Inspection Detail

Inspection: 309149490 - Ironwood Doors Llc

Inspection Information - Office: High Hazard Unit - South

Investigation Summary

At approximately 3:00 p.m. on June 5, 2007, an employee and two coworkers were cutting and shaping individual pieces of wood trim for assembly in a custom garage door order. When the accident happened, the employee was setting up the production shaper to cut contoured pieces of wood. The employee sustained multiple finger amputations, when his hand was caught in the rotating shaper blade. The machine involved was a one year old INVICTA brand shaper, Serial Number 2157. The employee was installing a new profile shaper blade for the custom pieces, with the combination guard and feeder mechanism loosened by him, and swung away from the machine. The employee then turned the power on, stared the shaper, and pushed a scrap piece of wood past the blade to check on the depth of the cut. The piece of wood caught in the blade and kicked out, knocking his hand into the rotating blade, resulting in the amputation of part of the left hand, and fingers. The accident was caused by the set up procedure, where the employee was holding a piece of wood to be cut by the shaper, to check the depth of the cut, without a push stick or feather board being provided for set up jobs, where the combination guard and feeder could not be used. The employee normally did not set-up this way. The coworkers in the department normally did the set-up. The employee was not trained by his employer or told to do set-up differently. The employee was hospitalized and treated for amputation of fingers.

Keywords: ROTATING PARTS, AMPUTATED, FINGER, CAUGHT BY