Readers Respond: Close Calls from Woodworkers Who Forgot to Wear Woodworking Safety Equipment

Responses: 25

By Chris Baylor, About.com Guide

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Last year I was reconnecting a wire on the bottom of a low voltage transformer used for outdoor lighting. I wear "graduated" lenses. My near vision is in the lower portion of my glasses. The transformer is hung on a metal stake to keep it at proper height. As I leaned forward to work on the connection, my vision was through the upper portion of my lenses. I went straight into the pointed top of the metal stake with the mid vision of my glasses. By great fortune, my lenses are safety lenses and didn't shatter. It was enough impact to severely scratch the lenses. A bullet missed.
—Guest browgs

While doing some work with rough cut lumber, I planed it down to 3/4-inch thick, then set up the moulding cutter. I was in a hurry and placed the sled and guide bracket on the bottom, but didn"t tighten one of the four bolts that attached it to the frame. I started the wood through the cutter and about half-way through there was this terribly loud noise. The board flew back, catching my thumb and stripping off a piece of meat the size of a quarter and taking my nail also. Since I always stand to the side of table saws and planers, it didn't hit me any harder. As it released, the board flipped up catching the moulding knife causing the board to fly back and stick in the wall. The moulding knife broke and pieces of metal wound up in the wall. From now on, I check all my tools for loose screws and bolts. I was lucky once, but I don't want to press my luck.
—Guest mel

I've cut thousands of rafters using a 77 Skil saw. The boss bought a Makita worm drive so i thought I would use it. I held the guard back and when I pulled the trigger my finger slipped of and went into the blade. I thought I had gotten cut, but when I looked I had a perfect saw kerf in my thumb nail that didnt go all the way though there wasn't even any blood. I got really lucky. I've done carpenter work for over 30 years, but fortunately, that's the closest I've come to getting cut.
—Guest jr farrow

I was cutting boards with a miter saw and holding the pencil I used to mark it in my left hand. It tangled with the blade, resulting in a spray of shrapnel, a jerk on my hand and an uncontrolled jump on my part. No harm done, but I now put the pencil down and focus on the cut. I keep the mutilated pencil on my shelf as a reminder.
—Guest Jrb

As an experienced wood worker, I knew how to use a tablesaw correctly. One day I was cutting a narrow kerf in a strip of wood and ran the saw forward and then backward....oh boy! The piece was yanked from my hand and my hand went to the saw, amputating my ring finger. Like I say, what an idiot. NEVER push wood backwards thru a table saw.
—Guest yukonjack

I am not a terribly experienced woodworker (though I have built a nice pine chimney cabinet and an electric guitar) and am much more familiar with machining, but when I was 16/17 I did on many occasions skip the necessary safety precautions when using tools. I have had plastics chip and shatter on many occasions while using mills and lathes while not wearing safety glasses. Even while using something as simple as a Dremel tool I have had material fly off at my face. Not to mention not tying back my shoulder-length hair on occasion. Oh, and then there was the time I used a Masonry hammer drill/hole saw without safety glasses. I have luckily never been seriously hurt and slowly my safety habits have improved tremendously. For all those with long hair and don't tie it back; consider what would happen should you get it caught in a lathe, or mill or drill press. I am now a healthy 18 and haven't yet been hurt badly. Here's to hoping the remaining years are just as safe.
—Guest Daryl P

I built an addition and was constantly using large power tools. It was easier to leave my safety glasses on all the time while doing smaller jobs. I was soldering pipe for the plumbing and there was some water in the line which boiled and steamed and blew a drop of molten solder in the direction of right into the middle of one eye of the glasses. If I had not had the glasses it would have hit right in the center of my eye very likely blinding it. Just a week ago I was pulling nails with a pry bar and some rusted screws. When I jerked on the pry bar the screw popped out and pinged off my glasses in front of my eye completely missing any skin. No one has to remind me to wear the glasses. Every time I am around my grown children and they are working with tools I ask how they would like living the rest of their lives with one eye. I insist they wear glasses and ear protection. Oh yeah, I always wear hearing protection since I am now hard of hearing from my follies of youth.
—Guest Alaska John

While cutting some thick plexyglass on my table saw I had removed kickback guard so I wouldnt damage the plexyglass (dumb). Long story short the blade grabed the plexy and sent it soaring through the air inches from my stomach and right where my wife had been sitting minutes before. I heard it hit the garage door behind me thinking it had shattered. I turned off the saw and turned and looked what i saw still sends chills down my back it was imbedded in the steel door 3" I left it there as a reminder that safety has to be first.
—mgbdad2

I was using my Bosch 6 x 24 belt sander to hog off a high spot on a piece of wood for a deck I was building. Accidents happen when you are in a hurry, but are multiplied when you are doing something that is also stupid. First, I was holding the small piece of wood with my left hand and running the sander with my right, rather than clamping down the wood. Second, I was not wearing gloves - something I always do, but didn't this time. The sander is very powerful - I found that out as it got away from me and climbed up my left hand. Everything happened so fast, I hardly noticed the 2" patch of skin and assorted tissue missing when everything came to rest. The scar now looks quite good, and also gives me a reminder every time I pick up a tool to use common sense and wear safety equipment.
—wrjames2b

WHILE REMOVING RUST ON A VEHICLE USING A WIRE BRUSH, A PIECE OF THE WIRE BROKE OFF & LODGED ITSELF IN THE CENTER OF MY PUPIL!!!I ENDED UP IN THE BASE HOSPITAL.NO EYE PROTECTION/STUPID!
—Guest WALT CZAJKA

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