Who's lost any fingers ?

[JDarvall]

I've renamed my jointing machine today....... the de-jointer
and I've graffitied the bloody thing with a niko pen as a reminder.....yep, off comes the 'carpatec professional jointer' sticker and on with 'de-jointer' in large letters......

Because 3 weeks ago I took about 1/4" of bone off my right middle finger....
And of course it would never happen to me...... I was rushing things, tied, (all the regular excuses) had just one piece left to true before glue up so I could glue up and finally the day was over.....a little piece ....and no push pads.... d**khead.... yeh, I know.....the blades caught the wood , threw it and my hand kept going, felt a knock, look down and my finger from the start of the nail to the tip was hanging off the rest of the finger with about 3mm of flesh.....never felt so much pain..... I mean the same amount of damage to say your arm you'd just bear it..... but with all those nerve endings I was carrying on like there was no tomorrow ( I didn't cry ....just cursed a lot ...truthfully) .....they gave me morphine at the hospital and I finally learn't what junkies mean by 'a rush'.....the stuff was fantastic.....I mean you don't really realise how many little achs and pains you have until you've had morphine I reakon.... I was so painless I totally forgot about the finger and just perved on the nurses ........

So, I've had more time on my hands, off work, these wounds take a long time to heal........thats when I discovered this site,,,,,

Anybody else lost a finger,, or two ?

[Ashore]

The things some people do in a rush ... or was that for a rush
Thanks for the advise on how to get high but I think i'll just keep taking my time and fingers





God must love stupid people; He made so many of us.

[JDarvall]

Yeah, thats what my mates at work joke about,,,,,,,,,that I did it on purpose ,,,to get off work and experiment with morphine......the buggers.

[martrix]

Howdy 'A'tripper,
sorry to hear of your accident, have not had a serious accident yet and I plan not too (touching and grabbing every piece of timber i can find right now!!!). My buddy however had a run-in with a nice big spanky Panel saw. Ripping some timber and was using one hand to hold timber against the fence behind the riving knife, after last piece was ripped and pushed through with a push stick, had a brain fade and pulled back his fingers over the back of a sharp running fine tooth blade, Ding!crash# blood spurts$#! Still got most of his finger tip's but had skin grafts and pins inserted in end of finger. Another reason why I use push sticks for both hands, and treat them like an extension of my hands, dont even like putting the push sticks in danger of touching sharp spinning bit's. I had a fairly serious illness once upon a time with a lot of pain, and agree that the Morpheine made me feel out of this world, until it wore off, and the pain and reality returned. Anyway, you can spend hours and hours exploring this forum.

[Ashore]

So your mates are pointing the finger at you about your drug use

well you should nail that on the head straight away or there will be joint jokes next or do you now go by the name of stumpy or is that KFC chicken still finger licking good etc ...yeah some blokes are can be real harsh over someone elses affliction





God must love stupid people; He made so many.

[Cliff Rogers]

....Anybody else lost a finger,, or two ?
A few of us..... :rolleyes:

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=10109

[Slavo]

No losses, but had a close call on Easter Monday. Cutting long, thin strips on the Triton, the guard wasn't completely down as it was hitting the fence, using push-stick but didn't push it through enough as the end of the timber stuck between the splitter and the fence. As I pushed the scrap away it pivoted against the end of the thin strip, which acted like a spring and pushed back (curse you Newton and your 3rd law of motion), pivoting the scrap with my hand on it towards an angry looking CMT ripping blade spinning @ 4000RPM. No bone damage but a bloody mess of my thumb knuckle, cut 75% of my tendon and 5 weeks on the sideline wearing a splint & bandage. I will never do that again because I was sick and tired of people asking "hey, what did you do to your thumb"

[Zed]

HI there,

Still got all me fingers..... try this thread for ideas - SWMBO is very fond of my hands (?) thus she is pleased I made these items....

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=17341

[Rowan]

yeah some blokes are can be real harsh over someone elses affliction



Isnt that the truth. I once had a cricket accident that almost killed me. Got hit in the temple (no helmet) by a ball from a pitching machine at over 100 "M"ph (yep miles) Seems about 1/4 inch either way and I was dead on the spot. When I finally got out of hospital (3 weeks) and back to the club my new nickname "damage" because I had left a flat spot on the ball that hit me!!!!!

Worst thing was that the bloke that started the name was .....................................my brother :mad:

[namtrak]

I lost some fish fingers once after a night on the turps - I was sure I put a dozen or so under the griller. I get up in the morning and aside from the smoke there are only a pile of black pencils left in the griller - never did figure out where me fish fingers got to.

[LineLefty]

Steer clear of the morphine. When my old 'man (At age 45) was in the last stages of terminal cancer he was on enough morphine to kill a non-desensitised adult on the spot.

Unfortunately he also had to come off it for a few days for some other treatments. And let me tell you, the comedown is not a pretty sight. It's sad to knwo he died as a morphine addict.
Apoligies, a bit to serious for a tuesday morning.

[kiwigeo]

Finger and hand safety was the topic of yesterdays safety meeting out here on the oil rig Im working on. The talk came with some case studies and (in)appropriate photos of horrendous hand injuries.

Worst one was an injection injury copped by a fire fighter during a training exercise with a jaws of life cutting setup. The bloke had the hydraulic line to the shears resting over his shoulder...line had a pinhole and a fine jet of HP mineral oil shot out of the line and into his skin and travelled all the way down his arm to his hand via the lymph system. Bloke kept his arm but it took the surgeon quite a few arms to get the mineral oil out of his lymph system and the wounds had to stay open untill theyd healed.

[ROB NZ]

Sorry Apricotripper to hear of your argument with the machine. Hope that your recovery is rapid.

You may like to make this sign and put it up in a prominent place in your workshop:

"Workshop staff shall endeavour to complete each project with as many fingers as they start with.
Signed
Management"

Meantime my current project is cladding a large pole barn for my new workshop.
My pre-occupation is not coming off the top of the ladder before I'm ready!

Cheers
Rob NZ

[powderpost]

I can symphasise with you. I trimmed 5mm only off the left middle finger on the circular saw. Cut the both tendons in the left index finger, which required 12 weeks on the sideline. Not too bad for 48 years in the trade.
Jim

[maglite]

Does going thru a barbed wire fence on a motor bike count?

28 stitches in right fore arm
72 stitches under chin......apparently very lucky....
1 inch lower, would have ripped out wind pipe.
4 inches higher would have ripped eyes out

I still buy a lotto ticket, but i dont expect to win.......i hope the luck holds up in the shed too.

[MajorPanic]

I cut off about ⅜" of my left thumb many years ago while ripping very narrow stock. It was reattached but I've got no feeling in the end of it.

It was my own fault, I was playing in the workshop after working a 12 hour day & I was tired.
The rule I follow now is NO machinery is turned on unless I've had a some sleep in the preceding 8 hours.
The other is push sticks are WONDERFUL!!

I think you were lucky with the finger, a mate had to have his middle finger of the right hand cut off after he put the first knuckle into a jointer.

[ryanarcher]

Steer clear of the morphine. When my old 'man (At age 45) was in the last stages of terminal cancer he was on enough morphine to kill a non-desensitised adult on the spot.

Unfortunately he also had to come off it for a few days for some other treatments. And let me tell you, the comedown is not a pretty sight. It's sad to knwo he died as a morphine addict.
Apoligies, a bit to serious for a tuesday morning.


It is impossible to become addicted to narcotic analgesics (like morphine, demerol, etc.) if you are truly in pain. The MS (morphine sulphate) ataches to the pain receptor sites before it causes an euphoric feeling in your head. so unless your dad was prescribed way too much MS, i suspect that while he was taken off it, he was just feeling the full effects of the cancer (which is unbelievably painfull). so unless the doc says otherwise, you can rest easy that he was no addict. ;)
-Ryan

[LineLefty]

Thanks Ryan,

He wasnt 'prescribed' a certain amount as such. Rather he had one of those on demand systems that had an upper limit. I remember asking the visiting doc how much he was getting and he said that if I had the same amount first up, it'd kill me.

Perhaps he wasn't addicted then. Thats good to know. His pancreatic cancer was incredibly painful and terrifyingly quick.

[PhilMcCrackin]

Ouch!

From a full fingered newbie's point of view, reading these stories gets me a bit worried and bit sick in stomach. I use push sticks, push blocks, saw guards, dust mask, ear muffs, face googles etc and I never attempt anything if it doesn't feel quite right. Does this mean I am safe? I have never had any shop accidents and dont plan to. Where does one learn the absolute do's and don'ts as far as protecting ones fingers?

[AlexS]

Ouch!

From a full fingered newbie's point of view, reading these stories gets me a bit worried and bit sick in stomach. I use push sticks, push blocks, saw guards, dust mask, ear muffs, face googles etc and I never attempt anything if it doesn't feel quite right. Does this mean I am safe? I have never had any shop accidents and dont plan to. Where does one learn the absolute do's and don'ts as far as protecting ones fingers?

Your mental attitude is your best piece of safety equipment. Most accidents happen doing routine things without concentrating.

The only things I'd add to what you're doing are Don't do it if you're tired, using medication or recreational chemicals (including alchohol). Even one beer can affect your concentration.

[soundman]

Pictures wheres the pictures.
I hope the feeling comes back, you might be lucky.

check out my ouch post. http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=8645&highlight=ouchthe great thumb slice of 2004.
Its just over 12 months now & most of the feeling has returned to the downstream side of the thumb.

Post an 8 x10 with a note next to the machine as a reminder.

cheers

[Optimark]

Ryan, 35 years ago I suffered amongst other things, a broken back, neck, arm, ribs (5), knee joint, mandible (7 places) and sundry soft tissue wounds.

I was, relatively speaking, in a bit of pain. Morphine was used and I can still remember how relieving it was to be able to relax ones muscles, when you are in pain, you tense your muscles.

After only a short period I realised I was becoming addicted to this wonder drug, however I had no option but to continue receiving an ever increasing dosage, which by the way was monitored by the medical staff very carefully.

One of the wonders of the human brain is that we have no memory retention of pain. So the moment you receive a dose of pain killer like morphine, you relax, at that moment the feeling is utter bliss. I wouldn't say it was euphoric but I can truly say I understand fully just how people can and do become dependent on drugs.

Another reason morphine is a nice drug is that the chemist/doctor/scientist who discovered morphine named it after the Greek God of dreams Morpheus. This I found out when I was starting to get better and the staff gave me some reading material on addiction and how they were going to bring me down to normality. It took me about a year to be pain killer free, the morphine from memory was used quite a lot for the first three weeks and then spareingly over a period of a month (I think) to wean me off it.

Mick.

[Trent The Thief]

I've been pretty careful about fingers since almost losing one in the service.

Coming off a rooftop one night my wedding ring caught and sliced into my finger. It was 10 sutures and a ring in two pieces, but luckily didn't cut the tendons.

Sorry for your accident, but thanks for the reminder!

[soundman]

Rings can be a real nasty.
One of my bro'inlaws mates lost a finger to a wedding ring. Put his left hand on the side of an army truck tray then jumped down, ring caught in tale gate, arm too short for feet to reach ground, finger tawn off. nasty.
Since I was an apprentice I never wear any form of jewlery on the job & wear only plastic bodied watches.

It is good to feel a bit off at these sorts of stories, it makes you carefull.

[reybec]

haven't lost any fingers as such but i have one with no feeling anymore.
about 20 years ago as an apprentice cabinetmaker/woodmachinist i cut my right hand social finger 5 minutes before knock off time on a friday before a long weekend. i didn't think it was bad enough to even be stitched but my boss insisted i go to the hospital.result was tests showed i had cut the nerve & would have to have microsurgery
so i ended up spending the whole long weekend in hospital followed by 6 weeks in plaster ,bandages & slings it also meant a trip to the hospital every month for the next year.

the bad news is the op was a failure & i have had a numb finger ever since
it certainly taught me to be careful because i haven't had an accident at work since.

[keith53]

Sorry to hear about your accident.


You might try hanging garlic over the machine as well. That will help ward off the evil spirits that take over the machine. I've got a skew chisel that turns on me at a moment's notice. I've watched the Mike Darlow DVD several times using a skew to turn beads. My chisel lets me get away with it for a little while then suddenly takes on a mind of its own.

I've packed it away in garlic and have gone back to cutting beads with a parting tool. I'm hoping to have the skew exorcised when I can find someone who does that sort of thing...

[womble]

I've learnt in psychology this last semester about 'mindfulness' and mindlessness', there's actually quite a bit of research and literature devoted to it. We all tend to have periods of mindlessness which is simply a state of running on automatic (driving is a good example), it's not a bad thing most of the time as it saves a lot of energy (a thinking brain consumes lots of that!) BUT it can also lead to accidents when the unexpected happens...

[WoodWad]

Say Apricotripper,

Enough about your finger, how many blades on your jointer? ;)
That is such an aweful way to lose part of your digits. A table saw or bandsaw is understandable because they are "cutting" machines, but jointers and planers, ooooooooohh, that just sounds painful.

It happens to all of us, well almost all of us. I did shoot a 3 inch nail into my knee with my Paslode (all the way too), but the offender was removed and my knee was OK. The opposite can be said in your case. :(

Good luck to you in the future. :)
Johnny.

[doug the slug]

never had anything more serious than a cut or graze doing woodwork, but in my business of doing concrete garden edging i managed to trap the ring finger of my left hand in between my boot and the trailer drawbar whan disconecting it from the 4wd on a slope. the end joint of my finger was about as big as the top ofa beer can and as thick as a 20c piece. this happened in front of the wife of a freind of mine and in the circumstances all i could say was oh dear oh dear oh dear. i did the first aid myself , drove myself to the hospital, was back at work24 hours later and booked a job with the emergency department nurse at the hospital and the doctor who treated me. total profit $1200 but the fingertip is still numb 5 years later.

Doug

[JDarvall]

Say Apricotripper,

Enough about your finger, how many blades on your jointer? ;)
That is such an aweful way to lose part of your digits. A table saw or bandsaw is understandable because they are "cutting" machines, but jointers and planers, ooooooooohh, that just sounds painful.

It happens to all of us, well almost all of us. I did shoot a 3 inch nail into my knee with my Paslode (all the way too), but the offender was removed and my knee was OK. The opposite can be said in your case. :(

Good luck to you in the future. :)
Johnny.

Your a cheeky bugger I reakon,,,,think I could get along well with you.....but wonder about that nail accident of yours.....I reakon that could be just as bad or worse......something long, sharp and metallic going into your knee ...all the way you say.....no mate, I think I prefer the jointer.....anyway before you know it we'll be comparing scars.....and that can really get out of control.....

when I was in school I remember a couple of jocks in the dressing room getting all competitive comparing scars.....too the point they were actually dropping their dacks so see who had the longest circumcision......at which point they suddenly both realised what they were doing....simultaneously jumping back in a kind of homophobic fit of rage..........funny to watch, but hell you wouldn't dare laugh or they'd tear you apart....

And concerning that jointer accident........I shouldn't really go on about it because not that much damage was done compared to some blokes.......the blade just sort of scooped a chunk out of the tip leaving the outer skin still.....so the doctor just flipped it back up and sewed it on......like that flip top head ad on TV ...advertising toothbrushes or something.....so it doesn't look that bad and the nails growing back.......numb though....spose it will always be that way......I have to line it up with the middle finger of my other hands to show the difference.....but that 'chunk' that was scooped out......I never thought about what happened to it....like who cares.... but I recently found it while cleaning up my boots........like to give them a dubin coat when ever I get the chance and I was digging crap out the tread in one of them with a stick and out pops this dried up chunk of finger......wasn't shore at first....but it was bloody, stuck with wood shavings, and finger print lines on a bit of skin and a hard bit of bone in the middle......good chance I thought thats it.........

So I've been walking around for 6 weeks with the tip of my finger stuck in my boot......kind of funny I thought :o

[echnidna]

You're real lucky to have a finger left Apricottripper coz jointers make real good hamburger mince.

[Priemsy]

Yep! Not by a wood working machine though. caught between 6 meters of 150mm cast iron waterpipe and a rock.( dh on the other end let go to soon) You're right about the nerves in the end of your fingertips. Was bloody thankful when the anesthetic took affect.

[speedy]

I stacked my motorcycle 2 years ago, dumb overtaking on double white lines.
ankle fractured 2 places, 4 screws. fractured femur (upper leg) titanium pin (called a nail in the medical world) and 2 x 80mm screws. pelvisd fractured in 3 places. lots of morphine and 6 months off work.:(:(

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Fortunately for me my only serious injury didn't involve power tools, only a drunken Kiwi with a machete. After 15 odd years and still no feeling in that foot I don't expect any improvement. That's not to say the workshop's been accident free; but none have really done more than inconvenience me and/or hurt my pride. Oh... and none have been repeated. I do learn, given sufficient reason. ;)

eg. I tried my hand at welding and melted my watch-band into my wrist when changing electrodes. Now I don't weld barefoot. :o

Soldering can be fun too, especially if you knock the iron off the bench w/out noticing. Until I smelt burning meat and looked down (like I said, no feeling in one foot) I didn't realise that I was standing on the beast. Errrmmm... barefoot again, of course!

Another time I had to drill a 1/2" hole in 3/4" cast iron plate. Too big to fit on the drill press, I used my 1200W power drill. The bit snagged and broke, the jagged end running across the knuckles of my left hand. No tendons cut, but the hand still looks like it belongs on a street-fighter.

Or using a nailgun to attach a fascia; my left hand wrapped around the carcase & the thumb holding the fascia. I really should've double-checked which brads were in the gun instead of trusting to memory... nailing your hand to the carcase is not a good way to learn you were wrong.

I won't bother to recount the events like having the belt-sander try to climb my leg, or the flying dead-knot when ripping pine that stole an unknown amount of time from my day, or the spokeshave that was really a kneeshave, or...

I take great care in the obvious places, like around my power saws, jointer, thicknesser, etc. I've got great respect for the things which whirr and roar and generally announce they'd love nothing better than to have a piece of me. It's the little things that actually manage to sneak in and bite me. [sigh]