Abstract: At approximately 9:30 a.m. on February 13, 2004, Employee #1, a machinery repair mechanic, and his oiler helper were trouble shooting a Fellows Hydrostroke gear shaper, Model Number FS- 400-125CNC, Serial Number 36921. Employee #1 had his helper cycle the gear shaper several times to check for a noise, but could not identify from where it came. The machine consists of a programming keypad box with a two-hand start, the milling machine, a table, which turns much like a slow pottery wheel, and a spindle cutter which descends vertically to cut and bevel the gears being made. The active parts of the machine are kept in the housing and advance and descend when the two-hand start activates them. When the cutting task reaches the end of the program, there is a 5 to 6 second pause, then the machine cycles briefly to retract the working parts back into the rear of the machine. Employee #1 had removed the right side cover from the machine's stroker rotation motor exposing its gears. The machine came to a stop, completing a gear cutting program. Knowing the machine was done with the cut, but forgetting that there was a pause in the cycle, Employee #1 reached into the gearbox to manually move what he thought might be loose gears. As the 5-second pause expired, the machine cycled once to retract the working parts, catching and tearing off the tip of Employee #1's right thumb. Employee #1 was admitted to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, CA, where the torn thumb was removed to the first digit.