Entertainment Center #4: Ouch, the Verdict

Ahhhh…that will do it everytime. As soon as you did that it was a climb cut. Ouch. Sorry that happened

Rule of thumb with routing dados on the router table: The edge of the bit that’s closest to you should do the cutting on a router table. Otherwise you create a fence trap. This is a tough concept to appreciate unless we have JUST the example you have been so generous to describe.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

I agree a trapped router bit, took the easy way and got the wood out-a-there. Your fingers took the place of the wood.

Ouch, Ouch . . . OUCH.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

At least you figured out what happened and shared it. Hopefully others including myself will learn from it.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

That was my favorite column of Flying Magazine. I think a column or blog or forum or whatever we call it will help all of us learn without repeating (as many) of the mistakes we’ll read about. Awesome idea.

I’ve successfully done a climbing cut before, but the cut must be small and a good grip on the piece is crucial. I don’t know how much material you were trying to remove at the time or your setup, but I am truly saddened to hear of your injuries. I drew an arrow on my router table that shows the direction of the bit and which way I should feed the material. It can be seen here: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/1380. I must admit that it isn’t full proof, though. I can’t remember what I did once, but when feeding from the feed end, I realized that I was actually doing a climb cut. You talk about a scary moment! Luckily, I was taking a small amount of material out and it didn’t get away from me. I changed the setup on the next pass, to say the least. Thanks for sharing this accident with us and helping someone else to avoid it in the future.

-- Jesus is Lord!

tagging such entries with “Safety” will be a good start to organize these lessons.

(that’s terrible about your fingers but.. it could have been worse.. so I’m glad it wasn’t worse!!)

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Please use push sticks and or jigs whenever possible.
I would hate to see our liability insurance take a hike over something as simple as this.
It seems the number of woodworking related accidents is on the rise and it shouldn’t be with all the information out there today.

p.s. I am not discounting knowing which direction the blade is travelling but it becomes less of a hazard with proper use of the above.

Bob (climbing down off his “climb cut” soap box) <g>

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Bob, thanks for climbing up on that soap box, we all need to be sternly reminded sometimes when we go momentarily stupid. Last night I spent some time looking at the GRR-Ripper push block. Pretty expensive for a push block but then I look at my bandaged fingers and they don’t seem that costly :-)

Ms. Debbie, outstanding idea to tag such events with “Safety”. I’ll do that from now on and I hope others will too.

-- Dan in Central Oklahoma, Able to turn good wood into saw dust in the blink of an eye!

OK…I just learned something new….I can let my brain take the rest of the day off.

Thanks for the explanation of what happened. I’ll try to avoid finger/bit interaction. Glad to hear it was nothing too serious.

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

Bob, I highly recommend that you do avoid the finger bit interaction, at least while the bit is spinning 25k rpm.

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, make sure you keep it in the game!

-- Dan in Central Oklahoma, Able to turn good wood into saw dust in the blink of an eye!