Hand Injuries and Home Improvement

Friday, April 28th, 2017

Northern Indiana Hand and Wrist

Successfully completing a home improvement project is gratifying, and the finished product can be lasting evidence of your ingenuity, ability, and knowledge.  Just don’t let that lasting evidence also include a permanently disfiguring injury to your hand.  Every week we see injuries and accidents that could possibly have been avoided by following these common sense guidelines:

• Don’t mix alcohol and power tools.  If you’ve relaxed with a glass of wine and then get the urge to pull out the chop saw for a few minutes before going to bed you will probably regret it.  Either your work will suffer, or your hands will.
• Don’t disable the safety features.   Everyone wants to be efficient, and there is an often overwhelming desire to disable the features of a tool designed to protect you.  You might work faster for a time, but in the long run it may slow you down in so many other ways that it is a risk not worth taking.
• Don’t hold the wood while someone else does the cutting.  It seems surprising, but we often see people injured by power tools (or axes!) who were holding wood for someone else while they cut it.  All the hands on the wood need to be connected to the same brain.
• Don’t work tired.  If you’re using power tools you need to be as sharp as the blade.  If you’re nodding off something will get cut wrong, or the wrong thing will be cut.
• Consider a safer saw:  http://www.npr.org/2011/09/23/140708285/regulators-consider-safety-brakes-for-table-saws The extra investment may be worthwhile.

If you still find yourself with a hand or arm injury, please call our office at 574-968-2832.  Remember:  no matter what you do, you’ll need your hands to do it.

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