Thread: Near misses

rond
Wood can easily leave the lathe and embed itself where ever it wants.

I use a triton powered respirator as it is good for head butting the bowl away.

I also made myself a short sleeved coverall out of heavy weight denim so nothing can puncture it but I have had the odd bruise.

Usually you get a warning.
A small click sound one micro second before the red gum bowl splits and throws a lump of itself at you.:eek:

Don't let it worry you though. Just try to keep the body out of the firing line as much as possible.

Old bloke at work planning the top of a door without taking it of,thought I'd try and help by holding it for him,all good till he brought the planner down into my arm at full speed,skewing around 180 deg before stopping,ended up with a hole the size of a tennis ball and about 30 mm deep,went between 2 bones luckly missing all the important bits,left me with a sore arm,19 stiches and a fear of electric planners.
sprayed bit and peices over a freshly plasted wall,and the old bloke got a new planner.

The closest I came was ripping some 150x50's on my triton a few years ago. I had a 7/14 in saw in the WC and I stupily had my right hand trailing it in. Without thinking I almost completed the cut as i felt the wash come off the blade just near my fingers. I switched off the saw and thought about how I could have lost the ends of them and I naw take a buit more time in setting up and making my cuts. power tools are not very forgiving if it goes pear shaped.:eek:

Originally Posted by Bluegum

power tools are not very forgiving if it goes pear shaped.:eek:

Amen to that brother!

I'm still too new to the power tool business but have had enough scrapes and misses with chisels and hand saws to know that all tools can be dangerous!

Hands up who hasn't skun a knuckle on a bolt that has been let go by a spanner?

yeah had a 12"x4" redgum bowl blank leap off the lathe & knock me about 3' back onto the ground. lucky for the full face guard. Me i mean, not the guard.that was one of the first, the latest being having to have my lh little finger reattached after a run in with the lathe chuck(unfortunatly at 2750rpm)
they say "some people will never learn"

Someone was watching over me when I was coving using the drop saw. Holding the saw down against the stop and pushing the piece of wood back aforth the next thing I realise is the pad of my thumb hit the side of the blade - just lightly but I felt the "buzz" as my thumb bounced off the teeth. No skin broken but a blister came up that lasted about a week and hurt like hell.

David L

Originally Posted by Wombat2

Someone was watching over me when I was coving using the drop saw. Holding the saw down against the stop and pushing the piece of wood back aforth the next thing I realise is the pad of my thumb hit the side of the blade - just lightly but I felt the "buzz" as my thumb bounced off the teeth. No skin broken but a blister came up that lasted about a week and hurt like hell.

David L

David, did this myself a couple of months ago on the side of the SCMS blade when the guard didn't return properly. Just a touch on the side of the teeth, no blister or anything, just a good wake up call :eek:


Cheers..............Sean

I've seen some horrific stuff done on building sites, boat yards and in joinery workshops where I've worked.

*Circular saw blades in angle grinders - not even with any guards on.:eek:

*Unscrewing powerpoints live while dismantling a kitchen as the switchboard was too far to walk (50feet away):confused: and leaving live wires hanging out.:eek:
*Firing a nailgun into topplates with someone standing directly underneath.
*Working 20' above concrete balancing on a single plank using a sander.
*Removing shaws out from under a 40ft boat on a dry dock to work so the boat falls over. :confused: :eek: - how dumb is that, this d!(khead then tried to sue the yard manager and other workers.
*Using a welder in the rain - All those amps! bring it on baby!
*Using a three phase machine in a flooded workshop 12" of water.
*Totally inexperienced people operating heavy lifting machinery - you got 4 tons of steel going every which way lucky the side of the workshop was the only casualty.
*Blowing up a nice big old wolfeinden bandsaw - wood got caught in the wheel while it was running. Who needs all those poofy guards like those modern bandsaws.
*Just chopping fingers off with a tablesaw making a simple cut:eek:
*Working in a machine shop in bare feet, welding, metal turning, doing everything bare feet shouldn't (Can't speak as often I used to work in just a pair of shorts, no shoes).
*An inexperienced bloke using a panel saw, doing a crosscut with timber against the fence so that he had 2 foot of timber between the blade and fence. Lucky I said "smoko", he'd have had 6 x inch and a quarter jarrah for morning tea.
*Forgetting to take the chuck key out of a metal lathe chuck and switching the damn thing on.

And that's just a small fraction of them and they're not the silliest.
I've still got all digits and though I've always tried to be safety conscious, I'm alot more aware of things as I gained experience. You can't make a workplace too safe and no job is worth more than your life or health.

Only new to this so hope it is ok to add some more, since this was a great thread. I love my dad, but..............he was building a yacht in his workshop next to the house. My mum is very understanding, or was at the time. The boat had recently had the deck fitted and dad let me get up on the dusty slippery plywood surface. As most four y.o.'s do, I slipped and fell exactly over the spot dad's table saw (unguarded) was located. Dad caught me somehow, no damage down, perhaps he was actually watching me. Now at 33, with my own 4 y.o., not sure if I should have thanked him or kicked him! I think we need to offer some type of sacrifice to the tool gods each project to keep them happy. I agree with the comments made, now 2 years ago, I always try to think now what if, when I go to use a tool. I hate planing the straight face over the jointer. No fun.

Originally Posted by boatchippy

*Forgetting to take the chuck key out of a metal lathe chuck and switching the damn thing on.

I saw this at school many times. Luckily most of the lathes wouldn't start without the guard down - the one that would start got fixed pretty quickly when a flying chuck key broke a window...

Someone should make a lathe where the chuck key is also used as a key to start the machine. Same with power drills - I've seen chuck keys go flying out of them too, and once met a guy with an evil bruise from a chuck key hitting him in the forehead.

Originally Posted by Manaz

Someone should make a lathe where the chuck key is also used as a key to start the machine.

Are you the someone who is destined to make a fortune from this idea??

I think this guy is taking his head protection a little too far...

Three that readilly come to mind.

1/. Brand new 9 1/4" makita saw, building a pergola, the timber offcut jammed the guard open, put the saw down which left me tap dancing, a big gouge out of the clients new concrete and a very blunt blade.

2/. Mowing the lawns, SWMBO says will you get that dog away from the lawn mower before it gets hurt, me, no wuckers love she'll be right. 2 minutes later, chomp, yelp, silence, SWMBO at kitchen window giving me the LOOK and me saying just off to the vets dear.

3/. About to shape some post tops, got router out off back off ute, set the depth, talking to boss, had router in one hand against body, picked up extension lead and plugged it in, uh oh, router switch on, felt it tear through overalls, shorts, jocks, flicked a certain part of the anatomy and caused a brown stain in my undies. Apart from that all good but not by good management.

Certain part of my anatomy doesn't create brown stains