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Shop Mishap

when the piece was sucked back into the blade by the air movement, and was launched like it was shot from a gun.

When I went to school they were no longer performing the 'trick' but on the first day of shop class, as the instructor was showing us all the tools and telling us the many ways in which they could maim us, he said they used to set up a sheet of plywood in front of the table saw and that he'd run a piece of wood through and cause an intentional kickback. The piece would punch a hole in the plywood and give the kids a good lesson in respecting the machinery.

Alan
 
Kids did something like that in HS shop class. They would cut up a board into blocks and then throw the blocks at the spinning table saw blade to launch them. I didn't get in on that game.
 
Also not in my shop, but in a sign shop I worked in years ago, in regards to table saw antics. The long plexiglas signs you see on storefronts everywhere are basically roll stock cut to whatever length is required and it fits into a steel or aluminum extrusion frame, but it doesn't just sit in there, it hangs off the top frame. To get it to do that you need to run 10 foot sheets of plexi through a table saw and cut 1/2" wide strips off for glueing to the roll stock before painting. As you get near to finishing the cut it can pinch if the sheet moves towards the fence. One day the strip broke while being cut and the projectile hit the fellow square in the safety glasses, broke in two parts, the closest piece went through his shoulder, the other went through two layers of drywall into the offices behind him.

At work last year, while doing a di-electric test on a fluorescent light fixture, I missed a little step and had 1446 volts arc through me. My rib cage actually vibrated. Luckily with the test there is no amperage. Since then they have changed the procedure and we all now have voltage rated gloves to wear when testing. I have done up to 1800 volts and been comfortable doing so since the new training and safety gear.

My usual shop antics involve sharp things and plenty of bleeding. I can be using a gouge, chisel, knife or similiar tool in a way that makes me stop and consider how easy it would be to wound myself if I slipped, I then proceed in that fashion and indeed, do just what I thought could happen.
 
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I am famous for my accidents. At work now, I can be laying on the floor on my back and my boss will just walk right past me it is such a common occurence. And its not just sharp things, like filleting knives. Hammers are good too. I have lots of crush injuries. I am so nonchalant when drilling blackened finger nails to let the blood out and release the pressure that it is legendary.
I have dropped the power to the entire building at work a couple of times and blown one older non auto ranging meter to tiny little bits. If there is a way to do something dangerously, I have done it.

Possibly my favourite was the time I was into shooting black powder rifles. I was having ignition problems, couple of misfires. So I got it into my head that I had some bad powder...Curtis and Harvey FF. My friend Owen drops by and asks what I am doing as I have made a circle of 7 or 8 small to medium sized piles of powder on the floor of my garage and am kneeling in front of them. "Well I think this powder is wet or something, it wont light. I can put this match right on the pile and it wont even catch...watch I'll show you....." It took a half hour to get the smoke out of the garage and months for my eyebrows to grow back.

Christy
 
Aaaaaannd you coulda told me this before you gave me an up close and personal filleting lesson this summer Christy.
And at another campsite you were calmly working your coleman stove while mentioning "This sometimes leaks. No worry. I brought plenty of fuel." I thought you were joking (ignoring the scorch marked coleman) and never thought to back away.
 
Aaaaaannd you coulda told me this before you gave me an up close and personal filleting lesson this summer Christy.
And at another campsite you were calmly working your coleman stove while mentioning "This sometimes leaks. No worry. I brought plenty of fuel." I thought you were joking (ignoring the scorch marked coleman) and never thought to back away.

I think I have photo's somewhere of the fire that caused the scorching on that stove. Imagine a river of burning Naptha at a campsite...
 
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