# an article and my review on the forbes top 10 most dangerous tools



## Psych0tic_bug (Feb 7, 2010)

WOOD CHIPPERS: Yeah I'm sure it was just and Accident  all 3 times…


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## Lenny (Sep 28, 2008)

Thanks for the post. We can never be to safety conscious and your post is a great reminder. BTW, I enjoyed your sense of humor too!


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## BOB67CAM (Dec 28, 2009)

lol thanx lenny!, i was figuring the 1st post would be more like i lost my bro to a chipper….. or something so you did ease my fears a bit


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## Norv (Jan 27, 2010)

I think Jimmy Hoffa was one of the 3 to die in a wood chipper


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## JimDaddyO (Dec 20, 2009)

I don't have a wood chipper or a back hoe, but they are on the list of things to get…lol. My opinion of the wood chipper deaths, the first was an accident, the other 2 were getting rid of the witnesses.


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## richgreer (Dec 25, 2009)

This is interesting. I would opine that emergency room visits per hour of use would be a more significant measure but it would be much harder to calculate. For example, snow blowers and lawn mowers are probably on the list because there are so many more of them in existence.

While I love to turn wood, I think the lathe is one of the more dangerous tools in the shop (especially when used by someone who does not know what they are doing). The lathe didn't make the list because for every hour of turning that takes place in this country there is probably 1000 or more hours spent mowing lawns.

In my shop I consider the lathe, the table saw and the jointer as the 3 most dangerous tools and I treat them with the caution and respect they deserve. However, I have nicked myself on the router, the drill press and a hand saw. You shouldn't take anything for granted.


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## tooldad (Mar 24, 2008)

Thanks for the link.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Thanks for info.


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## North40 (Oct 17, 2007)

I'd be interested to know *how* people are injured by their air compressor! Explosions due to rust-out are pretty rare, and you'd have to happen to be near it when it exploded. I suppose you could have your hand on the belt when the motor kicks on (if you have the guards off). The only other thing I can think of would be removing a coupler while there is pressure in the tank and having the coupler thrown at you. Anyone have any other ideas how air compressors could be hurting that many people?


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## North40 (Oct 17, 2007)

Darn - just realized I forgot to turn my compressor off last night!


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## bigike (May 25, 2009)

good looken out!


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

I still don´t get it peter my compressor is on around the clock and so is most of them
in europe i think
it most be the airdriven tool in the other end , in ER they just write compressor for all of it
and not the tool it self if they did that the list wuold loke different I think

Dennis


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## BOB67CAM (Dec 28, 2009)

mine doesnt even have a switch, i gotta yank the 240 plug out of the wall to shut it down 
but im thinking dennis is right, i cant see any feaseable way that many people can stick hands into belts and such


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## woodprof (Aug 31, 2009)

It would be interesting to know the breakdown for each tool in terms of how many emergency rooms visits for each tool were due to problems with the tool (something breaking, poor design, etc.) and how many were due to "operator error" (i.e. carelessness or downright stupidity).

I know which cause I'd place my money on!


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## BOB67CAM (Dec 28, 2009)

that would be a good idea, the only prob is the doctor would only hear from the patient and hes seldom going to say "i was a moron", instead hell say something like "the drill bit exploded for absolutely no reason"


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## 33706 (Mar 5, 2008)

I wish to again ask for statistics based on man-hours of use, rather than a report of most-dangerous based on ER admissions. Table saws may not even make the list if the numbers were crunched differently! I recall a safety survey which was done by some university in Sweden, where they determined which vehicle colors were safest, based on statistical enumerations of crashed vehicles in junkyards. Their conclusion? Passenger cars painted blue and orange…two-tones… were indeed safest, since there was only *one* painted that way in the junkyards. A pragmatic person like any of us LJs would have instantly concluded that cars painted orange and blue two-tones had a 100% crash likelihood! since probably only one existed! This is why statistics can be skewed to reinforce any argument on any topic. When anybody suffers a tool-related injury, I'd like to find out how many man-hours they worked with that tool, and how many hours they spent working with the other tools on that list. That would be better data to work with.


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## BOB67CAM (Dec 28, 2009)

i completely agree kat!, ill agree these things are dangerous but if you weed out the cookie cutter yuppys that bought the new saw yesterday thinking its a no brainer cutting a peice of 4×8 plywood down with just the stock TS table ud end up with 95% less injuries im sure ok im guessing but atleast 75%..lol


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## Routerisstillmyname (Oct 16, 2008)

That's why I love routers, they are the safest tool in the shop. no one has ever been injured with a router and the Forbes magazine just proved it ;-)
Those dang lawnmowers just can't be trusted ….


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## Lenny (Sep 28, 2008)

I know I am preaching to the choir when I say it all comes down to using good judgement. My worst woodworking injury so far has been a deep abrasion on a finger from a benchtop belt/disc sander. I tried to thin down an already very thin piece of stock and it slid away from me. Because it was so thin it went right under the fence and broke into pieces. Of course I was applying downward pressure so my finger went right into the spinning belt. It was blatant improper use of the tool. I am at once surprised and not, that the radial arm saw (RAS) isn't on the list. I used one for 30 years with no problems…thank God. Many argue that the spinning blade above the table is an accident waiting to happen. Defenders of the RAS make a great argument for its safety features: guard, anti-kickback pawls, while crosscutting, which is what most use it for, the wood is stationary, not pushed through the blade like on a TS, etc. Probably not on the list because it is not as widely owned as the tools named.


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## Pimzedd (Jan 22, 2007)

Router…

I taught high school "shop" for 34 years. Had three students injured on the router, two on the bandsaw, one on the table saw, one on the radial arm saw, one on the belt and disc sander, one on a buffer, and one with a hand drill. My data says the router is the most dangerous tool for your "typical" teenager!!!

If anyone is interested, the buffer accident was the most serious. Kid came to class with a string about 12 in. long. String had a "hangman's noose tied in one end. He put the noose around his index finger and let the loose end hang against the spinning shaft of a buffer. When he moved the string up and down, it would wrap around the shaft. He went too far and the string got bound around the shaft. Jerked his finger down and around the shaft. Result, compound fracture and denuded the finger between the first and second joint. Nearly lost the finger but it eventually healed. Happened my first year to teach. Never caught another student playing with a machine. Of course, I made sure every student hear that story and we began to study safety on the machines.


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## BOB67CAM (Dec 28, 2009)

well depending on how you look at it a router got me, kinda sorta, well the bit anyways, i had gotten a set of "tool shop" router bits, the menards cheapies and you could chew on them if u wanted with no bad coming of it, but i bought a bosh bit and before i had it out of the lil package it had sliced my finger ..damn that machine oil!...lol 
and pimzedd thanx for clarifying about the buffer, i was questioning that, but now i understand and hopefully the string helped pull his head out too 
i was 1 of those "didnt really give a crap in school kids" but i guess i never got unsafe so much i guess but being a teacher youre probly the 1st time common sense has entered their minds


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

On the subject of air compressors, I'd guess that the compressed air was the culprit. Having worked in plants that use compressed air for nearly twenty years and having studied the issue in safety classes many times, I can tell you that it's a dangerous tool. How many times have you used your compressed air to blow the sawdust off your clothes or arms or hair? You're just inches away from blowing your eye out of the socket or perferating your skin. You can blow out an ear drum with no trouble too. And don't think the average home compressor doesn't create enough pressure to do it because they do. Blowing sawdust off a machine is pretty handy but puts a lot of eye injuries into the air. But, why weren't you wearing your eye protection? Because the tools were off and your prescription safety glasses don't have side and top cover anyway.

This is the way with accidents usually. You don't really realize the danger until it's too late.

As for the way the statistics are presented I'll just say this. When OSHA (US beauracracy to mandate safety in the workplace) collects data, they compare it to manhours worked. They could also collect data on the number of hours the machine ran as well as the number of man hours per machine hour but you can see where we're heading here. It's a matter of opinion, not fact, about what the injury is related to. Take a table saw for example. You could say that the number of minutes the motor ran would give you a good idea of how dangerous the tool is but I'd guess that most injuries come from certain types of cuts like rip cuts instead of cross cuts. Or in the case of the buffer, it was really an issue with playing with a power tool not the tool itself because I'd guess there's a near 100% injury rate for people who play with their tools. So, you can collect an awful lot of data before you find the root cause of an injury. That's why we've always used a group of people to investigate all injuries so that what one eye misses another can see.

Be aware, safety will follow,


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## davidmicraig (Nov 21, 2009)

As a general rule of thumb, I treat my power tools much the same as I would treat a wild animal. If I am afraid of them, they are going to bite me. Treat them like my best buddy, they are going to bite me. Approach them with respect and caution, we should get along just fine.

Thanks for the post,

David


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## carlosponti (Sep 9, 2008)

the only one that surprises me is the air compressor. how are people injuring themselves on those. all the others don't surprise me with the amount of DIY weekenders that pick up tools like those mentioned and injure themselves. since i consider myself an amateur woodworker I find that even then i know the dangers of those tools because of my knowledge gathering how to do woodworking. I read articles about safety just as much as techniques of mortise and tenon and hand cut dovetails. the DIY tv programs do show you a lot of home makeover and maintenance they tend to fail to show you proper use of those tools or those incidents would be severely diminished.


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## christherookie (Jan 22, 2010)

As having once been "the kid in the ER with the fishing hook deep in his finger" I can tell you exactly how most of these accidents happen; "I normally don't do it this way, but I'm sure just this once…."

PS: I won't even touch a chain saw. I'll leave that to those with experience.


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## Builder_Bob (Jan 9, 2010)

I've noticed that any operation where you bring the wood to the tool is more dangerous than those where you bring the tool to the wood.

I think if you're bringing the tool to the wood your hands start in a safe position and don't move.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

The air Compresser problem was some of the guys using the Air nailer and thought they would get back by puting a nail in the side of the tank.


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## Routerisstillmyname (Oct 16, 2008)

I was just being facetious..these types of articles are way out there…they left out routers but included riding lawnmowers and air compressors.
Hum-mm, what a bout wall mounted pencil sharpener. How did they miss that one?


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## 33706 (Mar 5, 2008)

Wow, speaking of air compressors, I recall a safety video from decades ago which warned of horseplay in industrial settings. It seems there were lots of injuries called "Accidental Insufflation" whereby some dolt with an air hose & nozzle would blast a co-worker's er, orifices of one kind or another, causing some type of herniated tissue injury, or perhaps even a potentially fatal air embolism. This is how the 30psi OSHA-approved blowguns came to be. I myself preferred fluorescent-tube shoplight target practice with a Stanley-bostitch NS-80 from the other end of the room but that's a story for another day.


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

kat, I've known people who would use fire extenguishers like paint ball guns. lol
You're right though about the OSHA reg but I don't think it was mostly the dolts. I think mostly it's not being aware of how dangerous compressed air is and accidentally putting your body in the line of fire or the flying particles from cleaning. (No data just experience and intuition here.)


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