Sandal Woods - Fine Woodworking & Cabinetry

One of Phil’s hobbies is lutherie. He is active on at least one major woodworking forum, where he originally posted what follows. He graciously granted me permission to post his story, and some follow-up photos. Here is Phil’s story, in his own words:

Yesterday I thought there is no way I would post this and look stupid to the world but this morning I was reading the comments in another post and realized the story might be educational and perhaps keep someone else from making the same mistake.

I am making some tool handles from various woods and picked a nice old chunk of mesquite out of the shed. This is a section of branch about seven inches long and four inches in diameter. Before putting it on the lathe I was going to cut away the bulk of the bark and sap wood. The sapwood was fairly thick (around 1/2 inch).

The mesquite being very hard required pretty good pressure to push it through the blade. Guiding with my left hand and pushing with my right I would give the branch a push by hand to get it started and then switch to a push stick before getting too close to the blade.

What I didn’t notice was that a beetle had bored a small hole through the bark and ate away a large section of the sapwood leaving a void filled with sawdust. With me pushing pretty hard the blade hit this void about one inch into the cut. It is easy to picture the rest. Log jumps forward. Hand finds blade.

I consider my shop safety procedures to be good and my last accident with a saw was in 1977 but there is always a new situation. I am new to turning and have little experience working with a bark on branch like this and did not anticipate the problem. I was fortunate in that I try to never push my hands directly toward the blade and I was holding and pushing the wood off to the side of the blade so it just caught the skin on the back of my knuckle.

I am fine and will be back in the shop tomorrow evening but it clearly could have been worse. The biggest negative is it makes my wife less comfortable with me working out in the shop.

Phil

The following are links to his photos - I have posted links only, for the benefit of people with weak stomachs:

Update photo 1, Update photo 2, Update photo 3

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Phil. We wish you a complete and speedy recovery!!!

Congratulations to Donald Dean, the winner of today’s giveaway from Sommerfeld Tools for Wood. Donald wins the following three items:

1. First item on the left: One double-sided featherboard
2. In the center, one safety push stick
3. On the right: One complete set of the DVD 7-pack

Congratulations, Donald! And a big THANKS to our 2008 Woodworkers Safety Week sponsor:

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My wife Sandy is the woodturner. In 2007 she had an incident at the lathe, just minutes after I left the shop to prepare a quick sandwich lunch. Here is the story, in her own words: 

Oh, Woodturners, exercise caution . . . 

. . . I wish I had thought of that about 2 o’clock this afternoon. Here’s the scenario - I had turned the back of a bowl yesterday evening and left it on the lathe, worm screw in place. This morning I took it off (worm screw still in the bowl) and turned a new longer handle for my bowl gouge. After I had it all put back together, I put the worm screw back on the headstock. About that time my husband reminded me we hadn’t eaten lunch and, because I’d been having so much fun, he offered to run to the house and fix a sandwich.

Why can’t I remember that screws go in clockwise and come out counter-clockwise? My first attempt, needless to say, was the WRONG way, thus tightening the screw instead of loosening it. I turned the correct way and removed the bowl, stopped the headstock and tried to remove the worm screw . . . and it would not come off. What would you do? Funny, I only have these short Tomy bars and instead of getting something to put on extra leverage, I threw my weight into it. When it came loose, the Tomy bar came out, my hands were left holding air, and I lunged forward, striking my head and glasses on the lathe ways. Did you know that cast iron hurts when your skull cracks it?

I managed to steady myself - knowing that I was alone - and reached the phone (about 4 foot away). I kept dialing our home phone number and couldn’t understand why the line was busy . . . before realizing that the only way I could reach Al to get help was by calling his cell phone. No lacerations, no bleeding, but a huge goose egg showed by the time he reached me. He rushed me to Urgent Care and they, in turn, called an ambulance and sent me to the hospital for care - CT scan, etc. After 4 1/2 hours they released me with cautions and a horrendous headache.

This was NOT the exciting afternoon I had planned in the shop. I ruined a brand new pair of glasses (thank you polycarbonate lenses), have a headache to break all my past records, and look like half a raccoon. Caution out there, guys and gals.

Finewoodworking.com is teaming up with The Wood Whisperer, Lumber Jocks, and others, to focus on woodworking’s hazards. Check their Editor’s Mailbox blog all week for new videos and safety tips. They will share simple advice to keep you out of the emergency room and your fingers intact.

Here’s a short video by magazine editor, Asa Christiana, with some basic safety tips.

Download Quicktime (*.mov)

In this episode I describe a table saw kickback that missed my wife by mere seconds. The reason for the kickback: Poorly designed, flimsy anti-kickback pawls, with a huge amount of slop that allowed side-to-side movement and did not grab the cutoff piece properly.

Edit to add: So, why did this happen? I believe there are several reasons - My Analysis:

1. Very sloppy anti-kickback pawls on the splitter that came with the new table saw. I replaced these immediately with an after-market splitter minus the overhead blade guard.

2. I did not joint the SYP (southern yellow pine) I was ripping - it looked straight enough!

3. The work piece pushed the cutoff into the blade as they both went beyond the back of the blade

4. WHAM!!!  Kickback…..

5. And now you know the rest ya-da ya-da…

6. My #1 Rule after this incident: ALWAYS, ALWAYS joint my workpiece before ripping.

I would love to hear if you have had a similar problem, and what you did about it.

2008 Woodworkers Safety Week - the launch. 

I don’t have any photos, as this happened to me in the Stone Age – 1964, to be exact.  I have made a feeble attempt at simulating what happened, with some photos at the end of this post - nothing gory, though.

Let me know if YOU have ever done anything as dumb as what follows.

1964 —
Tired and sleepy, at work at 2 AM, since I worked the second shift, 4 PM to midnight. But this night I had to work overtime, even though a Final Exam waited at 7 AM at the University. And I had to finish a project for one of my classes… Mounting some insects on something, for a display case for my collection.

I had to finish this project. As I started the cut I sensed something was wrong. But, being so tired, all I wanted to do was finish the cut, go home, and get some sleep. I continued with the cut. Until something propelled my left hand into the air - it felt as if someone had tried to rip my left arm with great force.

There was no pain, only a force that literally threw my hand and my arm into the air. I brought back the hand to the edge of the work piece, to finish the cut. THEN I noticed red stuff all over the work piece, on the table saw surfaces, all over the place.

Huh… what the heck?…

Then my senses kicked in. I lifted my left hand, still felt no pain, but I noticed (!!!) my left thumb now looked as if I had a carnation (the flower) stuck in the end of my thumb. The entire thumb was still in place, but from one side to the other it had a carnation flower sticking out…

I said to myself “This looks just like a carnation flower!” – and it WAS. The impact of the table saw blade had torn open the flesh and caused damage – it looked just like a flower.

THEN the pain started. I called my work buddy, held out my hand, and he exclaimed, “Your finger looks a carnation!” He rushed me to the Emergency Room, 5 minutes away by car.

The Trauma doc in the Emergency Room said to me “Al, your thumb looks like you stuck a carnation on the end of it!”  He then numbed the thumb (I won’t go into the details, but it involved a VERY long needle in the business end of a syringe), and waited a few minutes for the anesthetic to work. Then he took out some shears, started trimming flesh and shaping the carnation I had on the end of my thumb, until he estimated he had enough to stuff back into the skin he had already shaped with the shears.

Doc sewed up the wound, and said, “Nice job – nice carnation flower.” He told me to stay home for a couple of days, take some pain pills, and try to relax; he added that my thumb would not have any feeling for several months.

My work buddy drove me home. I stayed awake rewinding in my mind the table saw event, until I figured out what happened. At 6:30 AM I got up, showered, and headed for the University campus, minus my project, which was due at 8 AM.

I got a B in that course, because I failed to submit the project. But I aced the final exam - thanks to the meds, I was able to concentrate and finish the exam in record time - then fell asleep in my chair. The professor had to wake me from a deep sleep at the end of the allotted exam time. I finally went home, and slept until the next morning.

My analysis of why the injury happened:

1. No blade guard
2. The blade barely sticking out of the work piece
3. Pushing the work piece with both hands, with the left thumb in the path of the blade
4. Unaware of where the blade was – too tired!
5. Careless…
6. Sleepy…
7. Tired…
8. Poor lighting…
9. I just knew that nothing could hurt me – in the 60s, teenagers were invincible, and nothing could hurt them. Has this changed since then?

Happy Woodworkers Safety Week!

A Simulated Table Saw Injury:

A Carnation in My Thumb!

Related links:

Announcing Woodworkers Safety Week

Remember to register for the giveaways provided during Safety Week - May 5 to May 9 - by Sommerfeld Tools for Wood. Send me an e-mail message with your name to sandal_woods@bbwi.net , or click on the logo below.

If you have a story you would like to share, send it to me via e-mail. I have one or two to share.  Every daily winner will get a complete set all all following three items (will ship to the U.S. and Canada only):

1. First item on the left: One each, double-sided featherboards ($9.90 value)
2. One each, safety push stick ($1.90 value)
3. On the right: One complete set of the DVD 7-pack ($39.90 value),  which includes:

• Router Tables Made Easy

• Arched Raised Panel Doors Made Easy

• Mitered Raised Panels Made Easy

• Cabinetmaking Made Easy

• Glass Panel Doors Made Easy

• Shaker Raised Panels Made Easy

• Mini Raised Panels Made Easy.

Note: You will receive the complete 7-DVD set, although the image shows only 5 of the 7 DVDs in the complete set. Good luck to all!  I look forward to learning all of your safety stories and concerns.

Relevant links: Woodworkers Safety Week Announcement

Work in the shop… Tired… Sleepy… Worried… Son… Daughter… Spouse… Mortgage… Car payment… Office… Factory… Hospital… Stock Market… Bank Account… And then, BAM !!! We are hit with a kickback on the table saw, or our hand runs into the blade at the band saw, or… Well, you get the idea.The Wood Whisperer has designated the week of May 5 to May 9, 2008 as its first annual Woodworker’s Safety Week.This was Marc Spagnuolo’s idea.I applaud Marc’s idea, and I am glad to participate as a member of The Wood Whisperer Network.

This will be a week when we write about and discuss safety-related activities in the shop. It can be the tools we use; or the methods and procedures we use; or the music we listen to while we work; or whether we have company in the shop. Literally, anything that compromises or affects anything less than our total attention to what we do can influence whether we have an injury in the shop.

These five days will also be a yearly reminder to check ourselves, and determine if we are being safe in the shop. And, if we are not, we hope it will make us change the way we do things as we apply our wonderful craft! If you have a story to share, or photos, I would like to have you share it with the rest of us. I am sure we will all learn from your experience. Heck, it might even prevent MY next accident! I have a personal story or two to share with you, so make sure to read the blog.

To celebrate Safety Week I will have daily prizes for people signing up here on my blog. All you have to do is send me your name via e-mail to sandal_woods@bbwi.net , and you will be entered into all the drawings.

Sommerfeld Tools for Wood, one of my sponsors, has donated several items, to be given away on a daily basis for the five days of Safety Week.

You need register only once to be entered for all the give-away prizes. Sign up, and check in daily during the week of May 5 to May 9 to see if you have won. Thanks for participating - I look forward to your visits, and to learn about any incidents in YOUR shops. We can all learn from each other!

Today is the day I take the plunge into the world of woodworking blogs. I ask myself as I start this new venture: Why? Why do this blog?

To be honest, I am doing it because I am lazy. I have had a regular woodworking web site for almost two years, and have not updated content much. Will I be less lazy with this blog? I hope not… But only time will tell. All I can do is ask my readers if they think this is going in the right direction, and whether it IS worth keeping the blog. Of course, it is hard to tell if it will be worth doing it. After all, THIS is the only entry thus far. But maybe, just maybe, it will make me work just a little bit harder at keeping something up to date, related to my woodworking and cabinetmaking work.

I am certain that, from time to time, something will take me away from woodworking and cabinetmaking. To cover this eventuality, I have created a Category called Sidetracking. I will have to see how well this works.

Now, the REAL reason for THIS woodworking blog:I want to share my woodworking and cabinetmaking experience. I make stuff, from small boxes to chests, to cabinets, to entertainment centers. I will be sharing with my readers the steps in each of these, providing photos and video to convey the message and to make it a good experience for the blog readers. I still don’t know if this particular blog setup allows video… hmmm, I must check it out. I hope I paid for the version that allows video!

So, see you around the blog. Thanks for reading!

—— Al