My Most Expensive Project Ever…..
In 1998, I was building the toy train pictured above for my (at the time) almost 3 year old. I was going to give it to her for Christmas. By the time December rolled around, all that was left to build, was the boxcar. I suppose before I continue I should provide some background. I work rotating shifts at a local factory. We work 12-hour shifts, either 2 or 3 days at a stretch. When I work nights, I usually get home between 7:45 & 8 a.m. I have found that if I maintain a routine, i.e. go to bed at the same time whether it is morning or night, rotating is much easier on me. So, I usually go to bed around 10:30 or 11:00 regardless of which shift I am on. On December 3 1998, I was in the shop working on the train. I had just finished glueing up the caboose (I think) and I decided to cut the pieces for the boxcar before quitting and going to bed. I removed the piece of MDF I used as a worktop from the benchsaw, set the rip fence, but didn't put in the blade guard. I made the cut and shut off the saw. To this day I'm not sure why but I reached over to pick up the base I had just cut with my left hand (I'm right-handed), and reached right through the blade which was coasting down. It made the most horrid sound... kind of like when someone runs a branch through a mulcher. I jerked my hand back and grabbed my thumb. As the blood gushed out, I grabbed some paper towels and wrapped it up. I called to my wife as I went into the house, and went to the sink. I really hoped it wasn't too bad, but the look on her face when she examined it told me all I needed to know. She took me to a convienient care clininc a few minutes from the house. The doctor took one look at the wound and said, "I'm sorry, I can't do anything for you here, you'll have to be seen by a plastic surgeon." He told me that he couldn't even give me stiches, that they wouldn't do any good. He sent me to an office a few blocks away, the doctor looked it over and told me that it would require a skin graft and that he could harvest the graft from the side of my hand. That would give me the greatest chance of recovering my grip (more on that later). During the operation they gave me a local anesthetic, but exhaustion set in and I fell asleep. When I woke up in the recovery room, my entire left hand was wrapped up in gauze. It was like a club attached to my arm. I went home and slept until the next morning. A week later I was back at the doctor's office for a checkup. The prognosis was not good. He removed the bandages, and found that the wound was infected, it looked horrible! Part of my hand was shriveled up like your fingers get when they soak in the water too long, and the rest of the wound was full of puss. He started me on a whirlpool dip immediately and told me that if the graft didn't take, amputation may be the only option. A whirlpool though, sounds nice right? Wrong! This kind of whirlpool is a vat of hot bleach water. Ever gotten lemon juice on an open cut? Same sensation. I had to spend 20 minutes every day for a week. Then it was reduced to twice a week for about a month. Now, three years later, I'm almost fully recovered. I missed three weeks of work, lost about a ¼" of my left thumb, and a significant reduction in grip. You wouldn't think that my grip would be affected, but it was. Not the strength, but my ability to pick up and hold small objects. I couldn't even begin to add up how much money it cost, I'd just mak myself sick if I tried. I made a number of STUPID mistakes that day, I will share them with you so that maybe you won't make the same ones:
No Blade Guard - At that time, I rarely used the blade guard with my tablesaw. Not to make excuses, but my shop was an 8' x 8' shed, my saw did double duty as an assembly table. I used to lay a piece of MDF across the table top to provide extra workspace. Guards are now used on all tools that came with them, and a few that didn't. The exception being using a dado head in the tablesaw (which really makes me nervous, so if anyone knows how to guard to a dado head blade in a Delta bench saw let me know).Fatigue - Regardless of how you feel, after working 12 hours overnight, a person is simply not able to concentrate, and give a powertool the respect that is required to operate it safely. It is now a law in my house, "No Tools After Nightshift". My wife came up with that after my accident, not that she needed to, I decided that on the way to the doctor's office.Laziness - Like I said, I used a piece of MDF over the saw, I didn't want to take the time to put the guard on just to take it right back off again. I wish I had.Ok, I'll get off the soapbox now, head back to my home page.
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