BMC WEST, LLC

Employee amputates three fingertips while using wood jointer

At 9:30 a.m. on November 14, 2019, an employee was working for a firm that manufactured wooden windows and doors. He was in the facility's shop area. He was operating an Ironwood J Series jointer. He was one of two employees at the facility who used the jointer. They used it to level pieces of lumber. The wood jointer was equipped with a guard that limited exposure to the cutting area. The guard on the jointer was spring loaded and designed to maintain contact with the wood material at all times as it is passed through. Once the material had passed through, the guard returned to cover the cutting blade. There was no push block available. In this incident, three fingertips on the employee's right hand were amputated by the sawblade. He was hospitalized. Following the incident, the operator stated that he used the Jointer on a daily basis and that the guard on the jointer had been working without issue. According to the firm's safety manager, the firm purchased MicroJig Smart Hook push blocks the day after the incident and provided them for use with the jointers. The employee verified that the block was provided the day after the incident and that he had been using it since. He stated that the firm did not have them prior to the incident. The use of a push block or push stick helped to ensure that the operator's hands and fingers did not get close to the cutting area. The jointer was about 8 feet long and 16 in. wide, and it had a cutting area about 11.5 in. wide (2.4 meters by 407 mm, with a cutting area 292 mm wide). The MicroJig Smart Hook push block was 7 in. long and 5 in. wide (178mm long and 127 mm wide).