Drill press on the way

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
It actually works net together far easier than we expected. Going to fit camp has made a difference. Having a wife who can help with the heavy lifting at times is a good thing.

Now I need to find stuff that needs drilling?
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Fingers are important for work so I tend to be very cautious with them.
I figure the same safety rules as for the lathe- glasses, no ring, no watch, no long sleeves.

The lathe scares me far more. The drill press isn't likely to rip my arm off or throw me across the room.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
I dunno, I've seen some nasty drilling accidents. They deserve as much respect, they just maim different.

I drilled through my finger nail on purpose to relieve pressure from an undernail blood blister. Did it for a buddy too. Works like a champ, no more throbbing. :oops:
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
The lathe scares me far more. The drill press isn't likely to rip my arm off or throw me across the room.

When I was going through my apprenticeship, I was told, that the drill press is the most dangerous machine in the shop because people underestimate the ease and suddenness that a length of hair, an apron pocket or apron string can get caught on a drill, hole saw or circle cutter.

One suggestion I have for our home shop machinists who wear a machinist's apron. Switch to a zip-up barber's smock. Less to get caught in rotating machinery plus, front hip pockets are very handy for a mike or whatever, breast pocket for pencil, pen and notes.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
No apron here. I keep all tools on a bench or the headstock of the lathe. Pants get dirty but they wash.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Drilling fingernails isn't fun but at a certain point the pain overcomes the fear. Dubbing the bit helps, as does setting the depth stop very carefully and just going for it. I'll agree that underestimation is the big danger with drill presses, and a few other shop tools as well such as angle grinders. We won't mention right-angle drills......
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
After breaking a bone in my hand a year ago I relearned to respect tools.
The bigger the motor the more pain they can cause.

My wife, my father, and I were once using a router table on a woodworking project. The bit broke and went zinging across the room. We were all standing around the table and none of use got hit by the flying bit. We all commented on how lucky we were.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
My worst injury in the machine shop was when I took about an eighth inch dia. rough shard of aluminum through the web of my left hand.
Scariest incident was when I had a grinding wheel explode on a Brown & Sharpe surface grinder I was working on.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Ah yes, the grinder. I tend to turn mine on at arms length and get away to the side quickly. The thought of the wheel disintegrating frightens me. I figure that once up to speed I'm pretty safe.
 

Ian

Notorious member
I consider myself a very careful, safety-aware person but still have had my share of freak accidents and moments of stupidity and have nearly lost two fingers. As you might imagine, neither finger incident was caused by a machine that ever really got my attention as dangerous....one being a drill press and the other being a pneumatic clamping system. The ones that scare the hell out of me are still a table saw, chain saw, and 12" compound miter saw. I won't even use my radial arm saw, every time I turned it on it tried to kick across and eat one of my arms off. Router tables and especially the big, high-horsepower shapers make me nervous too because when you least expect it they bite hard and things go BOOM, usually with the tendency to suck the operator's hand across the spinny maiming thingy in the process. Nearly had a planer kill me one time, was planing down some rough Alder and the knives hit a thin spot and then grabbed a hard spot and sent the board straight back out of the machine through the shop, through several sheets of plywood leaning against the wall, through the wall, and out into the back yard before I could blink. Later that night when I took off my jeans to shower I found the torn side belt loop the end of the board had caught on its way back out the machine, I got pretty nauseated realizing that it could have cut me in half at the waist and not even slowed down. Fortunately I had obeyed the basic rule of operating a power-fed machine like that and had stood to the side just barely enough. Also nearly got cut in half by the safest table saw in the world, known as a Saw Stop. There was a piece of glass inexplicably laminated into the half-inch plywood I was ripping and a 2x3 square of plywood shot back at me when the blade hit it, catching me right below the ribs. If it had been 3/4" it might have done me in but I soaked it up, only have a nice scar on my belly from torn muscles but oddly it never broke the skin at all. A bench grinder is another tool that will mess you up any number of ways if you give it the least opportunity. All these tools will do amazing work for us but like all dangerous things, they have zero tolerance for carelessness and even with the utmost care things can still go wrong.
 

smokeywolf

Well-Known Member
I've used grinders probably tens of thousands of times. No matter what kind of grinder it is, I still get the same feeling in the pit of my stomach when I switch one on as I do when I'm sitting in the waiting room at the dentist. Get the same feeling when I lay the chain saw into a limb or log.
Had a friend who lost the pinky and ring fingers on his right hand to a table saw.
 

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
When I had a couple blood-blister swollen fingers the old Eroom doc took out a paper clip and his lighter and after heating the tip of the paper clip he burned a hole in the top of each nail. No real pressure needed, it stung like a sweat bee for a couple seconds and then it was over.
 

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
Here is what I did with my clamp to adapt it to a T-slot table. The one Pistolero shows in his earlier post works well for tables with thru-slots but not T-slots.
These are real handy for holding down almost anything.

drillpressclamp.jpg
 

JWFilips

Well-Known Member
One Caution when drilling an under the fingernail blood blister is knowing how deep to set the drill stop!:confused:
 
  • Like
Reactions: JSH
F

freebullet

Guest
Just to clarify on the fingernail drilling.
I use a tiny sterilized bit by hand.

Personally couldn't even feel the drilling due to the throbbing numbness, when you make it through it feels better because the pressure is relieved. Basically a no pain, pain relief situation.

Do have a med grade stitches kit, thankfully, not had to use it. Not a doc by anymeans, feel more prepared having some basic training though.