A weekend not to be repeated

Chiro75

Chiro75

Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
5,786
What a day grinding yesterday. I've had a pretty good record of safety but yesterday I should've stopped while I was ahead! My drill press was possessed and grabbed three blades and spun the hell out of them (first time this has ever happened, and they were clamped down). It all started when I was flattening out a tang on a 120 grit belt. No heavy pressure and I'd been doing it for a while. Tip was facing down. For whatever reason the belt grabbed the steel and next thing I now WHAM! My finger was in pain and the knife I had been working on was gone. I also had a water bucket under my grinder that was leaking! When the belt grabbed the knife it fired it through the 1/4" space between the belt and the work rest. My pinky got caught in that space and about three layers of skin stayed attached to the blade, so I have a nice burn/abrasion on my pinky about 1/2"x1/2". Anyway, the knife, which wasn't heat treated yet, blew right through the plastic water bucket under my grinder and was stuck through the carpet right into the concrete floor! Minor point damage, so I was impressed.

Then, later, I was using a practice piece of steel as a makeshift clamp while filing some handle material and I cut the crap out of myself twice on it (that was just stupidity). Anyway, hopefully things get better from here on out!
 
That's when you STOP and just take a break for a day. Gather your thoughts and resume the next day.
Scott
 
Unfortunately, the grinder grab was the first thing I had done that evening and I was looking forward to a full night of grinding while my wife was out with the girls. LIve and learn. I'm just glad my foot wasn't under the grinder or it'd be me pinned to the concrete floor instead of my water bucket!
 
From time to time, all of us end up having one of these days...
 
I think I'd like to see some pictures :eek: :D
those are the reminders we get that things could be worst..

that work rest is the reason I free hand most of the time, and when I use it
it is very close to the belt, as a mater of fact
I have it ground out so it wraps the platen some too. heal fast and pay attention

steve while you drill and it's allmost ready to brake through (you'll feel it)
let way up on it (the preasure) that will help you some. and if you grind your own, grind the point a little flater , that will help too .
 
Better than 1/16" space is no space because your freehanding. I ONLY use my rest when I profile.

Hows that flat grinding jig now :D ? :eek: :p ;)

Edited to Add : Accidents are going to happen. Learn from them. Get yourself a drill press hold down and take that rest off. Were you grinding the tang tip up using vise grips to hold it?
 
A safety item I have for my drill press is a foot actuated power switch, take your foot off and it stops. Otherwise you're groping for the switch while your work is rotating. I put one on my buffer, too. I found them at Woodcraft.
 
hat work rest is the reason I free hand most of the time
Click to expand...
I don't actually use the work rest for anything but squaring up the edges on the profile and to radius the front of handle material. Unfortunately with the Coote it's a real bugger to take it off and on, so I choose to leave it on. I'm glad the gap is as big as it is or I would probably have bounced it right off the platen and into my body.

On the grinder, I was doing the tube of tape trick like you'd use to flatten something on a disc grinder. So, when it grabbed the steel the tape was sticky enough that it brought my hand with it! On the drill press I tighten whatever I'm drilling right down to the table with clamps. In 5 years of using that drill press I've never had it spin out on me like that.
 
Another example that FREE HAND is the only way to go. Jigs and tool rests are nothing more than a CRUTCH. Gib
 
Oh no, this is all Brian's fault now! Gib, I do everything freehand. The jig comment was from a joke I played on Brian on another website, so he's getting me back for that one. All my grinding is done freehand (can't you tell??? :D ) but I use the workrest to square up the profile and to radius the front of my scale material.

Hey, Brian, I'll get you back! :D This is war, now! Although, I guess we're even, now. :D
 
I too had some bad luck saturday day , belt sander grabbed my little fattie blade and tossed it who knw where , scared the crap outta me and taught me a lesson to pay attention to my work and not the sway of the mamasita's hips walking down the alley... and then I cracked one of my almost finished Gabon Ebony handles whilest putting it on the knife... after that I put everything away , washed up and took a nap , sheesh. lol
 
What was it with Saturday?!? I was flattening the side of a knife I had just ground the edges on and it flew from my hands and into the space between the platen and the table. The knife lodged in the gap, the NEW belt snapped with a LOUD BANG!..I just knew I was going to have to change my clothes after that one. And there wern't even any mamacitas to blame it on!!!!
 
I really hate when these things happen to me. Really changes the perspective. I hate to do it, but I have to allow myself to not work for awhile till I get my head on straight. I LOVE safety. I get real upset when people are grabbassin or being unsafe on purpose just to piss me off. I am paranoid about gettting hurt by an inanimate machine and even still I have been hurt many a time. It makes me think of the book by Loveless and Barney.."if you are the type who is always having small accidents knifemaking is not for you, take up stamp collecting or knitting." This is why I do not have a buffer..I figure elminate the champion vote getter for dangerousness. Though I would like to try felt belts 2"x72". I guess like they say "no knife is worth your safety." I wish I could be safer so I could do alot more work. I hate to get away from the knifemaking as I get so little time with it anyway and I know I will never do it full time and so that leaves being old and decrepid when I retire to be able to devote time to it I want. I guess I won't realize my dreams, at least so far as I can see... :p
 
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