graphic warning

I have got RPA o nthe telly behind me as I sit here (its a real life hospital show, Royal Prince Alfred)
There is a young bloke on who has taken half a finger off in a "woodshop" accident.
pretty gorey shots, they are trying to decide if they can stick it back on again.
I'll try to remember the pictures to keep me thinking of safety. :(

update:
he was using a spindle moulder with a saw blade on it and the surgen jsut said it cant go back on becasue it is mangled too much. Just going to tidy up the stump.

Saw that. MrsP says, "I can see myself taking you to the hospital like that one day" :rolleyes:

I thought it looked fairly neat myself. Though I've spent half the day reading an inquest brief, including photo's, of a train suicide. Nasty. :eek:

Dan

Craig, do you mean he had a saw blade mounted in the spindle moulder??


Cheers

It's dead easy to do yourself a nasty using machines the way they are meant to be used much less using them for a purpose that they were never designed to do.

Not saying I've never done a stupid thing but I still have all the joints on my fingers - more by good luck than good judgement mostly - but routers in tables and jointers scare me more than anything else in the workshop .
Familiarity breeds contempt - besides blood on the workshop floor or worse still on the project you were trying to complete is a hassle.

A saw blade in a spindle moulder would seem to be a fairly well established technique. At least it was taught to us as part of a TAFE course, as a technique for trimming chair legs off square and the same length. Spindle moulders are dangerous beasts, but if set up properly, the risks should not be any greater than for a normal moulding operation, or a table saw.

Alastair

I still remember the safety poster near the drill press at high school which showed a kid whose hair got too close to the moving bits, talk about a bad hair day... :eek:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by barnsey

but routers in tables and jointers scare me more than anything else in the workshop

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I have always thought that the table mounted router was a much safer machine than the hand held one. The fence stops too much of a bite at the one time and the (generally) small bit ensures far less damage than is possible with a saw blade. Jointers can be a bit of a worry as I often imagine my hand slipping on the timber and feeding into the blades. :eek:

Couldn't agree with you more Bob.

Holding a machine spinning at 25k rpm is scarey.

Mind you my oldest possesion - the table saw - decided I needed a lesson recently when it bit half the nail off my index finger. Luckily it didn't get to the bone so all is recoverable. The tip is still a bit sensitive so a reminder that these machines are more than capable of severe injury and it has reinforced that scared is a good emotion with them - it instils an added measure of care.

Jamie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Alastair

A saw blade in a spindle moulder would seem to be a fairly well established technique. At least it was taught to us as part of a TAFE course, as a technique for trimming chair legs off square and the same length.

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Hi Alastair

Could you expand on this technique a bit please?

Bob

We made up a sled, consisting of an open top aitch, on a sheet of ply, such that when the stool was placed over it, the footrails rested on the jig, while the legs sat on either side, holding the stool square and upright, with the feet slightly off the sheet of ply. The saw blade was set up (horizontally) on the spindle, and the split fence adjusted so that the blade projected just far enough to protrude over the ply base, and reach the suspended legs. The blade height was set such as to give a clean cut on the shortest leg.

The stool was then held on the jig, and the stool and jig slid along the split fence, allowing two of the legs to be trimmed. The stool was then rotated 180deg, and the process repeated with the remaining 2 legs.

Hope this is clearer than it seems when I read it!! :D

Alastair

Thanks Alastair that seems to be perfectly clear. :)


The only thing that would worry me a tad is if the rails on the chair were not all at exactly the same height. I would tend to use the bottom of the seat as a datum line. Is there some reason not to do so? Also, what size saw blade did you use? Not a full 9" surely? :eek:

I use spindle moulders for about 20 hours a week and as long as u respect the machine and the fact that the cutters will not discriminate between wood and flesh you are off to a god start. We use saw blades occassionally for grooving materials (does the same job as grooving saws) as the arbour diameter is the same as our multi-rip saw benches. Any machine can be dangerous, I have put a 6mm deep groove in my left thumb from trying to be a "hero" when I was 18. I learnt the hard way about safety.

Also, for something different, I did a cert 1 in wood furnishing at my local tafe about 5 years and I ended up teaching the teacher how to use the spindle moulder in their workshop. In the three months that I was there I had rejuvenated almost all of the cutters and planer knives in the shop. Best 3 months I spent.

its called a wobble saw for running grooves etc for loose tenons drawer bottom slips etc etc, pretty common slow the speed down and its apples.

Machine Shop Safety

This is the way I have always looked at it

Don't be scared of any of your machinery because if you are, it will ****** you up.
But always respect your machinery, as long as you show respect and you under stand how to use it you shouldn't have any problems....

Play safe :)

Just listening to Radio National. They're doing a story on farm safety and they're interviewing this guy who had an accident a few years ago.

He was milling grain for the feed bins and his neighbour came up to see him. He went to switch off the miller, which was running off the PTO on his tractor. He was wearing one of those rain jackets with the waist cord. As he reached across to shut it down, the waist cord was caught by the shaft. It ripped the jacket off him, taking both his arms with it, and then dragged him through the PTO shaft at 550 RPM. All over in a flash.

They thought he wouldn't make it to Sydney so they cancelled the flight that was going to take him there for microsurgery. He'd lost so much blood from internal injuries and loss of his arms that they wouldn't give him painkillers - worried it might kill him. He was concious for over an hour until they got him to Tamworth Base Hospital.

His neighbour and his wife were standing next to him when it happened.