I know this is problem something everybody already knows (I myself inculded), but I thought I would just share this with everybody.
Well on Saturday night I was modeling my 1/25th Firetruck and I was cutting a piece from the spurne, and well instead of cutting it on my modeling desk I was holding it in my hand. And well I guess you can probly tell what happened next. I sliced open my ring finger on my left hand. In fact I cut it pretty bad right down to the bone. I never do that. I always put the piece down on my modeling desk to cut it, but I got lazy. In fact I was talking to my wife just relaxing, not really paying attention to what I was doing and the slice.
I had to get 4 stiches in my finger. The only good thing is that with my wife as a paramedic she knows alot of doctors and nurses, so I did not have to go see anybody. In fact they brought everything to my house to fixed me up right on my couch. But still it should have happened.
I guess I just want to tell everybody no matter how much experience you have please be careful. I know we have a lot of modelers on here that have been modeling long than I have probly been alive, but I sure we have a few here where I have been modeling longer than they have been alive. But no matter how long you have been modeling please be careful and always pay attention to what you are doing.
Ouch! Glad to hear you didn’t to any real permanent damage. I’ve sliced my finger a few times, but never needed stiches. The worst was when I dropped an x-acto on my foot. It left a nice slice/puncture, but surprisingly, it healed up fairly quick.
Heh…just tonight was reaching for something over one of my tool cups while speaking with my wife, I managed to sink the blade of my exacto into my wrist. Suffice it to say, an inch more toward the center and it would have been a gusher.
In the 50 odd years of modeling, I’ve managed to stab, slash and cut myself with Exacto knives, Scapels, single and double edged razor blades and even an occasional pocket knife. And that doesn’t count the self inflicted damage caused by other sharp objects (needles, pins, scribers etc). All of which is usually caused by stupidity (not near as prevalent as it was in the beginning) or inattention (which still gets me once and a while). When I first started modeling, I would manage to damage myself about once ever two or three years and now it’s up somewhere between 8 to 10 years. But it still happens on occasion. I’m of the oppinion that when talking about modeling and getting cut, there are two kinds of modelers - those who have and those who are going to.
Lol at lucky for you that your wife’s a paramedic the worst I’ve had so far was a itty bitty poke from the point of my knife and thats it then again I’m a pretty safety conscious person too
Thanks for the additional warning, just last week I was doing something similar to you and not paying attention and being lazy and I sliced the end of my finger while trying to cut a peice off a sprue, any more and it could have been much worse, I just bled for a bit and didn’t need stitches.
I thought I was going to have a story to add here when my knife rolled off the table last night and stuck in the carpet next to my foot. If i am lucky I skewered my carpet monster.
I guess watching my 9th grade shop teacher give the safety talk and demo on the tablesaw paid off…while saying “Never look up from what your doing” as he was ripping a piece of poplar the sudden streak of red across his safety glasses made him look down and say “Oh sh…!!!”…he managed to ripcut about an inch of his middle finger. Yep that taught me to keep my head out and my mind on the sharp whirling cutty/slicey things…
I’ve also seen my share of grisly industrial accidents all of which were due to head up and locked/inattention/stoned/drunk/stupidity…namely not paying attention and not having the appropriate guards in place.
I always have and always will laugh at those who manage to have an Xacto roll off the bench and stick in their tender bits. Cold, slightly cruel and the price of stupidity. Stupidity should be painful, willful stupidity should be very painful, preferably fatal.
My grade 8 shop teacher did a similar thing with the jointer, curled his fingers over the leading edge of the board and shaved his finger tips down an 1/8" on his left hand. [yuck]
I haven’t managed to hurt myself with the X-acto rolling off the table, but it did happen one time and stuck into the floor only a 1/2" or so from my foot. Now I wrap an elastic band around the end and only place it perpendicular to my position on the worktable. I also try to keep it in the drawer I use for my knives and tweezers.
My theory on why we say “that smarts” when we get hurt is because we are supposed to learn from it!
If you have a problem with the X-Acto rolling around on the workbench, here’s a little trick my wife taught me when she was in her first year of school and working a lot with X-Acto’s. Take a scrap of sprue and either superglue it to the end of the handle or slip it into your elastic band. It does not have to be a very large piece. Even 1/8 of an inch will do. This will stop it rolling.
[#ditto] I lost the end of a digit breaking up a dog fight. Something I won’t ever do again! There’s all different sorts of ways to lose bits and pieces of oneself! [:)]