# New way to get hurt!



## OPG3 (Jan 9, 2011)

Hey guys, since we're talking safety here; I'll share a couple of *really innovative* ways to get hurt - maybe it will help you stay safer... Comedians try to make people laugh, I know several ways to get a laugh without telling jokes. Both of these have happened to me. 
*INNOVATION NUMBER ONE:* Almost forty years ago, I was doing some weekend woodwork in my father-in-law's furniture shop. His business was very successful and he had a policy that friends and family could use his wood and nicely stocked shop to build whatever we wanted to create. I was there almost every weekend, because; at the time I did not have a shop of my own. He had quite a few industrial wood-working machines in a two-acre building. I was building some birdhouses using a method I had sketched-up. Long story short, I fed a piece of red oak into his pneumatic tired oscillating spindle sander. If anyone isn't familiar with these, the sandpaper is around an inner-tube "tire". A button controlled the amount of air pressure in the tube. I fed the wood too fast, and a huge splinter of the oak's edge buried through the sandpaper and into the air-filled tube. guess what happened next? Before I could even blink an eye, that stinking board nearly beat me to death. About a year later, I had all of the splinters removed.:fie:
*INNOVATION NUMBER TWO:* A few years ago, I was using square-drive screws to build a new deck where an old deck had been. Large (and very painful) Holly bushes had grown around the deck and my wife insisted on keeping them there. I figured no problem - we'll just be really careful not to have an "impact" with the bush.
So far - so good. On one corner, my typical (100% of the time) right-handed grip on my drill/driver worked well as it always has. On the other corner, I had to use my left hand to hold the drill/driver, which meant my right hand was playing the role of "clamp". The drill/driver's rotation outran my left hand forward progression and in a 
half-nanosecond, my #2 square drive bit plowed through my thumbnail and thumb and then made a small indention in the 4x4 beyond. Trust me: those drivers will eat your fingers. Funny thing was that my son-in-law was quite grossed-out and my wife came running out to analyze the commotion and said, "You didn't get blood on the deck - did you?" Every time my heart beat - blood squirted in two directions from my thumb. It was quite funny and my right thumb was "as good as new" in about 3 or 4 months. *:fie:*


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## BigJimAK (Mar 13, 2009)

Yeesh.. Safety must be job #1. Thanks for the warnings!!


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## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

You tell a great story!  Even as painful as they sound I had to smile. I am glad you are fully recovered.


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