Minor Injuries in the Workshop

[xraymtb]

I don't seem to be able to spend more than half an hour in the workshop at the moment without cutting my hands somewhere. Just this evening, I stupidly use a chisel to clean up a rebated edge and slipped straight into my hand.

Is this just my bad techniques/practices or does it happen to anyone else?

Everytime I know what I did wrong but as most stop bleeding in about a minute I tend to forget and do it again a month later? And its not necessarily dangerous things - I cut my arm when I scraped it against the corner of my table saw - sliced open my finger unravelling a band saw blade - cut myself on a plane blade when seeing how sharp it was....

Do I need to stop and think more or is this a well known hazard of the hobby?

 

[jlawrence]

I'd say it's a hazard of the hobby - bit like you will get splinters stuck in you from time to time.

 

[Doctor]

With the chisels its bad practice, never work with your spare hand in front of the chisel, I have been in cabinet making for a long time and had 3 accidents all with chisels all within a couple of years and all requiring at least 6 or 7 stitches. I was a slow learner but now I never put my hand in front of a chisel.

 

[SBJ]

Is this just my bad techniques/practices or does it happen to anyone else?

Almost certainly bad technique, and almost certainly happens to everyone else occasionally.

 

[jhwbigley]

your must have skin :lol:

John

 

[Harbo]

These things happen all the time - at the moment with damaged thumb stabbed by a Phillips screw driver which slipped off the screw and a grazed knuckle which lost a fight with my lathe when tightening up a bolt.

All part of the "fun"

Rod

 

[Ironballs]

I sliced my finger on a chisel when working hastily before finishing for the night, didn't clamp a piece and decided I could hold it safely with one hand whilst paring with the other. I couldn't. Only a minor cut but a bleeder, both hands behind the blade at all times now

My big problem navigating around my garage is avoiding banging my knees into things, most things around knee height are hard and pointy it seems

 

[Philly]

Mike
Not just you - I seem to have days where I keep hurting myself.
Recently I can tell when I am getting tired and become ripe for an accident and make myself stop (or do something less life-threatening).
Listen to yourself - if you feel unhappy about doing a task a certain way find a different way to do it.
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[woodbloke]

Mike - goes with the territory I think. Sharp and spiny blades aren't the best soul mates with soft, pink fleshy bits, so yes, I suffer as well from the occasional spillage of the red stuff. The most dangerous tool for me though ain't a chisel but a Stanley knife used against a rule (to cut veneer)...'specially when the blade rides up over the edge and into your thumb :shock: which I've now done twice! - Rob

 

[wizer]

Minor Injuries? nahh :roll: :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry to say it sounds like bad practices.

I have had one major incident in 15+ years of this hobby and get small cuts maybe once every few months despite playing at least 2 evenings a week and half a day at weekends

 

[woodbloke]

Sorry to say it sounds like bad practices.

I have had one major incident in 15+

Tony - true and it comes down to lack of concentration, tiredness or a lack of appreciation for the dangers of the kit we use...or a combination of all three. I've been at this game now since 1970 as a professional and hobbyist. I've have never had a major incident on a machine or with a hand tool (apart from the Stanley knives) and hopefully, never will. Fwiw, I've had much closer and more dangerous shaves whist driving, which I think is infinitely more dangerous than activities in the 'shop, because everything we do is under our control. If we do it wrong, we get hurt...simple :wink: - Rob

 

[wizer]

damn us for being human

 

[newt]

It is interesting how injuries come in batches, nothing for a while then 3 in the same week :x

 

[beech1948]

I can only speak fr myself but I ave found two causes 1) Bade technique: I now often do a first mental rehearsal followed by a physical rehearsal then actually make the cut 2) OR I check my concentration levels as when I do not fully concentrate accidents invariably happen.

Keep trying

reegards
Alanb

 

[OPJ]

My big problem navigating around my garage is avoiding banging my knees into things, most things around knee height are hard and pointy it seems

I know what you mean! If I'm not getting jabbed in the thigh by the bridge guard on my planer, stabbed in the back by mitre saw then I'm banging my head on the bandsaw after again picking up that same pencil I've just dropped on the floor! :x

Even at the 'bench, things aren't that a lot safer... I've got various quick-grip clamps hanging down from the ceiling joists (and, the lumps on top of my head to show! ). Whenever I go to plane even a short length of timber in my vice, I ended up stepping backwards in to my extractor. It doesn't hurt me but, it's bloody annoying!

Hopefully, I'll be able to resolve some of these problems once I've made my new bench, lost the old one and had a bit of a shuffle around inside... :wink:

I cut myself often with hand tools as well. :roll: If you've run out of plasters, masking tape makes a quick and convenient substitute for small cuts. :wink: As long as the cut is clean and the 'plaster' doesn't get wet.

 

[Chems]

I know this is a no no when using power tools but I often wear gloves. If it isn't just a set of jonny gloves its a thin pair of woolen gloves. Just stops you getting all those little bangs a nicks you get from banging your hands into things. I tend to move my hands quite fast and seem to impact upon things. the Jonny gloves don't really help other than to mean I don't have to pick glue off. Then again it can make things worse if you can't hold things properly but my gloves have absorbed so many little cuts around the fingers that they are now fingerless.

 

[frugal]

My most recent injury was tearing up the knuckle on the back of my hand. When reaching for a screwdriver from a shelf I tore open it on the bottom of the shelf above

Pretty much all of my accidents have been down to either: having a messy workshop and banging myself against something that was in the wrong place, or bad technique.

 

[Night Train]

I've only had one chisel accident and no other wood working accidents bar the occasional splinter.
I was cleaning up a housing and held the piece with my left hand and had 1/4" chisel in my right. The chisel ended up entering my left hand in the web between my thumb and index finger right through the width of my palm.
I was only 8 years old and it taught me. I also saw a carpenter take his thumb off using a circular saw at that age and it gave me a healthy respect for power tools.

I now, in my 40's, teach cabinet making in college a and accidents are not allowed if I am to be able to pull up my students for any poor or dangerous practices.