It’s good to remember that Sherline tools are not toys, and that accidents can happen, no matter how well experienced, careful or skilled you are (and I’m none of these) . This happen to me when I was building my table saw. Of course was my fault.
This happened when, after shutting down the motor, I was going to clean the working part and the spindle was still rotating (I get used to do this). The tool, a 3/8″ very sharp carbide mill, caused several cuts in the nail and underneath skin. I must use pointed tweezers to extract plastic particles under the skin, ouch!.
I was lucky; this was a minor injury. Now my nail looks almost the same as before though there are some minor sensitivity issues. After that I adopt some simple rules when working with this tools:
- Don’t talk with other people (or ignore them, saying “yes…”, “really?”, etc).
- Don’t think about that beautiful girl (or something else).
- Don’t put my hands in a radius of 10 cm around the rotating tool.
- Clean parts only with a brush.
Of course there are standard guidelines when you work with power tools, but by following these basic rules are a start point.
That would really serve as a reminder for me. I’ve cuts from endmills several times without the mill under power. Didn’t raise the spindle high enough with setting up.