re: Dangerous home shop tools

I've looked at these and thought they might be unassuming way of cutting off some fingers. At least with loppers your two hands are pre-occupied.

I've have bad thoughts about my cordless dewalt hedge timmer. Don't want to get a finger near those choppers either.

Wonder if hand surgeons are seeing an increase of missing digits do to the growing popularity of cordless yard tools?

has anybody said all of them?

if you dont use them correctly

Got a dozen stitches from one 3 weeks ago.

God. It just clicked for me. No longer confused (I was picturing dressing a pig with everything from a jigsaw to a brace and bit)

I grew up working in my grandad’s shop from as early as I can remember. He taught me how to turn a baseball bat on a shopsmith at around nine because I saw an old rerun of “The Natural” and he happened to have a blown down tree on his place. It was red oak and easily the heaviest bat I’ve ever swung so it was never used for anything other than the lessons learned and the memory of hanging with granddad. Also I’d like to point out that I still have all my fingers. Tools like anything else can be dangerous but the operator is easily the most dangerous thing in a shop or on a jobsite because most injuries aren’t from a faulty tool but operator error.

I use one nearly everyday. Operating skill and PPE is paramount.

I'm guilty of using a normal RPM angle grinder and a cut off wheel all the time. Not a Metabo or a one designed for a cut off wheel. When I was a millwright, I seen what one does when it come apart. Blade shattered and a piece pierced a guys safety glasses once. Come about an inch from going into his eye. They save them to show us at safety meetings. Thats when we had to start wearing a face shield with safety glasses and have a "cut off tool" checklist along with the JSA.

I'm also guilty of jacking up a vehicle and forgetting to use jackstands if I get under it. And I own about 10 of them.

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things. OSHA hates me.

I did this to my hand with a palm router.

I will link the photos because they are pretty gnarly. Just warning


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I do stupid shite from time to time. This time I put way too aggressive of a bit for a palm router and thought I could handle it. If I didn't have a sweater on to stop it then it likely would have crawled up my wrist and got into some veins.

Here is the sweater that saved me


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Here is the bit


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One time I held a small piece of wood that should have been put on a miter saw and tried to saw it with a small circular saw. I cut the tip of my finger off. They sewed it back on and you can't tell but 15 years later and I don't have the nerve sensitivity in it that I do my other fingers.

I have a wood shaper that takes tooling and bits. It scares me the most because I am always worried I didn't lock the tooling down correctly and things get to spinning so fast that it will come off.

Most tools are safe if you aren't cavalier about using them like I am and wear PPE.

An awl.

quote:

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No longer confused (I was picturing dressing a pig with everything from a jigsaw to a brace and bit)

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sawzall is standard equipment when breaking down an animal quickly