Shopsmith Forums

Gloves, long sleeves, jewelry and long hair are all verboten in my shop around operating machinery. Here is another example of why. Near Tragedy A year or so ago, another young lady was not so lucky. She was strangled when her hair was caught in a metal lathe.

Gene Howe wrote:Gloves, long sleeves, jewelry and long hair are all verboten in my shop around operating machinery. Here is another example of why. Near Tragedy A year or so ago, another young lady was not so lucky. She was strangled when her hair was caught in a metal lathe.

I have very fixed emotions about incidents of this nature. It is a sad affair when a tragedy like this occurs. My heart goes out to her.

However, long sleeves, baggy cloths, jewelry and long hair have no place in a wood shop or machine shop. Ignoring this is just an invitation to disaster.

Yes, and it takes stories like this to remind us from time to time to pay attention to what we are doing. When you consider that millions of people are working around machines daily and this seems to be reported only once in a great while it's not something that requires regulations or hardware devices to attempt to prevent I would think.

fredsheldon wrote:Yes, and it takes stories like this to remind us from time to time to pay attention to what we are doing. When you consider that millions of people are working around machines daily and this seems to be reported only once in a great while it's not something that requires regulations or hardware devices to attempt to prevent I would think.

Common Sense helps a lot!

Something youngsters do not have a sufficient amount of occasionally.

And some older types as well!:D

Safety, Safety, Safety... It's amazing how so many people know the proper procedures and because of some reason, they forget or believe they are competent or they just don't know or realize the potential hazard of the tool they are using. In many cases they are competent, but in a second or two their lives change. This poor girl learned something that should never happened. It's up to experienced woodworkers to teach the new/younger people how to safely operate their equipment & include the reasons why with some pictures to show the potential damage. If in a shop, people should be looking out for one another.

To help people, flesh sensing technology has prevented accidents which might have not otherwise happened had the user practiced very simple safety practices. But people have to first realize the potential danger when dealing with equipment that will cause permanent injury/disfigurement. I personally would not totally trust a Saw Stop or any flesh sensing systems completely on their own. I truly believe a person practicing safe techniques will never activate a Saw Stop unless they're cutting wet wood.

Many of us have had close calls. I've had a couple and they serve to remind me how lucky I am. It's the things that happen that you don't expect such as kickback or someone turning on a bandsaw with the headstock set on high speed...

Two things which I recently have learned from others on the forum will help me be a safer woodworker. The number one good practice around the table saw is the 6" invisible box rule. I've seen many people- even people who record videos- violate that 6" invisible box because they believe they know what they're doing. I will not argue that as the people do know. But something happens and the damage is done. The table saw has a wide kerf which splatters bone & tissue that will never be recovered.

Another thing is never stand directly behind the blade when ripping wood- especially when the anti-kickback pawls are removed or not used. Wood can be shot back pretty fast & it might not hit you, but it could contact someone else who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. So many of us use the guard & many don't. That's not the point, but simply being aware is good & making sure no one like a small child is behind you or in the line of fire.

The last thing I'll mention today is the bandsaw. I learned it is a sneaky device. It doesn't run all that fast, but it seems many people have been injured by using their fingers to push that little tiny bit & end up with a thin slice on their finger. Another invisible rule violation- a 1"? I'm not sure how many inches, but never use your fingers when you have push sticks or scrap pieces of wood.

Anything that has power with/without safety devices is a potential accident waiting to happen, but perhaps not if one practices safe operating procedures. I know one guy who uses a "deadman" a foot pedal to apply power only while his foot is on the pedal. As soon as he removes his foot or the pressure, the device shuts off. So if something happens, power is removed. I'm not sure if something like that might have helped the girl who had her hair ripped out. It's far easier to lift up your foot than to reach for the power switch if the machine is pulling you into it.

It would be nice if manufacturers included safety videos with their equipment. Will they be watched? Who knows? But if they covered all the type of previous accidents, it just might give a person reason not to take shortcuts or put their hand near a blade or like the poor girl whose hair was ripped off. Long hair is often an accident waiting to happen if someone forgets/neglects to put it up. I don't wear any jewelry-watches, rings, etc when working. Just a habit I learned from the service. But I learned it the hard way, after getting shocked- I was lucky.

The DIY PowerPro upgrade was the first upgrade I ever did that included a DVD with a person demonstrating the upgrade by actually doing it. He had explanations where needed, pointed out areas to be careful, and I learned a lot. Like I mentioned before- a DVD or simply a web site link on safely using a machine will help educate us prior to event, rather than learning the hard way.

Always be safe- read the instructions, do the maintenance checks, & have fun. Be sure though to also have a first aid kit in your shop- just in case. Although paper towels & duct tape can work too...

She's lucky she got plucked bald instead of getting scalped.

I am surprised Farmer has not stepped into this thread. Hopefully he is busy with fall tasks.

Anywho he has in the past posted very wise words regarding one's actions when around things which not only injure or maim, but also are capable of killing one.

IMHO the most important aspect of his 'advice' is one's own mind set!

ALWAYS be cognizant of what will occur when the power is turned on(including direction of moving parts) when things are occurring 'normally' AND what might happen if thing(s) go wrong.

Complacency(and ignorance) causes avoidable 'accidents'.

Anyone who has spent time in a farm environment realizes the importance of being responsible for one's own actions and knows peers who have paid the price of not being so.

Consider the result of carelessness when operating or 'tweaking' a large piece of running machinery out on the 'back 40' with no one else within a quarter mile or more.

It's sad that this happened. Where was the teacher? The story says her fellow classmates were the ones who helped her when her hair got caught in the drill press (not a lathe, read the story).

During this time with fewer and fewer shop classes at schools anyways, here we have a teacher not looking out for his students. Another good reason that school can use for shutting down its woodshop class.

When I was in the eight grade, I was witness to my best friend getting two fingers sliced away forever on a table saw during shop class. I also was the one who had to place them in a bag of ice and run to the office with them (the teacher was with my friend). The teacher had removed all safety guards, thinking they would hinder a students progress (not to mention having to take the time to teach students about safety devices). The very next day all tools had their safety gaurds in place, they were stored away in a back room. A lot of good that did my best friend who now has to live the rest of his life without his fingers.

Needless to say, all my tools have their safety guards in place. I also still cringe when I read on this site about all the Shopsmith owners who do not use the guards, some of them even sounding like they are bragging about it. They act as if with experience it won't happen to them. Case in point: A very experienced professional woodworker I know (35 yrs. of exp.) did a major brain-flop recently and ground three of his finders down to the bone on his bench grinder. He knew the wheel had a crack and used it anyway, thinking his experience will help prevent an injury (quote: "I used it that way yesterday with no problem"). The wheel shattered, causing him to slip and his fingers getting trapped between the broken wheel and the tool rest. You can figure out the rest. You can't call this an accident because he knew the wheel had a crack in it before he started using it. Needless to say, experience doesn't help enitirely in preventing an injury, especially if you think it makes you immune from it.

Well now, lets not get carried away. Neither the video nor the text say it was her classmates who helped her out. As for where the teacher was, he may have been helping another student elsewhere in the shop. For all we know, the one who got hurt had been furbidden to use the drill press, but did so anyhow.

So, lets not jump to conclusions, or make things up about the story.

Many years ago "Grandpa Penn", my friend and woodcraft mentor lost a finger in a table saw accident. He was a teacher, a craftsman, and had lifelong experence in woodworking, both construction and finish.
His experiance became a constant reminder to me that we deal with machines that have inherent dangers. True for power tools, firearms, electrical equipment, motor vehicles, and animals.
Be careful out there.