No penmaking for a while! (WARNING, GRAPHIC PICS)

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BigguyZ

BigguyZ

Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2007
Messages
764
Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Well, I've gone and done something really stupid. My finger got in a fight with my router table, and the router table won!

I was working on a speaker set I've been planning out for over a year, and I needed to adjust the bit height a bit. I didm't bother to turn the router off, and when the crank that adjusts the height slipped, the hand landed right on the turning pattern bit!

Well, long story short, I cut into my index finger pretty bad. 25 stiches on that finger alone. I severed a small artery and the nerve along with it. I still have some sensory sensation, as there's two nerves in the finger, and the flexor tendons are intact, but half of the finger is numb and it'll be a while for the skin to heal (getting the stiches out on the 8th). I can kinda type, but I'm using the mouse left handed. Since I work an office job that relies a LOT on using the computer (mouse and keyboard), it's hampered me quite a bit.

So ladies and gentlemen, learn this: Do NOT get too comfortable with your tools! ALWAYS pratice patience. 30 seconds of letting the router spin down before I adjusted the height would have saved me a lot of time, pain, and money! I'm so ticked at myself for being so stupid, and you don't want to feel the same. I'm so lucky- just thinking that an inch more into my finger and it's be gone with no effort!

Please, PLEASE use this as a lesson!

Thanks,
Travis
 

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Holy C#$P! Maybe you should post those pics with a link in case someone really wants to see. Glad to see you still have a digit and you are alright.
My wife turned off a table saw and turned around nipped her middle finger to the bone so I know how lucky you are.
 
WOW.
Thanks for sharing.
I have done something like that but with a Mandolin where I work as a Chef. I have also cut myself pretty severely with my knives so know what you mean about not having feeling in the finger.
Glad to see that your doing better.
 
Glad it wasn't worse. Guy I used to work with lost a couple fingers to the fist knuckle in a router fight. Glad you had the guts to post it ain't pretty but it is so easy to get complacent with our tools a reminder is always good.
 
Rick_G said:
Glad it wasn't worse. Guy I used to work with lost a couple fingers to the fist knuckle in a router fight. Glad you had the guts to post it ain't pretty but it is so easy to get complacent with our tools a reminder is always good.
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Posting the pics is easy. Admitting how STUPID I was do do what I did is the hard part. But I think that's kind of the code for WW'ers- you post your mistakes in hopes others don't follow.
 
Your damn lucky it wasnt more fingers than one and you will still have that one. Hard way to earn a T shirt Travis. Good luck with the healing. Mike
 
Thanks for the reminder... The bright side is that it looks like you bagged the nerve on the middle finger side of the index finger. That's good because you would miss the sensation more if you'd lost it on the thumb side of the digit. Hope you heal uneventfully, and get ready for some stiffness that you're gonna have to work out.
 
Ouch. I have the matching left index finger - same location, almost as many stitches, but mine lost a fight with a power carving saw chain last year. I still have a little numbness and a strange sensation when I touch the area.
 
What is scary isnt just that we sometimes injure ourselves like this, its how often we come so close.I too have the battle scars on my left hand, knife, table saw, almost popped the end of the thumb off with a chain.
 
finger injury

More years ago than I care to remember, I was in high school at the time, I sliced part of my index finger off on the meat slicer in the deli.

We brought the piece to the doc who sawed if back on with 36 stitches.

While the piece stayed sewn on it took seven years before the blood vessels grew back and it had normal skin color.

I had a metal brace that surrounded the finger for about six weeks. Even today I sometimes hold that finger straight. Especially when drinking coffee.

So the good news is that it will most likely heal.

Lee
 
This does, once again, raise the question of why, if my cheap circular saw can throw on the brakes when you let go of the trigger, more dangerous tools don't do the same.

Of course, it could be a bad idea on a lathe (momentum spinning the chuck jaws the wrong way when the spindle stops too quickly) but I'd guess that more than half the kickbacks I've seen on my table saw happened after the switch was off, while the blade was spinning down.
 
Travis, I feel your pain and hope that you heal quickly. I did almost the same thing about two years ago--I raised the guard so I could see better. I live out in the sticks and no one was around at the time and the biggest mistake I made afterward was trying to stop the bleeding so I wrapped them as tight as I could with guaze--got the bleeding stopped but after driving 90 miles to the ER in San Antonio getting the guaze off with all the dried blood was almost as painful. If I hit some of the areas just right it still hurts.

Good luck

John
 
GULP !! You got it bud. I will not take chances. Accidents happen to easily and too quickly. Chit, I bet that's sore.
 
Travis, Glad that you didn't lose it. Always good to have a reminder to stay safe. My daughter cut her finger really badly, but once it healed she had the nerve reattached and now has feeling except for a little tiny area about the size of two sesame seeds that is still numb. MD who reattached it is a hand specialist. Good luck with the healing, do what they tell you, it always goes better if you do.
 
Just looking at those pictures hurts. Hope you have a speedy recovery. This just goes to show (as all of our inhuries do) that the unexpected will happen when you least expect it. I believe that if we think about what COULD go wrong before we use our tools, we could save ourselves a lot of injuries.
 
I feel for you man. Seven weeks ago I stuck my finger into my table saw. Still dont have all the skin grown back.
 
That really hurts to look at. But it helps in the lesson plan of what not to do. Sorry you had to earn the shirt the hard way but that is the only way to get one.
 
Been there, done that! Almost the exact same thing so I feel your pain. Actually for me it was mostly the initial shock. After I got over the stupidity of what I'd done it wasn't so bad. Boy, those routers will eat you alive.
 
Ouch, And don't feel stupid. Accidents happen regardless of what all we do to avoid them. And it is always good to be reminded of what just a moment can do around equipment. now had you stuck your finger into that bit just to see what would happen. then maybe I would think you where stupid. As it is I count you as lucky that you still have a finger. Hope you heal quick.
 
Travis, many of us have moments of stupidity we wish we could re do, at least you didn't cut the tensors, I lost the end of my left index and the use of my left middle finger on a table saw. I've worked in Machine Shops and seen people loose fingers and hands to presses, or arms nearly severed from lathe stringer, I always thought it will never happen to me, but what an ass. Any time we don't take the time to shut down a machine to make an adjustment, or in my case to lower the blade, you can be thankfull if in the next 5 minutes all of your digits are still intact, I hope you become wiser from your mishap and that you get all of the feeling back, GOOD LUCK and heal quickly.
 
Jgrden said:
Did you get any sleep last night? Aching, throbbing, feeling. Bedding grabbing at your stitches.
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Actually, I sleep with the finger wrapped and in a brace that keeps my index finger imobilized. Per the plastic surgeon, skin heals faster when it's kept moist. So I picked up a couple of tubes of triple antio-biotic cream and plenty of gauze and tape. I replace my dressing twice a day, so it's always clean.

As far as pain goes, there'll be times when I flex, or even move my hand quickly that I get a shock on pain in my finger and up my hand. I think that's blood rushing to the nerve or something. But otherwise, it's just numb. Oddly enough, the numbness is really irritating. I feel like my finger's alseep, but I know I can't flex it or anything. It's that feeling like the bandage is wrapped too tight- but it's not....
 
Daniel said:
Accidents happen regardless of what all we do to avoid them. And it is always good to be reminded of what just a moment can do around equipment.
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I have worked in various shops all my life and have used many power tools, IF ALL safety precautions are observed then there will not be accidents as this. I am lucky that I have not had any serious injuries until I realized the need for safety procedures. ALL SAFETY PROCEDURES MUST BE FOLLOWED.
 
Sorry it had to happen to you, but we all should learn from this. Don't adjust tools while still running, and don't get too comfortable. Don't be afraid just have a healthy respect for our tools.
 
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