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tools v hands


Bay Splayer
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i have been in the same trade (window fitter) for the past 12 years so work with power tools every day

returned to bass playing about 2 or 3 years ago after a break of many years, but only playing at home

joined a band about a month ago and since then, whilst at work, i keep finding myself thinking

[color="#000000"]"[b]if this drill/driver/chisel/saw..etc,etc....slips, then thats me buggered for rehearsals, gigs[/b][/color]," etc :rolleyes:

dont know why, as i have never (touches wood) had a bad work related injury whilst in this job :)

anyone else have similar thoughts or am i just a bloody weirdo :lol:



before my present job i was a post man and [color="#FF0000"]nearly lost the tip of my right hand middle finger [/color]in a letter-box related incident :D

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i have had many accidents/injuries during my time, many cuts needing stitches and broken bones needing mending

but that finger injury was more painful than any of those

didnt help that when i went to A&E in my posty uniform holding the end of my bloodied finger...... the nurse jokingly asked:

"[i]how did you do that...did a letterbox attack you[/i]?".....and i replied "[i]yes[/i]"....she nearly wet herself laughing :)

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After a "Stanley knife incident" which resulted in 5 stitches each in he thumb and forefinger of my left hand, I find that I always shudder a little whenever I pick one up now.

The strange thing is, when I picked up the Stanley knife that day I thought to myself "I should really wear my thick gloves for this job" but could only find one so I didn't bother....

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I was operating a table saw on the day of a gig at JB's in Dudley.

The moment I thought "I hope I don't cut my finger" I managed to push the ring finger of my right hand into the blade. Cut a nice groove right down to the bone!

They couldn't really stitch it because too much flesh was missing so they just wrapped it up. I made the casualty nurse put as small a bandage on as she could manage and carried on with the gig that night. Being mainly a two finger player everything was fine until we got to the one song that I used three fingers for. I didn't react until it was too late and did a nice little run culminating in plucking the d string with my bad finger.

Pain. Blood. And worse of all, a horribly muffled note that ruined the fill!

:)

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No major hand/finger injuries here, but once when I was routing out a control cavity in some zebrano, the router bit caught on the wood and the router bounced out of the hole and here's me holding it up in the air, thankfully pointing away from me, hardly daring to breathe until the bit stopped spinning. Scary moment!

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[quote name='paul h' post='517477' date='Jun 18 2009, 03:43 PM']I was operating a table saw on the day of a gig at JB's in Dudley.

The moment I thought "I hope I don't cut my finger" I managed to push the ring finger of my right hand into the blade. Cut a nice groove right down to the bone!

They couldn't really stitch it because too much flesh was missing so they just wrapped it up. I made the casualty nurse put as small a bandage on as she could manage and carried on with the gig that night. Being mainly a two finger player everything was fine until we got to the one song that I used three fingers for. I didn't react until it was too late and did a nice little run culminating in plucking the d string with my bad finger.

Pain. Blood. And worse of all, a horribly muffled note that ruined the fill!

:D[/quote]


:) :rolleyes: :lol: It hurts just reading that!!!!


BB

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Sliced my thumb on a router bit trying to remove it from the router. God, they're sharp.
Blood and blood and blood and... You get the idea.

Hit a screw in a piece of wood I was routing. Sparks and hot metal went flying everywhere. Got hit in the eye by some, but no permanent damage.

Avoid routers. Spawn of Satan.

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After a bungee-luggage-strap-in-the-eye incident resulting in an extreme detached-retina-eye-operation episode, I won't go near the things these days.
The eye consultant at Leeds told me 1) if I'd left my visit to him another couple of days I'd have lost the sight in that eye and 2)He'd ban bungee straps if he could, as they were his most common cause of eye trauma.
Ratchet straps are much more secure anyway. :)

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[quote name='hubrad' post='517517' date='Jun 18 2009, 04:16 PM']After a bungee-luggage-strap-in-the-eye incident resulting in an extreme detached-retina-eye-operation episode, I won't go near the things these days.
The eye consultant at Leeds told me 1) if I'd left my visit to him another couple of days I'd have lost the sight in that eye and 2)He'd ban bungee straps if he could, as they were his most common cause of eye trauma.
Ratchet straps are much more secure anyway. :)[/quote]

omigod :rolleyes:

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[quote name='henry norton' post='517488' date='Jun 18 2009, 03:54 PM']Losing your fingers means losing your job as well as your hobby for most people operating planers and table saws,[/quote]
Sadly, a great sax player and great friend of mine did exactly that, about 15 years ago. His other passion, aside from music, was carpentry. Sliced through half the fingers of his left hand with one of those big mounted circular saws. Doctors re-attached the fingers, but sadly his sax playing days were over.

End of career and end of hobby!

You'll probably recognise him from [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPKDS5QP0Tc&feature=related"] [b]this clip.[/b][/url] unfortunately, most of the solo is cut.

Oh, and handsome bass player, don'tya think?

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Did a gig on an oil-rig once, the tottie was hopeless!
Anyhoo all the doors aboard were watertight, big heavy fekkers and I closed one while me right hand thumb was in the hinge side seal - no pain so far but wondered why the door wasn't closing properly so gave it a mighty pull and :)
thumb exploded and went up like a balloon and I fainted (big Jessie!.) Didn't slap then but had to quickly develop the G. Lee floating right hand technique.
Also hospitalised thru electrocution at a gig before a note was played.


BB

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completely agree with O.P.

I was a tree surgeon for many moons, and I've got several scars on my hands to show how freakin lucky I've been in that subject!

I have, however, peeled the flesh from my left middle fingertip (basically my entire fingerprint area) and had to play a gig that night (it was a friday the 13th I believe!) and 'dinked' my left little finger with a chainsaw (it was 'running down' after use, I was wearing gloves, so luckily it only tore thru my fingernail and about 5mm down towards the knuckle so I was damn lucky with that'un!) but when you consider all the handsaws, chainsaws, [url="http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article.aspx?articleID=4169"]cherrypickers[/url], strimmers, chippers, hedgecutters, loppers, hydraulic props, etc etc etc that are used, it's lucky to get home still bein able to count to ten!

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And all I hear in the bloody papers is "health and safety gawn maaahhhd". It's really important to use this stuff safely and concentrate on what you're doing. A colleague took a finger off recently on a circular saw at home. Hadn't attached the blade properly. I saw the pictures, a real mess. The surgeon got it sewn back on but his violin playing sleeps with the fishes.

Good point about the bungees, btw.

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I got my thumb bitten by a dog - a real snappy little patterdale terrier that really hated me...it has since been put down for biting so many people.

The only reason it managed to get my thumb was because I was shielding the family jewels and forgot to keep my thumbs tucked in!!...it wasn't bad but I had it checked out anyway and got the usual anti-biotics for a dog bite.

The stupid thing is that it belonged to the singer with whom I had plenty of gigs booked at the time - he didn't seem to realise that letting his bezerk dog around someone it hates, who needs their hands to play in his band, was a bad idea...and still didn't seem to understand the potential problems after it had bitten me!

I don't take my chances with that sort of thing anymore!

I don't, however, believe that stopping doing things you love because of the potential risks is a particulalry fulfilling way to live your life either...I played in a band where I'd be critised if I did anything that required the use of my hands outside the band - that incudes any exercise, lifting, DIY, work in general!...it went a long way to expaining the health of the rest of the band and quickly got beyond reasonable when being part of the band meant that I wasn't allowed to have a life!

I still take plenty of care though to minimise any risk of damage to my hands.

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[quote name='SteveK' post='517523' date='Jun 18 2009, 06:23 PM']Sadly, a great sax player and great friend of mine did exactly that, about 15 years ago. His other passion, aside from music, was carpentry. Sliced through half the fingers of his left hand with one of those big mounted circular saws. Doctors re-attached the fingers, but sadly his sax playing days were over.

End of career and end of hobby!

You'll probably recognise him from [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPKDS5QP0Tc&feature=related"] [b]this clip.[/b][/url] unfortunately, most of the solo is cut.

Oh, and handsome bass player, don'tya think?[/quote]


:) Top video.

But, sax's playing is really hot.

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[quote name='jonny-lad' post='517567' date='Jun 18 2009, 04:50 PM']I don't, however, believe that stopping doing things you love because of the potential risks is a particulalry fulfilling way to live your life either...I played in a band where I'd be critised if I did anything that required the use of my hands outside the band - that incudes any exercise, lifting, DIY, work in general!...it went a long way to expaining the health of the rest of the band and quickly got beyond reasonable when being part of the band meant that I wasn't allowed to have a life!

I still take plenty of care though to minimise any risk of damage to my hands.[/quote]
True enough.. I never particularly enjoyed using bungee straps anyway. Still do DIY (including power tools, oh yes! :) ), wall building and knocking down, car stuff and even the occasional bit of rock climbing to this day.

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I once stuck a narrow, fine pointed woodworking gouge straight through my left thumb (side to side, through the fleshy bit). I was only about 10 & as well as the pain I got a serious bollocking from my dad for messing about with his woodworking tools.

I worked as a craft bookbinder for 23 years and used to cut up the leather skins with surgical scalpels. I took the fleshy part of the right side of my left index finger off without knowing I'd done it - all I felt was a slight change in resistance to the blade. Somebody had started talking to me whilst I was cutting & instead of putting down the scalpel & finishing the conversation I tried to do both at once.....
It was such a beautifully clean cut the bit of flesh went back on no problem (luckily I only worked about 10 minutes away from the hospital) and now you can't even really see it was cut off. The doctor complimented me on my skill with a scalpel!!

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I was at a drunken party once where we'd covered the floor with inflatables and everyone started jumping off stuff. I remember thinking "Of course I can do a back flip off the sofa! How hard could it be?!" Needless to say I failed, missed the giant inflatable crocodile I was aiming for and crashed into the laminate flooring. I was later rushed to A&E with a baddly dislocated right shoulder and a very brusied ego. That was a couple of weeks worth of gigs and rehearsals scuppered!

The moral of this story? Crocodiles are not to be trusted kids!

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