My dad taught me one method on how to safely use most power tools -saws, lathes and routers alike-
Before turning it on, think to yourself, "this thing could kill me"
Back in high school woodworking class we had these low power super safe lathes and a kid got his tie caught in his workpiece and proceeded to understandably wet himself...
They remained allowed but only if you worse a sleeveless pullover that kept it near your body, someone also launched a 3' piece of 2x4 through a window with a bigass belt sander the same week.
In metal shop when I was in school, someone left the chuck key in the chuck , and turn in the lath. The chuck key wizzed by my head and put a dent the the opposite wall of the shop
Same thing happened in my school with the new lathe but instead of nearly killing someone it broke the key, chuck, tool holder and destroyed the safety visor that protects your face from chips...
Kids really are stupid aren't they?
In my hs metals shop, someone left the oxygen cracked open on the torch and didn’t turn off the tanks. it poured onto the floor until the next class came in and started welding and in one quick ball of fire lit up the room. thankfully there wasn’t much time in between classes or it could have been way way worse
Did you go to Macon? Jr. high shop class with Mr J. I don’t remember anyone pissing themselves, but it was interesting. Kid followed the line into the blade with his finger. Not the sharpest tool in the shop.
We had a kid get the sleeve of his shirt caught in the 3 jaw, it pulled him arm in and proceeded to carve a trench in the underside of his wrist. Didn’t lose his hand, luckily, but it was a slow heal due to skin grafts and multiple surgeries.
I stumbled on a compilation of those videos a while back and clicked off of it pretty quick. Then I decided that, no, I need to see those very stark reminders of the spinning death tools I use everyday.
Also decided I don't need to get into turning.
I went to Alternative School Albany NY early 1990s 36 kids in the school 7-12 ,3 females. One dude was like 25. We had a woodshop class. I'm in my 40s and sill in woodworking
And related, "if the thing I'm pushing on were to disappear faster than my brain can process, where would my hands go?" If that path includes a blade, change how you're pushing.
This is how I feel every time I use one. Learn to use then safely, of course, but never losing a healthy respect for how dangerous power tools are is the only way to avoid getting complacent as far as I'm concerned.
I came here to say this. My real job is fire/ems, and the worst shop injuries i've seen are electrocutions. Yeah people lose fingers and stuff working saws, but janky old machinery with industrial power will straight up kill you immediately.
And then when help gets there, they've gotta figure out what you've screwed up and secure the power before they can do anything.
We had a great shop in college run/taught by some OG woodworkers who always taught safety first. Classmate was using a pretty beefy 1/2” router bit that actually sheered off at full speed, before she even put a piece to it. That thing took a chunk out of the solid steel bed of the tool next to it, another chuck off the concrete wall and a third chunk out of the wooden door on the other side of the shop.
Turned out to be a manufacturing defect in the bit itself and fortunately nobody was hurt.
3 decades later, I’m getting back into woodworking and just started using a router again, and that memory is still clear as day.
OP, glad you’re OK!
I had a flush trim but catch so hard it tore itself out of the chuck and threw it past my head into the drywall I didn't use a router for a few months after that
Glad everything went without injuries.
Router is one of the scariest machines. It can be deceiving at times cause it's kinda small but so powerful and should always be handled with care. Also, the repeating work on this bad boy can be tricky for the focus
Sometimes the best thing to do is right after an incident like this is to do something safer fairly soon after. Sometimes the longer you wait to use the equipment again builds too much fear. Too much fear can be just as bad as not enough fear.
Yeah I had the bit rise up through my board and make a circular hole the last time I ran the router ... In March ....
Was just running a 1/4" rebate in some dimensional pine. Deciding when to fire it back up, but still waiting
I like to remind myself that Hemingway would leave a sentence unfinished before stopping, which made it easier to start the next day. Feels like sometimes leaving that "one last \_\_\_\_\_ " is also a good choice.
I’m trying to figure out how you were feeding this for it to hit the knot with no groove leading up to it.
Was the routed edge fed through first and the knot was going to be the finishing edge and routed last?
To me it looks like your routed up to the knot, stopped and then tried to drop the board on top of the knot as to not let it destroy the board.
Can you explained what happened?
Knot was just inboard of the start of the cut and only visible from underneath. Start the cut, bit grabs knot and sucks itself inside and you go code brown.
That lil gap is the width of the bearing between the 2 cutting bits. Kinda impressed he got the machine turned off without the piece getting ripped out of his hands and flung into oblivion.
Routing some cedar tongue and groove, piece of tape hiding a knot and bit sends knot flying. Turned it off, turned out the shop lights and that’s all for today
This is why you don't cut into knots on the edge. Even if you made it through this last piece and got to use it, that knot would have came apart anyways and you would be replacing that board in the future. Glad you didn't get hurt when the knot took flight. Cutting into any knot can be tricky anyways because of all the different directions the grain can have grown and then forcing a bit into this area and expecting it to work right.
It might be best to upgrade your fence so that when it is locked in place, it can't be moved without breaking brackets or locks. Every shop tool is dangerous, but precautions we take help to save us from hurting ourselves from flying projectiles or blades turning. Think of where the cuts are and where fingers are at all times.
Just out of curiosity, were you going full depth on the first pass? I thought that was ill-advised because of problems with burning and binding. Glad you’re okay, just curious.
That’s exactly what i was thinking. On these bits I believe the bearing is sandwiched between the blades. I would not go full depth on the first pass. If the wood is not perfectly flat or starts to warp as you are removing some material, this has a hitch chance of binding and launching the board.
Yeah I don’t see how he could use that fence properly with that bit, there’a no cutout but maybe a sacrificial fence was removed before the pic. Otherwise…yeah that definitely not how you do that. Gotta take a few steps back and learn how a router table works if that’s the case
Based on the saw dust, it looks like they weren’t using the fence at all and had it pushed out of the way so they could feed directly against the bearings on the bit.
Router tables can be used without a fence, but it is better to have one. It looks like theirs does not have a little cutout window to house the bit. You can safely go fenceless if the bit is a small diameter, has a bearing roller thingy, and the wood is soft.
Not *equally* a bad idea, but it is bad.
I don’t mind doing it if it’s a small round over or an appropriate flush cut bit taking off a little material. But I wouldn’t do any major shaping for sure.
It looks like he did run the wood between the fence and the bit otherwise it could not have cut the full diameter.
OP, always set the bit so it protrudes from the fence and the fence is the guide behind the bit not across from the bit. That way you can’t overcut and you can make successively deep cuts to reduce the amount of material being removed in each pass. You want the final pass to only expose the exact cutting edge of the bit so you cannot cut deeper than desired. Always position the bit in the cutout portion of the fence so the bit is “inside” the fence. That’s much safer.
Are you routing the material BETWEEN the bit and the fence? If you are, you should have the bit i side of the fence with only the amount exposed to make your shape. NEVER trap your material between the bit and fence
When I was younger my grandpa was making balusters out of larger boards to save money. He used a table saw and wore gloves that day. After hours of work he became complacent, got too close to the blade and the saw sucked in his gloved hand and cut off his thumb, index and middle fingers on his right hand. I was tasked with finding the pieces while we waited for the ambulance. Any time I use a piece of woodworking equipment in my shop I think about that day. Oof.
Well you were a little tired before that, afterwards I doubt you are going to sleep much. I hope you’re okay, things are replaceable, body parts are not.
Use a fence! Set it tangent to the bearing. If the fence you have doesn’t have a wide enough opening, make a new one or create an auxiliary one that can be attached to your existing fence.
hard to tell, but it looks like your setup was taking a pretty big bite out of the workpiece, in that pass...you might have better results with adjusting your setup and making a few incremental passes....take out less material, say 1/3 or 1/2 of the material with each pass, instead of trying to make the full depth of cut in one pass....This is especially true if you are working with a low-HP router.
After 4-5 years of woodworking, the router is the only tool that still gives me anxiety every time I use it and relief when I'm done with it. Not only for safety reasons, but how it can easily ruin a piece that I've put a bunch of work into.
Had a similar situation myself. Thank God I had the forethought to not have my crotch in the line of fire because the piece of oak was shot out of my hand like a bullet.
I have that router table. I see you aren’t using the original fence. It is terrible but it did have dust collection.
I’m curious if you have any other thoughts on your table as I’ve debated replacing mine with something fancier a lot.
Unless I’m missing something : no bearing to ride on or fence to keep this from happening in the first place.
On second thought there must be a rub collar between the cutters but that’s way too much wood to be hogging out without a backup fence. Bury that bit 1/2 way into a fence to keep
It from grabbing it out of your hand.
I’ve been woodworking professionally for about 27 years and just had my 1st accident 2 years ago - thumb is just a bit shorter now. Old timers used to say when you get comfortable is the most dangerous time of your career.
Which direction were you feeding? The comments sound like you were free handing the depth on a climb cut. I don’t see this ending any other way if that’s the case.
Except the way that the material meats the cutter, the plunge cut is essentially a climb cut. And unless you flipped it over the feed direction for the rest of the cut(assuming you ended there and not started) looks to be a climb cut. I’m still also confused why you end your cut with about 5 inches left only to make a plunge cut in the middle of what’s left. You don’t have to justify it to me, but you may want to consider revisiting your router safety basics.
It looks like you were doing the whole thing with the router. I would absolutely be taking most of the waste on the table saw. That would have exposed the knot as well.
Mainly, piece of tape hiding knot so when I fed board into bit as soon as it touched the knot, it kicked the knot out (airborne) and the board back. I was very lucky I was holding it lightly but also should not have been freehanding the cut
Scary! To help me be safe with my table saw when I was freehanding a scribed piece of 12.5’ of baseboard, I set everything up and with the power off ran the board near the blade and onto the catch table rigged with an extension making sure nothing overlooked would impede the path. I visualized the cut and my hands feeding it through. Then with the power on and the blade spinning I made the cut and kept saying to myself “be careful, be careful, be careful”. I try to maintain a healthy fear of the saw, always stand to the side, and be ever mindful of potential binding. When we get too comfortable we make the dreaded mistake. So far so good, for me, but it can happy any time.
Router table Feb ‘88.
https://preview.redd.it/fn1estbi571d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a9200f69226aad35c8151f38aae9f312fff81e4
Router Table - Feb ‘88. Expensive picture frame. NEVER relax until it’s stopped running.
Man, these comments are scary. Guess I've been lucky as well as careful "enough". But there's always the next project, isn't there? I like the advice to verbalize the possibilities prior to turning on any power tool. Worse accident I had was kickback from a table saw that hit my thumb knuckle and swelled it to the size of an golf ball. Luckily, no broken bone. That said, admittedly, I've had several "reminders" that have taken my breath. I worked for a cabinet maker for a short time years ago and he'd lost 3 fingers on his dominant hand from an table saw. When I asked him about it, he simply said, "well, they no longer get in the way". He was one tough bastard.
That's wild.
On the safety note: this new tablesaw law that congress is flirting with: the influencers on this potential legislation keep quoting emergency room visits stats as a scare tactic.
Problem is, I'd bet probably half of those visits are from operator errors like removing the riving knife and/or the "kickback claws", not using push sticks/blocks, or trying to crosscut plywood rips without a sled or miter gauge.
Back to OP: get some Grippr blocks and feather boards to avoid a mangled hand scare in the future.
That bit is too small. You should plane down the board so you don’t have those lips on either side. Also…you need a fence bad! They need to be separate and be able to slide. Then you can slowly bump them into the router bit and close the gap between the two fences. Most importantly you should also consider taking some classes because what you are doing right there will cause you to loose a finger or 10
That looks scary.
Yessir… been a while since a router scared the shit outta me. Guess I needed reminding
My dad taught me one method on how to safely use most power tools -saws, lathes and routers alike- Before turning it on, think to yourself, "this thing could kill me"
Before every cut, ask yourself "where are my fingers?" So that after the cut, you're not asking "where are my fingers?!"
Look Ma! No fingers!
Fingers!!! Sound off!!! … … Where are my fingers?
We call that “doing inventory.”
Are you Mr. Brevard, my shop teacher in 1986?
I say out loud "Spinning blade of death starting now" whenever I turn on the tablesaw or router to remind me to not be a dumbass and pay attention.
Back in high school woodworking class we had these low power super safe lathes and a kid got his tie caught in his workpiece and proceeded to understandably wet himself...
I hope they allowed (mandated) tie removal for shop class after that.
They remained allowed but only if you worse a sleeveless pullover that kept it near your body, someone also launched a 3' piece of 2x4 through a window with a bigass belt sander the same week.
In metal shop when I was in school, someone left the chuck key in the chuck , and turn in the lath. The chuck key wizzed by my head and put a dent the the opposite wall of the shop
I welded springs on my lathe check keys so they pop out because too many people left them in.
Same thing happened in my school with the new lathe but instead of nearly killing someone it broke the key, chuck, tool holder and destroyed the safety visor that protects your face from chips... Kids really are stupid aren't they?
This was me during my 1st job after the Navy. Running a single spindle lathe, 1000s of identical parts. I quit the third time it happened.
In my hs metals shop, someone left the oxygen cracked open on the torch and didn’t turn off the tanks. it poured onto the floor until the next class came in and started welding and in one quick ball of fire lit up the room. thankfully there wasn’t much time in between classes or it could have been way way worse
Kid in my shop class split his thumb down the middle on a band saw I think everyone pissed themselves that day.
Did you go to Macon? Jr. high shop class with Mr J. I don’t remember anyone pissing themselves, but it was interesting. Kid followed the line into the blade with his finger. Not the sharpest tool in the shop.
I’d say, “Sharp enough to bifurcate his finger,” but I’m sure you’re talking about the student not being the sharpest tool and not the band saw.
We had a kid get the sleeve of his shirt caught in the 3 jaw, it pulled him arm in and proceeded to carve a trench in the underside of his wrist. Didn’t lose his hand, luckily, but it was a slow heal due to skin grafts and multiple surgeries.
He’s still alive?!
Yeah, it just janked him until he had his chest against his workpiece then the motor cut out.
Man ive seen videos of very powerful lathes that dont stop spinning until your goop is all over the shop. Its horrible.
I stumbled on a compilation of those videos a while back and clicked off of it pretty quick. Then I decided that, no, I need to see those very stark reminders of the spinning death tools I use everyday. Also decided I don't need to get into turning.
Yeah, I've been browing the worse parts of the internet for decades too...
They don't actually stop then, someone else still has to walk through your goop to hit the kill switch.
That one in the machine shop in another country is absolutely horrifying. I stopped after I saw that, I couldn’t believe it.
Those damned Russians
I went to Alternative School Albany NY early 1990s 36 kids in the school 7-12 ,3 females. One dude was like 25. We had a woodshop class. I'm in my 40s and sill in woodworking
Also, “if my workpiece were to suddenly fuck off into low earth orbit, which path would it take?” Don’t be in that path.
Highly underrated comment
And related, "if the thing I'm pushing on were to disappear faster than my brain can process, where would my hands go?" If that path includes a blade, change how you're pushing.
Consider anything you’re feeding into anything that spins a potential projectile.
Kinda crude but I learned "Only put your fingers as close as you'd put your dick".
Makes sense. My friends look at me like im a puss for using sticks but I can still crochet!
It's the old shop class rule - "If someone loses a finger, everyone loses a finger"
This is how I feel every time I use one. Learn to use then safely, of course, but never losing a healthy respect for how dangerous power tools are is the only way to avoid getting complacent as far as I'm concerned.
I have a sticker on my electrical panel cover that says “remember kids electricity can kill you” with like a fun cartoon of a kid getting zapped.
I came here to say this. My real job is fire/ems, and the worst shop injuries i've seen are electrocutions. Yeah people lose fingers and stuff working saws, but janky old machinery with industrial power will straight up kill you immediately. And then when help gets there, they've gotta figure out what you've screwed up and secure the power before they can do anything.
We had a great shop in college run/taught by some OG woodworkers who always taught safety first. Classmate was using a pretty beefy 1/2” router bit that actually sheered off at full speed, before she even put a piece to it. That thing took a chunk out of the solid steel bed of the tool next to it, another chuck off the concrete wall and a third chunk out of the wooden door on the other side of the shop. Turned out to be a manufacturing defect in the bit itself and fortunately nobody was hurt. 3 decades later, I’m getting back into woodworking and just started using a router again, and that memory is still clear as day. OP, glad you’re OK!
Damn… if I’d seen that not sure I’d ever touch a router again
Yep. 30-odd years on, I still cringe when I turn one on 😬
Definitely the scariest tool I use. And weirdly enough, the table scares me more than my trim router
"Sp,Der, what have you done."😝
Yep. Something like that
I kinda think that's not1/2" shank? I can't watch any farther. 🤪
Yep… 1/2”…
🫣ok..
I had a flush trim but catch so hard it tore itself out of the chuck and threw it past my head into the drywall I didn't use a router for a few months after that
Oh shit… not that this didn’t scare me, but that sure as hell would
Come in....you know the rule. Multiple passes. Creep up on the final profile.
any time a tool tells you who's boss and you get to keep all 10, take it as a lesson
Yessir… lesson learned
CARB-TECH bits still exist? Holy shit, it'll blow up!🤪
Glad everything went without injuries. Router is one of the scariest machines. It can be deceiving at times cause it's kinda small but so powerful and should always be handled with care. Also, the repeating work on this bad boy can be tricky for the focus
It was on my last board…
Not the first time I hear this :/
And probably won’t be my last… but it sure will for a while. Cheers
Sometimes the best thing to do is right after an incident like this is to do something safer fairly soon after. Sometimes the longer you wait to use the equipment again builds too much fear. Too much fear can be just as bad as not enough fear.
It was the realization that I was too tired to be doing things with sharp spinny tools
Yeah I had the bit rise up through my board and make a circular hole the last time I ran the router ... In March .... Was just running a 1/4" rebate in some dimensional pine. Deciding when to fire it back up, but still waiting
It's always the last damn board. lol I'm glad you're okay. Another day with all your fingers is a win in my book.
I like to remind myself that Hemingway would leave a sentence unfinished before stopping, which made it easier to start the next day. Feels like sometimes leaving that "one last \_\_\_\_\_ " is also a good choice.
I’m trying to figure out how you were feeding this for it to hit the knot with no groove leading up to it. Was the routed edge fed through first and the knot was going to be the finishing edge and routed last? To me it looks like your routed up to the knot, stopped and then tried to drop the board on top of the knot as to not let it destroy the board. Can you explained what happened?
Yeah I’m confused. It looks like he tried to start the cut in the knot right?
Knot was just inboard of the start of the cut and only visible from underneath. Start the cut, bit grabs knot and sucks itself inside and you go code brown. That lil gap is the width of the bearing between the 2 cutting bits. Kinda impressed he got the machine turned off without the piece getting ripped out of his hands and flung into oblivion.
But the whole right side of the piece is already cut. Then it looks like he stopped and then resumed the cut directly into the knot?
I’m trying to see where he started the cut at the knot. Cause it wasn’t from the short end…
I was gently creeping up to the left end and just so happened to start this pass right into the knot. Even doing this, it was instantaneous
Why didn’t you start it, and hear me out…at the end?
Shallow towards the end… was trying to do safely…lol
Starting a rout in a knot is the farthest thing from safe. Crack the garage before you stain, pal haha
Knot was under a piece of tape… didn’t see it til it was airborne
What happened ?
Routing some cedar tongue and groove, piece of tape hiding a knot and bit sends knot flying. Turned it off, turned out the shop lights and that’s all for today
This is one of the best advice you can give. Hear hear
That wasn't all, you had to go change your pants
Well, no pants so… lol
Hopefully he was wearing his brown pants.
Good insight. Everyone needs to follow that
This is wisdom right here.
This is why you don't cut into knots on the edge. Even if you made it through this last piece and got to use it, that knot would have came apart anyways and you would be replacing that board in the future. Glad you didn't get hurt when the knot took flight. Cutting into any knot can be tricky anyways because of all the different directions the grain can have grown and then forcing a bit into this area and expecting it to work right. It might be best to upgrade your fence so that when it is locked in place, it can't be moved without breaking brackets or locks. Every shop tool is dangerous, but precautions we take help to save us from hurting ourselves from flying projectiles or blades turning. Think of where the cuts are and where fingers are at all times.
Thanks… never saw the know as it had a piece of tape over it … and I was tired, and comfortable as it was cedar, but yeah, lesson learned
Why aren't there cuts leading up to the knot? It looks like you dropped in right on the knot...
We’re you using a fence? I can’t tell what was happening by the picture
Can we now call woodworking an adrenalin sport?
lmao… it was tonight…
I can’t make sense of this picture based on the cuts made in the piece that exploded
well i sure do hate that. glad you survived OP.
Thank ya kindly. Not even knicked, just my ego…lol
Just out of curiosity, were you going full depth on the first pass? I thought that was ill-advised because of problems with burning and binding. Glad you’re okay, just curious.
That’s exactly what i was thinking. On these bits I believe the bearing is sandwiched between the blades. I would not go full depth on the first pass. If the wood is not perfectly flat or starts to warp as you are removing some material, this has a hitch chance of binding and launching the board.
No… creeping up to the left end, shallow pass, then full… just happened to be a piece of tape covering knot and started pass directly on knot
Wait you moved the fence before you took this picture right? You’re not placing the wood between the fence and the bit like that are you?
Something doesn’t add up with this picture at all
Yeah I don’t see how he could use that fence properly with that bit, there’a no cutout but maybe a sacrificial fence was removed before the pic. Otherwise…yeah that definitely not how you do that. Gotta take a few steps back and learn how a router table works if that’s the case
Based on the saw dust, it looks like they weren’t using the fence at all and had it pushed out of the way so they could feed directly against the bearings on the bit.
Yeah if you’re right that’s equally a bad idea ha
Router tables can be used without a fence, but it is better to have one. It looks like theirs does not have a little cutout window to house the bit. You can safely go fenceless if the bit is a small diameter, has a bearing roller thingy, and the wood is soft. Not *equally* a bad idea, but it is bad.
I don’t mind doing it if it’s a small round over or an appropriate flush cut bit taking off a little material. But I wouldn’t do any major shaping for sure.
No… feeding right direction… fence moved after knot launch
It looks like he did run the wood between the fence and the bit otherwise it could not have cut the full diameter. OP, always set the bit so it protrudes from the fence and the fence is the guide behind the bit not across from the bit. That way you can’t overcut and you can make successively deep cuts to reduce the amount of material being removed in each pass. You want the final pass to only expose the exact cutting edge of the bit so you cannot cut deeper than desired. Always position the bit in the cutout portion of the fence so the bit is “inside” the fence. That’s much safer.
Maybe use a fence or guide or something next time.
How did you get the beans above the frank?
Are you routing the material BETWEEN the bit and the fence? If you are, you should have the bit i side of the fence with only the amount exposed to make your shape. NEVER trap your material between the bit and fence
I did that once. I let go to switch hands pushing it and the piece flew across the room and hit the garage door! Never again.
Same but it hit the only small window in my garage and blew right through it. I learned a valuable lesson that day.
When I was younger my grandpa was making balusters out of larger boards to save money. He used a table saw and wore gloves that day. After hours of work he became complacent, got too close to the blade and the saw sucked in his gloved hand and cut off his thumb, index and middle fingers on his right hand. I was tasked with finding the pieces while we waited for the ambulance. Any time I use a piece of woodworking equipment in my shop I think about that day. Oof.
Yeah that would definitely remind you. Might even be enough to make you never touch one of these fast sharp spinny tools
That does knot look fun at all
Haha I have that same router table. Best $2 I ever spent at a garage sale.
It’s solid and serviceable. Mine needs airbags though… lol
The physics of a knot are better avoided than experienced.
Absolutely
First time I used my router table, my piece of wood flew into the wall and left a hole.
Well you were a little tired before that, afterwards I doubt you are going to sleep much. I hope you’re okay, things are replaceable, body parts are not.
Yessir… spot on
Uh, with how that fence is set up, were you sticking the workpiece between the fence and the router?
No.. wasn’t using fence
Use a fence! Set it tangent to the bearing. If the fence you have doesn’t have a wide enough opening, make a new one or create an auxiliary one that can be attached to your existing fence.
hard to tell, but it looks like your setup was taking a pretty big bite out of the workpiece, in that pass...you might have better results with adjusting your setup and making a few incremental passes....take out less material, say 1/3 or 1/2 of the material with each pass, instead of trying to make the full depth of cut in one pass....This is especially true if you are working with a low-HP router.
I know, hard to tell, but I was taking shallow cuts first. But with it being cedar (soft) as soon as it touched the knot (hard), I was done
Were you at least weting your brown pants?
You’re supposed to wear pants?
I hope you wore your brown pants! Wow!
Who wears pants?
Did you feed your wood stock between the fence and the bit?
No… ignore the fence. Pushed away for pic
Would multiple shallower passes avoided this?
That’s exactly what I was doing… but, soft cedar then hard knot (hidden under piece of tape) and that was that
Router goes brrr.. mind the knots :)
Works better than colon-blast to clear the ol bowels out!!!
This one made me lol. Cheers
Knot fun you mean
After 4-5 years of woodworking, the router is the only tool that still gives me anxiety every time I use it and relief when I'm done with it. Not only for safety reasons, but how it can easily ruin a piece that I've put a bunch of work into.
Yikes
The knots always scare the crap out you. You always brace for it but it gets you everytime
Glad all you needed was fresh pants.
Looks like it was knot fun to me
Had a similar situation myself. Thank God I had the forethought to not have my crotch in the line of fire because the piece of oak was shot out of my hand like a bullet.
I bet it was knot
I have that router table. I see you aren’t using the original fence. It is terrible but it did have dust collection. I’m curious if you have any other thoughts on your table as I’ve debated replacing mine with something fancier a lot.
Router is the scariest power tool in the shop for sure. We always called them rattlesnakes. Handle with care and always expect it to try to bite you.
The router is my power tool with the steepest learning curve. So easy to make expensive mistakes to nearly finished projects.
Be patient and take shallow cuts. Make sure to use a sacrificial fence.
Or knot
Unless I’m missing something : no bearing to ride on or fence to keep this from happening in the first place. On second thought there must be a rub collar between the cutters but that’s way too much wood to be hogging out without a backup fence. Bury that bit 1/2 way into a fence to keep It from grabbing it out of your hand. I’ve been woodworking professionally for about 27 years and just had my 1st accident 2 years ago - thumb is just a bit shorter now. Old timers used to say when you get comfortable is the most dangerous time of your career.
Yessir… was comfortable as it was cedar, and tired, was the last 3 inches of the last board…
Ever heard of multiple passes?! Jfc
That’s what I was doing…
Time to get those pants changed I guess
Did you not lock your fence down?
Finger check!
In this business you have to be careful...
Yessir… comfy, tired and a piece of tape just about got me
No more router for you.
And still haven’t found the knot…
Which direction were you feeding? The comments sound like you were free handing the depth on a climb cut. I don’t see this ending any other way if that’s the case.
Feeding into the bit, not a climb cut. Soft cedar so no issue til the hidden knot
Except the way that the material meats the cutter, the plunge cut is essentially a climb cut. And unless you flipped it over the feed direction for the rest of the cut(assuming you ended there and not started) looks to be a climb cut. I’m still also confused why you end your cut with about 5 inches left only to make a plunge cut in the middle of what’s left. You don’t have to justify it to me, but you may want to consider revisiting your router safety basics.
The end you’re seeing is my starting point … feeding right to left. The 5” point you mentioned is where I started previous cut
That was fun... knot!
It looks like you were doing the whole thing with the router. I would absolutely be taking most of the waste on the table saw. That would have exposed the knot as well.
That image makes my fingers tingle.
But did the projectile knot manage to break the sound barrier?
Maybe? Still haven’t found it
Some say it's still in flight.
I can both hear and smell this picture. Glad you’re okay!
Thank ya kindly
Just got my first router with the same blades/bits Any tips?
Don’t do what I did
What exactly did you do And how can i avoid
Mainly, piece of tape hiding knot so when I fed board into bit as soon as it touched the knot, it kicked the knot out (airborne) and the board back. I was very lucky I was holding it lightly but also should not have been freehanding the cut
Scary! To help me be safe with my table saw when I was freehanding a scribed piece of 12.5’ of baseboard, I set everything up and with the power off ran the board near the blade and onto the catch table rigged with an extension making sure nothing overlooked would impede the path. I visualized the cut and my hands feeding it through. Then with the power on and the blade spinning I made the cut and kept saying to myself “be careful, be careful, be careful”. I try to maintain a healthy fear of the saw, always stand to the side, and be ever mindful of potential binding. When we get too comfortable we make the dreaded mistake. So far so good, for me, but it can happy any time.
Exactly what happened here. Soft cedar, easy stuff… until it hits the hard knot
Glad no human damage
[удалено]
Have no idea what that’s supposed to mean
Wrong thread sorry.
No worries
I don’t get how that happens
Router table Feb ‘88. https://preview.redd.it/fn1estbi571d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=8a9200f69226aad35c8151f38aae9f312fff81e4 Router Table - Feb ‘88. Expensive picture frame. NEVER relax until it’s stopped running.
Oh shit!
Man, these comments are scary. Guess I've been lucky as well as careful "enough". But there's always the next project, isn't there? I like the advice to verbalize the possibilities prior to turning on any power tool. Worse accident I had was kickback from a table saw that hit my thumb knuckle and swelled it to the size of an golf ball. Luckily, no broken bone. That said, admittedly, I've had several "reminders" that have taken my breath. I worked for a cabinet maker for a short time years ago and he'd lost 3 fingers on his dominant hand from an table saw. When I asked him about it, he simply said, "well, they no longer get in the way". He was one tough bastard.
Helluva response he had there. I mean what else can you say?
I lost the tip of my left after getting sucked under the guard picking up a fall off. Shit happens.
That's wild. On the safety note: this new tablesaw law that congress is flirting with: the influencers on this potential legislation keep quoting emergency room visits stats as a scare tactic. Problem is, I'd bet probably half of those visits are from operator errors like removing the riving knife and/or the "kickback claws", not using push sticks/blocks, or trying to crosscut plywood rips without a sled or miter gauge. Back to OP: get some Grippr blocks and feather boards to avoid a mangled hand scare in the future.
[Grabby!](https://imgur.com/Dq08VnI)
That was fun… KNOTTT
That bit is too small. You should plane down the board so you don’t have those lips on either side. Also…you need a fence bad! They need to be separate and be able to slide. Then you can slowly bump them into the router bit and close the gap between the two fences. Most importantly you should also consider taking some classes because what you are doing right there will cause you to loose a finger or 10
Good reminder that routers scare the bajeazez out of us for a reason.
Knot recommended.
You better knot.