Word to the wise (& a sander-mill update)

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Firefyter-emt

Firefyter-emt

Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2006
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2,903
Location
Putnam, Connecticut, USA.
First a word to the wise... Chainsaws are still dang sharp and dangerous when not running. If, by chance, you get a "pinch" and you need to use a hand saw to free a chain saw, you can still really hurt your self with the chain saw.

Photos later, but I just got back from the ER with 13 stiches in my right hand. I accidently hit the top of my thumb along one of the teeth of my chain saw while hand sawing the bar chainsaw free from a branch. The tooth opened me up from behind my knuckle up to the top of my hand and right down thru all the layers of skin.

Well, by the time I walked back to the house maybe a couple hundred feet my hand was fully covered in blood, but some temp butterfly stiches and in the Jeep I go to the ER to get stiched up. (We are lucky, it's maybe 5 miles away)

Now for the bad news.. I can still turn the sander mills, but I will not be able to finish sand and polish them for maybe a week until my hand has healed enough. I am very sorry guys! I do plan to turn the mills still as the lathe does most of the work.

Kinda hard to run a buffer like this: :(
322081.jpg


OK.. those sick freaks who really want to see, I just took a shower and rebandaged my hand. (Yea, I know.. it's 4pm, but I was outside running a saw for pete's sake!)

www.yankeetoys.org/lee/322082.jpg
 
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BwaHaahaaa.. Good one Scott! It should heal fast, it was a nice clean laceration and it's stiched up tight. I forgot to mention how lucky I was too. The way this tooth was shaped and where the cut was I ran beside and under a large vein in my hand. The tooth is L shaped and the flat part of the tooth rode under the vein as the cut ran right along the vein but did not nick it. Very lucky indeed!
 
Lee, you don't suppose the Jeep had a little talk with the chainsaw do ya?[}:)];)

Take a break Lee and let that hand heal up! You better go have a little talk with the Jeep(tell her your sorry) just to be on the safe side.
 
Ruth, I should of mentioned that this was not in felling a tree, but the worst thing you can try to do. (IMHO) My neighbor lost a large branch off a big maple. The branch was maybe 14" or so. I was trying to relieve branches so I could get the limb off the tree. This branch had much more preasure on it than I thought and as soon as I "nipped" the top so I could under cut the branch, it locked right on my chain.

I have no problem with taking down a tree, as they can be "made" to go mostly where you tell it to. But trying to cut off a 14" branch that is already on the ground, but still attached to the tree is what can get you. This branch broke and spit in half at the trunk and ran up about ten feet before it stopped. The spilt is diamond shaped and has a gap about three feet wide in the middle! There is a alot of energy stored in that branch so I was taking off all the limbs to make it safe to remove from the tree itself.
 
Like in golf, study the lay of the land. If the branch you are trying to cut is hitting the ground out on the end, start the cut from below. If it is hanging in the air, start from above.

I'm really sorry that you got hurt Lee. I'm really happy that the tooth fairy was guiding the chainsaw tooth to not cut your vein!!

Get well soon!

GK
 
Isn't it nice how we take care of each other! Lee take it easy don't need you getting any infections.
Originally posted by DCBluesman

Lee - Heal well, my friend. And if you can no longer use your fountain pens, I will gladly give them a good home. [}:)]
Click to expand...
 
Sorry guys... the pens are in service and I hadmy maroon Sheaffer with me in the ER and I used it to sign the paperwork. The Lexington Gray ink got a funny look from the nurse though! To be honest, a FP will make it much eaiser to write as the pen can just glide over the paper and not have to be mashed and ground in like a ballpoint.

PS, Greg, I do agree about the cut, what I like to do is to lightly notch from above so that when the undercut is done it does not crack and split down the branch. I try to avoid the split and then having the branch fly down and take the saw along with it.
 
I did something similar a few years ago but instead, the tooth of the chain hit my wrist. It sliced through like butter and exposed the main vein (artery?) that folks cut when they try to slit their wrist or check their pulse. When in the ER I could see the vein throbbing with my heartbeat. The ER doc said that 1 mm to the left and I would most likely have bled to death. Now I have a scar that looks like I tried to commit suicide! Fortunately it is on my left hand so my watch covers it up mostly!
 
Lee, sorry about the boo boo been out with a chainsaw all day, my little 20 in Sthil wouldn't do the job, I had to borrow a husky with a 36 in bar, SCARED the bejuses out of me, Hurry up and heal.
 
Hope you get well soon.

I also got cut by my chainsaw while hand sharpening it.

My 2 big mistakes.
1. I got lazy and didn't put my kevlar gloves on.
2. I tried to move the sharpened part back instead of forward and my hand slipped gouging my fingers.[:0]

Man, never had I bled as much. Like the man I am...I never let my wife know until I got the bleeding controlled. :D
 
As the black knight on Monty Python says; "it's mearly a flesh wood". Thank your lucky starts it wasn't worse and be careful out there.
 
Man, That sounds like it might hurt. But look on the bright side you got my stuff done before you hurt yourself! It should leave a nifty scar to tell tall tales about to your grandchildren.
 
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