# My story



## dan_house (Feb 18, 2009)

as a noob on this forum, Ive been perusing all the sub-forums, and learning a lot....... then I ran across the post from the guy (Darryl... http://www.routerforums.com/shop-safety/11257-router-accident-trying-understand-what-happened.html ) that had the router jump and grab a finger tip or two......

1994, I was working at Gibson Guitar here in Bozeman. I worked in the resaw department. We took gi-normous peices of wood and cut them into much smaller pieces. My department also made some of the smaller peices directly, since they only neede minimla machining.

It was my jump to make truss inserts for guitar necks. this piece goes under the fret board to prevent the truss rod from rattling while you play the guitar.

Had a few minutes to kill before lunch and thought I'd whip out a few hundred int eh ten minutes or so before lunch (really easy to make, made 6-8 every pass of the saw). Every few passes though, the cut line would get ruff and I'd pass the bundle over the joiner to clean up and square off the edge I'd be working from. (this joiner was 18 inches wide and 15 long. Big wood tools)

So I had to join again, put a little down pressure on it and ran the bundle over the joiner. About half way thru the joiner pass, the blades grabbed the bundle and violently pushed it aside. When it did that, the wood pushed the blade guard open and shot the wood bundle _away_ from the fence.

Since I was pushing down on the wood, when it was ripped out my hand, my pinky, ring and middle finger brushed over the rotating joiner blades. (I distinctly remember feeling 3 tugs as they made 1 complete revolution...).

cut the inside edge of my pinky (1 stitch), took 1/4 inch off the tip of my ring finger, and cut the edge of my middel finger (3 stitches). Becasuwe it nicked the bone pretty good,they couldnt save the finger tip. 8 weeks later I was back at work,,, in another department.

The doctor told me I'd have some post traumatic issues, but I ddint believe him.

Flash forward to april 1999. Id gotten a job as a network administrator in the Facilities service department at Montana State University. The computer department was next door to the carpenter's shop. A few days after I started, I happened to be walking past the shop when someone fired up the big joiner.

I very much understood, at that point what the doc meant about the post traumatic issues. Alll that emotion, fear and to sme degree pain all came flooding back. I had to go sit down(away from the noise of the joiner) for alloooonnnggg time. It has not had the same affect on me since thne, and has gotten better until now its almost gone.

flash forward again to just last week, and me joining this forum. I ran across the pics of the finger tips of the user after his accident. Looked just like my wounds from the joiner, and here comes all that emotion and fear again. Cold swaet? you betcha.

Bottom line? you'll heal, you go back to work, you'll work in wood. But some where, down deep, that moment is still there. Ive come to realize that part will never go away....


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## Bob N (Oct 12, 2004)

Interesting story Dan and thanks for sharing your experience.


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## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

We have some people at work recently sharing their stories about industrial accidents they have had in order to make everyone more safety aware. They talk about the PTSD and the "flash backs" as being almost worse then the accident itself and it's long lingering effects. 
Thanks for reminding everyone that not all wounds associated with an accident heal or are visible.


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## Ralph Barker (Dec 15, 2008)

Yes, thanks for the reminder, Dan.

PTSD (post traumatic Saw disorder) and PTJD (post traumatic Joiner disorder) can be used to trigger the thought of, "How can I do this more safely?" 

Push sticks and pressure blocks can make up for the design deficiency of us not being able to grow new body parts.


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## dan_house (Feb 18, 2009)

Ralph Barker said:


> trigger the thought of, "How can I do this more safely?"


Yep. everything from dust collection, to anticipating kick back and the simpler stuff, like keeping small kids and my big dog out of the shop for some operations....


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## TWheels (May 26, 2006)

Thanks very much for sharing your story. You bring up a very real but far too often overlooked issue that can be as debilitating as the original accident. I wish you the very best.


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