Thread: Another short fingered forumite

Gday mate hows the finger going. I have been absent from this forum for some time doing other things. looking at threads today and saw your accident . I too lost a finger with a jointer.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f67/loss-finger-31722/

pics on page three of that thread.

Its been nearly 5 years since i did mine. Does not give me any grief now. Most of the time i don't even notice it missing. My little two year old does however .

Do you get any "Phantom pains " I do, esp.when the weather is changing from hot to winterish as it is at the moment

i did in the first year or two but not after that. i also have full feeling right around the finger and still have movement in the nuckle at the end of it even tho i was told it would fuse and get stiff!

My finger has healed very well.
Most people cant tell it was damaged until I point out that the nail is a third shorter than the ones beside it, and the finger is a bit shorter and squarer on the end as well.

The feeling in the end of that finger is getting better, not quite as sensitive now.

The biggest problem I have is the nail seems to stick up a bit higher on one corner, and it snags on things. It got caught on the edge of a metal shelf the other day and broke a piece out of the corner of the nail, that hurt for a minute.

I got a mate who lost the end off his middle finger on his RH just the other day. He was putting the lift cylinder back in his Bobcat, was lining up for the pin to go in, and the brass shim dropped a bit, stuck his finger in to line it back up and the cylinder dropped, guillotined his finger off at the knuckle.
He said he normally would use a screwdriver or a piece of wood to line things up , but was rushing and just stuck his finger in without thinking.

I remember back in the 80's when I was doing my apprenticeship. at the safety meetings they used to show this old video called " Shake hands with danger", it was a heap of different graphic scenarios of people getting hurt as a result of unsafe work practices. Sticking the hand in to line up the brass shims while installing a hydraulic cylinder was one of the scenarios on that video.
It always got plenty of laughs when things went wrong on the video, it was pretty corny acting, and we had seen it so many times.
As soon as Kev told me about what had happened to him, I thought about that old video.

While those films might be funny we shouldn't laugh as unfortunately it happens.
Have worked in a lolly factory where three staff got bitten by the one machine. (The machine moulded and un-moulded jellies.) Two lost part of a finger all through putting fingers in wrong places.
At least you can still count to ten!