Alan_c
Fri 17 April 2009, 15:28
Copied from another thread:
The finger holding habit is a bad one which I think we are all guilty of so let me relay an experience I had some years ago.
While working on a Multicam I was cutting out large letters from 16mm MDF. The first test cut was at the back end of the machine and I wanted to pause the machine between cuts. Now for those unfamiliar with the Multicam, the pendant stores in a bracket at the home position and I was working at at X-max, Y-max. As it finished cutting the letter (which I had been holding down with my hands so that there would be no divot as it cuts loose) I moved my hands away from the cutter and started moving toward the pendant. the floor of the workshop at the time was painted with a fairly glossy floor paint and this combined with fine MDF dust caused me to slightly loose my footing, instinctivly I put my hands out to balance myself and ended up passing my left hand right through the cutter (still spinning at 18000 rpm with 1/2" router cutter). all I felt was the impact of the cutter hitting all my fingers one at a time, a bit like a drum roll. After uttering a suitable expletive, I placed my left hand under my right armpit and proceeded to shut the machine off. after allowing enough time for my heart to calm down to a mild panic I slowly tried to move each finger in turn while the hand was still buried in my armpit. Having satisfied myself that all digits still appeared to be attached and there were no bits on the floor I slowly brought my hand out to have a look. Thank goodness for TUV chip limiter design, all I had were relatively small cuts on both sides of all four fingers either side of the nail, not that that resulted in less blood. At that stage I was working alone in the workshop so with one hand wrapped in a towel to control the bleeding I shut the workshop down, switched everything off, set the alarm, locked up and drove myself home to attend to the wounds as we did not even have a first aid box then. No stitches were required and I was back at work on Monday with only band-aids on the fingers - VERY LUCKY!!! :eek:
Moral of the story: Use a stick to hold down parts if the cutter will come within 6" of your hand, make sure the floor is clean and clear of possible trip hazards, don't use glossy floor paint and most importantly, have a first aid box close at hand.
The finger holding habit is a bad one which I think we are all guilty of so let me relay an experience I had some years ago.
While working on a Multicam I was cutting out large letters from 16mm MDF. The first test cut was at the back end of the machine and I wanted to pause the machine between cuts. Now for those unfamiliar with the Multicam, the pendant stores in a bracket at the home position and I was working at at X-max, Y-max. As it finished cutting the letter (which I had been holding down with my hands so that there would be no divot as it cuts loose) I moved my hands away from the cutter and started moving toward the pendant. the floor of the workshop at the time was painted with a fairly glossy floor paint and this combined with fine MDF dust caused me to slightly loose my footing, instinctivly I put my hands out to balance myself and ended up passing my left hand right through the cutter (still spinning at 18000 rpm with 1/2" router cutter). all I felt was the impact of the cutter hitting all my fingers one at a time, a bit like a drum roll. After uttering a suitable expletive, I placed my left hand under my right armpit and proceeded to shut the machine off. after allowing enough time for my heart to calm down to a mild panic I slowly tried to move each finger in turn while the hand was still buried in my armpit. Having satisfied myself that all digits still appeared to be attached and there were no bits on the floor I slowly brought my hand out to have a look. Thank goodness for TUV chip limiter design, all I had were relatively small cuts on both sides of all four fingers either side of the nail, not that that resulted in less blood. At that stage I was working alone in the workshop so with one hand wrapped in a towel to control the bleeding I shut the workshop down, switched everything off, set the alarm, locked up and drove myself home to attend to the wounds as we did not even have a first aid box then. No stitches were required and I was back at work on Monday with only band-aids on the fingers - VERY LUCKY!!! :eek:
Moral of the story: Use a stick to hold down parts if the cutter will come within 6" of your hand, make sure the floor is clean and clear of possible trip hazards, don't use glossy floor paint and most importantly, have a first aid box close at hand.