Thread: For those who lost their finger tips on table saws, then check this out

Too hard to implement correct OHS strategy I'm guessing,
but you don't want to be cutting green timber with it.

Originally Posted by goingbush

Too hard to implement correct OHS strategy I'm guessing,
but you don't want to be cutting green timber with it.

OH&S hierarchy of controls #2


Substitute the hazard with a safer alternative

Seems to fit that OK


Martyn

I'm not sure that I would like to be running a workshop where employees believe that there is no need to use common sense and no need to be careful.

Every time that device activates, a fairly expensive repair of the machine is needed. It could get very expensive if too many employees depend on the safety device rather than good practice.

I was a cabinet maker for 27 years in a previous life. In that time I saw four of my work mates cut tips off fingers and met other's who had whole or multible fingers missing from panel saws.
I still have all my fingers because I never disrespected the machines we used and I refused to work faster than I was comfortable with.
Whenever I met someone in the trade with less than 10 fingers, I always asked, "how did you manage to do that"? The answer was nearly always, "I was rushing to get a job done", or "I just wasn't concentrating".
Great invention, but common sense will always rule.

Cheers, Murray

Very good invention. I came close recently, just a stupid distraction (dog ran past the open garage door) was enough to make me catch the end of my thumb with the saw blade. Only quarter of an inch or so deep, so could have been far worse.

But the point is very much that you need 100% of your concentration focused on that machine. You cannot afford even a second's inattention.

Originally Posted by rijidij

I was a cabinet maker for 27 years in a previous life. In that time I saw four of my work mates cut tips off fingers and met other's who had whole or multible fingers missing from panel saws.
I still have all my fingers because I never disrespected the machines we used and I refused to work faster than I was comfortable with.
Whenever I met someone in the trade with less than 10 fingers, I always asked, "how did you manage to do that"? The answer was nearly always, "I was rushing to get a job done", or "I just wasn't concentrating".
Great invention, but common sense will always rule.

Cheers, Murray

I should put your quote onto my workshop walls.

With all due respect to a serious topic, I saw the title heading and thought it was going to be a post about Tommy Iommi, the guitarist from Black Sabbath who lost the tips of some fingers in an industrial accident I watched a documentary on Channel 22 just recently. I also learnt that Django Reinhardt another great musician also re-learned the guitar after a paalysing two fingers in a fire.