What's the most stupid thing you've done in woodworking?

[Chunky]

Was using a small hobby bandsaw and was cutting some wood. I remember thinking " if I keep pushing the wood will break and I'll get cut!" Well! It turns out I was right! Scar to prove it Note to self.... Listen to your inner self. Ouch

 

[Awac]

Take a tube (plastic my case) 3" diameter. Try to cut a slice off it with the bandsaw...
and watch the tube shoot across the workshop as the saw blade bites!

LOL. Similar but with chopsaw....made me jump...

 

[bp122]

Well, BillW, I have written my laundry list of mistakes on my other thread

But otherwise, I was sharpening plane irons and chisels one day (the one day I forgot to put safety shoes in my workshop) and a half inch chisel feel on my foot, missing my toe by half a bee's d**k.

 

[XH558]

Jeez, I have only scrolled through the first page and have gone white, felt sick, gone green, had that horrid sphincter tightening moment too.

Has anyone lost any digits or limbs on this forum??

 

[Benchwayze]

Maybe twenty-years ago, I was using my mitre-trimming guillotine and somehow I managed to touch the back of the blade with my left hand, second finger. The back of the blade is just cold, but instinctively I pulled my hand away quite sharply; and my finger went straight into the cutting edge!

Casualty visit of course. There was a deep cut, halfway through my finger nail. The lady-surgeon said it was the fingernail which saved the tip of my finger; probably slowed down the cut! She managed to make a neat job, and sensation returned after a couple of months. To this day though the scar tingles in cold weather. I still use the trimmer, but I now hold the work well back from the blade. As I am right-handed, I can't afford to damage my left fingers again like that; I need those for the guitar!

John

 

[Benchwayze]

Who has sawhorses with a sawing V cut in one end?

A friend of mine witnessed a horrendous incident with one such sawhorse. Somehow a wood chisel had got jammed in the hole bored at the V point. Blade uppermost. Say no more.

John

 

[Doodahdebs]

I’ve been making furniture professionally for twenty five years with no accidents, until this spring. I had made a cut on the bench saw, turned it off and for some unknown reason went to clear the waste away before the blade had stopped running. I caught the tip of my thumb in the blade and now have a shorter left thumb. Big ooopps and months of pain and inconvenience. So be careful everyone. No matter how experienced you are it only takes a moments lapse in concentration to become a fully certified muppet (with a bit of a digit missing!)

 

[Jameshow]

I've been using used scaffold boards to make a table. Colleague wanted a rustic effect!

Big mistake should have used new ones or 4x2, built it and driven the van over it several tike they are horrible to work with belt sander looks like the only option!

Cheers James

 

[screwpainting]

Couple of years back, picked up my(loved from new) Elu flip saw when it was in rip mode. Grabbed it in both arms, hands either side and lifted it! Blade was at about 60mm high, hugged it as you do, as it's quite heavy and my hand hit the green button on the side. I'd left it plugged in and nearly eviscerated myself. I had not a scratch but no idea how I got away with it, it really shook me up that I had actually done that, I'd been using the thing for donkeys years.

The one that always makes my blood run cold was when a carpet fitter hit the streacher with his knee and hit the pointed end of a bradawl between the pad and his kneeI. It went right up to the hilt straight into the centre of the knee. Bloody horrendous!!

Mind you, this bloke had clouted a previous customers yapping dog and knocked it out or possibly killed it and locked it in an airing cupboard whilst he finished the job, then left without saying a word to the owner.

Karma I suppose, and definately a true story.

 

[fezman]

well i reckon the most stupid thing I've done was this week.

I made the box from hell.

I've been wanting to try inlaying for a while, so built a box, where the lid was veneered MDF, with the intention of inlaying between the mdf and the (used some old scrap) pine box. Well I cut the groove using my new veritas router plane inlaying tool and made a pigs ear of it, ragging a load of the veneer out. Any hoo, I spent an age fixing that FUBAR.

Onto the hinges. I cut the hinge mortices in the bottom of the box as normal, then proceeded to cut the mortices in the top, only I cut them at the front of the lid, not the back. Schoolboy error or what!!

So my veritas router plane now has a very flash dovetailed pine, inlayed top storage box!!! Strangely the grain on the front and back doesn't match!

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I’ve been making furniture professionally for twenty five years with no accidents, until this spring. I had made a cut on the bench saw, turned it off and for some unknown reason went to clear the waste away before the blade had stopped running. I caught the tip of my thumb in the blade and now have a shorter left thumb. Big ooopps and months of pain and inconvenience. So be careful everyone. No matter how experienced you are it only takes a moments lapse in concentration to become a fully certified muppet (with a bit of a digit missing!)

I heard a rumour of someone doing exactly the same with a router in a table; brush the chips out of the way, through the spinning cutter. I always assume my brain is not in gear when using the router table, just because. Especially worrying when not using a fence, because the bit is just there, looking at me. Too easy to touch.

 

[Stan]

If you take preventable instances out of accidents, what’s left exactly? I mean surely every accident could have been prevented?

I watched one of those programmes about the air ambulance and it went to a car accident where the driver had been impaled through the chest by a pole.

So - stronger windscreens, better fencing, lower speed limits, make all metal things out of jelly....

I attended hundreds of car accidents during my working life. About 98% were due to a mixture of one or more of: ignorance, arrogance, stupidity.

 

[southendwoodworker]

My face was too close and my goatie get caught when I was drilling a hole, pulled my face in. Luckily just a handheld drill so was able to stop quick before any real harm done.

 

[TRITON]

Came into contact with a router blade that was slowing down.
Made the cut, then placed the router on the bench with the cutter facing to the side. Without looking went to reach for it again and tried to lift it from the wrong end.

Cutter was slowing, but i got about 15 closely spaced cuts along the side on my index finger, though none were bad it did bleed a fair bit.

 

[Terrytpot]

First job as a youngster involved building wrapping machines...had to rivet together a galvanized cabinet that we drilled with air drills...1/8" inch hole drilled through one side and straight through my thumb nail on the other side...had to turn the drill on in reverse to get it out...took 4 months for the hole to grow off the the end of my thumb nail

 

[williams1185]

all these stories make me cringe but a family friend was laying vinyl floor tiles and while kneeling down decided to cut a tile pulling the knife towards him it slipped and sliced quite deeply into his old boy couldnt find a dressing so put an elastic band round it to stop the bleeding doctor at the hospital said it was a delicate operation to repair it akin to brain surgery !

 

[Stan]

@williams1185

Brings tears to my eyes and makes me wince just reading about it!

 

[Robbo60]

I attended hundreds of car accidents during my working life. About 98% were due to a mixture of one or more of: ignorance, arrogance, stupidity.

hundreds?? how do you get insurance? Or have you finally realised you are not a good driver and given up?

 

[MarkDennehy]

I did mention my worst-so-far on another thread, but since we're allowed post photos...

(Should have made a jig for the bandsaw instead of trying to just do one quick cut while holding the workpiece).

 

[Fidget]

I did mention my worst-so-far on another thread, but since we're allowed post photos...

Ouch!

Nothing like yours Mark, but today I cut some mortices on the wrong face of two table legs

Hope that heals soon