[TheForge] fingers

[Andrew Vida]

Shit happens.  I'm missing two.

On 1/11/2013 7:04 PM, Andy Gladish wrote:
> Jer, I already feel like the world's biggest idiot, so have at it!
> I went out to the shop a week ago intending to get busy again after a
> for-the=record=books busy holiday season, and thought I'd begin by
> repairing a knife handle by enlarging the slot with a hand held grinder.
>
> The operation is similar to one I used to do when knocking these out by the
> dozen, from surplus bandsaw blade- it's my biggest seller in the knife
> department...but first, I don't do it that way anymore (it's so quick to
> just blast a hole for the handle rivet with the OA) and also, I did it on
> unsharpened steel with a board backing. Can you imagine? Holding it down on
> the table with one hand and running a grinder with the other? I'd have come
> running over and hit anyone on the head with the damn grinder if I'd seen
> em doing this in my shop...
> So it caught on the wheel and whipped around.
>
> Yeah, I know- this is the kind of thing I spend all day NOT doing...but one
> bad day I did everything wrong and wasn't lucky.
>
> My buddy was telling me a few days later about temporarily losing a thumb-
> he leaned over a table saw and put his hand down...."shudder"...now this
> guy is a top notch cabinetmaker with decades of experience. Why would he do
> it?
>
> The angle grinder is the "table saw" of the metalworking shop, just waiting
> for a chance to get ya.
>