Power Tool Accidents

[fragmeister]

Hi Raiders,

I am sure there are lots of handymen and tradies out there in the Raider community.

I would like to hear some of your stories about power tool acidents, near misses and your opinion on the most dangerous tools or at least the ones that scare you the most!

I will start the ball rolling by saying that I have never injured myself directly with a power tool and I have just about every tool known to man and some!

I have come close, I might say,  with numerous kickbacks on circular saws, near falls off roofs weilding various power tools but as I said, I have never had an injury directly related to a power tool.

The closest I have come to an actual injury is when I got a paper cut last week putting my new router back in its box!

My most feared power tool is the table saw. This was one of my most recent acqisitions. I had watched all the videos on Youtube about kickbacks and lost fingers but I needed to expand my tools to cope with some finer joinery work so I invested in a cheap Ryobi table saw. That was my first mistake. I made a few cuts and very quickly put it into storage. I normally don't buy budget tools but I just needed a table saw for a single project and I didn't want to invest too much money.

The Ryobi saw was just not precise enough and I didnt think it was safe,  especially for someone who plays guitar and would rather keep all his fingers!

So I invested in a Sawstop tablesaw. Much better quality and so much safer.Check them out , they are amazing.

Anyway, thats my story. I would love to hear your thoughts and some of your stories.

Cheers

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by fragmeister

[slowjigger]

I think angle grinders and jacks are the most dangerous. 

[Fab1]

The most dangerous tool believe it or not isn’t a power tool it’s a ladder for the average joe.

  If you have a idiot operating the tool the most dangerous “Power tool” is a chainsaws.I’ve pretty much used and use every tool imaginable and I can tell you a kick back from a High powered chainsaw will make a kick back from any table saw seem like a docile kitten.

 If someone hasn’t been injure by power tools or had near misses they plain and simply have not used them enough.

My injuries/Near misses include…..

-Kick backs from table saws,circular saws,chainsaws.No injuries/cuts.

-Industrial high torque drills grabbing material and jamming.Only thing that saved me from broken wrist is I’m strong and have Popeyes forearms but it bloody hurt.

- Industrial bench grinders had material get pulled in-between tool rest and wheel nearly taking my hand with it.Self causes being lazy not adjusting tool rest.

I could go on forever mate and in short I’m surprised I haven’t had any major injuries or even died with some of the things I’ve done using different tools I have used and use

  all I can say to newcomers is be aware of what can and eventually will go wrong  brace yourself properly,stand to the side of spinning discs etc as they will and can shatter and wear appropriate ppe where possible.

  Love to here others stories too.

[noelm]

My most "cringe worthy" injury was with a planer, I was holding a piece of architrave on its edge to just take a few mm off it, I was keeping my hand well away from the edge, but..........as I was passing my hand, the timber tipped over, the planer neatly remove the side of the tip of my thumb, right down to half the thumb nail, Jesus that hurt, and blood everywhere, it grew back like new though. 9" angle grinders are the scariest tools ever, and agree about ladders, everyone uses a ladder, and just leans/reaches out just that little bit extra instead of moving the ladder, especially when it comes to putting up Christmas lights....that's a whole story on its own!

[noelm]

Something fairly recent, I needed to grind right in the corner of a job, had one of those thin metal cutting discs on, I removed the guard because it was getting in the way when trying to get in the corner, as I was moving the grinder around, the disc made a nice neat cut, deep into my finger, still have a nice scar line from that.

[frankS]

I have quite a lot of power tools and have had some minor injuries over the years, I have 6 x 4" angle grinders with different discs, blades sanders etc and I believe these handy small tools are the most used in my workshop.

I have had several cuts down to the bone with blades and ground lots of skin off various parts of my body with sanding discs.

Fortunately I have all my fingers and toes although several scars. I mentioned toes as one of the most painful accidents I have had for recent memory was with a whipper snipper , while doing the edges of the lawn wearing open toed sandals ( yeah I know stupid does ) my big toe came in contact with the high speed cord and wow did that hurt, worse than any of the grinder cuts, and lesson learnt.

I have had grinder discs explode and luckily all have missed me.

While using my wood lathe at times the wood shatters and pieces fly off with great speed, I have been lucky so far but one chunk of wood did hit me square in the middle of my forehead , could have been nasty.

One tip I will give about angle grinders is to use the right disc for the job needed, in particular NEVER grind with a cutting disc not even to remove a burr they are designed for cutting through metals NOT grinding metals.

Frank

[noelm]

Grinding with a cutting disc is common, it takes a minute to change a disc, but......when you only want to grind a little bit!

[Restyle]

the only near miss ive had is with a corded hammer drill getting caught on a edge of abit of embedded reo and with me being pretty use to using them i was holding the drill with one hand, above my head, so when the drill bit got briefly stuck it spun around and almost took my hand with it.

I find the most dangerous tool not even a powertool but ladders. I've seen a few fall off them weather it be unstable ground or just rushing. A workmate who I use to work with fell off the 2nd run of a ladder and broke his hand and arm and 2 places. I see too many people on A Frames 5,6 if not more story's up on a units balcony without the ballastray installed installing downlights, gyprock etc right on the edge of a fatal drop.

With angle grinders, I've never had a issue with them but I've only used a battery ones which seem much safer, spin slower and do stop when the blades pinched. I do hate cutting 1-3 mm aluminium with them though.

[Green Hornet]

I spent my entire working life as a carpenter/builder and was lucky enough never to receive a serious injury from any tool.

The closest I came was when cutting a wedge shaped piece off a rafter with a hand held power saw, when the wedge became momentarily jammed between the spinning blade and the gap in the baseplate. The wedge then shot out at great speed hitting me in the eye area hard enough to send my safety glasses flying, shattering the lens and leaving me with a small cut and bruise on my nose. I'd hate to think what would've happened without the glasses.

I did a lot of work from time to time for a doctor who was "high up" at RPA and he told me that more serious workplace accidents are caused by 9 inch angle grinders than all other tools combined. 

 

[noelm]

Yep, 9" grinder is a scary tool that's for sure, a few years ago I was using one cutting a trailer to bits, I had on my best home handy man safety gear, track pants, joggers and a flannel shirt, sun glasses completed the "kit" I was grinding away, my mate and wife watching on, when I thought the sparks were getting a bit hot, the other pair were laughing at "something" I took a break to see why it was so hot, my track pants were on fire, along with my shirt, I dropped the grinder, that took off when the disc hit the grass, whipped around, cut the power cord clean off, while I got the hose to put myself out! Everyone thought it was hilarious....except me.

[fragmeister]

6 hours ago, Fab1 said:

The most dangerous tool believe it or not isn’t a power tool it’s a ladder for the average joe.

  If you have a idiot operating the tool the most dangerous “Power tool” is a chainsaws.I’ve pretty much used and use every tool imaginable and I can tell you a kick back from a High powered chainsaw will make a kick back from any table saw seem like a docile kitten.

 If someone hasn’t been injure by power tools or had near misses they plain and simply have not used them enough.

My injuries/Near misses include…..

-Kick backs from table saws,circular saws,chainsaws.No injuries/cuts.

-Industrial high torque drills grabbing material and jamming.Only thing that saved me from broken wrist is I’m strong and have Popeyes forearms but it bloody hurt.

- Industrial bench grinders had material get pulled in-between tool rest and wheel nearly taking my hand with it.Self causes being lazy not adjusting tool rest.

I could go on forever mate and in short I’m surprised I haven’t had any major injuries or even died with some of the things I’ve done using different tools I have used and use

  all I can say to newcomers is be aware of what can and eventually will go wrong  brace yourself properly,stand to the side of spinning discs etc as they will and can shatter and wear appropriate ppe where possible.

  Love to here others stories too.

There is a lot to be said about the operator!

Good advice too about positioning your self out of the direct line of the spinning wheels where possible and about being balanced.

Keeping a clean workspace is also good practice.

1 hour ago, Green Hornet said:

I spent my entire working life as a carpenter/builder and was lucky enough never to receive a serious injury from any tool.

The closest I came was when cutting a wedge shaped piece off a rafter with a hand held power saw, when the wedge became momentarily jammed between the spinning blade and the gap in the baseplate. The wedge then shot out at great speed hitting me in the eye area hard enough to send my safety glasses flying, shattering the lens and leaving me with a small cut and bruise on my nose. I'd hate to think what would've happened without the glasses.

I did a lot of work from time to time for a doctor who was "high up" at RPA and he told me that more serious workplace accidents are caused by 9 inch angle grinders than all other tools combined. 

 

 

I've had that happen too.

[fragmeister]

14 minutes ago, noelm said:

Yep, 9" grinder is a scary tool that's for sure, a few years ago I was using one cutting a trailer to bits, I had on my best home handy man safety gear, track pants, joggers and a flannel shirt, sun glasses completed the "kit" I was grinding away, my mate and wife watching on, when I thought the sparks were getting a bit hot, the other pair were laughing at "something" I took a break to see why it was so hot, my track pants were on fire, along with my shirt, I dropped the grinder, that took off when the disc hit the grass, whipped around, cut the power cord clean off, while I got the hose to put myself out! Everyone thought it was hilarious....except me.

Yes... the 9" grinder! What a beast of a tool. Fast, heavy and a fife hazzard to boot.

 

[Rebel]

Chain saws & angle grinders.

[slowjigger]

If possible it's best to avoid angle grinder for cutting. They run extremely fast and the disks are prone to jamming and shattering. There is something about aluminium which tends to make disks jam. 

[Green Hornet]

35 minutes ago, noelm said:

Yep, 9" grinder is a scary tool that's for sure, a few years ago I was using one cutting a trailer to bits, I had on my best home handy man safety gear, track pants, joggers and a flannel shirt, sun glasses completed the "kit" I was grinding away, my mate and wife watching on, when I thought the sparks were getting a bit hot, the other pair were laughing at "something" I took a break to see why it was so hot, my track pants were on fire, along with my shirt, I dropped the grinder, that took off when the disc hit the grass, whipped around, cut the power cord clean off, while I got the hose to put myself out! Everyone thought it was hilarious....except me.

Haha, I employed a guy that did that to himself twice and if that wasn’t bad enough more often than not he used to hold the grinder around the wrong way, so if the blade jammed the tool shot back towards him.

The final straw was when cutting some arch bars with the grinder back to front, he showered some large windows with sparks and pitted the glass costing me over a grand to replace.

[Fab1]

It’s not just power tools that cause accidents.I just had a few hours of fun changing out my steering and had 2 casualties..The hammer and my fist😂😂I feel my age today.That Pitman arm wasn’t beating me being on there the last 20 yrs.😂😂

[noelm]

I just remembered another funny (well funny now) event. Many years ago I used to put up TV antennas, we had to drill into old texture bricks, anyone who knows bricks will attest to them being hard as hell. I was standing on the top of a step ladder (dangerous at any time) and using this old, heavy drill, I was pushing as hard as I could while standing on top of the ladder, the big old drill above my head, when it jammed, it twisted my arm around, knocking me off balance, tipping the ladder over, so here I was, dangling by a drill bit, in a hole in a brick, about 6' off the ground. I had two options, let go and take my chances, or yell for help and hope my offsider (who was under the house) heard me and could put the ladder back. 5 minutes of yelling didn't help, so, I took the other option, let go, I fell in a heap on the ground, and the damn drill fell out and hit me right on the head, I saw stars for 10 minutes and finally got up, just as my mate turned up! "What are you doing" he said, I thought the bracket would be up by now........

edit......just to add how being lazy/slack causes industrial/work accidents, we had a big extension ladder with us, but couldn't be bothered to use it, so used the step ladder instead, if I was on the big ladder, the drill would have been at a safe height to drill the holes, instead in over my head.

Edited September 6, 2022 by noelm

[pegz]

welding flash, just like having sand in the eyes

[Ali2196]

Hammer dropped onto my head from the 16 foot ladder, I couldn’t see for at least 20 seconds from the shock and got a massive lump from it, real banga that was

[Fab1]

I’m an ex spray painter by trade..Anyway we use to use old 20 litre empty drums to paint small items on and paint strip them.

 At smoko you’d pull up a drum and sit down to chow down on your tucker.

One day I grabbed a drum (We always have a quick look to see the paint is dry first) and sat down to eat.

After probably 30 sec or so I felt a weird sensation on the family jewels which was getting worse and starting to burn.

I discreetly get up and look at touching the drum to see if I sat on something to discover in horror I sat on a drum that had previously been used to paint strip parts!!!!!

  I must of taken off to that sink without my arse touching the ground, ripped off my over alls and had the dangle berries hanging over the sink giving them a good soak and scrub to wash the paint stripper off my crotch goblin factory workers.

   The look on someone’s face if they had come in would have been priceless seeing me from behind with both hands working a million miles an hour to get the bloody stripper off.😅😅😅 That wasn’t a nice feeling as I reckon it would of hurt less sitting them on the bbq hot plate.I had red, succulent cherries for days.😅😅

Edited September 6, 2022 by Fab1

[noelm]

Just talking about plastic buckets.....not that long ago I needed to reach something in the garage, closest thing, an empty plastic paint drum, I tipped it upside down, put one foot on and stepped up, my foot went through the bottom, but......it kind of broke in a sort if star pattern, half way up my shin, with the "star" points all pointed down, anytime I tried to get it off my leg, the star points would poke deeper into my flesh! I had to kind of hop over to the bench and found a Stanley knife to cut each piece of plastic off, Jesus that hurt, something so simple, and of course, there was a little step ladder hanging on the wall 10' away!

[Welster]

13 hours ago, noelm said:

I just remembered another funny (well funny now) event. Many years ago I used to put up TV antennas, we had to drill into old texture bricks, anyone who knows bricks will attest to them being hard as hell. I was standing on the top of a step ladder (dangerous at any time) and using this old, heavy drill, I was pushing as hard as I could while standing on top of the ladder, the big old drill above my head, when it jammed, it twisted my arm around, knocking me off balance, tipping the ladder over, so here I was, dangling by a drill bit, in a hole in a brick, about 6' off the ground. I had two options, let go and take my chances, or yell for help and hope my offsider (who was under the house) heard me and could put the ladder back. 5 minutes of yelling didn't help, so, I took the other option, let go, I fell in a heap on the ground, and the damn drill fell out and hit me right on the head, I saw stars for 10 minutes and finally got up, just as my mate turned up! "What are you doing" he said, I thought the bracket would be up by now........

edit......just to add how being lazy/slack causes industrial/work accidents, we had a big extension ladder with us, but couldn't be bothered to use it, so used the step ladder instead, if I was on the big ladder, the drill would have been at a safe height to drill the holes, instead in over my head.

The modern apprentices wielding rotary impact drills just don’t appreciate what its like to drill into hard bricks ir concrete with a traditional hammer drill.  Things are so much easier with modern tools. 
 

A 9 inch grinder s definitely up there with the most dangerous tools.   Christmas light installation of dodgy ladders has ruined far more than just Christmas for many. 

[noelm]

I have Christmas lights stories that would take a year to tell them all.....Bah Humbug!

[fragmeister]

22 hours ago, pegz said:

welding flash, just like having sand in the eyes

Oh yeah! I remember that!

Not a lot of fun.

 

[slothparade]

In wood tech we watched our teachers finger get eaten by a ban saw, was a bit of an eye open. Ive also had drills go through my hand and come out the other side, wire brushes go into me. The one to top it all was my boss got a bar of metal go in one side of him and come out the other, part of the drilling rig. And yes he's ok, narrowly escaped.