Never to Old to Learn

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dusty
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Location: Tucson (Wildcat Country), Arizona

Re: Never to Old to Learn

Post by dusty »

edflorence wrote:wow...that was a close call. Glad it was no worse, and thanks for the safety reminder.
This event was a reminder to me as well. What I did was the result of habits. I routinely reach under the table to turn off the Mark V. On the Crafters Station the on-off switch is much closer to the blade and thus when exposed is a much greater hazard.

Lesson Learned: Use your safety devices. In this case - the lower saw guard.
"Making Sawdust Safely"
Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
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robinson46176
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Re: Never to Old to Learn

Post by robinson46176 »

Hi Dusty: Glad it was minor, you could easily have had to spend a lot of time cleaning up that machine...
Accidents can happen so fast and can sometimes have truly horrible consequences.
As a lifetime farmer (and a lot of other hats) I have done a lot of dangerous work from a very young age in my years with no serious injuries. As kid growing up during the 1940' and 1950's I remember going to a lot of farm based meetings and being aware of how many of the men there were missing limbs or had mangled hands. The common question was if it was from the war or farming. They were mostly from farming. Things were changing fast on the farm and many were simply not well trained to operate the more dangerous tools of mechanization. My first personal experience with that kind of injury was about 1950 when the father of a 3rd grade classmate lost both arms just below the elbow in his new John Deere 2 row mounted corn picker and she was telling us about it at school. Ironically, he had just recently been bragging at the local grain elevator/mill about how safe it was. In later years he and I became friends when I was working with adult education classes. I taught him how to weld, no small task with two prosthetic arms (hooks). When we moved our store to the public square in the 1980's he became a fairly regular customer. Being on a corner of the square and having a lot of glass I would usually see him coming and would move to the door and open it and greet him so he wouldn't have to struggle with the door. Most of those old doors were not very handicap friendly. We tended to visit a while and when he was ready to leave I would shift back over to the door so I could let him out. Nothing was ever said about it but I often wondered how much trouble he had with some massive old doors around town. Many were a lot tougher to operate than mine was.
I shudder a bit thinking back at how many guys I knew personally who were killed or mangled, mostly in farm accidents.
I believe one thing that helped keep me out of trouble was the old 4-H tractor maintenance project that was held in tractor dealerships. It was heavily into safety and we watched a lot of related movies, some quite graphic. A lot of fathers came and stayed for those meetings and I really believe that it may well have saved a few of them. You could hear them discussing the movies with their sons as they were leaving.
The last self propelled combine I owned before retirement had big pipe and wire grid safety gates along each side blocking access to all of the belts, pulleys, gears, chains and sprockets. A neighbor that I grew up with used to make fun of me for leaving them in place and bragged about tossing his behind the shed. Not long after he was using a PTO manure spreader that he had taken a shaft shield off of and he got caught in the spinning shaft. He was not badly injured but it was an extremely painful experience. His son later told us that his dad was building all kind of guards for everything on his farm. Lesson learned...
A long time friend who I later learned from my genealogy work is a distant cousin, used to bother me with his work habits. He was combining some soybeans for us and I came upon him stopped and out wiping his windshield off. The combine engine was running full throttle and he was standing on the huge infeed auger in the grain header wiping the glass. I said "Max, what happens if that clutch drags or grabs?" his response was "It wouldn't dare"... A few years later he reached through one of the big 2"+ main drive belts and it took his arm around the big pulley. He was in the hospital for some time and underwent a bunch of surgical procedures including a frame and bolts in the arm. He still has the arm but it doesn't look much like one and it is virtually useless to him.
All of my life I have done a LOT of very dangerous work but I have done it carefully. I have dropped and cut up thousands of trees in my life of all sizes and some in dangerous placements. Some I climbed and took the top out (I no longer do that). I have been very lucky... A year or so ago I had a wake up call much like yours. In a moments inattention I let the coasting chain touch a stick and it swung the saw around. It just grazed my leg and made a hole in my jeans and took a 1/4" square nip out of my knee. I take daily aspirin so naturally it bled like a stuck hog and it left a tiny scar to keep reminding me to watch out.
As was mentioned before it is the stuff you don't perceive as dangerous that will get you. An old friend went out one morning to move a cattle feeder because the cattle had trampled out a deep mud hole around it. He had done it hundreds of times. He backed the tractor up to it and got off to connect the chain but failed to lock the brake. The tractor rolled back into the hole and crushed him against the feeder... They didn't find him for about 6 hours. They weren't sure how long it took him to die.
Kind of another problem, we farmers spend an awful lot of time working alone out away from anybody. As I go down the road if I see a piece of equipment sitting out in a field I automatically start looking to see if the operator is OK. Many are found by those passing by.
My wife has been checking on my well being for 56+ years but I know a few guys that their wife might not miss them for a day or two. :rolleyes:
--
farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
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beeg
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Re: Never to Old to Learn

Post by beeg »

Here's a way that might help.

http://www.woodsmithtips.com/2018/08/30/
SS 500(09/1980), DC3300, jointer, bandsaw, belt sander, Strip Sander, drum sanders,molder, dado, biscuit joiner, universal lathe tool rest, Oneway talon chuck, router bits & chucks and a De Walt 735 planer,a #5,#6, block planes. ALL in a 100 square foot shop.
.
.

Bob
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benush26
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Re: Never to Old to Learn

Post by benush26 »

Dusty,
VERY happy that you only left a few drops of blood as a sacrifice to the wood working machine Universe! :D Decades ago I got frustrated when anything like that happened. Now I realize it’s just someone looking over my shoulder so I don’t do something more stupid and or foolish :eek: I already have the basic stupid and foolish down pat!
As I gain time back in the garage I have developed a habit, mantra or idiom to NOT do just ‘one more thing’. I quit and sit. In your case, leaving the motor running probably wouldn’t have been a feasible thing to leave. :p And if had been me with my neuropathy I may not have even felt the nick to my fingertips until more blood became noticeable :rolleyes:
Anyway I’m glad you still have fingertips to type us a message of learning.

Be well,
Ben
WileyCoyote
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Re: Never to Old to Learn

Post by WileyCoyote »

One thing that is unfortunate on almost all Shopsmith products and probably a lot of other manufacturers as well is the on/off switch is not in plain site or in a convenient location. Without the main table installed it is much easier, but that is not often. Alternate methods of shutoffs, especially in an emergency are great additions. I suppose muscle memory makes it easier to find the switch on the Mark 5's, but I still fumble around a little to find that switch and never look for the switch before I turn it on or off, just like Dusty.

Even with an additional switch with visual access, I still use the switch on the Mark 5. That now makes me wonder if I should change my procedure when turning on/off the machine and hopefully be able to retrain myself so I am sure to use the alternate switch that is much more convenient during an emergency.

I also store my everyday saw blade inside the lower guard when not in use and the blade is always removed and installed with the lower guard at the same time. I rarely use the upper guard but the lower guard is a necessity.
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dusty
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Re: Never to Old to Learn

Post by dusty »

My incident can most certainly be classified as "the height of stupidity". I have far too much experience in the shop to have done something like this. I am just thankful that all I have to show for it is a sensitive to touch finger tip and a paper towel with a few blood spots. I could very easily bewithout a finger tip.

I doubt that I will fumble for the on/off switch on the Crafters Station for a long while and I will not be using it as a table saw without the lower saw guard again.
"Making Sawdust Safely"
Dusty
Sent from my Dell XPS using Firefox.
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