Shop Mishap

[dave0]

I've been working on boats for a number of years now and have had some "mishaps" happen. I'm sure we all have had one in one manner or another. Today's was painful yet comical as I could have prevented it. To make a long story short I was taking a set of gunwales, 16' 6", from one boat that had failed and were pinned together by stripped screws, yeah that's never happened to any of you, and am going to use them on another hull. Ok, my method of getting those stripped screws out is to use a hack saw blade and cut through the b*st*rds.

So I have two attached at two points 3/4's of the way inside my shed leaning on a work bench, the last 1/4 is out the door and that is where the pinch is. I get out my blade and spread the upper ends pretty far apart and brace them, so I think. I get my left hand in at the pinch joint and spread things a hair more and start sawing. My solid upper brace did not like the gyrations from the sawing and let loose. Low and behold my ring finger and pinky finger are now sandwiched in between the two gunwales and holy crap there is a tremendous amount of pressure going on. HOLY CRAP, this hurts, A LOT! I dropped the saw blade and tried to pry the two pieces of wood apart! Nope, the 16' plus of thin wood just kept twisting all over the place pinching my fingers even more. By now I'm starting the howling thing. I am looking all over for something to help me out and see a block of wood but of course, OF COURSE, it is way over to my left side exactly the side I'm now pinned on. Somehow I manage to grab it and after hours, or so it seemed, I wedged it down the gunwales enough to get one finger out and then by brute force pulled my pinky finger out almost punching myself in the face would of course been the final insult.

Lesson learned, look for wedges of wood and secure the long arse upper 3/4's better. What would be better would be not to have stripped screws! I hate those danged things. And yes I did cut those danged screws and now have the stock I need for the next project. Something tells me my fingers are gonna be very unhappy by morning!

dougd

 

[Wyo George]

Ouch! I'm glad you didn't lose a finger! I've made many mistakes over the years that afterwards I just couldn't figure out how or why I did what I did. It's comforting to know I am not alone.

 

[Rippy]

It all happens so quick when it happens. Sounds like you're OK, the title had me a bit worried.

 

[memaquay]

Youch! Not to start shop horror episodes, but once I was planing some short wood for a paddle grip.

It all happens so quick when it happens

is indeed true. Before I could say "Fudge", three of my finger tips were sucked into the jointer. I went to emerge with a dirty rag wrapped around my severed digits. The nurse asked what happened. I told her I got my fingers caught in a jointer. She motioned me to a chair. 20 minutes later, she looked over, saw the big puddle of blood under me and asked "What's a jointer?" I was shuffled off to the doctor immediately, who was an SOB of a wiseacre, but who nevertheless put my pinkies back together. I still lack feeling in my fingertips on my third and forth fingers, but it kinda helps with guitar playing, so every cloud does indeed have a silver lining.

 

[Alan Gage]

Ouch! Glad you made it out mostly unscathed.

When I saw the title of the thread with your name under it I thought for sure this was going to be another epoxy vs. pecker incident. I now make it a point to go to the bathroom BEFORE I mix up any epoxy.

Alan

 

[dave0]

I like your story much better then mine Mem! I have finger from a kick back from one of my saws that will never feel again, just numb. And I did cross a finger tip across the spinning blade of planner. My buddy told me to cover it while his wife walked in. Just had to smile at her while that digit bleed and throbbed like an earthquake

 

[dave0]

Oh Gawd Alan, Pecker VS Resin is a story I wish never happened! But a good reminder of what hindsight can bring you! Laughing like hell now at your mention of that story!

 

[Mihun09]

Oh Gawd Alan, Pecker VS Resin is a story I wish never happened! But a good reminder of what hindsight can bring you! Laughing like hell now at your mention of that story!

I think we All need to hear that story now.

I worked with a 10 foot, hydraulic metal shear for 2 1/2 years and still have all my fingers.

 

[memaquay]

X 2 on hearing the Pecker story!

 

[stripperguy]

Yes, we need to hear that story...

In the meantime, here's my most recent faux pas.

I had about 2 hours between commitments, and I was anxious to try out a spacer block to fix the errant steering on my Jeep.
Simple job, unbolt the frame side track bar, get a longer bolt, add the spacer and torque the bolt to spec.

Quick and easy.

All was going well and all that was left to do was to tighten that bolt. Laying on my back in the driveway, using my favorite flex head 1/2" drive ratchet, I proceeded to snug the snot out of that bolt. As I do so, the socket slips off of the backing nut, and the flex head ratchet, all 2 lbs of it, flies toward me.
I took the shot in my wide open left eye, not even time to blink. Mind you, I was tugging on that ratchet pretty hard.
In the time it took to say "Fuuuung", I imagined a crushed cornea, torn retina, perforated iris, you name it. After a few minutes I tried to open the eye...nope, not yet. A few more minutes and I managed to stand, and pry open my eye.
I had some very severe double vision, the left eye statically looking about 20 degrees south of horizontal. I had no control over the eye, no focusing ability, and it felt like beach sand was packed under my eyelid.

At the ER, they examined the eye, asked me to read an eye chart. Chart?! I could hardly see the wall!
ER doc says there is only an abraded cornea, and it's too soon to tell if the muscle functions are permanently damaged, or just a sort of charlie horse.
Luckily, everything improved rapidly, and I could force some mediocre binocular vision by the third day. Phew!
All that remained after a week was a really impressive black eye.

And that was with hand tools!!

 

[dave0]

The resin story. I'm not proud that this happened but it was a lesson learned:

http://scooter-bangortoportland.blogspot.com/2011/05/working-with-resin-or-how-not-to.html

 

[Mihun09]

Makes me happy I don't have a pecker to mess up.

 

[memaquay]

Doug, or Scooter, I think we might get along pretty good. I'm sorry about laughing about your pecker, that's about all I can say.

 

[scoutergriz]

I think all of us with shops eventually have a Darwin-like moment! Mine was while rebuilding a trailer; first thing I did was set my coveralls on fire (while wearing them). that taught me that when welding the underside of a broken crossmember don't take the apron off to make it easier to move around. Second lesson was to always check your power tools before use. I was cutting plywood for a new floor with a circular saw, set it down, and THEN discovered the trigger was jammed! It took off across the plywood and ran over my hand taking half of my index finger and the skin from the sides of my ring and pinky finger with it.
luckily there was a vascular surgeon available at the hospital who was able to put everything back together. It took about 6 months to get normal feeling back in the ring and pinky fingers and my index finger is still somewhat numb after 30 years!

 

[Guest]

Doug, you know how hard I laughed at the visual image of you with your pinky trapped between the gunwales. And yes, I did mildly embellish that story when I told it to my sons. It wasn’t quite Aron Ralstons 127 hours, but in the retelling it was close.

The epoxy on pecker story was the genesis for sending you that box of “defective” exam gloves. When you pissed off called me post glovage may have been the hardest I have ever laughed.

 

[dave0]

Mem, it would be great to share a beer with you one day! Mike, that P vs R story was a true eye opener in working with resin and yes the split/cut gloves was one of the best "Gottya's" that's ever happened to me. I truly do not think that one can be beat. My pinky is bruised and hurts like hell to bend today. Going to have some wedges handy for the next time!

 

[sailsman63]

Yep, everyone who uses tools eventually has a few stories. Mine usually involve electricity.

Don't get me wrong: I don't think I'm careless, and have no intention of ending up like a strip of bacon, but somehow, no matter what Precautions I take, no matter what I double-check, things go awry. From circuits that are wired backwards (hot wire to the box ground) to (supposedly) dead boxes that have extra lines running through them, I'm the one that finds them.

Most recently, I was trying to plug in a refridgeration compressor that I liberated from a friend's scrap pile to see if it would run. (turned out to be missing the start capacitor and switch, but that is another story.)

This particular compressor is wired for 220v, and I realize that while I have a 20A 220v plug, (the one that looks like a standard US plug, but with one spade horizontal) the only 220v circuit in the shop is for the welder, with one of those monster 50A recepticles. (like for an electric drier) I'm 30 min from a hardware store, and am not in the mood to spend $25 on a plug that I will only use for one test. I'm also not keen on the idea of sticking a stripped wire into a very large socket, so I get the bright idea that I can shut power off to the welder shunt, and then just hardwire the motor to the feedwire, using the breaker as a switch.

Got the cover plate off the socket. Guess who misread the breaker? Got it with the tips of both pinkey fingers, red to black (full 220V, rather than the 110V to ground that I would have gotten if I had touched the neutral) right across my torso. That was a scary half-second or so... =(

 

[Alan Gage]

I don't have any good shop stories but after reading everyone else's I'm starting to think I should quit while I'm ahead and find a new hobby.

Alan

 

[Jim Dodd]

I don't have any good shop stories but after reading everyone else's I'm starting to think I should quit while I'm ahead and find a new hobby.

Alan

Basket weaving ? No you would get splinters !
Knitting ? You could stab yourself with the needles!
Crocheting ? A little safer, but that's not Alan Gage ! You were born to Build ! Don't fight it !

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Hope your finger heals fast, Doug.

I like to relate this one as a warning that isn't heard much. We probably all know someone or are someone who has lost part of or all of a finger to a table saw. We know the "dull blades are dangerous" rule and the use of pushers rule. But how many of us know that the table saw blade can launch things it isn't even touching?

I had recently acquired a 3 horse commercial grade cabinet saw and was loving it. Besides the extra torque, it also had a significantly higher rpm than my previous contractor saw. I was building some wall clocks which required cutting some pieces about the size of a cigarette pack from oak. Making the final side cut (trimming less than a blade width), I used a pusher to move the piece well beyond the blade and paused to hit the kill switch - when the piece was sucked back into the blade by the air movement, and was launched like it was shot from a gun. It hit me square in the pocket of my right shoulder. Made a three-corner tear in my shirt and in my skin. Dropped me to my knees in pain for a few minutes. No - for several long minutes. By the next day, the bruising extended all the way down my arm to the crook of my elbow - and I couldn't raise my hand over my head for a couple days.

I often think about how that would have turned out if my face had been where my shoulder was. These days, I make use of a full face shield when cutting such parts, and I always make a point of having my head off to the side of the blade's plane.