# Router bite



## trsnider (Nov 23, 2012)

Well despite all my thinking it happened yesterday. I thought a piece I was going to route on the table was plenty long enough it, but it wasn't. As the trailing edge went through the router it got caught 'funny' and the router threw it across the shop. As it was doing this my finger which was pushing it through suddenly didn't have anything to push on an went into the spinning router bit. Ugh shxx fxxx pixx and a string of cussing ensued. As all veteran woodworkers think, I wondered if I still had my entire finger, yes, and if it had gone all the way to the bone, no. Ok, things were relatively ok. At first I thought I could close the cut(s) with butterfly strips. But my wife told me to go in. 13 sutures later my index finger is bandaged up and it's difficult to use now. My finger pad is pretty well mangled up now. Lucky I didn't loose part of the finger. 
And it doesn't hurt very much so I'm able continue (mostly) normally .

Please use a jig and push sticks when routing no matter how big you think the piece is.


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## John Smith_inFL (Dec 15, 2017)

yep - it happens !!!

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## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

Sorry for your accident and hope you heal quickly.

I use a push pad with a foam underside for small pieces and also make fences which only expose the minimum amount of the bit.


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## ruger (Feb 20, 2018)

i'm making a maple vanity for my wife. was using a 1/4 shank router bit to rabbit a 1/2 inch slot in the 4 corner pieces on the third piece i noticed a lot of shutter as i was feeding the 30 inch long corner piece through. shut the router off and found the router bit came loose and my rabbit went from 1/2 inch deep to an inch or more deep. my bit had come loose.. could have been real ugly for me. i should not have been using a 1/4 bit for this but my only 1/2 inch shank bit was dull so i went with the 1/4 shank bit. wasn't using a push stick. i'm just glad i didn't continue pushing to piece all the way through. i have never launched a router bit into the air at 30.000 rpm. and don't want to find out the effects. my dumb ass fault all the way around.


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