You know you’re in trouble when you notice the maple board you’re pushing through the jointer has blood on it. (8/4, 9 inces wide by 6 feet. Heavy!)
“That’s funny,” you think. “Didn’t notice that before. Guess one of the guys at the lumber yard cut himself.”
I had been ripping on the band saw, then jointing the new edge for the next ripping pass. Ripping, jointing, ripping jointing, kind of “locked in” with the process and machine noise.
“No! it’s bright red. Not dark. It would be dark if it had been there a while. It’s bright red! It’s BRIGHT RED!!”
“Don’t panic.” I don’t feel any pain. “Don’t panic. STOP THE MACHINE!”
Kick the jointer’s power switch with my knee in mid pass. Let it stop. Make sure the board is firmly sitting on the jointer bed.
“Look at your hands! Look at your hands and your fingers! Don’t panic. Take them off the board! LOOK AT YOUR HANDS AND FINGERS!!”
And a background mental image is flashing through my head, “I must have cut myself on the band saw. It couldn’t have been the jointer. Did I cut off a finger? I don’t feel any pain!!! Did I cut off a finger?!!!! Has it finally happened? Why isn’t there any pain?”
I’m looking at the back of both hands, fingers spread out. No blood. All my fingers are there. Somehow, I can’t immediately look at my palms. “TURN YOUR HANDS OVER!!!”
I have sliced a deep cut across four fingers of my right hand right at the first joint of each. It must have been on the sharp edge of the board as I was lifting it and turning it (did I mention, it’s HEAVY). NOW there’s pain! Amazing how concentrating on something else diverts attention even from pain.
Four bandaids and antibiotic ointment and I’m OK. But it’s time to stop for the day.
“Honey, we need to go out for dinner tonight!”
VL
Replies
Metod,
No.
But your response made me laugh.
VL
Helped an ex brother-in-law move equipment into a large ice companies freezer. It was about 40 degrees outside but 0 inside. We had to carry a bunch of large heavy sharped edged metal bins from one end of the freezer to the other, about 200 feet. When we got outside I noticed red on his left pant leg. When he looked down he noticed there was blood on his left jersey gloves pinky finger. He took off the glove and the end of his pinky finger was gone at the joint.
So cold he didn't feel it. We didn't go look for it, there were to many bins. Just went to the hospital. All the way I was checking out mine, yep there all there.
Really thought it weird he didn't feel a thing.
I've done that and it is worth going out to eat for. I was at the lumberyard pullung 8/4 x 12" x 16' Maple planks out of the bins, over my head, when one hung up. My hands slid mabe six or seven inches. Just like a knife along the inside of the big joints of my fingers. Both hands, managed to cut all eight fingers and slice that skin that goes from your thumb to the index finger. It was nice, blood on the wood and truck, stung like Hell when I put the gloves on (AFTER) and then proceeded to open up the cuts for the next three days or so everytime I opened my hands. No stitches, because I'm too smart for that. Oh yeah, I forgot I did nearly the same thing on a Microlam beam a couple of years later. Sure saved me from having to wear out all those gloves!
John
Jagwah and John,
I violated one of the most important safety rules: I was working at the limit of my strength. An undeniable aspect of being female! I'm 5'8" but an average man of my height has MUCH more muscle mass. You guys have an advantage. Especially you big guys. I have to work smarter.
The 8/4 maple board was obviously too heavy for me. And each year they seem heavier!
Actually, it was a ten footer that I brought home. I cut it into 2 lengths, 6' and 4'. Obviously, I should have been wearing gloves until I had ripped it down to a more maneageable size. Who ever thinks of gloves as THAT much of a safety factor? I almost never get splinters from hardwood, so I don't usually bother with them.
I have 6 more of these ten foot boards to work on. Fun!
VL
Venicia (what a lovely name!),
I use gloves a lot because I'm a sissy - actually a guitarist and fiddler who hates having splinters, blood blisters, sore hands, etc. to contend with when I'm ready to play. I insisted on a dishwasher so I wouldn't soften my finger callouses in dishwater...
At the same time, 30 years ago, when I started seriously WWing, everybody thought that wearing hearing protection made you a girly-man. I didn't care, wore earplugs anyway, because I was a musician. 30 years later my peers - in both the WWing and music fields - complain about not hearing as well as they used to, guys I play with ask for more treble because they have trouble hearing low frequencies. I, on the other hand, am usually rolling treble off instruments, microphones, etc. because my hearing is still, Thank God, real good.
I often think of an old (really old) Nivea jingle:
"From your fingers to your toes/You've got just one set of permanent clothes/And with a little daily care, daily care/it will last through years of wear."
'Nuff said.
Glad you are OK. Once had a scare like that..turned out I squished a full mosquito..still it was my blood LOL.
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Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Venicia,
Sorry to hear about the boo boo, glad your ok, well, not ok, but not as bad as it could have been. Those fresh cut edges can be really sharp. I'm sure many of us have had the same thing happen. I've been there, done that.
Darn, honey, can't do dishes for a week, but I'll be back WW this afternoon.
While working on the table saw I saw blood on the board. I did what you did, shut off the saw, checked the fingers & hands, fingers spread, top bottom top bottom, where's the blood coming from. More spots, damn, my nose.
Enjoy, Roy
Yeah, sure. Tried the "I can't help do the dishes with this big gash in my hand!" Wifey threw a pair of rubber gloves at me and told me "to git to warshin'".......
Venicia, how's this? Some years ago, I had a job bulletproofing a room for a wholesale diamond merchant on west 47th st in NYC.
In addition to installing 1" thick Lexan glazing in the door and Window, I sheathed the whole interior of the cubical/officewith 1/8' thick stainless steel sheets.
I had the metal supplier shear the metal to 16" sections to screw vertically to metal studs in a sheetrock wall.
As it turned out I had two sections of the stuff left over when the job was finished. I stored the two pieces horrizontaly across an old shed in my backyard (In case I may have a use for it later)
Once, while cutting the lawn, I tugged at the impacted long grass that found a home amid the sheets, when a sheet fell toward me and sliced a nice hunk through my shin right to the bone, but left the hunk of meat hanging downward.
Being male and with an ego that bruises easily, I taped it right up and didn't remove it for at least a month. It healed up fine , but I deepsixed the #$%$%$ metal.
(By the way,the room was used by a young woman who spent her days sorting and grading diamonds, )
Just the job for you.Stein
Edited 2/16/2004 9:24:44 PM ET by steinmetz
It just can't be repeated often enough . . .
Be careful out there.
VL
Funny - another safety topic just showed up: http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages?msg=16381.1
I posted some stuff I've learned there - you might find it useful.
Glad to hear this was only a warning shot and nothing serious!
Two words...
Shop Gloves
Back in the seventies when 1- 1/2"styromfoam began being used as sheathing on houses,I was using my utility knife to cut it. It wasn't working too good because the blade wasn't long enough to cut through in one slice. I figured there must be a better way. Didn't take me long to figger I needed a longer blade. That evening at home I put a keen edge on an old butcher knife and took it to work next morning. So, there I am, down on my knees on the floor making long soul-satisifying rips in the styrofoam,congratulating myself on my ingenuity,untill at the end of one of my long strokes,my bubble burst. As I was bringing the knife forward for the next slice, the point of the blade hit the floor and stopped dead and my fingers slid down the blade and layed all four open. That was the end of my experiment with a butcher knife.
Ooooowwwwwwwww!
VL
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