Safety, Safety, Safety

C Craft

Well-Known Member
OK I just preached on this a few days ago and there I go and violate my own words. Complacency Kills! It doesn't matter why or how this came about the point is I was hearing the little voice in my head saying, don't do this,................. and I went and did it anyway!

I failed to clamp a piece I was drilling on the drill press. Four quick holes and I am done. Hole number one goes well, number two the bit grabs the steel and the dreaded helicopter effect is on,............IMG_3236.JPG And the result is as usual, stupid is as stupid does! Quote from Forest Gump:)

So the next time you do something stupid you can add it to this thread!!!
 
Well I am back to the hunt and peck method on the keyboard again this morning, as I got the finger splinted after I closed the cut. It is in such a bad place I had to immobilize it to keep it from breaking open again!
 
Ouch ! that ones going to hurt for a few weeks.
I think I got some belt abrasive in my eye last week, it was driving me crazy, went to the eye doc, he said whatever it was is gone but it scratched my cornea and drove me nuts for about five days.
He put some numbing drops in and it felt great, only I knew it was coming back in a few hours. it did. and it hurt like hell.

You better watch that cut doesn't get infected, man that hurts just looking at it.....should have got a better picture though. ;)
 
How'd you close that up Cliff? suture's? that looks like the kind of cut in that location it's going to keep opening back up, especially with any movement. that ones going to take a few weeks to heal up.

I got to ask, because I never clamp my blades...were you wearing gloves? I always turn the table to the side so only a few inches of the knife are on the table and the rest I firmly grasp with a gloved hand, always anticipating the bit grabbing.
plus gloves keep the hot chips that fly keep from burning your hand.
 
So you want the whole gruesome story! OK so here goes. My shop is my one car garage, so it has always been packed and most everything is on wheels so it can be moved easily, (due to back fusion back in 97)!! My drill press sits close to the garage door and a storm was upon us. So I was in a hurry, so I could finish before the rain got in as it was pouring down! 1st mistake, 2nd mistake, I did not put on a heavy glove, too big of a hurry to run and grab a pair of vice grips either, that was third and final mistake along with not listening to that little voice!!

As I was drilling that 2nd hole and just before the bit breaks thru It grabbed. I ain't as fast as I used to be and the rest is stupidity!!!

As for closing it. I know a young man from another site who was a medic from a tour in Iraq and two more in Afghanistan. Us here at home would think they would not have sent them in to battle without what they need. After Vietnam I should know better! Anyway in the height of the carnage over there they discovered if they could close the wound on the battlefield, the survival rate went up by 60%+. They soon ran out of medical grade superglue and then they discovered it did not matter. Super glue was superglue. They started having folks back send them care packages from home that included silly string, (to expose trip wires) and superglue among other things! I don't recommend this. it is an entirely, up to you decision!

If there is a chance of something in it don't do it, unless it is to get you to a doctor! Over there if they needed to open it when they got them out of the field, they did! For me I take blood thinners for my heart, (a result of my misspent youth)!! So when I get a cut I bleed like a stuck pig.

I did construction all my life so you also learn stopping the bleeding is key. Once I had the bleeding completely stopped, I cleaned with Peroxide and put a drop of superglue in the cut. Bent my finger and let the wound close, all but one tiny corner. If there is any infection it allows for a drain!

I then grabbed some plastic silverware, (the kind you get with takeout), took out the knife! they make good epoxy stirrers and splints! I cut it long enough to go from tip of finger to halfway on the palm. Bandaged the wound and taped the plastic knife/splint to the tip of the finger and the palm and more bending the finger!

The body recognizes the superglue as a foreign substance and will heal under the glue pushing it to the surface. In this case it will be healed enough to keep the cut healed together and no stitches. It works as good as stitches and I don't like stitching myself up! ;)
One piece of advice if there is pain at the site or extreme redness it is probably getting infected and go to the doctor!! Like I said earlier. I don't recommend this. it is an entirely, up to you decision! Or as John Wayne said, if you are gonna be stupid, you gotta be tough!!
 
1st mistake, 2nd mistake, I did not put on a heavy glove, too big of a hurry to run and grab a pair of vice grips either, that was third and final mistake along with not listening to that little voice!!

I disagree that you made a 2nd mistake. Please don't wear gloves while running a drill press! All it takes is one little snag to end up with a glove full of broken fingers, or worse.....
 
Thanks for sharing. I need to start clamping my drill press vise to the drill table.
Not as bad as yours C Craft but about four weeks ago I had my blade in by drill press vise but not clamped. Somehow as I was starting the drill the vise spun the table, hit me in the chest and the vise fell corner down onto my big toe o_O. I was wearing tennis shoes. The toenail is still black dead and gross looking. Hopefully it will fall off soon. Gross! I know.
 
Unless you have a few hot chips land on your bare hand.

I'd rather be pulling hot chips out of my hand than dumping fingers out of a glove, assuming I can unwind it from the drill with my other hand. With good feeds and speeds and a little bit of cutting oil, hot chips usually aren't a huge issue anyway.

I know some guys wear a thick nitrile glove, with the idea that it will tear free if it snags, but personally, I think this is a bad habit to get into.

At any rate, an alternative to clamping your longer pieces is just to run a bolt up through the table with an inch or two extending past the table top. This will catch anything as it starts to helicopter. Alternatively, you can just get a pair of c-clamp vise grips and clamp them somewhere on the table. This will give you freedom of movement with your pieces, but still catch the knife before it makes a full rotation.

Also, ALWAYS drill with the edge oriented to the "back side", or in other words, position the blade so that the spine hits first, if it gets away from you. Or better yet, drill your holes before beveling. ;)
 
I'm only pointing out how I do it, everyone does things differently. I've been using the same drill press for over 30 yrs. and only had two blades helicopter, and that was a long time ago. I know you shouldn't wear loose clothing or jewelry around machines but I feel my gloved left hand is pretty far from somehow getting pulled into a drill bit. but on the other hand if your holding a blade barehanded and a hot chip or curly cue lands on your hand or arm it will certainly distract you from what your doing and definitely take away your attention for that one moment it takes for something bad to happen. that's just the way I've always drilled my blades and if I were to change my process now I'd probably have some sort of accident.
 
Guys, each of get different mileage on all this.

When Andrew said that I had a flash back to a young kid. I was born and raised in Nebraska the first 18yrs of my life. I lived in a small town of 480 people. Now if you know anything about Nebr. it is cold in the winter. Our house was just inside city limits. In the winter the sewer line would freeze if the winter was real bad. (Why it wasn't buried deeper is another story)!

My Father had made a sewer auger. My father was a real smart person. He had taken 50' lengths of 1/2" cable and welded the first with an auger bit on it and a female connection. The second a male end on one end and a female end on the next. We could open up the sewer line where it came up by the house.
That ground rarely froze because of the house footing had and old coal chute in the area and the heat from the basement would keep it from freezing!! Then you inserted the auger in the clay pipe and hooked it to an old B&D 1/2" drill.

B&D is crap today but them old drills were low speed and high torque. Their was no way you could bog it. We had run one section into the pipe and was working on the next section and it was hitting a big ice blockage!! So I was feeding the cable and my Father was running the drill.

It was cold as He double hockey sticks and the wind howling. Even though I new better I leaned into feeding the cable and it caught one of my gloves. Before I could holler it had me, the glove drew tight and when I hollered my Father let off the drill but it was too late it took me over the cable and drug me around the other side before the drill stopped!! That was my flash back and that is why I offered not resistance to what he said, been there, done that and luckily lived to talk about it!!


Another thing you might notice in the pic of the injury I have my wedding band on. For years I would not wear one but, back wearing it again. My original wedding band hung on a big, heavy AC unit we had to move as me and another guy sit it down. Luckily my band was worn thin and it popped. My wife got me this band a few months later and I never wore it till a few years ago!!

We all do things we probably shouldn't and I guess the ultimate sign is when you begin to hear that little voice in the back of your head saying, this is not a good idea!!!
It is the experience side of your brain trying to tell the hurrying side of your brain, you have done this before and things went bad or you know someone who knows someone that got hurt doing the same thing. It is a shame we all don't listen to that little voice more often!! :)
 
Well Cliff, fortunately most of us learn a little something from others mistakes. knifemaking is obviously inherently dangerous in more ways than one can count. all anyone can do is practice the best safety rules we can in our own shops, accidents will still happen to the best of us.

I got a favorite saying....nobody gets out alive.
All we can strive for is getting out with all our body parts still attached. ;)
 
Super Glue, and Electrical Tape, Gauze, Peroxide, Iodine, Isopropyl Alcohol a great start for a First Aid Kit for the most common cuts, scrapes and burns,
 
When I first starting making knives last year I would take the edge down as thin as I could get it. I was all about hand sanding the flats back then. Hand sanding and sharp edges aren't a safe combination. My fingers stayed sliced up.
 
When I first starting making knives last year I would take the edge down as thin as I could get it. I was all about hand sanding the flats back then. Hand sanding and sharp edges aren't a safe combination. My fingers stayed sliced up.
I know that feeling, I actually stopped sanding my last one and knocked the edge off on my belt grinder.....then went back to sanding
 
I rarely wear my wedding ring anymore, and never while I'm working (makes my wife real mad when we go out to dinner... as if there were anybody else out there who could stand me!). I work in 480VAC panels and around all kinds of rotating equipment and otherwise. Now, my wife did get me a $5 silicone wedding band that I wore for a while, but it just became a magnet for dirt and grease and grime and I got out of the habit of wearing it, though I suppose it was a better option.

My dad has a few old B&D power tools, including the drill you're likely talking about. I can attest to it's torque. I've spun many full mud buckets around in circles while trying to mix drywall mud with that thing. :D

He also has an old electric 1/2" BD impact. I once got the bright idea to unspool one of my fishing reels with that thing. I held the reel in my left hand and the gun in my right. Popped the trigger just for a second and threw a backlash around my left hand fingers with 30lb test. Fortunately that old impact has an instant reverse (just depends on which part of the switch you pull, top for forward, bottom for reverse) and I instinctively popped the reverse just before the line cut into my fingers.

I seem to recall ignoring a small voice that told me to just unspool by hand..... :D
 
I have a crooked pointy finger from ignoring the voice...wrench slipped off a bolt and my hand went into the inside corner of a piece of 6" stainless angle iron....When I briefly worked in the wine industry, we were actually assembling all the huge pump over tanks
 
I have a crooked pointy finger from ignoring the voice...wrench slipped off a bolt and my hand went into the inside corner of a piece of 6" stainless angle iron....When I briefly worked in the wine industry, we were actually assembling all the huge pump over tanks

I got one of those, (crooked fingers) mine came from a saw saw. I was cutting out some framing out in an attic, to reframe an attic access. Managed to get the saw down in a tight place and figured OK, I guess I can run the saw with only my thumb on the trigger and my pointer finger behind it.

Everything was going well till, the saw blade got hung on the nail, which turned out to be a hardened screw. Now I can't let off of the trigger and since the blade can't move anymore, the body of the saw saw is beating the crap out of my pointer finger. I have no idea how many times before I managed to let go of the switch.

I let blood out from under the nail three times and it broke the tip of the finger. It never healed straight. On the plus side I can't feel it anymore either and my son says, it feels like a steel rod when I use it too get my point across and I start poking him in the chest!! :)
 
Well, since were reminiscing, back when I was around 18 I was in an attic here in Florida doing some work with a couple other guys, it must have been 120 degrees. one guy named Mark was using one of those drills with the motor vents on the sides.
I still remember him saying, hey Steve look at this, he was holding the drill up by his head and you could see his long hair blowing.
He said, with a big smile on his face, how about this....nice huh?
one second later the drill bit or chuck grabbed his hair and smacked that drill right into his head.
I remember that like yesterday, it was hilarious.....
Ah....the good old days.
 
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