Couple days ago I was working in my shop and sanding a small piece of wood on the 12" disc sander I made.
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This pic is from when I made the sander 3 years ago. I was testing it out and only had a 10" sanding disc to use back then. I keep 12" discs on it now. Here's the full build if you're interested ... http://lumberjocks.com/JoeinGa/blog/34349
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So Anyhooo, the sander caught the piece of wood I was sanding and flung it to some far-away place in the shop. And sure as shootin' when it did, my fingers dug into that 120 grit paper spinning at 1725RPMs ! Pretty sure I yelled something STRONGER than
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To stop the bleeding (I'm on blood thinners and need to be careful) I wrapped a tissue around each fingertip and put a piece of duct tape to hold it. Couple hours later I pulled off the tape and here's what I see…
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So I've been washing it good and keeping Neosporin on them and today when I took off the bandaids they look better.
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But I gotta tell you, Boy are they TENDER !! Even something like putting socks on is a pain in the (fingers) !
So just a reminder once again at how we gotta be careful around even the simplest of our machines..
OUCH! is right!
I let my guard down while using my Rigid sander center.
It was not as severe as your injury but it still hurt and it scared me.
Lesson learned.
Thank you for sharing your accident with us. We can never be reminded enough to "Be Careful".
Joe, well that will be a PITB on the tips for abit. A trick I use for small pieces is to clamp them in a Jorgeson style wooden clamp to hold them, works great on the drill press, router table disc sander, ect
Duct tape is my go to bandage as well. When I was a teenager I was using a belt sander (in shorts) and decided the floor was a better work platform. Some how I slipped and ran the sander across my knee. So my knee looked about like your fingers. Thanks for the reminder. I was just thinking of rigging up something not so safe, think ill wait and do it proper.
yes it happens way too quick ….. and you only know just how much you use things ….. when things like this happen ….......FEEL BETTER …......wishing you a quick recovery ….....oh BTW IF WIFE KISSES IT MAKES IT FEEL BETTER …......LMAO
That injury you have looks like a perfect candidate for this antiseptic called (New skin), it'll help you heal fast but stings a bit when you put it on the first time, if you haven't tried it alreay, I highly recommend it.
OW! T.M.I. nice build Joe, but I didn't need the photos…. brings back too many memories….so many memories…ouch….damn !
Hope you are ready for some cooler weather ! I sure am (hoping the hurricane misses us and doesn't drown us out) fingers are crossed for the next few days.
That does look like it hurts.
The good news is if you grind down the other fingers you should be able to crack any safe with a 3-2-1 combination.
If your a safe cracker.
Joe. Several years ago I ground a bit off the end of one of my fingers. Enough to go to the ER to have it looked at. The hand doctor instructed me to soak the fingertip in hydrogen peroxide several times a day. Good antiseptic power and it apparently helped gently remove dead bits of tissue. The end of the finger healed very well although it does not have as much padding as the rest. Try some simple drug store hydrogen peroxide to help your fingers heal. Not certain if there would be any issues for someone on blood thinners.
Electrical tape is superior to duct tape for bandages Joe. The elasticity is just right so you can pull it nice and tight without cutting off circulation. Just keep that in mind next time you decided to grind some of that extra length off your fingers ;-P
Let's see. One foot diameter times pi gives 3.14 foot circumference. Times 1725 rpm gives a linear speed at the edge of the disk of 5,416.5 feet per minute or just a hair under one mile per minute. It would appear that touching your fingertips to sandpaper traveling at 60 miles per hour is not a good idea!
Been there. Done that, Joe. With 60g paper. It'll keep you off the piano for a while. And the guitar. And the sax. OH!!! The sword of Damocles we musicians who are woodsmiths live under. I ran my left #1 into my bandsaw blade a couple years ago. It went nearly to the bone. Cut a nerve. It's still numb.
Got you all beat….108" edge sander…..120…...80…....aaannd…...40 grit! More times than I care to remember(or admit).
Took about half of my thumb nail off with a nice new 40.
I was expecting the rest of the joke. Here is the version I heard.
Man: Excuse me son, does your dog bite?
Boy: No sir it doesn't.
Man: reaches down to pet the dog
Dog: bites the man
Man: I thought you said that your dog doesn't bit?
Boy: It doesn't…but that is not my dog.
We've all been there I suspect. I've been known to put the band-aids on my finger tips before I try to rub the fingerprints off.
And put some Neosporin on those things. You don't want an infection and it will help with the pain.
Nice to know that I'm not the only one who does things like this. I was running the giant pencil eraser (abrasive cleaner stick or some such) over the drum sander and it caught and jumped up. I of course put three of my knuckles on the drum and sanded nice little rounded notches in them in a nice straight line.
As noted, antiseptic, keep it covered until it stops weeping and then try not to do that again.
The thing to remember about those disc sanders is that less than half the width if the disc can be used effectively. One half is traveling towards the table which is good. The other half is traveling away from the table and that's what will throw wood around. The center just doesn't move that much and does a poor job sanding anything.
Ouch is right. Glad it wasn't any worse. Just a good reminder to us all tho. Anything can happen at any moment.
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