Sept 1, 2008 CHICAGO (AP) – Koyie Hill may have been the happiest callup of all when the Chicago Cubs expanded their roster Monday for the final month of the season.
Just to be in a major league uniform — any baseball uniform really — seemed unlikely a little more than 10 months ago when Hill nearly lost three fingers and the thumb on his right hand in a table saw accident.
Here is the rest of the story…..
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8512938?MSNHPHCP>1=39002
Alan – planesaw
Replies
The part that turns the stomach:
"It cut my thumb off first, went through all the muscle in my thumb and it went back and turned and cut all four tendons and all four fingers and all four ligaments," he said.
Father was a carpenter, doesn't sound like he was a novice. Don't totally follow this description: " [he] was working on some wood for a window frame on his house when a part of it got stuck in the saw. The saw grabbed and Hill's hand was in the way." Sounds like his hand got pulled into the blade along with the wood.
And for the future: "When his days of playing are over, he said he might have...his ring finger taken off for good because it is giving him so much pain."
I read and reread this in the paper yesterday and still couldn't figure out what happened...sounds like he didn't use a push stick...one would think that with the kind of money most pro atheletes are paid a SawStop would have been in his shop...but everyone has different priorities..he was fortunate to have good insurance...a contractor came into our ER last month...he was cutting a board with a circular saw, one handed, when the saw suddenly kickedback severing his thumb that was not on the saw. Even though he saved the thumb,he was self insured and when he heard the cost of reattachment, told the surgeon to sew up the stump, he couldn't afford that kind of money...the thought of socialized medicine makes me shiver but here's yet another tragic example of why the present system isn't working...sorry, didn't mean to start a political discussion.
Neil
"one would think that with the kind of money most pro atheletes are paid a SawStop would have been in his shop" Minor league BB players don't make much! According to one article I've read, the top end, at AAA ball, is $2000/mo. Their first year, regardless of what level, is $1100/mo. Yes, they get room and board and a few other perks, but it ain't no bed of roses.
When they get called up, however, it gets pretty nice! Minimum salary is $390K/year.
Can't imagine the son of a contractor thinking using a SawStop is anything short of being a sissy. Just look at the attitude about it amongst the old codgers here at Knots. <grin> I've been trying for 2 years to talk my optometrist into buying one, heaven knows he can afford it, and it's obvious in our discussions that what he dreads most is having a saw accident that might take a finger or two. He does all his own cabinetry and house remodelling, inside and out.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 9/2/2008 11:47 am by forestgirl
Can't imagine the son of a contractor thinking using a SawStop is anything short of being a sissy. Just look at the attitude about it amongst the old codgers here at Knots.
I had a moment with a piece of Walnut on Sunday morning. The board began pinching the back of the blade. One of those moments when you can feel teh pressure back towards you. I had the splitter on (as I normally do), and I suppose it's ultimatly what stopped a full kickback.
Later that evening I had a contractor buddy come over to help my with some trim work. He looked at the saw and said "You better take that splitter off before you hurt yourself..." Idiot.
Short fence my friend. Short Fence...
I've thought of this before, LB. Where is the fence positioned on the blade?
Jerry
You want the fence no further than the mid point of the blade. Some people will say first two or three inches but if you correctly set the blade height, it always works out to the midpoint. I set my blade height so that the gullet at top of the blade clears stock.
The splitter or riving kinfe takes care of the reaction wood where the wood cups inwards (closing the kerf). The short fence takes care of reaction wood where the wood goes towards the fence creating a wedge between the fence and the blade. You can feel this by the increasing pressure you have to apply as you feed stock. I find the latter to be quite common when ripping construction lumber on table saw.
Lyle
Thanks, LB, that answered my curiosity. I'm going to try that.
Jerry
Working on it...
In this case the wood was closing inwards on the blade.
What was the distance between the blade and the splitter? If the stock had cleared the splitter and then started to pinch the splitter should keep it open, although it can be unnerving (bin there!). This is one situation where the riving knife beats splitter hands down. Because of the constant distance maintained by the knife, you do not have a big gap between the blade and the splitter.
It's not a riving knife. It was one of those situations where the more you cut the tighter it got. I ended up killing the power. The movement was on the narrower waste side of the board, so I just started the cut over.
I've had this problem with walnut numerous times, always pinching in. I also had an entertaining moment while resawing some ash on the bandsaw... I got about 3/4 of the way through and the pressure was so great it split the rest of the way.
Couple of other suggestion, check your fence alignment relative to the blade and also check that your fence is not bowed along its length.<!----><!----><!---->
See what keeps on intriguing me is that you had to increase feed pressure after crossing the splitter, which means the stock was pinching between the blade and the fence. This is precisely the kind of situation a short fence will address. <!----><!---->
Lyle
The kerf actually closed up after passing the splitter, the pressure was due to the kerf squeezing the splitter. The movement was primarily on the narrower waste side of the cut (on the none fence side of the blade).
Even if he was using a push stick with the pushing hand, the other hand may have been hanging out just uphill of the blade (far worse than beside the blade), like one may be tempted to do when cutting a small, awkward piece. I do think a really GOOD push stick reduces the tendency to help with the other, more vulnerable, hand. Just thinking outloud here . . . the two most serious hand injuries I've had have been to my left hand, not my right (dominant, pushing) hand.Brian
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