lumber milling operation in deep rural Ontario , Canada. My job was to move the filled pallets of boards from the cutting line to the storage and shipping area by forklift. My parts and pieces were therefore far from the sharp whirly bits all day long. Given the level of safety standards in the plant , I could not have been happier about that!
When a machine jammed up , not all that rare an occurence ,the accepted clearing method WAS... jump on the conveyor belt and kick at the jam till it forced it's way through. Imagine holding on to the top of the planer / thicknesser and using your foot to shove with all your might. I still wonder how I never got to see the foreman reduced to a 1 inch thickness. The machines were on while this happened by the way , and here is the supervisor up to his belt line in the hopper of the planer. Madness!!! I WAS NOT THERE LONG!

 

[deserter]

Well I have burned my left hand this evening. Cooking. Not hospital-burned, fortunately, just it-*&^%$-well-hurts-burned.
Not in the same league, I'll grant you.
S

Give it a coat of honey mate, works wonders.


~Nil carborundum illegitemi~

 

[Harbo]

Burns - dump in cold water ASAP

I spent most of my working life on construction sites - building roads and motorways.

Apart from a few major disasters most of the injuries were to chippies.
Working in plimsoles - heavy objects dropping on toes or protruding nails.
And cutting into various body parts with circular saws.

We used to keep bags of frozen peas and clean plastic bags as a standby to try to save separated items?

Rod