Schoolboy errors

[Matchmaker]

At 55 I should know more about woodworking than I do. Having come to it a little late.
I would share a couple of silly person errors.
In the interests of maximizing space and efficiency in my modest garage I decided to put lockable wheels on any big equipment to enable better access/storage. I now spend an awful lot of time chasing a bench saw that should be cutting instead of dancing.. A rethink required.
I also recently bought Nova 3000 woodlathe with a 4ft bed and 8inch centre height.
A big lathe deserves a big piece of wood so my first project was a large sycamore "trunk" which I planned to turn into a fruit bowl. Error one, 1800 RPM is too fast for a 15 by 15" block of wood.
Error two probably should have spent more time balancing the wood.
Result:- wood flies off and into my metal shelving badly damaging shelving and boxes. Just glad it didn't come my way. Would have needed more than safety goggles.
A lesson well learn't and won't be forgotten.
Anyone else with hard learning experiences?

 

[JonnyW]

Ha ha ha. Excellent. Glad to read I'm not alone!!

Jonny

 

[Nelsun]

First mitre saw arrived. Unpacked and placed on dining table. Read manual but missed the bit about checking blade tightness and fired it up. Little bits of carbide tips went flying here, there and everywhere as the blade wobbled round and round at high speed for about 2 seconds. Trousers were changed shortly thereafter! It's now the first thing I check after double checking it's not plugged in.

 

[rafezetter]

First time I used a circular saw I cut through a sheet of ply resting on cheap plastic saw horses, no problem I thought, so far so good.. Moved the sheet, and more cuts followed (I'll bet you can see where this is going already). I made about 6 cuts in the end iirc, then moved the remaining leftover from the sawhorses and saw a whole bunch of cuts 3/4 of the way through both of the main saw horse crossmembers. OOPS. Now I make sure to use the depth adustments.

 

[Fatboy]

my first and last experience with an electric plane ended when I realised that putting two fingers under the bed to guide it onto the edge of the door results in a rapid loss of fingertips!

 

[graduate_owner]

I just seem to make stupid measuring or cutting mistakes. Then when I realise I think to myself, ' how could I have got this so wrong?' And it seems to keep on happening.

K

 

[focusonwood]

eeek.

Stories like these scare me...although as I'm learning wood craft and now own some lethal power tools, I thought it would be good to be a little scared.

I've looked up table saw safety and am suitably terrified of it now.

 

[jurriaan]

I once stood next to someone demonstrating the turning of a bowl, and when he started the lathe, the 16"x5" oak blank flew off towards the floor and rolled to the end of the room - meeting my foot / big toe halfway.

It turns out he didn't know what direction the knob for the variable speed control should be turned :roll: , so he started the bowl blank at maximum speed, about 3000 U/min. I didn't lose my nail, but it was a close call. After 18 months, my nail has almost grown past the defect.
I've taken to wearing boots with steel toes.....