Play it Safe

How many of you quilters have cut yourself with a rotary cutter?  Or run a sewing machine needle into your finger?  We all have accidents, so we have to be careful, don’t we?  That is especially true of wooden quilt makers. 

My rotary cutter, better known as a radial arm saw.

In all my years as a woodworker, I have had a few minor injuries: nipped the end of a finger once on the jointer and a couple of times on the table saw, reaching over the blade to pick up one of the little pieces I have cut. None were serious enough to even see the doctor. Some antibiotic ointment, a few Band-aids, and one of those little aluminum finger-tip protectors, and it was back to work, at least by the next day. Little cuts here and there with a utility knife or chisel haven’t been enough to call for more than a Band-Aid. I always keep some in the shop.

I did sand a big circle of skin off the base of my thumb, years ago, on a belt sander. That one meant a visit to the doctor, and it took several weeks for the skin to grow back. But I wasn’t working as many hours in the shop then, and it really didn’t slow me down much.

 I guess my lack of a bad injury made me careless.  October 2018, I ruined my good record. I was re-sawing a piece of pecan on the band-saw, to get a thin strip to cut one more little piece to complete the quilt pattern I was working on. I finished the cut and reached across the saw and shut it off. When I turned away from the saw to go to my workbench, I let my left hand get too close to the blade, which was coasting to a stop. The sawblade caught the side of my index finger at the tip knuckle. It pulled my finger down, rolling the back of all four fingers into the blade. The blade cut into the tip knuckle of my index finger, across the back of my middle finger, caught on my wedding ring and tore through a tendon there, and cut into the back of my little finger at the base.

Of course, I had to have surgery. The doctor fused the tip knuckle of my index finger, so it will never bend again. He also had to do a tendon graft on my ring finger. It was more than three months before I could get back into the shop. That was a year and a half ago, and I am doing well.  The tip knuckle on my left hand will never bend again,my ring finger will never straighten completely,  and my hand is somewhat stiff.  But I can do everything I need to do.  Thankfully, it was my left hand, and I am right-handed.

So take it from an old man who knows by experience. Be careful. And play it safe. In making wooden quilt patterns, we work with very small pieces of wood. Some are as small as 1/2″ on a side. Cutting pieces that small, you can’t always use the blade-guards that come with the saws. You have to get your fingers awfully close to your “rotary cutters”.

So, a few hints:

• Use push sticks. Make your own, lots of them. They get chewed up pretty quick.
• When feeding a small piece through the table saw, use a second stick in your other hand to hold the piece securely against the fence.
• Don’t hurry. I think my accident was at least partly because I really wanted to finish that pattern before I had to quit to go to a meeting with my preacher.
• Keep your mind on what you are doing. Thinking about something else is an invitation to disaster. Do your thinking about your budget, or your next date, or your tax bill, or …. whatever …. while you are gluing or varnishing, not while running power tools.
•  Beware of tools that have just been turned off. All spinning blades coast when shut off and are still dangerous until they come to a complete stop. I understand that on the new saws with the immediate safety stop systems, when the power is off, the braking sensor does not activate: No power, no sensor, no brake. Danger!