[TheForge] Tongs & power hammer - a safety issue?

[Andy Vida]

xlch58@swbell.net wrote:

> Nowdays I leave the guard on unless I have a reason not to.
> Unfortuneately, my big industrial saw doesn't have a guard.  The night I
> screwed my hand up, I was using a push stick as well.  I regularily work
> through the night, so wasn't feeling especially tired.  Still don't know
> exactly how it happened, the blade kicked my hand back to my chest.  Not
> a lot of pain, just felt like I had been hit with a board.  I remember
> thinking, damn am I lucky, I could have really hurt myself.  Turned my
> hand over and the next thought was, damn this isn't going to be easy to
> fix.  It was the first injury I had that would stay with me for life.

	Well, proof positive that shyte happens sometimes.

	The other injury I know of was with a guy I went to school
	with.  He, too, was working in a cabinet shop and was not
	using a featherboard.  The board kicked back into his hand
	and drove the first carpal of his right index finger into
	and through his hand (compound fracture).  He had about a year
	of physical therapy before he could use his hand in a basic
	fasion.  The hand was definitely wrecked for life.

> As best I recall, I reached around to grab the board on the exit (
> didn't have an insert that was a clearance fit, so push stick  would
> lift the back  of the board for last  inch or so of cut)   when the
> blade kicked back and  my hand followed the board backwards through the
> blade. 

	Ouch... having amputated parts, I can very much empathize
	with you.  That sounds like a freak-ish occurence.  My
	MO is to either build extensions onto the saw's table, or just
	let the boards fall to the floor.  Those machines scare the
	hell out of me, to be honest, and I always work on them with
	a mild case of the willies.  Seems to keep me focused, which I
	do on occasion lose when at the forge, at times to my chagrin
	and detriment.

>  Dr on call was a researcher and did an experimental surgery,
> replacing my finger joint with a toe joint.  Works pretty good and beats
> amputation, though my jointless toe tends flutter when I swim.

	Do you have sensation in the trasnplant?

>   Now I
> don't use dangerous tools after 10pm, but haing said that, I will
> probably put my eye out with a soldering iron now. 

	Waaa wa wa... go knock on some wood, quick!

>    The point is no
> one is perfectly vigilant, a lot of people are lucky some are unlucky,
> but  if you have the opportunity  to  improve  your "luck" look at it.

	Well, I can't argue with this in any convincing manner.
	I don't know if we are in any way puppets of fate in these
	respects, but if we are, I sure hope fate treats me well
	from this point on.

> I know a lot of people have added belt guards to their  Little Giants,
> as well  as a saftey cable for the spring, with a cage even sometimes.

	Marshall's Murray has a diamond plate guard around the
	reciprocating mass (ram, linkage arms, springs) to protect
	against any potential catastrophic failures of the
	mechanism.

	The one thing for which I like the idea of a guard on the
	table saw is in the event of a blade failure.  The thought
	of a carbide tooth letting go at speed makes me queasy.  I
	have never heard of this happening, but there is a first
	time for everything, I suppose.