# Use a Push Pad on the Jointer!!! Warning - Graphic Injury Pics!



## dmisita (May 18, 2014)

So, I'm fairly new to woodworking and I bought a used Delta Benchtop Jointer. It's kind of a POS, but for $120 it seemed like a good starter tool.

I'm setting up shop and decided to build myself a nice miter/planer station. More on that later …

Got to the last construction part, a drawer for one side. Decided to make it out of some decent looking Am. Cherry I saw at the local HD.

I went to joint the face of a 4 inch board, and was holding pressure (with my hand, the way idiots like myself do …) on the out-feed side of the table.

I think everyone can sense where this is going:

The jointer grabbed a big chunk between the blade and the cutter head, kicked the board back at high speed into the wall, and dragged my fingers down to the knives at the same time.

I remember feeling bouncing off the cold metal and then nothing. I looked down at my 3rd and 4th fingers and saw that they were cut deeply and bleeding pretty badly, and made a noise that registered somewhere between a girly scream and a manly yell. I had enough presence of mind to shut off the jointer and ran to the bathroom to wash my fingers. Somehow I thought it would look better when I washed it out. Then I regrouped, turned off the dust collector, and ran upstairs to wake up my wife and tell her I was going to the ER. (I usually work from about 7PM - Midnight because that's the time I have to work and I'm a night-owl.)

I drove to the ER, and they took X-rays. Soft tissue injury only, no bones broken, and no bone exposed. They stitched it together and today I saw a plastic surgeon. (Fortunately, he's a friend of mine …) He said I'm lucky and that it will granulate itself in within 2 weeks, no need for a skin graft, etc.

I'm going to post links to the pics instead of the pics themselves to spare people:

Pic of my chewed up fingers.

The wall:










The chunk of wood stuck in the jointer.


----------



## j_dubb (Jun 13, 2013)

Good grief, man. This is what terrifies me about woodworking. My fingers are my livelihood (...ladies) as I sit behind a computer all day. My 115wpm typing speed would be reduced to a snails pace if I ever let something like this happen.

Glad to hear that it doesn't sound like there'll be any terrible long-term damage done here. I'm sure you'll be a lot more careful moving forward. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery!


----------



## TheFridge (May 1, 2014)

And my chicken pecking will be reduced to…

I don't know? What types slower than a chicken?

Anyway, everything considered, I think jointers take off more fingers than anything else. Probably because it usually not just one. It's prob a good thing you didn't have a worse accident than it already was. Flesh wounds are one thing missing fingers are another. I had a similar experience and it completely changed the way I work in my shop. Mine was just a scratch from a table saw blade. It was sticking up only about 1/16 above the wood I was cutting, and when I noticed the wood was bowing away from the front of the fence I took my eyes off the blade. Then ran my finger right over the blade. I now use push sticks whenever I use my saw.

Good luck with that bud. Looks like a lot of skin.


----------



## Chris208 (Mar 8, 2012)

The same thing happened to me when I first got my jointer. Fortunately I was using push pads, so one of those contacted the cutter head, instead of my hand.

I found that one of the blades was loose, and crept up, which meant only that blade was trying to cut. on top of that, I was face jointing a piece of purple heart, which is really tough.

The board launched and very nearly killed my cat. She seemed unphased by the ordeal.

When I buy used tools, I don't use them until I've gone through it and made sure everything is where it's supposed to be.

Chris


----------



## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

OK - I am sorry to hear that you had an accident and glad to hear that the injury was not any worse.

The question now is why exactly did it happen. I think that it would be worthwhile to many people to find out as a learning tool.

Was the jointer OK or is there something amiss with the setting of the blades? Were you taking too much of a cut? Was the board too short? What is the best kind of push pad for doing this?

Maybe someone can post a picture of the proper way to do this operation.


----------



## dmisita (May 18, 2014)

RedOak - you are absolutely correct! I meant to add some of those questions and got tired of typing with my bum hand and forgot.

I'm not sure if the jointer is bad. I had noticed wood catching in the blade before. I removed the blade, cleaned it out and reset the blade without incident. This time, I noticed stripes appearing in the face, and saw a couple of chunks of wood caught there. I did my usual removal and re-calibration. As far as I know I set it properly and tightened down the blades. It is possible I hadn't tightened them enough, but I don't believe this was the case. In retrospect I believe that somehow the cam that holds the blade in has too much play in it.

It was set at about 1/64 inch depth. And suddenly started taking off way more. So, perhaps the blade did come loose. The board appears to be scalloped and closer to 1/8 of an inch was shaved off.

This supports the theory that the blade might not have been sitting tight enough.

I cannot say for sure. The blade currently appears to be tight, and I haven't checked it's level. But there is a sizable chunk of wood in there.

As far as proper technique, any old push block would have prevented my finger tips from hitting the blade. The kick back would have happened regardless IMHO. I think it was failure to secure the blade properly. Again, likely a byproduct of my inexperience.

The push pads that came with this jointer are a bit worn out, and don't grip as well as I would like. I should have replaced them, perhaps with Microjig's fancy new pads. (The Grrriper is a bit unwieldy on such as small jointer).

Thank you for your request for more info. I agree that this is a valuable learning opportunity.


----------



## Buckethead (Apr 14, 2013)

I'm selling my jointer. I can't even get good results with it. I'm out. Hand plane jointing FTW!


----------



## dmisita (May 18, 2014)

Just a few follow-up photos, and comments:




























The retaining clip is bent pretty badly. I don't think it was bent before this event. I think the force of the wood bent it and the blade. The whole thing is going in the trash. Not with the price of the replacement parts. Shipping alone …

The blade was up nearly 1/8th of an inch above the table when I just removed it. The bolts were all tight. Not just the ones on the side with the wood. I don't believe that it was just the wedging effect of the wood making them tight.

What I think happened, the wood worked its way into the gap and pushed the blade up away from the cams. The fact that the retainer bent tells me that it was probably tight at the time.

FWIW all of my prior issues with this jointer were related to the fence not holding tightly perpendicular to the table. I had to readjust it between passes at times.


----------



## InstantSiv (Jan 12, 2014)

I know that feeling… My finger bounced off a router bit when a piece kicked back. I did exactly like you did, except the girly noises  , felt my finger bounce off the bit, looked at my finger and saw blood start to flow(started to feel panic), ran to the sink(I too thought it wasn't going to be as bad once I got it all cleaned up). My cuts weren't deep so I mended myself.

Looking back on it I'm glad it wasn't worse than it was. For me it was 1-2 days of horror, 1-2 days of soreness, 2-3 weeks of healing and reflection. I didn't have to deal with the financial side with the ER visit like you… But without a doubt I take safety incredibly serious nowadays. I attribute that to my accident. Take care of your wound and heal up. If yours is anything like my experience you'll be back with a healthy respect of the dangers and be safer too.

--

For everyone else tap your finger against a table or wall. That's what it feels like.


----------



## cathode (May 18, 2014)

Wow, glad to hear that there's a full recovery in sight. I have been trying to get in the habit of always using push pads but sometimes I'm not thinking. And not thinking is a good invitation for disaster.

I got my jointer secondhand and it didn't come with any push pads but I did pick up two grout floats which work great, and were cheap, but they are freaking awful for floating grout, by the way: http://www.homedepot.com/p/QEP-4-1-2-in-Red-Rubber-Concrete-Plaster-and-Grout-Float-62413/100118828


----------



## dmisita (May 18, 2014)

Thanks for the kind words all. I posted this because to be honest, I think I didn't fully understand the dangers of the jointer. The table saw has always scared the heck out of me because the blade is visible.

The jointer safety rules I've read, I always thought was just everyone being a worrywart, I mean the blade is hidden under the wood …

I now think very differently. The blade being under the wood should be twice as scary. Not knowing where the blade is should scare you. The forces are different, too. I thought I was safer with my hands on the out-feed side. I never thought the force of the cutter would pull my hand into the blades like that!

I learned a really valuable lesson for a relatively low price … $100 co-pay at the ER and a few weeks of pain and reflection. Were this a dado stack I'd be missing a hand instead of a chunk of finger!


----------



## firefighterontheside (Apr 26, 2013)

Sorry that happened man. I had a similar injury to one finger from a biscuit cutter. Made a slot in my wedding ring finger. Several stitches put it back together. Now have a nice hunk of scar tissue in the pad of the finger to remind me to be more careful. You will have that too I suspect. When I did it, I just curled my hand into a fist, went inside and called the wife and said meet me at ER. Wrapped up my finger and drove myself with my hand held above my head. Thing is i see stuff like that and much worse all of the time, but it doesn't bother me. On here, I had to read your description before I decided to look at your picture. When it's another woodworker, I get queezy. I don't want to see something that could happen to me.


----------



## dmisita (May 18, 2014)

Bill, yeah. I hear you. I'm an anesthesiologist, I see my fair share of blood and guts. Not quite the same when it's your own hand!


----------



## firefighterontheside (Apr 26, 2013)

Wow, take care of those hands.


----------



## Unknowncraftsman (Jun 23, 2013)

Sorry to read about your injury,don't give up on a jointer yet. Not sure how long the piece you tryed to flatten but I never try to joint any less the 12 inches long and no pressure over the cutter head.
If you would like some pics of the push sticks I use for some ideas I would be happy to share.The jointer is one of my favorite tools.
Speedy recovery.


----------



## bowedcurly (Aug 31, 2013)

I know how you feeeeeelllllll, router table got me I didn't know bones could be such a brillant white, get well soon, make some more dust


----------



## ColonelTravis (Mar 19, 2013)

Sorry brother, glad you got fairly lucky. Like Buckethead, I'm a hand plane jointer (really a hand plane everything else-er) but not too long ago I almost sliced my thumb off sharpening a blade. Whoever invents the first idiot-proof tool will be so insanely rich.


----------



## TCCcabinetmaker (Dec 14, 2011)

I am sorry that this happened to you.

At first without reading much, I thought from the pics you had your chip breakers set too low, but then I read it, and yes, your blade came loose. It is good that this happened when you had a board running across rather than when you did not, as it may have slung the blade and dismembered you somewhere. Always make sure to get the blades as tight as you can. Have had a planer spit a board out at me catching me in the small of the back due to a loose blade…. Luckily it did not throw the blade…

1. When jointing (yes, there's a t) Always keep your weight back and NOT over the wood. Let the machine do the work, do not press on the board.

2. Always always always keep yourself in a position where you can visually see where your hands are, and where th blade is. I had a scary close call ending in a cut on my pinky just below the fingernail, because I was appeasing someone who used the jointer differently, and almost lost a finger to his bad technique….

3. Be aware of your surroundings at all times, where things are and what they are doing. I am pretty sure there was some heavy cavitation on the board, that would have warned you something was not right.

4. Use the right tool for the job, if you bought the lumber from home depot, it's most likely s4s already. If it is not within your acceptable range of flat and straight don't buy it (you are paying a a 400% mark up so you might as well get good lumber),


----------



## Redoak49 (Dec 15, 2012)

A picture is worth a thousand words….It would be great if someone would post a couple of pictures of the proper way to used the joinTer. I do not use one very often and a picture or video would go a long way to show people the correct way of using it.

Thanks to anyone who posts a picture.


----------



## Holbs (Nov 4, 2012)

i was LUCKY enough to have joined LJ's from the start of my wood working bug. People's stories, like your's, are the reasons why I pursue safety very strongly. I currently use a 100% face shield for just about everything, behind the head ear protection, and GRR-Ripper and such. I still do not feel 100% safe with machinery, but thanks to all those who do share their mishaps, we all learn bit by bit. I would of never of considered 'kick back' on a table saw even physically possible til this forum. Get well and I hope you do not give up your wood working bug.


----------



## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

It's incidents like this that make us more safety conscious. Fortunately the injury was not too serious. Safety is a learning experience and one accident speeds up the process many times. It's hard to imagine what an accident can do without actual experience. Anyone who has stuck his finger in an electrical socket knows never to do that again. Accidents are our best teachers. You take a risk when buying something that has been used. We don't know how the tool was treated or used by it's previous owner.


----------



## Straightlines (Mar 20, 2013)

@Redoak49: Try YouTube for complete video demos.

My story: Was gang dado tenoning 2×2 many redwood fence pickets with a helper, finished the cut, shut off power, blade was spinning down, and as I moved the workpiece from the left rear side of the blades to the front right side of the table, my finger briefly grazed the still spinning 12" dado stack. Luckily, because the lumber was rough, I was wearing close fitting carpenter gloves and I immediately felt the initial contact with the glove and instantly yanked my hand back with only a nick.

The immediate shock kept the pain away and I applied direct pressure straight off, so there was no gushing blood. I waited and waited for the gut-wrenching pain to set in, but after of 20 seconds of OK, I braved up and slowly opened my hand to check out the carnage. Yes, it was cut and it was bleeding, but the glove obscured things, so I ran into the house did the clean up and assessed the damage: 1/16" deep x 1/8" wide x 1" long groove along the side of my finger tip. It is mighty bizarre to observe one's body with tool marks that we try to put into a piece of wood; all nice and straight with perfectly square sides, bottom, and edges….

CONCLUSIONS: 1) DO NOT rush as we were, SLOW down and make all movements planned and deliberate. 2) Always know where the business is happening and mind it. 3) Use the appropriate guards, hold-downs, and push aids every time. 4) This was my one and only "get out of jail free" experience, so no more screw-ups! 5) As TCCab notes a couple of posts above, always maintain what's called an "athletic position," which means keeping one's weight balanced 50-50 with our feet shoulder-width apart and one foot slightly forward with the other slightly back; this is what allowed me to very quickly withdraw my hand-kinda like shadow boxing with a cat, where you try to not get scratched by only getting your hand just so close to the cat. 6) A still spinning/moving machine is the same as an operating machine; use common sense when working around such a machine.


----------



## Earlextech (Jan 13, 2011)

In this situation "girly noises" are perfectly acceptable. Thanks for posting this because people need to pay attention to what they're doing in the shop.
Recover well and quickly!


----------



## Apo (Jun 11, 2014)

First Post here so I don't know how to quote.. yet.

TCCcabinetmaker: "3. Be aware of your surroundings at all times, where things are and what they are doing. I am pretty sure there was some heavy cavitation on the board, that would have warned you something was not right."

Absolutely. I had a similar experience which threw a board into my gut (I now stand in front of the machine, Like a winner, and let it do the work as you previously mentioned at bullet point #1..). The first push through the jointer produced pitting and cavitation.. the second push produced a windup and a pitch right below my ribcage and knocked the wind out of me (luckily I didn't fall on the, still running, machine OR catch a blade to the face).

Any time I notice an anomaly on the face of the cut I stop the machine and check tolerances on the blades, the infeed and outfeed tables and the mitered backstop. Resetting the machine takes an inordinate amount of time with calipers and feeler gauges but it's worth it to know that it's right.. also tightening the blades can cause them to float up so you need to make sure that after every adjustment you check your tolerances. If you don't you're asking for trouble and you'll eventually find it.

When using power tools measure twice and cut once takes on a whole new meaning.
You've got to zero your rifle before you can accurately shoot at anything.

Also.. Check for errant nails that have been cut/filed/ground off the wood you are running through it if you use reclaimed wood.. . . not saying I've done it.. . i just know a guy, who had a sister, that met a man that fell off a truck once.. . he told the story.

-Apo


----------



## unbob (Mar 10, 2013)

Straightlines made what I think is a very important point, body balance.
If your body weight is forward, the incident will blow you back, then you will fall back into the machine.
I have been working with shapers this past year, that is one type of machine that needs much respect to say the least.


----------



## TheWoodenOyster (Feb 6, 2013)

I freakin hate using my jointer. Most dreaded tool in my shop no doubt.


----------



## cathode (May 18, 2014)

I cut some fingers off the other day.









*No, but seriously:* I showed this to my roommate who uses my shop tools frequently. He has a lot of experience with handheld power tools and portable stuff (miter saws, etc), but I always make sure that I'm setting a good example when it comes to safety/technique. I told him "that plywood is a lot tougher than your fingers". I'm confident that my point was acknowledged.


----------



## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

I feel your pain. Jointer was the first machine to draw blood on me when I started woodworking. Kicked back a too small piece I was hand holding. I couldn't speak, just held my fingers while the jointer chewed on the wood that was stuck in it and my husband yelled at me over the noise "Cut or kick back? CUT OR KICKBACK!?" Really scared him. It drove the side of the finger nail of my ring finger into the skin and made it bleed. Had xray done the next day at work=broke the tip of that bone. 
Glad you weren't hurt any worse with your 'wake up call'. I still have my reminder piece of wood. Praying for a speedy recovery and welcome to Lumberjocks!


----------



## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

Hope your healing is quick and complete!

dmisita, so you're are the Ether Bunny?


----------



## dmisita (May 18, 2014)

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the well-wishes.

It's been about 12 days since the injury and my fingers are healing really well. Having bandages on my fingers has been a bit of a challenge at work. I have to wear gloves quite frequently, and putting them on and taking them off is a bit challenging. Fortunately, they make gloves for people with giant hands, and I've been able to substitute those for my regular size when needed.

Just to reiterate, my reason for posting this was to show people that you never see an injury coming. In my case, I misinterpreted the motion of the jointer and thought I was safer on the outfeed side of the bed. It turns out that this is the opposite of true. The infeed side would have kicked my hand away from the blades. I probably would have gotten a broken hand from the board instead of cut fingers from the cutter-head. So, I don't recommend not using a push pad in any situation …

The $79 I didn't want to spend on a second Grripper is $21 less than the cost of my co-pay at the ER.

I've probably spend another $100 on meds, bandages, and other annoyances in the interim as well.

So, bottom line: pay for safety up-front! It's cheaper!


----------



## tirebob (Aug 2, 2010)

Good friend of mine lost the tips of his left hand middle and ring fingers at the first knuckles in exactly the same situation. You got off pretty lucky! Thanks for sharing… We all can get a little complacent from time to time and this might help keep it fresh in our heads saving even saving one of us ths same fate or worse.


----------

