Drill Press Accident

[devils4ever]

I don't know if anyone watches MrPragmaticLee on YouTube, but this video is scary and makes you think how fast accidents can happen. Luckily, he escaped without major injuries, but his hand looked quite gruesome.

It seems that drill bits like to grab just as they are breaking through the bottom of your workpiece. I'm not sure why, but I've experienced it many times. Clamp your workpieces down!

Stay safe everyone.

 

[682bear]

OUCH!

-Bear

 

[brino]

It seems that drill bits like to grab just as they are breaking through the bottom of your workpiece. I'm not sure why, but I've experienced it many times.

I have always thought of the mechanism like this: up until the point of break-thru, there is some downward pressure thru the drill bit into the work.
Then suddenly at break-thru, not only is there no more downward pressure, but the remaining "ears" that have not been cut out of the hole now become like the thread of a nut with a bolt (ie. the drill bit) now spinning inside. The work-piece is then actively pulled off the table.

Clamp your workpieces down!

Yes that is the answer.
It is sometimes easy to believe that it won't happen just this one time, and setting up the clamps will take longer than drilling the hole.
That attitude will bite you, speaking from experience.

Brian

 

[682bear]

If you've never had an accident drilling, you haven't drilled enough holes... or, IOWs, if you drill enough holes, eventually you will have an accident...

The key, as with everything else we do in the shop, is to do everything possible to prevent the chance of injury when that accident happens.

Some years ago, I was drilling a rivet hole in a bracket at work... #40 drill bit in a hand drill... holding the bracket in my left hand flat on a wooden table. As the drill broke through the bracket, it grabbed and broke... the remaining end of the bit (still in the drill and spinning) went through the fleshy area of my hand between my thumb and finger, and pinned my hand to the table...

No serious damage occurred, just a little blood and wounded pride... but I still have a scar...



After that, I used a clamp to hold the brackets...

-Bear

 

[WobblyHand]

I just recently experienced similar drill grab when drilling holes through cast iron. Fortunately there was no harm since I was drilling through part of my lathe housing. The bit was at or near break through and totally stopped. My hand drill didn't. Eventually the drill chuck slipped. This happened in less than a second. Had that piece been lighter or the chuck stronger some really bad things would have happened.

All tools have the potential for harm. Can't be on auto pilot using any of them!

 

[ChazzC]

If you've never had an accident drilling, you haven't drilled enough holes... or, IOWs, if you drill enough holes, eventually you will have an accident...

The key, as with everything else we do in the shop, is to do everything possible to prevent the chance of injury when that accident happens.

Some years ago, I was drilling a rivet hole in a bracket at work... #40 drill bit in a hand drill... holding the bracket in my left hand flat on a wooden table. As the drill broke through the bracket, it grabbed and broke... the remaining end of the bit (still in the drill and spinning) went through the fleshy area of my hand between my thumb and finger, and pinned my hand to the table...

No serious damage occurred, just a little blood and wounded pride... but I still have a scar...

View attachment 420171

After that, I used a clamp to hold the brackets...

-Bear

You were lucky: could have damaged the tendon that helps make your thumb work.

 

[Eddyde]

Once I got hit hard in the knuckles by one of the drill press's quill feed handles when the drill broke through, grabbed and slammed the quill down into the work. I was just kind of pushing on the ball end of the handle not securely holding it, idiot. Now, whenever I drill large diameter holes, I'm very conscious of the breakthrough point and ready for the grab.

 

[C-Bag]

If you've never had an accident drilling, you haven't drilled enough holes... or, IOWs, if you drill enough holes, eventually you will have an accident

Ain’t that the truth! Every shop I’ve ever worked in if there was any safety equipment on the machines it was disabled or plain ol gone. Belt guards, vise for the DP, etc. And all it seemed I did was drill holes on the last job. I’d always been safety aware but became paranoid after the horrendous accidents. That paranoia stayed when I went full time at home but unlike at work I could keep and improve the safety equipment and didn’t have worry about some addled bozo chucking it.

For the DP my biggest jump in safety was a xy vise because it was easiest to mount and then adjust. The other major leap was the DP itself with a huge table with T slots and a xy rotary table. Oh, and no stupid boss saying stuff should have been done yesterday. Speed kills and so does not paying attention.

 

[Dabbler]

Normally mrpragmaticlee is pretty safe in his operations. Just goes to show that it can happen at any time to any of us. I've done some very sketchy things om my power tools, and have gotten bit for it, eventually.

 

[markba633csi]

FOF= foolish old fart
at that age he should have waaay known better