Tablesaw-1, Kev Y.-0

Well, it finally happened! Due to a lapse in concentration I ended up in theatre in the Epworth hospital in Melbourne last night.

I was out in the shed cutting some panels for a book shelf/cupboard I am building when for some reason I experienced a brain fart.

Dont ask me why by I reached out to clear an off-cut from the out side of the blade and somehow managed to push my thumb into the blade. All I felt at the time was a "nudge" on my hand and a slight nick. I knew straight away I had been a "silly boy"

My wife took me into the local hospital where they cleaned, poked and x-rayed my thumb. I had managed to cut from just under my thumbnail back to the first joint. In doing so most of the bone in the top of my thumb was shattered. I am lucky to still have the top part of the thumb.

After 3 hours in the ED and several doses off Morphine it was decided that I would be better off in Melbourne where the Plastic Surgeons were. So after 2 hour drive I was admitted to Epworth and hustled into theatre at 12:30am.

Now I am sitting here with my arm in a sling, my thumb throbbing and my ego severely dented. I am not sure when I will be allowed back into the shed, or when I can expect to return to work.

Luckily there are no photos of the injury for me to post here, but the memory will be with me for some time.

Kev

That sux! By boss has done that twice on a giant beam saw

Ow :o hope it heals quickly and you're back in the shed before you know.

OUCH!!
Hope it heals well for you

I can think of better ways to get mince for the hamburgers. Hope it heals quickly Kev.

Hope you get better soon Kev.


Peter.

Penny ( my soon to be EX wife #2 ) says I am in no danger of carking it as it is a long way from my heart !

Brain fart? Lapse in concentration? I dont think so. These things happen because we are careless. The problem is the blade edge is invisible when spinning and because it is spinning so fast our brain thinks it is stationary. We have to actually tell ourselves its moving and dangerous.
For a right handed person the nearest thing to the saw blade is their thumb. The most valuable digit to a right handed person is that thumb. Try picking up stuff without it. I wouldnt mind betting there wasnt a push stick within cooee of the machine. Why would you bother when you have that thumb to do your dirty work for you?
:doh:

Rusty, I am right handed but it is my left thumb and there was a push stick on the bench behind me :)

I know exactly what you are going through and went through Kev!!

I sliced through my right thumb before Christmas. I have since built
the sled I had been promising myself for years.:B

Yep just a flesh wound :)

That is terrible. Get well soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kev Y.

Rusty, I am right handed but it is my left thumb and there was a push stick on the bench behind me :)

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Dexterity of non dominant hand would be less. All the more reason to go the stick.
Im not trying to be smart here. I have been in the trade for 40 years, trained many apprentices and still have all digits. The one thing that I worry about is folk becoming ho hum about accidents. An old sawyer once told me, "An accident is something beyond your control. Anything else is preventable." I never forgot it.
Short push stick in hip pocket - handiest tool in the shed.
I wish you a speedy recovery.
:2tsup:

Wishing you a speedy recovery Kev. Look after it well, infection can be a bitch!

Four weeks after the same injury I was back in the shop and now, two weeks later my thumb is back to normal, just a scar to show where it happened, even my nail is growing again.
I never used a sling, too much in the way :)
Your new skin will be very tender for a while and some part of your thumb will have no feeling, so put a cover on to protect it.
I used the white mesh band aid patches

Mend well, and soon.

Cheers

"Ouch" Kev, I hope your recovery is progressing well mate and you're back in the shed really soon.

Just got back from the surgeon's visit today.

This was the first time I have been able to look at my "handy" work for a week. I have a nice scar running from the right side of my thumb through pad of the thumb up the other side and just to the back of the nail all the way down to the knuckle joint.

There is a pin in the thumb at the moment that will come out in a month. I will not have full movement of the thumb but at least the digit is still there.



Kev

"There is a pin in the thumb at the moment that will come out in a month. I will not have full movement of the thumb but at least the digit is still there.
Kev
I try and do new things twice.. the first time to see if I can do it.. the second time to see if I like it"


Hope you heal well and quickly Kev. Good to see you still have most of it left.
Please don't follow your byline and go in for seconds to see if you like it though.. :oo: :o

Cheers, Ian

I could follow the urban legend and do it again showing people how it happened the first time :) NOT!

Lets hope the viewing membership learn from the mistakes of others.:D

Interesting how the machine is faster than the human sence of pain or feeling.

OPS :? thats going to hurt rather a lot in half an hour:oo:

cheers

Hope you get back to your hobbies soon,

Might be stating the obvious now .... but some interesting facts ...

Source Nonoccupational Table Saw-Related Injuries Treated in US Emergency Departments, 1990–2007

Conclusions: Most table saw-related injuries result from contact with the saw blade. Passive injury prevention strategies focusing on preventing finger/thumb/hand contact with the blade need to be implemented.

An estimated 565,670 table saw-related injuries were treated in US Emergency Departments from 1990 to 2007.

Children (younger than 18 years) were more likely to be injured at school

Adults were more likely to be injured at home

Fingers/thumbs were injured most often (486,181 of 565,670)

lacerations were the most common type of injury (373,319 of 565,360).

Amputations were associated with (56,848 of 565,360) of the injuries, and most of the amputations involved the finger/thumb (56,817 of 56,848).

Eight percent (47,916 of 565,458) of patients were hospitalized.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mobyturns

Hope you get back to your hobbies soon,

Might be stating the obvious now .... but some interesting facts ...

Source Nonoccupational Table Saw-Related Injuries Treated in US Emergency Departments, 1990–2007

Conclusions: Most table saw-related injuries result from contact with the saw blade. Passive injury prevention strategies focusing on preventing finger/thumb/hand contact with the blade need to be implemented.

An estimated 565,670 table saw-related injuries were treated in US Emergency Departments from 1990 to 2007. ...

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I wonder (out loud) how many of the 565,670 were repeat offenders:sad3:

Kev, I hope your injury does not keep you out of the shed for much longer.:;

In the 20 years working with my old man in the cabinet / furniture factory - he managed to remove the top of his r thumb and later the top of his right index finger.

The biggest "issue" for him was the inability to pick up panel pins when we would do joinery, like 10 light french doors etc and be fitting the glazing beads, he'd have to use needle nose pliers to pick up the pin and hold it, to start it with the tacking hammer!

He moaned about this for a few years - till he took the top off the R index finger with the drop saw some years later. When that healed - his short thumb and short index finger would meet again and he could pick up panel pins again, without the needle nose pliers - that's when he said "I shoulda cut that tip off the index finger back when I did the thumb" coz he was pretty chuffed he could pick up panel pins again. :rolleyes:

When he was in the hospital getting the index finger seen too - we took the tip in packed in ice and the emergency room doc took one look at it and threw it in the bin. :o :no:

Old man wasn't too pleased about that - so when my sis came to visit him - he was telling her about it.... how the doc tossed the tip of his finger in the bin, and quick as a wink she shot back at him, "Ohh you miserable old batsurd, your just too tight to pay for a funeral, so your busy trying to bury yaself one piece at a time!". :D :p

You might think that's awful but my sis got her sense of humor from the old man, so he well n truly had it commin'! :)

Even in is pain, he could still see the humor in it. :cool:

Nasty business - I only came close once thus far - broke the top knuckle joint on R index finger running gazing beads for a sash window in pine of all things - had run miles of it in jarrah, sheoak, and marri etc - but at just 8mm width, the pine ones caught me out, coz a knot shattered as it went past the blade of the saw, and the piece of bead caught the back edge of the saw and shot back at my hand like an arrow - breaking the 1st knuckle joint, and messing up the finger a bit - now it gives me gyp every change of weather with arthritis... Probably should have got it seen too, but had a deadline to meet so never did get round to seeing the doc... so now it points a bit west of north but you get used to it - least I can pick wax outta my ear with it now! :wink: :D

That saw stop device is damn magic, but coz you can't buy it to retrofit to old saws - you have to buy their brand of saw to get it incorporated - few people have them, which is a real shame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiYoBbEZwlk

IMHO it should be mandatory on all saws - but his patent prevents that! So much for safety = more about makin a $ million!:rolleyes:

Maybe when the patent runs out all saws will come with this technology. (What another 10 years or something)?

It could have been worse mate, imagine if you had a brain fart whilst using this bad boy...

Dangerous table saw with

Good luck with the recuperation:bgth: (no thumb intended):rolleyes:

At least its got a riving knife:o

cheers