Safety device for shop - emergency alert

Not everyone has this problem, but I tend to work alone in my garage and every couple months I nearly loose a few fingers.

If you want to know the story read this paragraph, otherwise skip to the solution. The first time was the day after my mini lathe showed up. It is only about 400 lbs and I needed to thread a power cord under it. I picked up the gear head end and was trying to slide a 2x4 under it with my hip, it went to far and I ended up with my fingers between the lathe and the 2x4. I couldn't set it down, but it was too heavy to lift higher and I couldn't hold it with just one hand to use the other. My wife had just left, and my kids were watching TV and wouldn't have a chance of helping anyway. Eventually I did get my hands out by giving it a good jerk upwards and pulling out as fast as possible. A few weeks later I purchased a used forklift to be safer moving heavy items. While adjusting the forks closer together to unload a surface grinder from a trailer, the hydraulics settled a couple inches onto 3 of my fingers. So there I am at about 9:30 at night in the driveway screaming for my wife. We live in a pretty well insulated 2x6 home with 5/8" drywall, she couldn't hear me and after a couple minutes of the forks continuing to settle more and more I was reaching for anything I could with the other hand. Thankfully a neighbor was out on a date roller skating by and heard me yelling and was able to help. I am a hobby dentist, and I have a full office in my basement so I was able to X-ray the fingers to see they were OK, but it was still a bit scary.

OK, so if you read the last paragraph, you can see why you might someday need to scream for help without access to your hands. My wife asked me to figure something out. Maybe you guys already have a great solution, but if not, I stumbled across this project on Kickstarter that seems perfect. It could easily activate a siren, place phone calls and such. I am going to outfit my garage with a couple just in case
ReSpeaker - Add Voice Control Extension To Anything You Like by Seeed —Kickstarter

Alan

ahh, just paying attention works for me.

cg285 said:

ahh, just paying attention works for me.

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A couple years ago I got the SawStop table saw that is supposed to be safer. I have been using table saws since I was probably 12 and am nearly 40 now and still have all my fingers. Anyway, about a month after I bought it I was back buying some wood and the guy that was cutting it to length was missing a few fingers. He told me the story and I mentioned the Saw Stop, he told me he had been saving up for it when he lost his fingers. Of course I am trying to pay attention, but sometimes things just happen - a $100 device is a lot cheaper than ANY type of medical trouble, not to mention time off work for being hurt worse than it could have been if help had been closer.

Just trying to be helpful as I would be surprised if this crowd trolled Kickstarter looking for fun projects

Before you decide to do ANYTHING, think of what can go wrong.

Lifting a heavy object, KNOW where your hands are at all times, and where they SHOULD be to avoid getting caught.

Same goes for putting your hands anywhere near mechanical parts that can move on their own.

Always know what you're holding and why.

I'm a cabinetmaker, and I spend lots of time on the tablesaw and shaper. A mantra that I try to keep in mind is, where would your fingers be, if that piece of wood disappeared?

Mmmmm...k, very familiar with hobby machinist, but "hobby dentist"? That is a new one for me. (and a lil' scary)

JR

jlrii said:

Mmmmm...k, very familiar with hobby machinist, but "hobby dentist"? That is a new one for me.

JR

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This also puzzled me, slightly frightening.

ajhalls said:

she couldn't hear me

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my wife can't hear me either. it's selective

So your asking us to donate to your kickstarter campaign involving home shop minilathes run by hobbyist ?

jlrii said:

Mmmmm...k, very familiar with hobby machinist, but "hobby dentist"? That is a new one for me. (and a lil' scary)

JR

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Maybe why his wife and the people around there can't hear his screams of pain.......They are used to the screams coming from his hobby dentist patients

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

ajhalls said:

Not everyone has this problem, but I tend to work alone in my garage and every couple months I nearly loose a few fingers.

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Re-read that first sentence and ask yourself if the real issue to be solved isn't that you need to do a better job of thinking things through before proceeding.

If you have that many close calls it isn't just your fingers at risk. You could be seriously maimed or killed. I knew a guy who nearly got crushed trying to move the 14-inch lathe in his garage to another position. If he had asked there were plenty who would have helped him do it safely but he was very much the impulsive type.

No part of your body should ever be under anything heavy when it is lifted. I knew a forklift mechanic who had a foot crushed changing forks. The fork stuck, swung, and landed on his foot before he could react. He was a careful worker but got caught off guard that time.

For an alarm it could be as simple as a voice command unit for triggering trap throwers. They have adjustable thresholds and briefly close a relay when a shooter yells "pull" loud enough. They can accept 5 microphones (sometimes more) so you could have the mikes near enough to where you are working in the garage. The output would be whatever you can rig up that normally gets triggered by a push of a button.

swatkins said:

Maybe why his wife and the people around there can't hear his screams of pain.......They are used to the screams coming from his hobby dentist patients

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

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I keep getting visions of little shop of horrors dentist scene.

jlrii said:

Mmmmm...k, very familiar with hobby machinist, but "hobby dentist"? That is a new one for me. (and a lil' scary)

JR

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I was a computer tech that went back to school at 29 to be a dentist. I started an online education website (Home
| CourseSaver) that ended up taking off like crazy while in school which I run full time now.

Growing up I did a lot of work with my hands working with my dad and so love tools and am fairly creative. I come up with fun ideas from time to time. My latest is a trailer anchor (SpeedAnchor) I do all the initial prototypes at home before I will send them out to be mass produced.

As far as dentistry goes, I thought I would do much more than I do now - but it is pretty hard to grow a clientele when you only practice 1 day a week, because I am busy with other businesses on the other days, which ends up meaning I really only do dentistry once a month or so on family and friends. Since I thought I was going to do a lot more, I built a very nice dental office in a 200 sqft room in the house that rarely is used

I have no affiliation with the Kickstarter project beyond being a customer.

This is not a terrible idea. I often work by myself on the nights and weekends and my worst nightmare is getting hung up in something. Now that the kid is off to college no one is going to miss me for a while if something happens. Of course you are extra vigilant - which is completely beside the point. Things do happen.

At first glance my phone does this already though. "Hey Cortona, call 911" and it's dialing. But I have to remember to turn it on and off as I don't like the privacy invasion of having an open mic on all the time. In reality it's always on anyway but that's a different discussion.

Bookmarked. I'm curious to see what people will develop using the platform.

That may be a great thing when an accident happens, but what can you do to prevent one? Hand placement is CRITICAL when rigging. I never put my hand where it can get crushed. Adding a forklift or 2nd person around doesn't make it safer, it compounds the problem. Forklifts are dangerous. Two people moving something that don't have a clear understanding of the move and AREN'T COMMUNICATING are dangerous. My brother and I know this well from rigging many heavy machines up to 10 ton. I know many here do stuff ten fold that size.

Devices are only part of the equation. You also need behavioral based safety.

I lost a finger 16 years ago to a table saw. I don't blame the saw cause it didn't have some fancy safety device. I blame myself for being complacent and arrogant. Humility will make you safer in anything you do.

Dan

I just remembered about a dental patient I had in school. He came in with 2 fingers not bandaged and kind of oozing a little in the healing process... We talked to him about it. The story was that he was working alone late at night on a trailer that fell off it's supports and pinched his fingers. Being trapped, he said he eventually pulled hard enough to pull off the tips of his fingers, he then went in and put the fingers in honey for it's antibacterial benefits... He never went to the Dr. It seemed like a crazy story till I was pinned under the forklift - except I would have gone to the Dr

inwoodcutter said:

I lost a finger 16 years ago to a table saw. I don't blame the saw cause it didn't have some fancy safety device.

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my bride's brother had a career in the medical field @ a university. of course he was able to retire fairly young and he decided he wanted to get into the construction field. he now only has 8 fingers from a table saw experience :-)
i have a brother and several friends in the construction/cabinet trade and they all still have all their fingers

ajhalls said:

.....My wife had just left, and my kids were watching TV and wouldn't have a chance of helping anyway......

Alan

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Perhaps the kids could have been some help as an alarm. Perhaps they could understand "grab that lever and pull".
You move machines by yourself with no one to watch? It's hard to fix that kind of thinking.
Not sure an audio device helps much when alone and Rage or Metallica is at concert volume levels.
Seems kind of silly, why not just get a "I've fallen and can't get up" thingee?
Bob

Stop getting under things.

Think things through and then think again. I once knew a master electrician who was wiring a circuit board shear. He made every effort to keep his hands away from the blade. While working on the controls, the blade and carriage abruptly retracted, crushing his hand between the carriage and the top of the unit. It was a career ending injury. Don't become so focused on a single hazard that you miss some other way to get hurt.