Use guards at all times
A cabinetmaker lost part of the first finger on his left hand and suffered a deep laceration to his second finger while cross-cutting an 18 mm laminate on a panel saw with no top guard in place. The wood snatched and reared up and down, bringing his hand into contact with the exposed blade. The employee, who had joined the company only three weeks previously, had received no formal training, had not been assessed and was working unsupervised.
A dowel-boring machine was being used to drill holes into the end of chair rails. Near the end of a production run, a machinist reached for a chair rail which had fallen. He over-extended his hand and his fingers came in contact with the drill bits which rotated in opposite directions, drawing his fingers in, lacerating his fingers and completely trapping his hand. A spring-loaded guard was available to prevent access to the drill bits but had been removed because 'it obstructed the view'. The machine had to be dismantled to allow the injured person's hand to be removed, and to be taken to hospital.
A wood machinist grooving a length of hardwood on a vertical spindle moulder was struck in the left eye by an ejected workpiece. His retina became detached leaving him blinded in that eye. Pressure pads to form a tunnel guard were available but the top pad was not fitted. If both pads had been fitted it is unlikely the accident would have occurred.
The need to upgrade older machinery
While adjusting the width of tenoning beds on a double-ended tenoning machine, an employee slipped and put out his hand. The hand came into contact with the cut-off saw at the rear of the machine causing severe injuries. Double and single-ended tenoners have traditionally been quite poorly guarded but guards are now available for fitting retrospectively.
Cutter Blocks
A joiner was struck in the head by a cutter ejected from a router, operating at 10 000 rpm. He suffered a left temporal compound depressed skull fracture, resulting in occasional fits. The router was prepared by a trained, qualified machinist. The cutters fitted to the 'whitehill' cutter head were secured by Allen screws. The cause of the accident was apparently operator error, in that he failed to fully tighten the Allen screws.
Note: Only solid profile bits are now used. Also, this type of cutter block is no longer legal.
Need for braked machinery
An agency worker was employed to feed a Wadkin six cutter with timber. The person at the other end of the machine noted that there was a fault on the timber caused by a chip out of one of the cutters. The machine was switched off and the interlocked noise enclosure opened. The agency worker went to clean the wood chippings off the machine bed not realising that the cutter blocks were still running down, and as a result lost part of two fingers. Measurements taken after the accident indicated that the cutter blocks did come to a standstill for a full 2 1/2 minutes after the machine was switched off.
An employee was feeding timber into a seven-cutter moulding machine fitted with a noise enclosure. He noticed chip marks on some machined timber so he switched off the machine and opened the noise enclosure, intending to clean the woodchips off the bed of the machine. He had not ensured that all the cutter heads had come to rest, and as he swept the woodchips off the bed his little finger on his right hand made contact with the rotating cutter block, causing lacerations. The injured worker had not received adequate training and nor had his supervisors.
Guards must be maintained
A wood machinist was using a planer/thicknesser to plane a piece of beech 450 mm x 300 mm x 40 mm. The back fence had been adjusted to its maximum width. The adjustable bridge guard was in place and adequately guarded the cutting block whilst the 300 mm width was being planed. He did not move the back fence when he started to plane the edge and he did not extend the bridge guard because the extension was damaged and did not slide easily. The timber snatched and the operator's leading hand fell on the cutters.
An employee was left permanently paralysed on one side of his face after his skull was fractured when a crown guard from a circular saw came loose. The two nuts holding the riving knife to the machine are believed to have been loose, allowing the attached crown guard to make contact with the rotating saw. The guard, complete with riving knife, was thrown directly forward, hitting the employee in the head.
Unsafe working practices
An experienced employee sustained serious lacerations to the back of his hand when cleaning the bed of a Wadkin six-sided moulder. After operating the machine for some time, it became apparent that there was some resin on the bed. He inserted his hand between the rip-saw and the last moulding head to clear the resin, and in doing so the back of his hand came into contact with the cutter block. Because the moulder was fitted with a bed oiler which had not been working for several months, it had become normal practice to remove resin with the machine running.
An experienced wood machinist lacerated his finger while adjusting the pressure roller on a six-head multi-cutter. He was adjusting the vertical pressure roller next to one rotating block and using inching buttons instead of normal feed when the side/tip of his third finger on left hand was sliced off by a block. This resulted in two months off work. The machinist claimed that adjustments were easier to make with the machine running and that he was under pressure to solve the problem quickly because of production pressures.
An employee suffered a severe injury to his left hand index finger, which had to be amputated as a result. The accident happened while he was changing the cutter on a router; he carried out a test cut without the guard in place. He stopped the motor, but had not used the handbrake, because he had been told that it was better to let the machine run down by itself. He went to pick up the guard to put it back on the machine when his gloved left hand became caught up in the moving cutter.
A training operator sustained a broken middle finger and laceration to his hand while trying to clear a blockage from an edge-banding machine. He had not isolated the machine and the interlock had been defeated.
Manual handling
A wood machinist was lifting MDF sheets (approx 2.4 m x 1.2 m x13 mm thick and weighing 29 kg) from a stack onto a saw. He was lifting the sheets with another person when a vacuum formed between the sheets. The vacuum gave suddenly, causing the sheet to jerk. This movement aggravated a pre-existing back problem. (The other person was not affected.) The company had already identified the need to review manual handling training and assessments, but had taken no action. Previous training consisted of watching videos.
Experience is no replacement for safeguarding machinery
An employee injured a hand by coming into contact with cutters of vertical spindle moulder. As a result, a thumb and two fingers on the left hand had to be amputated to the first joint. The false fence and jig were not being used. The injured person was apprentice trained and had 25 years experience on woodworking machines.
An experienced wood machinist suffered amputation of the thumb and first finger of the left hand when cutting a stopped groove in a mahogany window frame on a vertical spindle moulder. While 'dropping on' the wood snagged, pulling his hand directly into the blades. No jig or stops were in use and no jig was available on site. The machinist mistakenly believed a jig could not be used 'because no two window frames are alike'.
An experienced wood machinist amputated his thumb while using a cross cut saw. He was cutting wood measuring 18 mm thick, but the nose guard was set at 45 mm above table. If it had been adjusted properly, it would have knocked his thumb out of the way.
A 60-year old fully trained wood machinist was operating a circular saw, and when clearing a cut piece of wood from the blade with his right hand, his thumb contacted the rear of the blade, amputating the tip of the thumb above the first joint. Having cut off a bead he reached to the back of the saw blade to push the cut bead away from the blade with his right hand and cut his thumb on the rear of the blade near the riving knife in the process.
- A pushstick was available but was not in use.
- The gap between the riving knife and the blade was between 10-15 mm at the bed of the saw
- The design of the top guard made fine adjustment down to the workpiece difficult.
Transport
An employee was walking alongside a fork-lift truck stacked with 10 2440 mm x 1220 mm x 6 mm MDF boards to steady them and prevent them from falling off the forks. While walking, he tripped over a set of gravity rollers approximately 8" off the ground, and tried to steady himself by grabbing hold of the MDF boards on the FLT. The boards were pulled off from the FLT forks and he landed on the gravity rollers with the sheets of MDF falling on top of him. He sustained bruising injuries and a fractured rib. The company revised its risk assessment to include segregating pedestrians from FLTs.
Training
An employee of only six days had his right index finger amputated to the second joint after coming into contact with a circular saw blade used for 45o mitre cutting. The employee believed the top guard had to be removed to use a 45o jig as the machine had been set up by another employee.
A trainee wood machinist amputated the ends of the first and third fingers on his right hand when using a spindle moulder to produce a bevel on a door fillet. No false fence was in place and the bonnet guard was raised. The trainee had received instruction from the proprietor during a similar job and was incorrectly told that a false fence could not be used, because of the need to offset the fixed fence guards to facilitate a full depth cut. The trainee was also unaware of the use of concentric bed rings to reduce risk of access.
An employee suffered severe laceration of the thumb and forefinger on his left hand as a result of unsafe grooving on a dimension saw. No guards were in place and his left hand applying downward pressure came into contact with the blade when the workpiece kicked back, possibly due to a knot.
A newly employed operator (five days) was working out of sight of his immediate supervisor in 115dBA of noise. He was assigned to keep timber clear on a transfer line feeding a saw. The line was under PLC control fed from photo-electric sensors. After a line-blockage the employee climbed onto the stopped conveyor belt to clear the jammed log. This interrupted a photosensor and restarted the conveyor. The employee was thrown off the end of the belt and became stuck between the belt and a cross conveyor, suffering severe injuries of broken ribs and a punctured lung. He had not been told of the dangers associated with clearing blockages, and neither he nor his supervisor knew how to isolate the line.