Hi all,
I haven't been on in a while. Life (12 year old daughter who swims 10 months out of the year) and work has cut into my build time. I had some time in April, so I decided to work on some cherry for the neck-through bass I am building. I was using a wood jointer for 20 minutes, and for a brief instant, I took my attention off of my left hand on the wood,... and took off 2/3-rds of my left pinkie. Yep, in a few seconds, it was gone.
I was using the wrong tool for the job, I should have used a planer, plus I was not using push sticks. Ironically, I am a safety manager (imagine the grief I received at work). Please, please, PLEASE watch what you are doing.
Amazingly, the hand surgeon is a builder also (he showed me his walnut burl topped telecaster at my surgical consult), so he empathized with me, and left as much of the tip of my finger as possible. I received the go ahead last week to start using it for playing, and it is slow going.
This was a life lesson for me. Let my mistake be a reminder for ya.
Keep building and playing.
Cheers,
Chuck.