Thread: DIY injuries on rise amid home renovation TV boom, Brisbane doctors say

Just saw that myself. Thought it a bit unusual they mentioned the accident but not how it could have been prevented or if the user was doing something dangerous.

Given the stuff I've seen trained people do, I wouldn't at all be surprised if many of these accidents involve user error in some way (either intentionally or not)

It is important to know which way the timber will fly when something goes wrong. Things just happen, timber can explode on spindle moulders and router tables and bandsaws etc. If you have no experience, it is very likely you are pushing your hands towards a cutter because you are trying to put too much pressure on the fence or some other inexperienced white knuckle thing. When the timber explodes, your hands shoot straight in towards the cutter. You can't read this stuff inside instruction manuals.

Don't believe me, have a look at this. It's actually quite an entertaining video. So many things go wrong. I found it quite funny. But anyways, I set the video to start at "exploding timber on router table" time.

https://youtu.be/A_xEbiZuxgo?t=2m12s

That video guy is a clown. He is bloody dangerous and incredibly wasteful.

What is wrong with that guy. I felt like I was watching the video on 2x speed the whole time, he works his tools so damned hard. Overconfidence/stupidity or both?

"Up until now studies into these kinds of injuries have only looked at hospital admissions, rather than visits to emergency, where an estimated 75 per cent of patients actually end up.
"So we believe we have missed a significant number," Dr Eley said."

They have also missed the very significant number of injuries treated in GP's rooms, significant lacerations, dislocations, bruising, contusions etc that don't require a visit to ED.

The truth is that nobody has a good idea of the numbers, frequency, types, or mechanisms of injury to hobby wood workers or DIYers. There has been various research projects in SA, VIC and QLD into DIY and hobby injuries, most of it quite dated now and well prior to the ready availability of cheap tooling.

The other thing is that only deaths in ED or hospital make it into the research statistics, because the stats are collected in hospital. On scene deaths from hobby accidents don't reach hospital, but may be reported in the media.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

"Up until now studies into these kinds of injuries have only looked at hospital admissions, rather than visits to emergency, where an estimated 75 per cent of patients actually end up.
"So we believe we have missed a significant number," Dr Eley said."

This is not correct. The major DIY studies done by Monash Uni in the 1990's comprehensively covered all ED visits in Vic.

They have also missed the very significant number of injuries treated in GP's rooms, significant lacerations, dislocations, bruising, contusions etc that don't require a visit to ED.

This is correct. There are are also many minor injuries and near misses that go unreported which would provide useful info.

The truth is that nobody has a good idea of the numbers, frequency, types, or mechanisms of injury to hobby wood workers or DIYers. There has been various research projects in SA, VIC and QLD into DIY and hobby injuries, most of it quite dated now and well prior to the ready availability of cheap tooling.

I agree. the last Monash DIY injury and death study is now nearly 20 years old and although still useful it needs updating.

The other thing is that only deaths in ED or hospital make it into the research statistics, because the stats are collected in hospital. On scene deaths from hobby accidents don't reach hospital, but may be reported in the media.

The Monash Research centre reports cover ALL deaths in Vic.

Monash have a more recent (2103) 32 page general report on "Injury related deaths and Injury patterns in Vic" including admissions to ED and hospitals.
see https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets...8492/haz76.pdf

DIY deaths and injuries are too small to rate a single mention in this report, and the search term "wood working" shows up once, under injuries in the paper making trade.

The closest the report comes to DIY related injuries and deaths is under the category of "home" where falls, intentional self harm and burns dominate the stats

The reality is that it is very difficult to get funding for DIY injury research compared to the numbers of injuries and deaths in other areas like; falls, which caused 29% of all injury related deaths, self inflicted injuries (25%), transport (16%) and poisoning (10%).

The report lists the following as priorities - note how "falls" appears in 5 of the categories.
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Monash.jpg

I'm not surprised, too many people don't realise how dangerous machinery and tools can be.

I've had to sort through the dust extractor a few times to find workmates cut fingers on the panel saw, and one of those guys were a trained saw machinist.

Im not sure if TAFE/Tech still show the injury photos in your first block of apprentice training,

At the time, i felt the photos of injuries form machinery and workplace accidents were over the top, we even had a few people get sick, i struggled to watch the slides, but it was a wake up call to take care.

I can just imagine someone DIY'er buying a hand held router/Planner and getting into trouble.

I was shown all sorts of gross videos during my apprenticeship 1999-2002. Pigs tails being used to demonstrate the difference between spindle moulder safety heads with chip limiters and not so safety heads without chip limiters. The difference was a few shavings off the pigs tails compared with the pigs tail being ripped apart about 2" shorter.

Originally Posted by Kuffy

I was shown all sorts of gross videos during my apprenticeship 1999-2002. Pigs tails being used to demonstrate the difference between spindle moulder safety heads with chip limiters and not so safety heads without chip limiters. The difference was a few shavings off the pigs tails compared with the pigs tail being ripped apart about 2" shorter.

That made my botty wink!

Originally Posted by Kuffy

I was shown all sorts of gross videos during my apprenticeship 1999-2002. Pigs tails being used to demonstrate the difference between spindle moulder safety heads with chip limiters and not so safety heads without chip limiters. The difference was a few shavings off the pigs tails compared with the pigs tail being ripped apart about 2" shorter.

Sound like they tamed it down in Victoria, i would be surprised if what we viewed is know classed as disturbing material.

I did my apprenticeship up here in QLD 1995-99 and the slides/photo were made up of real people from cabinetmaking injury accidents, it was awful seeing people dead from bench grinder discs that had exploded into there faces. hands and heads that had be scalped from drills and other presses, the list goes on.

It was really really sicking, but it got the point across.. All machines are dangerous if not respected...

There was a picture in the office where we handed our timesheets etc. It was the aftermath of an apprentice nailing himself to the floor. His boot and sock haf been cut away around the nail with the head still protruding thru the top of the boot and a chunk of floor stuck to the bottom of his boot

There were other pics and storries at trade school.

Ive been lucky. Other than seeing a guy shoot a nail thru his finger I've never seen a competent person do a serious injury on the job.

That said I did see an incompetent brickie using a 9" grinder without a guard. I told him he should not be using it like that and not 60 seconds later saw him cut thru his wrist and one bone.

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

While not a DIY accident, in the last week I have seen and commented to people at work about looking at their mobile phones while walking down stairs. No, none of them have fallen but the risk is there.

I should perhaps mention that I work in a hospital. We want discharges, not admissions.

Originally Posted by Handyjack

While not a DIY accident, in the last week I have seen and commented to people at work about looking at their mobile phones while walking down stairs. No, none of them have fallen but the risk is there.

I should perhaps mention that I work in a hospital. We want discharges, not admissions.

There should be a law that is someone walks into you and they are looking at there phone that you can put them in hospital...

people looking at their phones while walking is becoming a huge problem.