oh dear!

[Garno]

Yesterday morning a good friend of mine phoned to tell me he has just taken receipt of a second hand plainer/thicknesser, He asked if I wanted any wood to go through the thicknesser. So off I trundled the 10 miles to his home to try out this new toy of his. When I arrived he promptly showed me his new second hand machine and I gave him the 5 pieces of wood to resize. He did a first pass on them and asked if I wanted to try it out. Well does a bear cr** in the woods? of course I wanted to try it out.

The staff in the hospital were extremely nice, myself and Mrs Garno were in and out in a little under 3 hours. I had no idea the planer was on top of the machine and only discovered that fact after it has planed away the nail on my right hand middle finger, it also planed away all the flesh on either side of the nail and wasn't satisfied until it had planed away about 1.5mm of bone. X-rays now show the top of the finger as being flat and not rounded.

Apparently not a lot can be done when there is no flesh left to stitch up, with it being classed as an open fracture they have given me a pocket full of antibiotics, bandaged it up and told me that it needs to be monitored and have the dressings changed every 3 days by the nurse in my local GP's surgery. I will not get onto to subject of how much it hurts.

I have been advised by the hospital not to use the hand for at least 2 weeks and due to the type of injury it will take a further 6 - 8 weeks to heal :shock: they also say it will be very painful for the next few weeks as it heals. Apparently it would of been easier if I had been cut with a saw as opposed to it all being mangled.

Take care on these machines as they will bite you if you don't know what you are doing.

 

[ScaredyCat]

Seems more than a little remiss of your friend not tell you how to use the machine and also not to have put the guard in place either.

Hope it heals soon. Harsh lesson learned I guess.


.

 

[transatlantic]

I don't understand. How did you not see/hear the spinning blade of death? :shock:

 

[SammyQ]

:shock:

Speechless.

How the hell did you do that Garno? Got to agree with Scaredycat too. Your mate should have talked you through how to do it and not just 'Sixt' you into it.... :?

Sam

 

[sunnybob]

Thats a tough lesson to learn. :shock:
Do what they say and dont try to force the healing.
The only bright side is that alcohol not only deadens pain better than any non prescription drug, it doesnt interfere with the antibiotics.
Oh and please, NO PICTURES!

 

[HappyHacker]

Ow

Sounds painfully.

Very easily done with a strange machine. I agree with others about the guards needing to be in place or warnings given.

A friend did something similar with a lawn mower and has made a full and swift recovery.

Take the opportunity to put your feet up and plan your future projects.

 

[OscarG]

Blimey... sorry to hear that fella. :shock:

So the machine operates in thicknesser mode without any guard/dust extractor on the top? Guessing it's an old machine then?

Hope you're on the mend soon.

 

[thetyreman]

I'm sorry to hear that garno hope you feel well soon, that sounds painful. Goodness me that must have been shocking for your friend as well, I hope he told you how unsafe it was first! :shock:

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A friend did something similar with a lawn mower and has made a full and swift recovery.

I think I must hold a record outside the medical profession - I knew THREE people who'd lopped off their toes with a Flymo. :shock:

 

[Racers]

Ouch!

Get well soon.

Pete

 

[transatlantic]

A friend did something similar with a lawn mower and has made a full and swift recovery.

I think I must hold a record outside the medical profession - I knew THREE people who'd lopped off their toes with a Flymo. :shock:

I heard a story about someone cutting their toe off with a lawn mower, and then the toe flying off and taking out their eye.

I'm sure it's not true, but pretty damn unlucky if it is.

 

[Garno]

The thicknesser and planer both worked at the same time.
In fairness to my mate (he's 70 this year) both him and his wife were mortified, She was crying her eyes out this morning.
I've tried making a joke with him, asking for my finger back, and whilst he is joking you can hear in his voice how upsetting it has been for him. It would be easy for me to blame him but at the end of the day I accept full responsibility, accidents happen. We are just praying it does not get infected, it hurts enough as it is. The hospital have said I will know if it gets infected as the pain goes up a few notches. I would say fingers crossed it won't happen but unable to cross them. I am at the doctors Saturday to get the dressing changed and will take a photo. :shock:

 

[Garno]

A friend did something similar with a lawn mower and has made a full and swift recovery.

I think I must hold a record outside the medical profession - I knew THREE people who'd lopped off their toes with a Flymo. :shock:

I heard a story about someone cutting their toe off with a lawn mower, and then the toe flying off and taking out their eye.

I'm sure it's not true, but pretty damn unlucky if it is.

That tickled me

 

[sammy.se]

Ah sorry to hear that. Get well soon.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[HappyHacker]

A friend did something similar with a lawn mower and has made a full and swift recovery.

I think I must hold a record outside the medical profession - I knew THREE people who'd lopped off their toes with a Flymo. :shock:

My friend managed to take the tip off one of his fingers on his lawn tractor, he did explain how and it was just a moments inattention to what he was doing.

My only serious injury was tripping over the pointy bit of a broken electric fencing post stuck in the grass. It went in to the top of my foot horizontally about 4 to 5 inches. My local A&E doctor gave me antibiotics and told me to see my doctor in two days to change dressing and make sure not infected. Told him I was going to be working nearly two hundred miles away in Newcastle so he suggested going to the drop in centre there, which I did. Nurse said "I don't like the look of that" and referred me to A&E. The A&E doctor said "I don't like the look of that" and admitted me for 48hrs of intravenous antibiotics (three different ones). Very nice people in Newcastle hospital.

The original A&E doctor also said I should not drive, I lied and said I had an automatic(it was my left foot). Driving up the M6 and turning right at Carlisle was no problem after 10PM on a Sunday night but I had forgotten about trying to drive through Newcastle in the rush hour the next morning. I got some very strange looks at work wearing a dark suit with one black shoe and one brown sandal.

 

[Fitzroy]

A tough lesson to learn. I know when I have friends over they are often keen to have a go on my machines. I have a real personal battle between just saying no and the level of detail/explanation I think is required to make the safe when having a go. If you buy a machine and hurt yourself that’s your lookout but if you hurt yourself on my turf that’s my responsibility.

F.

 

[Trevanion]

Happens to the best of us. I think the P/T is one of the ones that catch people out the most, more than the table saw in my opinion.

I know of someone that worked for one of my old bosses that managed to plane the palm of his hand off, apparently he was sweeping shavings towards the cutter head and it just slipped straight over. I saw the photos of the aftermath and the amount of blood on the poor old Sedgwick was unbelievable. Another time the same guy had was feeding timber through a Wadkin PBR/HD and he somehow managed to make the blade bind seriously, the blade snapped and knocked the top door of the bandsaw open almost taking this poor boys head off. This fellow also worked at another company previously and he was told to take a hike because he was using his fingers to pull small (Less than 1/2") offcuts off the side of a tablesaw blade, safe to say he was an accident waiting to happen! Some people are just born unlucky.

Back in college, I remember a friend was surfacing some smallish parts without any guards in place and he had his fingers wrapped around the back of the workpiece for some reason and eventually he did take the tips of his fingers off. Luckily it wasn't too bad and it was JUST the tips so they healed back pretty well.

I also worked with a pretty old machinist a few years ago(he was knocking 70) and back when he was an apprentice in the 60s he saw somebody have their hand removed by a 4 cutter/moulder running I think square blocks when he was making adjustments with the machine running, that was a real sobering story.

When I was being trained I was told very firmly "Don't bleed on my machines, they will rust" and I've pretty much stuck to that!

Get better and back to woodworking Don't let the stories put you off.

 

[pollys13]

A friend did something similar with a lawn mower and has made a full and swift recovery.

I think I must hold a record outside the medical profession - I knew THREE people who'd lopped off their toes with a Flymo. :shock:

I always pop my steel toe woodwork shoes on when I cut the grass. I don't collect the grass and have the cover open at the back. Spits the grass out and on the odd occasion a shattered stone or two, so put my safety specs on as well as ear muffs.
It only takes a second to put a pair of specs on a few more for the shoes. Damaged eyesight, a limp can happen in a moment and will last a lifetime.
I read about the American farmer today who didn't put the safety cover back on his piece of farm machinery, ended up having to.... cut his own leg off..... with his pen knife.

" was moving grain from one silo to another when he was pulled into an auger - a tube with an interior shaped like a screw." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48278319

Stay aware and stay safe out there.

 

[Racers]

I read that, it had already taken his foot off so their can’t have been much to cut through.

Pete

 

[Bm101]

Blimey, sorry to hear that Garry, however, very glad to hear it wasn't much much worse.
Very easy to get complacent around machinery that you don't know enough about or you you use all the time.
Remember your training! Maintain trigger discipline! :wink:
Years back a bricklayer I was working with was using a 9" grinder, diamond blade that was slightly nicked. I was only a kid really and he wasn't. Cutting york slabs and every now and and again this wheel would catch and kickback. Despite me telling him to leave it he was after getting the job done and sure he could control the kickback. Then he couldn't.
It was winter and he was dressed warm. The grinder missed his steel top cap and it cut through the top of his boot, surgically severed his laces and both pair of socks he was wearing. :shock: Left his boot open 4" along the top like something from a cartoon. Not a scratch on his foot. Unreal. He stopped using it then and went and sat down for a bit.
Any other time he'd have lost his foot and be walking about like a bloody pirate for the rest of his life the want of a charging the boss the price of a new wheel and someones patio being finished 20 minutes earlier. Stay safe people.
Glad it wasn't any worse Gary.
Cheers
Chris