Accident with sander

General Discussion
1

Today I was making a template with masonite and was sanding the edge of the outline to smooth it out.

I was using a belt sander 50 grit with the trigger locked on. My right hand holding the sander, left was on the masonite. Suddenly my finger of my left hand was pulled into the belt sander and ground flat to the bone !! the belt stopped turning as my finger slowed it down… When I looked my finger tip from the upper knuckle to tip was flattened to the bone. I went into shock pretty quick qnd my wife took me to the emergency room. I was registered as “finger tip amputation” There is no skin to cover the bone. So I have to wait and see. My new template was looking so good too… I guess I am posting this just to share my pain. DR

2

Sorry to hear that, hope you heal up OK.

I don’t use power tools on templates, other than the original cut…

3

Here’s a picture

4

Ouch! If it were me I’d be up to SEVERAL beers by now!

5

I’m on something like Morphine right now and Vicodin for tonight so no alcohol. I was eyeing the scotch.

6

TOUGHASS.

Man sorry to hear about your accident.

7

Dronai,

Sorry to here about the accident. It’s an unfortunate,but, good reminder to everyone to be careful with those power tools. Hope your not out of the water too long. Ouch. Mike

8

Hey D,

Having lost the tip of one I my fingers while setting a bath tube many years ago. I know that your pain is very serious. Keep it above you head and it will lessen the trauma. The body does has amazing recuprative power. I’m sure you’ll be using you hand sooner than you think. It’ll take a while for it to tuffen back up though.

What I learned from my accident was that knowing that you’re in control of what’s going on is real important. I had a friends that had the same type of accident as you had not too long ago and he came back pretty fast. I hope it’s the same for you.

In retrospect I wonder if your choice of tools was a good one. Frankly I’ve always felt that a belt sander is a two handed tool, and kind of a specialty tool. They’ve always looked pretty dangerous to me so I don’t own one. They seem like more of a flooring tool than an anything else.

Can anyone suggest where this tool fits into surfcraft building?

Mahalo, Rich

9

Ouch! sorry to hear that… I feel your pain…I accidently cut the tip and the side off of my right index finger with a circular saw… was painful after the pain meds wore off …stay tuff and heal fast!

10

YIKES!!! flashbacks of BK’s horrible planer accident… …Get better bro’!

11

I second the YIKES!!! Believe it or not, in the late fifties the belt sander was the sander of choice. I was given personal instructions in it’s use by Ronald Patterson at the Burland Surfboard Shop in La Jolla in 1958. I sure hope you heal up quickly. I had a similar accident on a 12" disc sander making glass tailblocks at Hansens’. Caught my thumb and ground it halfway to the bone. It came back fine, complete with thumb print. Good luck.

12

Thanks guys who can relate. The surf has been flat for awhile and would’nt you know it I heard today was up to 7 feet (news) Damm I want you guys to know I work with power tools daily in the trades. That sander was the least threatning to use. Yesterday I changed out a 800A 480V Circuit breaker, that was YIKES too. DR

13

ouch man. good luck in recovery. everytime i look at the blade on my planer i get a nervous feeling that one day it could bite me. get well soon.

14

Ouch.This is a good example of what a power tool can do.I am sure you will be OK in the end.For a touch of humor I was nervously trying to get a shaping gig with an old master shaper named Mike Diffenderfer many years ago.He was watching my “technique” with a SKIL planer.I made a pass or two and lowered the planer to my side as the blade was still running.Well that sucker grabbed my baggies and they got all wound up in the cutterhead.I had to sit there buck naked to untangle the mess.Diff shook his head and called in the rest of the factory crew to watch my dilema.It was a bad day.Get well Dronai. RB

15

youch yikes and yuk

now I’ve read what your p.m. was referring to.

I hate pain . I hate being out of the water. I hated my two months dry with the groin …er…mishap…

Best wishes for a complete and speedy recovery mate !

    ben

p.s. I [semi ] hate power tools for the same reason…but I really like making boards and fins. So, a compromise …

16

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

…did you get the jog…hahahahaha

17

Hey Dronai, yea it was up to 7 feet, but at about 4 second intervals, muddy from the rain and shifty as all getout. You didn’t miss much, and it’s supposed to get small again…

800 amps, geez what do your other power tools look like, ha ha!

18

I got the job anyway.Night time…skinning and cutting out blanks along with shooting resin pinlines.Slept in a VW van. RB

19

While up on a bench sanding w/ the belt sander at knee level, it grabbed my pants at the knee, pulling all of the slack skin of my knee cap into the belt sander. Those wheels DON’T go in reverse. It freaked me out, but I was able to eventually pull myself out of the sander.

The Vicodin and Scotch sound like a good remedy for a few days.

20

Cleanlines, Wow !!! that could have been real ugly. The planer is very threatning, so I really pay attention and use two hands when operating. What the hell happened to BK ? The belt sander worked perfect for smoothing out the sides of the masonite. Being long it takes out all high spots first, and really blends a smooth radius. Now what do the rest of you use ? I used a jigsaw first rough cut.DR