Lessons learned

Thanks for posting the reminder to think SAFETY all the time. I need to hear it a lot.

-- Earle Wright, Lenoir City, Tennessee

Hi Mark,

I think that sooner or later we all go through something like this and it serves to remind us that these tools, around which we generally become complacent, are inherently dangerous and we need to focus on the job at hand and stay mentally alert.

Thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Mark – glad you learned a valuable lesson without having to “pay” for it. Sometimes that scary feeling is enough to make us pay attention to what we are doing.

-- Betsy - There is no strength where there is no struggle

I try to get my 13 yo grandson to help on his futon sofa project. But if it involves a power tool there is no way he is getting near it. His attention span is ZERO.

I review every cut with every machine before I do it. I just hope I always remember to make that review.

I’ve finally learned that I need to wear a dust mask.

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

Mark, safety is a topic that is always top on the list here at LumberJocks. You are right, we should always have a lot of respect for every power tool in the shop. It seems that jointer kickback is common. I don’t think that our bare hands should ever touch the wood while using the jointer. And the router bit working loose, that is usually due to letting the bit shank go all the way down into the collet. Because of the curve between bottom of the bit and the shank, the bottom of the bit should be 1/16” to 1/8” above the top of the collet. I cut 1/4” or 1/2” plastic tubing, depending on the router bit shank size, into about 1/8” lenghts and slip them onto each router bit shank.

-- Ron in Osseo, Minnesota

A router bit working loose is a very awakening experience Mark. If you dont line up the gripper slots correctly you are not likely to to have a tight grip on the router bit. An old carpenters rule Mark ‘never put your finger where you wouldn’t put your you know what’.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Mark
I agree with Ron as regards the jointer and our hands.I learnt by loseing the tip of my finger.

People are always talking about safety which is quite right, and we talk about dust and masks but i don’t often hear about ear protection i have been working with power tools for +- 35 years and never used ear protection and now i am statrting to loose my hearing (the wife says its because i don’t want to hear) but I think that is a subject we should write about more often.

-- Nathan South Afirica