If the voice inside you head says dangerous then listen

After 30 years of using a table saw at hobby level I did a stupid thing yesterday and paid the price. I cut a piece of aluminum plate that was too short to adequately hold and it kicked back and stripped the skin off my first finger. I was using a pushstick but because the piece was too short this probably moved the piece off the fence and into the back teeth of the blade.
To add insult the piece carried on and hit me in the chin.

To those that haven't experienced kick back let me tell you there is nothing you can do. It sounds like a gun going off and that is the last you will know about it until you instinctively hit the stop button and then start to survey the damage.

Shock sets in fairly quick and I was arguing with a mate that I wasn't going to hospital because I had a bit of a graze and that the job needed finishing.
I'm not going into graphics or posting pictures but suffice to say they got me through the hospital emergency quick and had me stitched back together in three quarters of an hour. Probably the claret and mention of a table saw injury might have got me through a bit quicker. Anyway good news is I can feel my finger today and I can move it so I have been extremely lucky. The bang on my chin is nothing and my good looks will be preserved. :)

I am embarrassed by this but feel a need to share so that if you are pushing time on a job and the voice inside your head says this is not safe then stop and re-assess the method. It is going to take you a lot longer to finish the job and you inconvenience a lot of people if it goes pear shaped than if you take time out and do it safely. By the way there was no safe way for this to be done on a table saw.

Ouch. Get well soon.

Thanks for reminding us Rodm. Was the blade a negatively raked teeth one as is supposed to be used for Al?

With short pieces I either use my "boot" , or two push sticks and drop the blade and guard down as far as possible.

It was a standard blade so another thing I did wrong. Blade was down to just above the height of the material. I have cut numerous pieces of aluminum plate from 3mm to 40mm thick on this saw and are aware of gawling, kickback and stresses released by cutting.

I have a feeling it would still have happened as it was simply the wrong thing to do and the shame of it was I knew it before I made the cut.
The piece was too small and using a single push stick was an invitation for kickback.

I have attached a photo of the ally and you can see where the rear teeth of the blade have engaged. There is also a dent in the fence where the piece being cut pivoted and this allowed the teeth to propel it left and upwards.
The push stick I used is also in the photo.

Your gripper style pusher would have prevented it but I will not be doing this cut on the table saw again. The shame of it all is I do have alternative machines to do this job safely. I have a wood as well as a horizontal metal cutting bandsaw but I had just trimmed a 500 by 300 sheet of this ally on the table saw and my mind took me back to the same machine.

No excuses as it was a stupid thing to do and I hope this post makes a couple of you think twice about how you use your machinery particularly at the end of the day when we try and cram a couple of hours work into half an hour.

Thanks for posting the details Rod - most enlightening.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rodm

Your gripper style pusher would have prevented it but I will not be doing this cut on the table saw again. The shame of it all is I do have alternative machines to do this job safely.

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Double Ouch!!!

Thanks David :2tsup:

Hi Rod

Glad to hear you are ok, wiser for it and sharing the wisdom.

I fully second (third, fourth, etc) your safety warning of "if it feels wrong, don't do it". This has saved me a few times myself.

hope your finger heals quickly.

cheers
Wendy

Thanks Wendy. With a bit of luck I'll be back in the shed in a couple of weeks.

I do understand things happen before you know.

SAFETY: Safety means different things to different people but the bottom line is “safety is the prevention of accidents” and the procedure one follows if an accident occurs. If I start to list all safety rules we would require a large notebook and a week to read them. I have a motto “check twice / think twice” before operating a tool in your shop or planning projects. We all become complacent hence the saying “familiarity breeds contempt”.

To show how normal workshop habits can become a potential hazard I will give a personal experience as an example.

On January 12 2008 I decided to change the light in the shop that had burned out a week ago (not enough light for working, a potential hazard) so I got out my trusty step ladder (a folding portable work mate bench) and proceeded to unfold and lock the two sidebars in place. This is something I have done so many times before.

The table being 28” tall and a cross membrane to step on this seemed perfect, for changing lights, so I thought. I had successfully done this many times before so where is the problem. I got out my new light and up I stepped. As I got one side of the bulb loose I turned to move to the other side which was a piece of cake, I’m there. When I went to turn back to get a good view of the light my foot stepped on the outer edge of the bench (not a problem any other time) but I had not fully locked the bar on one side and the bench folded out from under me.This caused me to slip off and fall the 28”. I landed on my right heel and fractured the calcaneus. (Large heel bone)

This being March 24, 2008 and a operation, four screws, foot fusion, and a potential six months laid up I have had time to think about how a simple common practice can turn into an accident. I am not in the position to preach so the best I can say on shop safety is “think twice / check twice”.

I hope all your wood working is mishap free and a reminder to be wary and wise!
John

Quote:

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I landed on my right heel and fractured the calcaneus.

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That is a surprisingly common injury. I did mine a few years ago when I had a rock climbing fall and I was in a ward with a guy who had the exact same injury from stepping too close to the end of a board on trestles (painting I think). Same as you, one end went up in the air and he slid backwards and came down on his right heel.

I hate to tell you this, but mine was 12 years ago and it still aches nearly every day. If I ever go over on the ankle, it feels like I've broken it again. I hope yours goes better.

Rod thanks for the reminder. We all get complacent at times.

Mate
What can I say that you haven't?
I've done the kick back thing and am unbelievably lucky to be alive. The safety thingo I was making (a featherboard to stop kickback would you believe) somehow hit me flat on instead of pointy end first, right on the heart and I could not breathe for about a minute, I thought I was having a heart attack, I really thought the impact had caused the same result that resuscitation paddles do to a living person ie stopped my heart. 12 inch blade driven by a 2 horse motor equals a real lot of speed and many footpounds of impact force.
I had a bloody scar for about a month and very severe bruising. I leave the same piece of wood on my tablesaw as a reminder.
Perhaps you ought to make somekind of sign out of that piece of ally.
Glad to hear that you re on the mend with feeling returning.
Oh, I earned the crutches in my avatar in the shed as well. That was another end of the job slip up, err, down. On the way down the ladder for the final time and suddenly it just wasn't there anymore.
Tired, stupid, damaged?
Yes to all three.
Older, wiser?
Who knows.
thanks for the reminder.

Interesting note about leaving that piece of timber on the table saw Cailban.

I once was working in my shed, angry, tired and having a drink as well. Broke my own normally:rolleyes: very strict rule and ended up grazing a finger against the spinning down blade of the drop saw.:oo: One millisecond later, shreds and strips of skin and some blood. I was so lucky not to lose more than a little skin - barely ripped through to the muscle. I sat down for about 10 minutes till the blood stopped, then got back up, made two more cuts using the machine, walked out the shed, locked it up and had an even stiffer drink. :no:Never again! All I have to do is look at the Saw and I remember.:(

Geez Rod! Two Weeks out of the shed :(

Rod

Sorry to hear of your close shave - just as well it wasn't closer!!!

It does make those of us who are considering buying a TS whether the price difference between a Powermatic and a SawStop is so great after all.

I trust you make a full recovery

Thanks for the well wishes.

Jim,
I read about the SawStop quite a while ago so I may have this wrong but my understanding is a SawStop probably would not have prevented this. My finger did not contact the blade as it was the flying aluminum that did the damage. The freshly cut edge was sharp enough to peel the skin back from the first joint to the top of the finger. There is grazing above that and then it went on to hit me in the chin so goodness knows what happened there.

I have paid out heavily on myself for this but I know that I have to be confident when I use the saw again.

Good to see that others take safety seriously.

" I have paid out heavily on myself for this but I know that I have to be confident when I use the saw again."

I say "do not be afraid of the power tools BUT they definitely deserve respect".

Even a power tool if mistreated or misused has a way of letting you know it is dissapointed in you.

Have a great woodworking day!
John