Official Luthiers Forum!

I ended up slipping and slicing myself on a 1/2" end mill with 3" of flute once (putting it in a tool holder). Not knowing if you'll ever feel in one of your fingers again is an interesting sensation- I cut right to the bone.

Even thinking about it makes me shiver, and I'm not sure I'll ever forget the feeling of the carbide sliding through my skin. A week later, when I could use my finger again (lightly), I bought a good set of 'dextrous work' leather gloves (they protect, but I can even type in them) and don't touch a sharp tool without 'em on.

I watched a friend (who has woodworking experience, and should have known better!) try the 'too short workpiece' trick on my jointer once and I watched his hand and the workpiece fly off the jointer before I could open my mouth. He wasn't hurt, but it was sheer luck that he still has all the fingers on his right hand. I don't think I've ever sworn at someone that much in my life.

Of course, Al probably remembers something dumb I did when I was inexperienced and had less respect for tools

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

We all have our favorite table saw kickback stories - mine was while working on my Dad's saw (when I was just getting interested), trying to cross-cut a 2 by 4 with the fence involved ... lucky the garage door was open, and I wasn't behind the sawblade. The piece never hit ground before it bounced off the front door of the neighbor's house across the street. That could have hurt.

But my favorite (which I'm glad I didn't see) was my scuba instructor's story of witnessing a full tank falling over and cracking off the valve, going through the side of the building, and breaking a telephone pole in half.

Dropping a too short piece into the jointer - eeeek. Approaching the spinning router bid with a piece held in less than an adequate death grip ... groan....

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Yikes! And I was just thinking about using this method to steam off a neck.

Related to the table saw kickback post, I just had my worst experience with that about three months ago. I was cutting some 3/4 stock for braces on my unisaw and it got in a bind. Came off the saw like a rocket, but it didn't damage my neighbor's house...because I was standing square in front of it. It hit me dead center in the stomach (easy target) causing a very precise impression of the end of the brace, a knot the size of my fist, and almost every square inch under my shirt being bruised for a couple of weeks. Of course I knew I shouldn't be standing in front of the piece as it was being sawed...

Spilled a nearly full 2 ounce bottle of ca while in the middle of binding, at first thought let it harden chip it off latter, then, better wipe it up, grabbed a wad of paper towels, and was thoughtful enough to not glue it to my hand. Continued with my work, then, arghhhh, lots of smoke, lots and lots of smoke, ca curing is exothermic. thinking need to get this off my bench grabbed the paper towels up, run out of the shop with them go to throw them down in the grass, ummmmm they are glued to my hand and lots and lots and lots of smoke. The heat of the reaction was becoming all the more obvious and my anxiety level rose with every passing nano second. Well fortunately had an outdoor spigot very near, a lesson learned.

Scary stuff here.

Since nothing trully bad happened, I have to say that was quite funny. I had this vision of you running through your yard with paper towels glued to your hand and they were in flames. No, that is not funny as long as it did not happen. But ya gotta admit, its kind of a Chevy Chase moment, huh?

Thank you,

Mike