Pay Attention to What You Are Doing

[Chuck_Chill-Out]

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.

[Bizman62]

There's no suitable notification icon for that!

But that image should be put on every site telling about machines!

 

[mistermikev]

I actually read your story - I think over at talkbass or perhaps tdpri?  I had reiterated it here at the time as we all need reminders of how quickly things can go south... even when you are fully concentrating.  It def sharpened me.

I very much appreciate you sharing your story because who knows how many accidents it has and will prevent. 

If you don't mind me asking... would you elaborate on what exactly happened?  I don't have a jointer, but I think in the interest of prevention it would be helpful. 

I think I read over there, that you are pretty well recovered, and able to play?  If so - I'm very glad, if not - here's to your speedy recovery.

 

[Chuck_Chill-Out]

8 hours ago, mistermikev said:

I actually read your story - I think over at talkbass or perhaps tdpri?  I had reiterated it here at the time as we all need reminders of how quickly things can go south... even when you are fully concentrating.  It def sharpened me.

I very much appreciate you sharing your story because who knows how many accidents it has and will prevent. 

If you don't mind me asking... would you elaborate on what exactly happened?  I don't have a jointer, but I think in the interest of prevention it would be helpful. 

I think I read over there, that you are pretty well recovered, and able to play?  If so - I'm very glad, if not - here's to your speedy recovery.

 

I was using a jointer to smooth out a piece of cherry. The wood kicked back and as I readjusted it, I focused on my right hand instead of my left, which was closest to the point of operation. My finger drifted off of the wood and laid alongside it, pushed the moveable guard away from the blades, and shaved off the tip. 

I should have used a planer. My hands would never have been close to the blades on it. 

[mistermikev]

12 minutes ago, Chuck_Chill-Out said:

I was using a jointer to smooth out a piece of cherry. The wood kicked back and as I readjusted it, I focused on my right hand instead of my left, which was closest to the point of operation. My finger drifted off of the wood and laid alongside it, pushed the moveable guard away from the blades, and shaved off the tip. 

I should have used a planer. My hands would never have been close to the blades on it. 

thank you for that.  thank you for sharing that.  probably saved some people with your story.  scary stuff.  I guess you got pretty lucky getting a doc that appreciates guitar!  here's wishing good things for you going fwd.