For me it’s driving while under the influence. If you couldn’t tell, I like me some ganja. However I have long since held the belief that it is utterly insane to drive while under the influence of most substances, with maybe nicotine and caffeine being the exception. All too often I see other stoners smoking and driving, which I simply can’t fathom. I’ve only operated a vehicle once under the influence and it was just to move a U-Haul around the block to a different parking spot, which was such a scary experience while high that I refuse to even consider getting behind the wheel again while high.
Unplanned amputations.
I’m a woodworker.
Table saws are serious shit.
Have a coworker who taught me all he knows bout woodworking.
Have heard way too many times “X is for pussies”. Saw guards, riving knives, splitters. “Real men use Radial Arm Saws.”
Is that why you lost function in 3 of your fingers? To prove you are a real man? Well slap my ass, and call me Sally because I like having all my fingers.
Carpenter here. I used to get called a pussy by the old dudes all the time. Maybe Jethro, but I’ve been doing this as long as you have and I have all my fingers still and you can only count to 8 if you take off a shoe.
lol I love this. I wonder if they lost 7 fingers, or some combination of fingers and toes.
I think it means they lost 3 or more fingers
But if they took off a shoe with 3 missing fingers they could count to 12! 😛
And is stupid enough to need fingers to get to ten.
That’s actually a perfect retort “You’re such a pussy using the guard Zagami!” “Really Jethro? Do me a favor, take your shoe off and count to ten.”
A razor sharp 10 inch circular saw blade being spun at 5,500 RPM by an 18 amp motor doesn’t care how manly you are.
I worked in a woodshop for a bit too. The story I told new kids is that the band saw a was originally used in butchershops to cut beef sides till a woodworker thought it would make a nifty hobby tool. And that saw wants nothing more than to explore it’s roots and get back to its raison d’être of slicing meat into more manageable sized chunks. And you better believe that table saw over there isn’t going to be shown up by some hobby tool.
The band saw is deceptively safe. It’s a fairly quiet and gentle sounding tool, it doesn’t push back on you like a circular saw does, it won’t kick back, it’s too easy to stop being scared of it.
It does.
Because if it’s low enough it can change it very easily (and potentially for the rest of your life)
Fingers are INTEGRAL. Sapphic safety 101
Woodworking hobbyist with an emergency medicine background who worked in a replantation centre for a while: I can absolutely confirm this.
And table saws are amongst the most harmless devices in an average workshop.
I saw some gnarly shit over the years and tbh, I had some near miss cases as well on my own. (like when a milling head died on my DIY CNC and flew through the workshop - close enough to my jugular vein to graze my skin. 5mm to the right and I would have been in a very very bad spot)
You have my attention with that line. I’m used to thinking of the table saw as the most likely amputator of my shop. What in your experience is the bigger maiming hazard?
In absolute numbers the table saw will win because everyone has one. But they can be used in a safe way - with a sliding carriage, a push stick and a cover or even a saw stop(even though that is a ridiculous shitshow on my side of the pond)you have a near 0% chance of hurting yourself. That is different for a lot of other machines. They can hurt you even if you do things right but are unlucky.
Band saws are far more likely to hurt someone and old planes are inherently unsafe as their spindles often are designed in a way that they often easily send their blades towards their operators. Especially when they are older models. And of course mortisers - I saw some really really gnarly shit over the years, e.g. someone who lost control of their mortiser when hitting an knothole and then the machine went towards his groin - still running as he panicked and did squeeze the handle even stronger by reflex. In the end the half groin area was bloody pulp he injured a major vessel that nearly killed him. A friend of mine collapsed (due to a medical issue) on a table mortiser and missed the blade by less than 2cm. With a table saw he would have simply collapsed on the cover, here it was pure luck.
Wow that’s nearly opposite of what I’ve always heard. Like I’ve never really heard of mortising machines being particularly dangerous. We’re talking the specialized cousin of the drill press, right? Like I don’t know how to “lose control” of a Mortising machine.
I’ve actually seen more injuries at the drill press; bits like to grab sheet metal and spin it right at belly level, give you the first half of a tummy tuck.
I feel much safer using a band saw because it won’t kick back on me or generate adverse forces, I guess they’re fairly quiet and affable that you forget it’s a saw until you start dropping phalanges. Table saws can get ornery.
Or does “your side of the pond” mean you’re European and you’re referring to different tools than I am? Like in America a “plane” is a hand tool., and my thickness planer would struggle to throw its very well encased knives at anyone.