Official Luthiers Forum!

    My dad was a cabinetmaker and when I first started working with power tools my dad allways told me to only have the saw balde up as high as you would want your hand cut.
   Well today that safety tip paid off more than I care to admit. While ripping some wood I left my attention wander and ran my thumb over the blade.
   Fortunatly I only lost some skin and will have a sore thumb till the skin grows back. I did go get a tetnus shot as I don't even know when I had one of them last. Well while I was at the doctors a man just left to go to the ER to have a finger attached. The Doc doubted it would be as it was chopped off on the table saw .
    Hope you guys can learn a little from my mistake. Though I did bleed I at least have all my 9 9/10 fingers
John Hall
Tipped off Tippie
Learn from my mistake , this is one you wouldn't want to try

Thank G-d it was not worse, thanks for the reminder John, I have been ultra careful since a chisel accident before the New Year scared me and terrified my wife.
Hope you are Ok.
Evan

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http://www.NewYorkGuitarRepair.com

JOHN...
SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR FINGER PROBLEM.
HANG IN THERE...YOU'RE A TOUGH GUY...YOU CAN HANDLE IT.
SAY, YOU'RE RIGHT ABOUT SAFETY. IT ONLY TAKES A SECOND.

THANKS FOR THE INFO JOHN.

WALTER

John, God is good! I cut my right index fingertip off from the nail bed up and halfway over, left to right...the same evening my daughter was life-flighted to the hospital with bacterial meningitis! We were so wrapped up in her situation that I forgot all about my finger and the surgeon telling me the finger was a lost cause...well, they also told us our daughter had less than 1% chance of living...my finger is perfect and my daughter is 100% normal today (for an 18 year old girl )...anyway, I'm rambling now, but your finger's on my prayer list for quick healing and I'm grateful that your dad gave you the wisdom to keep that blade low!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Uggh! Sorry to hear about the cut John, hope it heals quickly. (Bet the tetnus shot hurt too).

I taught 350 kids to run a table saw in my High School Building Trades class. Your Dad's words were my words every year. Kickback means something entirely different in shop class too. Sorry about your thumb. Good thing you listened to your Pop.

Thanks, John. Helps to keep that foremost in our minds, the more we hear of this stuff. Glad you came through pretty much OK.

Sorry, but just had to chuckle, thinking about your finger and your user name.

I had an accident awhile ago using a nail gun, where a nail hit a knot that I couldn't see on the back side of a 2x4. The nail veered off course and went into my finger, not too bad. Should have heard the war stories about nailgun injuries from each of the staff at the ER. Made me feel very fortunate indeed.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Glad to hear you're OK. I'll contribute another obvious safety tip: if you're
doing a through-cut, putting on your blade guard and splitter is worth
the time and hassell. Does a real good job of keeping your hands a safe
distance away from that spinning carbide.

As of late I've been getting lazy about putting it on myself, but a story
like yours tends to cure me of that for a few months at least!

Jay

Close one John. I did the same about 2 mos ago. Just knocked the skin off. Could have been a lot worse.

thanks guys
     just hope if I can save 1 of you from the same fate this will have a something good to come out of it. A little skin off my thumb may save one of you a finger.
    Not all that bad really but a good wake up call. We often ge too relaxed on these tools and lets face it , if it can cut wood a little skin ain't to problem either.
    Never know when this thumb will come in handy
John

While we all have tablesaw safety on the brain, here are some items that are good to have within easy reach of your saw so using them becomes second nature:


Less than $20 gets you the whole set, 1 pushstick, 2 pushblocks, and 1 16" push block. Or you can make them yourself.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

[QUOTE=tippie53]   thanks guys
        Never know when this thumb will come in handy
John[/QUOTE]

Yeah John, you might need to hitch a ride someday!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

Can't thumb your nose without one
LOL

Thanks, we all need these reminders.

I just got a small bandsaw. The VERY first thing I made with it was a push-stick.

Heal quickly, John.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Thanks for the reminder John, I hope your finger heals quick

Serge

Thanks for the reminder John. My dad told me the same thing and I always keep it in mind. So far all ten fingers are intact.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Need to rip some bracing tonight... Think I'll lower the blade a bit more than I usually do - Got to remember I like PLAYING guitars too!!! Thanks for the reminder John. Heal fast!

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
OR
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Hey John, Glad you are going to be OK, That could have been a bad-un.

My 8th grade shop teacher was ripping a board on the T.S. and ran his hand across the blade from the tip of his little finger to just past the knuckle joint at his hand.

Luckily the blade was set to just a little above the wood so the injury wasn't too severe. But it did have to have some stitches.

This Table-Saw had no guard over the blade at the time.

Was you using the Saw with the guard attached?

I see that in the photo that Jon (letseatpaste) has posted there is several push sticks, and a bare blade protruding through the top of the table-saw.

How many here, use their table-saw all the time without the guard installed?

   I have an old one. No guard and when you are doing real small stuff the guards get in the way. Use push sticks and feather boards .
      This is just things that happen . where theres trains theres wrecks
thanks for all the sentiments I appritiate that.

Thanks for that tip. I never have paid much attention to how much blade I had above my wood. Now I know.

Yes +5 on the push sticks
I have one at every whirling & traveling blade in my shop. Table saw Band saw, jointer, etc.
I learned the same lesson on my bandsaw just after I bought it. Fortunately I too still have my digits although I tried to split my thumb into two digits.
Shapers and routers are another one to what. My boss at a cabinet shop lost a finger on a shaper.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.