bandsaws!

Under pressure to complete work is not good. I nicked my left hand thumb on the bandsaw. Here' how do it yourself surgery goes: BTW this is the outline script for my next video

1. Phone wife to find out where the 'doctor's kit' is ( I have surgical quality dressings and stuff - off the shelf supermarket treatments are not useful
2. Rinse cut immediately under warm water and wash thoroughly with soap
3. Clean around the area (have shower)
4. Compress cut under clean dressing for 15 minutes to stop bleeding and integrate wound before granulation takes place
5. Use Sterastrips to close wound
6. Bind bottom of strips to hold in place
7. Apply clean pad
8. Use tubigrip to bandage wound
9. Keep thumb in elevated position for rest of day
10. Take the day off work, catch up on Facebook and UU
11. Get pampered

Should be back at work tomorrow - no visits to the doctor thank goodness (shots are up to date)

Oh no that's terrible. Hope you heal up well and quick. Good luck.

Sorry to hear that Pete. However, at least it wasn't severe enough to require that trip to the ER for stiches etc. Hope you are back on track very soon.

It's funny, having read the subject line, I came here to say the one thing I do know is, keep your finger out of 'em!

I am glad your injury is not to bad
I wish you a speedy recovery

Oh - the injury is bad - my other thumb has no sensory feeling because of a skin graft at the tip - different nerve connections so I don't get the right messages to my brain when I amusing m right hand; can't pick up anything with ease and when I sand, because the tip of the nail bed has been destroyed the nail often separates from the skin and is very painful until the next batch of hand sanding. And I have yet to find a machine that is competes with hand sanding... all in a days work. Sidebar: When I come to rubbing out using white spirit and that gets into the thumb - yep, you really know then you are suffering for your craft. Oh and the nails on both hands are in such poor condition that I am having to use Amazing Nails blend of oils and super glue to stop them from splitting and hold them together for a gig I have at the weekend!

---sorry---

Mr. Howlett, I've hesitated posting on this thread, as the thought of what you're going through gives me the heebiejeebies and I'm at work. *grin*

I feel for you, sir, and just want to say that I hope you heal up quick.

Have you tried Vitamin E on your nails (and wounds)? A large number of people here drive mopeds, so there's a prevalence of "road rash". We learn to deal with it early in in life.
Vitamin E is a necessity. We get the squishy caplets, puncture them with a pin then squeeze the Vitamin E right on it. Heals it up a treat and keeps it nice and moisturized and healthy.

I'm no doctor, but I have a feeling that it might help, at least a little.

In closing, I have to say that you remind me of my late Father-in-law (whose workshop I now have the honour of using for my own amateurish ukulele projects), in what appears to be the stoicism when dealing with an injury. I remember he chopped his fingertip off in a similar accident and, much like you, called up with "Oh, I cut my finger", wrapped it up and kept on. We had to physically drag him to the hospital. When we got there, they asked if we had the fingertip. He reached into his pocket, unwrapped a hanky, then, I kid you not, blew the dust off the tip, like it was a record, then handed it over. Not enough to reattach, but the doctor tells the story to this day at cocktail parties!

Get better, though. The world needs more ukuleles and absolutely needs more luthiers!

That vitamin E trick looks great. Off to the pharmacy tomorrow!

Sounds worse than a nick…Sorry to hear the bad news which easily could have been much worse. Take care of yourself.

I should add that you should wait for a bit, until the wound has scabbed a little, before putting the vitamin E on it. Just for sanitary reasons.

Sorry to hear of your recent accident Pete. It serves as an unpleasant reminder that we must all be ever vigilent. These machines don't care about expertise or experience. They are great friends in our work but they still only know to cut whatever is offered them.

Is it hard to see a Doctor in the UK?

We have a free health service - unless it is too bad I tend to self medicate. In this case, getting the wound together and knitted asap after the event has always proved very succesful.

Sorry to hear you got bit. Glad to hear it's fixable. Superglue works wonders. Hope it isn't the bevvy hand.

Dang. All I know about bandsaws is that they scared the heck out of me when I was a high schooler in shop class. The teacher said to be careful around them because the band could break, and I always had visions of several feet of randomly flailing saw blade whipping around if that happened.

Had a blade pop on me a couple of weeks ago, scared the cr*p out of me. It popped as I was resawing some sides, but just before that I had cut a lot of kerfed lining on a jig I made and I think that did the blade in. Have now switched to solid linings and retired my kerfed lining jig.

Love the bandsaw, but even though I try to stay well outside that little red circle thingy I've caught myself getting in a hurry lately. This thread was a good reminder to try to keep it cool.

dang dude...rest easy

Sheesh Pete - glad everything's OK.

Sorry to hear about your accident Pete.

Being a new bandsaw owner just this year, I was excited to read how safe a tool it was, compared to something like my table saw or jointer. Then, I started reading about bandsaw accidents and butchers and woodworkers cutting off hands and fingers with them, so I gained a new respect for the tool.

Take care of yourself.