When I finished up my chest I was asked by the teacher to help the
slower kids do their projects so they could get done on time. I had
knocked together a couple more chests and a gun rack or five whe I
decided to ask if I could use the lathe which at that point in the
class was off limits. The teacher trusted me and let me practice on a
couple of things before he had me rebuild some balusters for a lady
who needed some replacements for an antique piano. I made her parts
and then a couple of bats, because one cannot have two many mini
bats. I then decided to make some turned handles for my chest to make
it really pop and look more rustic. I got some scrap wood and turned
down one handle to the point where it just needed to be sanded. I was
using the little sheets that we were supposed to use but it was
taking so long I decided to go ahead and put the handles back on the
lathe and sand them off there. I got them up to speed and was using a
belt sander belt that Seemed to be working really well and I was
pretty proud of how very smart I was. Then everything turned bad the
belt sanding belt wrapped around the handle and ripped out of my hand
taking a fair amount of skin with it and before I could pull away it
had spun around and took a sizable swath of skin off of my left arm.
I really didn't like that but the thought of being kicked off all of
the machines scared em more so I quickly shut off the machine wiped
up my blood with a cloth and went into the class room to put my
jacket over my arm and the telltale bloody shop rag. I excused myself
to go to the restroom but the sink in those stupid bathrooms were out
in the hall so I had to rinse off all of the blood and try and stop
the bleeding quickly before classes let out a a bunch of nosy
looky-loos would start asking a bunch of stupid and incriminating
questions. I got the bleeding under control and I kept the rag
wrapped around my arm and under the jacket for the rest of the day.
It was four days over the weekend before I had to go back to shop
class so there was plenty of time to heal and wear long sleeve shirts
to keep my wounding a secret. I decided to keep my innovative new
sanding technique to myself and I retained my shop privileges.
