Bass on Bass

Friday, July 8, 2011

GARDEN GROOM MISHAP



  

    Just got back from my Doctor's office for my 2nd day later examination of my 12 stitch wound. Per him my assignment for the weekend is to sit around with my hand up like a student who is trying to get the teacher's attention. Fool that I am I mowed and raked debris off the front lawn and vacuumed up the debris from the yew trimming yesterday. When I got inside and sat down in my recliner my body just crashed. I wasn't ready to move for a couple of hours. Later I had a serious coughing episode such that I couldn't go with Jeanne to see Geoff's new condo. Based on what Dr Nelson said, it's all my body's normal reaction to the wounding. Such events kick all of the body's defense mechanisms into overdrive to protect the body and heal the wound. Luckily these wounding episodes are rare enough to forget that. Rarity + remembrance? One can always hope.
    The wounding occurred when I was about 98% done trimming the yews that grow in front of the house. I started the job on Tuesday using the chute/tube/bag setup shown in the last Garden Groom photo above. I "finished" (it finshed me?) on Wednesday when I was using the on-board receptacle for the trimmings instead. As I said at the point of ~98% completion the receptacle was full so I stopped cutting, I lifted it to empty it whereupon I somehow managed to get my left hand longest finger into the business end of it before the blade stopped. My left hand had been gripping the large looping handle which has a whole front surface grip switch. Releasing same stops power to the motor but does not brake the blade. My finger did that. 
    The Garden Groom does the tidiest, cleanest cutting job on my yews of anything I've used for the job in the 28 years we've lived in this house. It's a great tool, as long as you keep your fingers away from the blade, something I hope I can now manage to do.
    I have sent a web message to the Garden Groom folks about the accident, suggesting they look into incorporating a blade braking function per safety switch release.

4 comments:

Iain Lewis said...

Hi
I had what sounds like a similar accident a few weeks ago with my garden groom pro. Somehow my finger went in the cutting area and I sliced the top joint off! Did the company reply to your suggestion about the brake?
Iain (UK)
isk.lewis@gmail.com

Willyvon1 said...

Not yet

Malo3411 said...

Yes i cut m'y finger about 3 years ago and I'm suing the compagny
Malo3411@gmail.com please sand me al the info you got

Anonymous said...

I cut the end off my finger last weekend. Once again, it was the spinning blade that caught my glove after I released the trigger. The spinning blade caught the glove and pulled my finger into the cutter. I am losing the last digit on my middle finger.