Reef keeping can be dangerous to your health.

[David MC Lee]

I spent last night in the emergency room for a few hours. I was making a bracket out of 3 /4” thick solid PVC to space a light off the surface of the kiddy pool. I was using the table say to cut the plastic. Not what I really wanted to use, because its hard to cut small pieces on the table say. Well after my second I was pushing the piece away from the blade so I would not kick back and it hit the blade and kicked up into my face. I calculated it would have been moving at 89MPH. It was about 3/ 4”x1”x5”. It may have broken part of my nose, won’t know until Monday for sure. My face looks like Deans been beating me.

I’ve had other close calls cutting PVC with miter saw. One fitting shattered into hundred pieces once.

[brad23]

Sorry to hear that, I had a similar experience but I was lucky and didn't get hurt. Cutting PVC and left my Leatherman on the edge on the miter saw. I some how knocked the Leatherman into the blade and the blade and Leatherman blow up in front of me as soon they made contact. There was a piece of metal stuck in the wall.

I couldn't believe I was that close to it and I didn't get hurt.

[medic29]

Wow!!! I've recently been wearing a face shield, mainly for eye protection, when working with my saw, grinders, or wire wheel for similar reasons.

Put ice on whatever hurts, although...kind of hard to put it on your pride...

[newreefer2]

Sorry to hear about your injury.....lucky it hit your nose and not your eye.

I think we will all be more careful. Thanks for the warning.

Hope you heal quickly.

[IMSRacing]

Just a trick for cutting plastics...

Turn the blade backwards and it will cut and not catch and shatter.

Still take your time but this works very well. Its how vinyl siding is cut without a plastics blade.

[tcottle]

How did you determine that it was going 89 mph?

[webbstock]

I calculated it would have been moving at 89MPH

Leave it to an engineer to figure that out.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Every once in a while I have to remind myself to be careful with shop tools. I had a friend draw a radial arm saw across all the fingers on his left hand...not a pretty site.

So far the worst to things to happen to me are either learning why people use leathers while doing overhead welding and the other was to always check a drill press to see if someone left the chuck in before turning it on. Both were pretty painful.

[local44]

could have been worse..........I saw e.r. and table saw!!!!!!!! and almost didn't want to read the rest

[tcottle]

Originally posted by webbstock
Leave it to an engineer to figure that out.

So I made the assumption that Dave calculated the the velocity of the cutting tip of his table saw. Multiply pi * the diameter of the blade * rpm would give you inches/min and then it is just a matter of converting inches/min over to miles/hr. I had to go to Sears.com to look up the specs on my saw: 10" blade and 4500rpm motor. That gives a tip velocity of 133mph. Since 10" is a standard blade diameter we can calculate backwards and see that Dave's table saw has a motor of 3000rpm.

I understand that if a piece of the blade tip broke off it would leave with an initial velocity of 89mph. But since the PVC was stationary don't we have a conservation of momentum problem? Since the blade has greater mass (and powered by a motor) couldn't the PVC be launched a speed > 89mph?

Also Dave, we need a picture

[lglamb]

Seems like it's something of a case of angular momentum.
However, some of the energy would have absorbed into a
spin factor of the pvc piece. The piece being a solid
would affect the baseline equations some, but being a
cube means you now have 3 vector axis to contend with
in your derivative.
The important part, from David's perspective, is that
the terminal momentum exceeded the sheer strength of
his nasal cartilage.

Originally posted by David MC Lee
It may have broken part of my nose, won’t know until Monday for sure. My face looks like Deans been beating me.

I always suspected there was a mean streak underneath all that
bubbly cuteness.


However, I agree that the terms "table saw" and "emergency room"
should not be used together without the reader first being
forewarned with a suitable PG or R rating.

[Benny Z]

Originally posted by lglamb
However, I agree that the terms "table saw" and "emergency room"
should not be used together without the reader first being
forewarned with a suitable PG or R rating.

you mean kinda like the thread the eeeeevil vet made last year with pics of the dog's face mangled by a lawnmower? man...unexpectedly viewing those pictures just before bed really sucked...!

glad you're ok, david. pics or ban!!!

[David MC Lee]

OK here is the PIC

[w2]

I know it's been awhile since I've seen you, but, MAN, have you changed!

[newreefer2]

Yeah, but it's neat getting your face on a coin.
Is that before or after the injury?

Isn't today when you were going to determine if your nose was broken? What's the news?

[lglamb]

That's David, all right.

Just a chip off the old block.


Lowell

[UH_OH_5_OH]

WoW.....Yeah I learned the hard way to use glasses when doing that sort of thing ! I took a piece of PVC in the melon as well ! Wasn't pretty!