“You’re not ready to go back in the shop yet.” Yep, heard it from my doc., my wife, the kids (all grown), and my physical therapist. I had rotator cuff surgery on my right (dominant) shoulder in early May and I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of movement back without a lot of pain. Well I started off with a bandsaw box when my arm was still in a sling. No problems so far. I’m ready to move on to bigger and better.
My daughter was looking for a dresser so I figured, OK … I’ve got it.
Spent half a day drawing it up and laying out the cuts on a load of red oak in my shop. I’m really gonna’ be safe and rip everything to rough sizes on my band saw. Ta-Da !!! No chance of binding and kickback …. got it??
Wait a minute. I’m gonna cross cut the excess off the boards using my slide table on the table saw to make it safer and easier to handle the boards. (limited strength in my arm). I’m on a roll.
Ran them through the table saw, no sweat. Got to the last piece (ain’t it always the way???) and the offcut was only 5/4 X 8 X 6.
Rule number 5 ( I don’t remember what 1 thru 4 were but I’m sure they were more important than this) When using a crosscut sled on you table saw make sure you have a piece of equal thickness on the other side of the blade to support the offcut. As the piece dropped off it laid against the side of the blade and for some reason I decided to pick it up and get it away. (probably violating rules 6 thru 11).
I’m not really sure just what happened next. I may have lost my grip and dropped the piece or maybe I just strayed too close to the blade and caught a piece of it but what I DO remember is laying on the floor for 20 minutes looking at my cell phone next to me thinking “Maybe I’ll dial 911 as soon as I can move”. The offcut piece hit my right forearm and left an 1-1/2 in. gash as it travelled to it’s final destination, the right side of my chest. Luckily it caught me pretty flat so the bleeding was minimal but the bruising is spectacular. I’ve been nailed before but this felt like someone stood me up and smashed my chest with a baseball bat. No 911. No broken ribs (no x-ray either) or punctured lung but I’m a believer now.
NOPE. I’M NOT READY FOR THE SHOP YET. Now I have to listen to the choruses of “I told you so!!!”.
(Maybe next year …month ….week!! )
4 comments so far
3fingerpat
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1016 posts in 639 days
posted 221 days ago
Glad to hear it wasn’t worse. I just had shoulder surgery as well, labrum tendon repair on my dominant arm.
I have been dying to get back to the shop but can only look at what needs to be done and just get frustrated. Especially since I just picked up a couple of new hand tools and a beautiful piece of curyly maple that needs some planing. We were just visiting the in laws and my BIL and I installed a new side fence on our retirement home; me in my sling and he with his bad back, we were a sight. And our wives were telling us the same thing as your family. Funny how we can’t hear until it hurts ;o)
Get better soon.
-- "You get what you inspect, not what you expect"
Bureaucrat
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9430 posts in 623 days
posted 221 days ago
Isn’t it amazing that no matter how many of these stories we read we all do something just this once or we forget that we are not indestructible. Thanks for the reminder. Maybe now I’ll remember to be safe this weekend.
-- Gary, South Central Wisconsin. So much to learn, so little time!
TopamaxSurvivor
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4143 posts in 647 days
posted 221 days ago
At least the shoulder didn’t have to be started over!! That is the luckiest break next to no major surgery needed;-))
-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.
spanky46
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775 posts in 362 days
posted 221 days ago
Thank you! Glad your OK! I think we should all share our mistakes even with pictures! There are a lot of young people learning behind us! I’m still learning and the day I don’t will be my last day on earth!
Thanks for sharing!
-- spanky46 -- Never enough clamps...Never enough tools...Never enough time.