Published This Month In The Journal Of The Blatantly Obvious

...as opposed to drill press injuries which, if memory serves, occur mainly from the drill catching the workpiece and swinging it like a weapon.

Modern table saws are so well protected you'd have to really try to get your hands on the blade.

Now, about that other 3%..........

The post reminds me of someone I used to know, who earned the nickname "Zing!" the hard way.
And he could never order 3 fingers of whiskey again.

It's blatantly obvious table saws are fine but we need to ban the saw blades.

and the other 3% by dropping said saw on the foot.

have a brother in law that put his thumb and two thru a jointer, I figure about 20 successive cuts at 5000 rpm.

Well go figure . . . and I always thought the majority of injuries were paper cuts when guys take the time to read the manual.

Because men always read the instructions.

How will I ever know what percentage of injuries are from the saw flinging wood into the operator's face at high speed if the whole study isn't quoted? I simply must know what percent of fear I should devote to each potential grisly outcome while operating power tools.

Yes, but what if the results weren't blatantly obvious? What if there was a racial component which wasn't identified earlier, or a socio-economic factor, or some sort of cultural proclivity towards putting your finger near saw blades? Perhaps there's an impact from climate change, or a psycho-sexual deviancy due to FAS or child abuse at an early age. You just never know what a study of the blatantly obvious will conclude. Except a bigger bank account is a certainty.

" ... 97% percent of the victims are male"

All this says is that 3 percent percent were not male.

Damn, with a research grant and a peer reviewed article in the Journal Of The Blatantly Obvious, I could finally afford to retire with more than fried Spam and KD to live on. Make that generic Kraft Dinner because the brand name stuff is actually expensive.

My father did that some 6 or 7 decades ago, only to have his friend yell after him, finger in hand, running down the street to the doctor:

"Henry, Henry you forgot your finger!!"

No more 'pinky swears'...after that disconcerting piece of butchery.

The more important philosophical consideration however is when you put lipstick on a pig, will it still fly?

Apparently yes...

http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/video/obama_smears_mccain_palin_as_lipstick_on_a_pig/

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ECRuVEAqw6U/SMu6Jr3F6PI/AAAAAAAAADQ/DROGAE2wBMg/s320/pig_lipstcik.bmp

DON’T MISS IT!

The Flying Pig Uptown bar is celebrating St Patrick's day!

Luck of the Irish 'an all, may you find your pot of gold! It beats losing your finger.

“It is easy to be pleasant when life flows by like a song, but the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble, and it always comes with years, and the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through the tears.”

Here's to a long life and a merry one
A quick death and an easy one
A pretty girl and an honest one
A cold beer and another one!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Cheers

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North"

Well, thank God somebody told me!
Really- who does these studies?
A study which shows it's not easy being "green":

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/7458105/Liars-cheats-thieves-the-terrible-truth-about-the-mean-greens.html

It's Saint Patrick's Day AND Gary Sinise's birthday. Good things often come in pairs.

Annd next week, they are releasing the study about the number of women with prostate cancer, you know the number is quite low.

Beer and carpentry don't mix, especially if your table saw is fitted for a dado cut.

Scared of table saws? Try my radial arm saw...
Surgeon, whilst sewing my hand back up, "We have a saying around here, 'tablesaws take fingers; radials take hands'."

http://www.sawstop.com/howitworks/how_overview.php

I am always amazed when I visit a local carpentry shop to notice the likelihood of the absence of digits goes up in direct proportion with the years in service at said shop. As one such worker told me, "I used to be able to count to twenty one if I dropped my pants, but now I can only get to 19."

Joe; either way you look at it, his wife's not happy.

What I really want to know is how this study got grant money, since it wasn't placed "in the context of global warming."

If you're concerned of the increasing need to protect us from all hazards, this may be worth reading.... In this link where "Sawstop" is mentioned, it really is a cool feature to have, the trouble is that a replacement "stop" is required each time it's used, as it is a piece of machined aluminum that is made to move into the steel blade stopping it before it cuts your appendage off. but... it's about $100 CA. again, each time it's used.

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/11535/man-wins-big-money-in-table-saw-law-suit

here is the unit refered to, it's cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esnQwVZOrUU

ok, here is a better video of a man's finger being placed into a tablesaw. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3mzhvMgrLE&NR=1

The complete Sawstop tablesaw that I saw [ :) ] at a tools store here in cowtown was priced about $1100 last spring. so it's not priced out of range of a "quality" built saw.

Still, the question remains, who funds The Journal of the Blatantly Obvious, er, "us".

Been working with saws for most of my life and still have all my digits.

I have had the saw bite at me, not successfully, when I have lost respect or fear of the thing. When most of the accidents have happened, I have had my attention diverted while in operation. Complacency is the number one reason for injury!

By the way, the first thing I do when I buy a saw is take ALL of the safety guards OFF! When I have the guards on, I mentally let my guard down and take more risks. When I see the blade like a lion ready to pounce, I always show it the respect it is due because it shows absolutely no respect towards me or anyone else. When I keep my eye on the enemy and face it, there can be no surprise attacks.

The saw never makes a dumb mistake or is careless!

Yep, spent 30 years in the carpentry biz and the first thing we always did is remove the blade guard off of any table saw and throw it in the garbage. I still have all my digits!

The most dangerous machine is the spindle shaper. Probably more injuries per capita on that machine than any table saw.

"when I have lost respect or fear of the thing"

This is why there's never been injuries with my shops large power tools, but I have an innocent looking little 12" guillotine shear that's removed 6 finger tips (one guy, the same 3 fingers twice).

Oh ya, but how many of you guys had the experience of watching your high school shop teacher cut the tip of his finger off in a table saw in shop class?

And then with a straight face, he told us that this was not the way to do it.

Ah yes, the good ol skool dayz.

This study was not carried to its obvious conclusion. That all table saws must be registered, and registration be renewed annually.

I'm going to be flamed here, but this is just sloppy.

There's no link to the Discover Magazine story, so we can't read the source for ourselves (without going out to a newsstand).

As of 1:41pm Eastern time, March 16 2010, the story does not appear to be online: http://discovermagazine.com/search?SearchableText=table+saws&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0

The Technical Bard him/herself says "I don’t know who funded this science".

So jumping to the conclusion that this study was a waste of money -- and presumably a waste of government money -- is rather sloppy.

For all we know, the study of accident and injury reports was done by something other than government -- such as UL or CSA -- or by a group of tool manufacturers. If the study helps manufacturers fix a design issue that's contributing to accidents, I'm not sure what the problem is. I agree, though, that this sort of thing is not the job of government -- that's not something they should be doing: subsidizing through R&D tax credits to manufacturers, perhaps, but not actively funding with real cash out of the treasury.

There are lots of ways to hurt yourself on a table saw, other than coming into contact with the blade. For a lot of users, some of these things aren't obvious: kickback is the one that scares the hell out of me. And that can be caused by all sorts less-than-obvious-to-the-amateur-user of things -- the table not being flat, the wood binding with the fence, a foreign object in the wood, and -- of course -- operator error.

Now, flame away. Godwin yourself, if you feel you must.

Just one missing digit is too many...

Ban all table saws!

Yes. Agree 100% with grobe and glacierman about the damfool blade guards. They simply get in the way of doing the job. That makes you hurry, and when you hurry, mistakes get made.

I also remove the guards and interlocks from equipment like lawnmowers, snow throwers, and chainsaws, too, for the same reason.

It's simply futile to try to design idiot-proof machinery. Nature simply evolves a better grade of idiot.

Just did a quick inventory; still have all my extremities.

grok, all I know is that the studies of the blatantly obvious are gonna cost me somethin'.

Re: Oz, Beer and saws don't mix.

A money making idea... beer holder for your saw. With a "dead-man" switch in the bottom so you have to put your beer down to saw something. Brilliant! Now pass the Guinness please.

My male neighbour cut off all his fingers and thump via a table saw, the scary part is the surgeon sewed his fingers back on sideways.

"All this says is that 3 percent percent were not male."

Nope, it says to me that women are being lazy! I can do dishes and laundry, but if a picture needs to be hung, or gawd forbid there is a spider on the loose, dad has to do the heavy lifting. Equal rights my butt!

rockyt at March 17, 2010 1:39 PM

Yup! Not a saw, but my shop teacher ran the back of his hand through the planer...Good object lesson learned by students present.

..."but if a picture needs to be hung, or gawd forbid there is a spider on the loose, dad has to do the heavy lifting. Equal rights my butt!"

You call that heavy lifting? You probably get the movers in to clean behind your fridge:)

.
.
Another obvious case for the CHRC. Women are being discriminated against. Probably Momads, too.
.
.

Joe @ 12.35 pm; ""I used to be able to count to twenty one if I dropped my pants, but now I can only get to 19."

Recently one of the mechanics where I work had a mishap involving an exploding cut-off blade (about 30,000 rpm) and his penis. (guess which one had more damage....)
I, who has a major aversion to hospitals and their typical inhabitants and as such frequents them as little as possible, was elected to take Bill (now the boys call him shorty, stumpy, or my personal favorite, Wee Willy Winky) to the emergency. It was there that the ER's attending MD, whilst explaining that no injury that men using power tools surprises him anymore, did mention that Bill's was the worst penile injury that he had ever seen that "was not self-inflicted..."
Me: WTF??!! while crossing my legs as vigorously as possible...
Dr: Oh, yeah, we see all kinds of them here...you should be here on a Saturday night...

Really? No thanks.

Tongue and cheek Chut.

speaking as a single woman, who is building my new kitchen cabinets myself, and is rather fond of spiders, (and no, I'm not a Goth) I hang my own pictures, cut my own grass, and do my own home renovations (quite well, too, if I say so myself). BTW I have never injured my self on any of my power tools. But, as someone mentioned previously, we must never lose our respect for their power and destructive potential.

Olaudj

Touche:)

This was a "national" study. Want to bet that this useful, ground-breaking, information was collected and disseminated at our expense,,,in both official languages, no doubt.

What next? 100 percent of suicides are self-inflicted?

Hay I can hang a picture, sure I end up at the ER but I can hang a picture. I also own an impact driver, doesn't do a very good job of putting light bulbs up though.

LOL Jamie shut up you are going to give them their next idea for a study.

beth, I tried not to laugh but I can't help it.

Anybody remember the episode of Celebrity Chefs hosted by Bruno Gerussi, where the guest, Pierre Burton, used the palm of his hand to stop a Cusinart blade from spinning?
I don't think the studio audience member who got to sample the dish appreciated the extra red meat included by Mr. Burton.
Ah, those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end.

bethesdaguy @4:49 - "now the boys call him shorty, stumpy, or my personal favorite, Wee Willy Winky"

You're a sensitive bunch.

My injury was due to the push stick contacting the blade causing it to kick-back into my palm. Only a few stitches and newly gained knowledge about using an aluminum push stick.

Black Mamba @ 8:37 PM- "You're a sensitive bunch"

Yeah, maybe so, but Bill's a whole more sensitive about it though..

""" 97% percent of the victims are male """

and the other 3% are liberals:-))

Here's one right on topic: http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/25130/man-wins-big-money-in-tablesaw-lawsuit

You know it had it happen.

I have two woodworking shops (long story - got carried away buying tools), have been woodworking for over 40 years, have never lost a finger or two to a sawblade, and my only shop accidents have been with chisels I was too lazy to sharpen and thought they could take a couple more passes - wrong.

Discourage Bill from making any visits to Truckee, California in the immediate future.

Agree completely glaciarman. I still have all my digits although I did come close to losing a few with childhood explosive experiments.

One of the most annoying things I can think of is "safety" features on power tools. IMO, the safety features make the tools more dangerous as it doesn't change the underlying function of the tool which is to cut through large chunks of wood very quickly. I've got a lot of dangerous tools and make sure I've completely alert when using them as I've seen what can happen when people are careless with the tools. I agree that seeing that naked saw blade spinning away a few inches from ones fingers is a great incentive to be careful.

After seriously injuring a thumb as a teen in an embarrassingly stupid manner, I've been pretty freakin' careful around tools. In cabinet making school I used to count my fingers before and after working in the machine room. Still got ten. So far anyway, knock wood.

My table saw is top of the line kit. It does not have a splitter guard on it, because in my estimation the saw is more dangerous with it than without it. There are many cuts you can't make with a guard. There are many others that its more in the way than not. In fact, about the only cut the splitter guard is worth a damn on is a rip more than three inches wide. If I'm ripping a bunch, I let the damn guard continue to gather rust in the corner and use some finger boards.

I do have an Excalibur over-arm guard/dust collector. This is an excellent device for keeping dust down and keeping errant fingers out of things. It doesn't prevent kick back, but that's why I use finger boards and push sticks.

I use push sticks -religiously- since the saw chucked an 8' length of pine three inches wide and one inch thick out of the garage and across the driveway to bend the fender of my car. Measured the impact height, the pine dropped less than an inch in 30 feet of flight. Big dent, too.

Don't stand behind the saw, kids.

That said, where do I get one of these research grants? I wanna do one correlating high heels with back pain.