Thread: Near misses

Most of the incidents have been with power tools but i believe that I can lay claim to the most stupid, non power tool accident. Whilst an apprentice it was our job to back nail the roof sarking boards once they had been single nailed to the rafters. This entailed driving an additional two and a half inch nail into every board on every rafter. Mind numbing as this was when there were acres of roof to be done I was thinking of anything but the job in hand. I am sure that I saw the nail sitting on my middle finger before I hit it! Bloody hell, it hurt taking that nail out with a claw hammer.

Only 3 so far (new to woodwork),

1) using a parting tool and trying not to waste as much as the blank as possible, so I didn't widen the slot. tool went in, grabbed, and jammed the skin at the bottom of my pinky firger between the tool and the toolrest

2) using a peice of firewood timber which cracked while turning and flew off the lathe and hit me in the face. (lucky I was wearing my faceshield)

3) turning a thick piece of wood down to a small diameter with roughing gouge and rushing and not paying attention. stopped lathe to ajust toolrest and grabbed the slowing piece of work. It then grabbed my thumb and jammed it into the toolrest, stopping the lathe.

Nearly impaled my hand with a brand new razor sharp 3/8 inch mortising chisel.

I was using the chisel in a real dome way, I was pushing into the wood trying to shave down the edged of a piece of wood, the chisel dug in deep and was hung up trying,

then slipped, and went into the center of my hand. Miraculously, the large chip I was trying to take, was pinned between the chisel and my hand preventing it from going right through my hand. The chisel pressed the wood chip into my hand so hard I had a bruise where it hit. Pulled it away in amazement that my hand somehow stopped the chisel without a scratch, and the wood chip fell. Would have went through my hand like butter right up to the handle.

Ripping a round through the heart on the bandsaw, but not using a cradle "cos it's only for this one cut."

No damage, except to my pride and what was - a few seconds previously - a brand new 3/4" blade.

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Ripping a round through the heart on the bandsaw, but not using a cradle "cos it's only for this one cut."

No damage, except to my pride and what was - a few seconds previously - a brand new 3/4" blade.

Been there, done that. Why is it always a brand new blade???

Of course I don't think any of this is funny.
It is extremely serious but with the number of posts in this link; I will be unable to stop reading.
I have found a new hobby... As long as every body else keeps to theirs.

My turn though.

At @ age 11 the folks were having a new fence erected across the front yard.
Playing chasey with mates, ran into the string line at face height and found myself hanging from the string line with it wrapped around a tooth. The large gap for the string to get into was due to teeth having been removed for braces not yet fitted at this time.

around the same time the old man was crazy paving the back yard and asked for help to lift one of his boulders. We got to the barrow with it and without a world he just dropped it in.
I was still attached and now my fingers were between that boulder and the one in the barrow. Reaction was to jump / yank them out.
This resulted in me ripping the finger nail of 1 off... from the back of the nail first.

Use to work at a window factory. Most common thing was to staple fingers together with 50mm staple guns. Best ones were through the knuckles.

Had one guy cut fingers off with a radial arm saw with a cutoff and dadoes for trenching the ends of reveals.
He showed me the xrays and the bones had dado trenches.

Went to site one time with a guy training me to do site repairs.
We had to repair a broken window which still had some glass in it.

He says "this is how you deal with the bits of glass still in the frame" as he throws a bit of 90X35 off cut at it trying to knock it out.

In slow motion the timber tickles the glass shard, it falls, hits the transom beam and somersaults out at him and slices his leg open.
He then looks straight at me and says "where's the closest private hospital around here?"

"private hospital" - what a soft-one.

Keep up the good work and the secret to any good injury is to have the damn video camera running

Originally Posted by jur

How to change your finger-prints:

I was chiselling at a small piece of wood making a mortice, holding the block with my hand while chiselling down onto the bench with the other. Because the block was square in profile, it flipped over and the chisel (6mm wide) sank deeply into my thumb pad. Changed my thumb-print into something really unique. Also made a part of the workshop red.

I once witnessed how a chap pushed a piece of wood through a table-saw and nicked his finger on the blade. There was a spray of blood onto the ceiling in one part. Then when another chap later asked the first how the blood got there, proceeded to demonstrate and actually nicked his finger again!!!! ("Let me show you how.")

Suprised he didn't cut the finger off.

You know, once you've started the cut you can't stop mid way

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Ripping a round through the heart on the bandsaw, but not using a cradle "cos it's only for this one cut."

No damage, except to my pride and what was - a few seconds previously - a brand new 3/4" blade.

Done that one. Still have all fingers. Trouble was I destroyed the blade getting it out - only its 2nd cut.

Tablesaw got the index finger. Started just under the finger nail and went upto the knuckle in the hand. 5 days in hospital and 12 months of physio.

But the best one was, I (12 at the time) was working with my grandfather (builder) and my dad building a garage (workshop).

Granddad had this lovely claw hammer that had a slot just above the claw where you could put a 4 inch nail in and drive it in to start then disengage the hammer and turn it around to finish the job.

This way you didn't need to hold the nail between the fingers (no smashed fingers if you missed) so the job could be done using one hand and the other hand could hang onto something else.

Well I got my chance to have a go (up the ladder holding the roof truss with one hand and the hammer in the other) so put the nail in the slot and wound up for the biggest swing ever, slipped off the ladder, still holding the truss and drove the nail in the fleshy bit between the finger and the thumb.

Took years (it seemed like it) before the nail was removed and I was back on solid ground. Took 2 seconds to get the nail out and most of the time was spend with those two rolling on the ground pissing themselves laughing and tell me to pull the nail out myself (I couldn't as I had dropped the hammer).

Father and son house framers were working on a building site in the late eighties. Father was up on the roof using a Makita 5900b 91/4" saw, every tradie had one but not every tradie removed the guard because it stuck; and all those guards stuck. The following day said father rested saw on leg after rafter cut and it dug into his thigh. Off work for months.

Self on several welding projects over the years have discovered that if molten slag drops off and begins to burn it seems to do just as much damage if its got early or late. So when some drops into your boot or down your shirtfront or summin', just keep on going cos it's not worth buggering up a really good weld run for something that's going to hurt anyway.

Self welding a two-man power auger handle. Just a quick weld here and there, no need to empty the fuel tank. Laid towels and rags across the engine and fuel tank thinking that would be enough. As it happened it was enough to light it up. Did the welding, disappeared round the corner returning all the gear and heard shouting. Returned to see the protective rags on fire. Did I mention it was a borrowed auger?

Father using my big industrial drill to put air holes in 44 gal drum to be used as a bbq. In the drill's toolbox was a large endmill he thought was a drillbit. Now this drill has got some real grunt and as soon as the bit grabbed the drill itself continued spinning with him on the end of it. Broke both bones in his forearm. He was in his 70's. Mum was not impressed.

Younger brother (kids) laying across bonnet of car carefully aiming rifle, firing and wondering where bullet had gone. Inches beyond the end of the muzzle was another rifle which received an uninvited bullet into its stock.