Is there a penalty for using air powered high speed turbine rotary tool in woodcarving? Yes there is… I found it. It makes me want to do something that is not so dangerous. Dangerous he says? Yes-sir-re-bob, it is dangerous!
I simply dropped the air powered hand piece into my lap once when it wasn’t running. The tiny burr in the business end impaled into my upper thigh and the air hose helped hold it in the vertical position. It looked like a paring knife stabbed into a potato. That trick left a nice penetration wound in my right leg. I think I said “darn”. A leather apron is a necessary accessory.
I next stabbed myself twice in the fingers on the left hand with a tiny dental burr spinning at 300,000 rpm. Let me tell you, human flesh does not even make the tool think once about slowing down at that speed. Those burrs instantly drill deep tiny bullet holes and keep spinning. The resulting bore holes are really “ouchy” too. Made me say, “Darn” twice more!
Reckless use of those tiny dental bits is insane. The little rascals poke wound holes in my hide that seal over quickly. I have to squeeze the area hard to make them bleed. I figure I should flush them out the best I can. Then the blood doesn’t want to stop! No infection so far. At least my leg hasn’t yet fallen off, not sure about my left hand.
Maybe I should trade up to a Foredom style flex-shaft driven rotary hand tool. For you non-hobbyist, it is a motor hanging on a hook over the bench with about a 39 inch flexible shaft to a hand piece. They use much larger and slower spinning tool bits (if you call 15,000 – 18,000 rpm slow). I might have a chance to get out of the way. Then again, maybe the stab (bullet) wounds will just get bigger! I see the new motors are sized up to 1/3 horse power!
Well, I think I can live with the tiny wounds. 1/3 horse power sounds fatal. I could live a long time with miniature bullet holes that are only skin deep.
~Dan’l