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New "injury" from turning

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I have thumb arthritis-nothing to do with turning. One week ago my wrist started to hurt -on the medial (inner) side just above the thumb, and swelling could be seen by even non medical people up to 3 inches above the wrist. I think the culprit was power sanding-repetitive motions. After icing some for a couple of days and no improvement, I called my orthopod friend at 6 pm last nite, and he said to meet him at his house as he would just be arriving them.
I came bearing gifts-2 steaks and my garden-corn, cukes, tomatoes, yellow squash for him and his wife. There is a tunnel-like carpal tunnel-with 2 tendons moving through it-on the medial aspect of the wrist. Test=put thumb into a fist and move hand outward or laterally. Left hand=no problem, rt=made me groan. Treatment now is an ice cube directly for 1-2 minutes many times a day. He didn't say not to sand, but I didn't ask either!!!! I am working this week and won't be sanding anyway for a week. Not sure why this repetitive motion is bothering now as I've been doing it for years. Aging!! :mad: Gretch
 
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Jim Rutten

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Gretch,
Please take care of that. My sister-in-law had CTS and had to have an operation that took something from her forearm and put it in her wrist. The scars looked wicked. Take care of yourself.
 

Bill Boehme

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Gretch said:
... Not sure why this repetitive motion is bothering now as I've been doing it for years ...
I think that "I've been doing it for years" might be the definition of "repetive motion".

I also seem to have more aches and pains than I did years ago -- I have researched the matter carefully and have ruled out aging :rolleyes:!!! Just a couple days ago my right hand locked up while working in my shop so I had to call it quits for the evening. I attribute it all to the curse of honest labor.

Bill
 
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I'm certainly no expert, but having suffered from twinges and had good medical advice that helped enormously, may I share?

Repetitive motion syndrome is not the same as carpal tunnel syndrome. RMS usually comes from the strain of fatigued muscles being worked past their easy recovery point. Ever get tired muscles from doing one thing over and over? You take a break and then you can go back and do some more. If you don't take that break, you can suffer a strain or a sprain, or even tears of those fatigued muscles.

Most (certainly not all, by any stretch of the imagination) of the CTS cases result from doing tasks with your hands in anti-natural positions. If you stand and let your hands hang naturally at your sides, the palm faces away, the same direction as your sitter. That's a natural position. If you lift your hand as you would to offer it in greeting to someone, that, too is a natural position. One chiropractor type friend suggested that the "natural" range for the wrist is easy to define. Place your palm and forearm on a table. That straight line is a healthy work posture. If you put the top of your hand and the top of your forearm against a flat surface, you again have a healthy work posture, but a different angle. His suggestion is that those two should be your working goals. The other important angle is that if you place your elbow on the table with your hand in the hand-shake position, that straightness is again the desirable angle.

Folks who type a lot know that if you kink your wrists by resting the heals of your palms on the table and try to speed type, you end up hurting pretty quickly. If you are a wide-bodied type (as I am) you have to be careful placing your hands on the standard keyboard so that you don't cock them left to right to get 'em in front of you. Lethal to the tunnels. I use a split keyboard just because of that. Pianists have similar problems.

Turners can be troubled when they adopt strange hand positions or work on lathes that are too low. That invites cocked wrists and hurting.

You might want to videotape your turning a time or two and then, when you find yourself aching, take the video and watch to see where your wrists were to cause you the hurt.

Hope it helps.
 
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Jim Rutten said:
Gretch,
Please take care of that. My sister-in-law had CTS and had to have an operation that took something from her forearm and put it in her wrist. The scars looked wicked. Take care of yourself.


Yes Jim, that is the surg that a hand surgeon recommended a couple of years ago if it came to that. It works well, but ties you up for 8-12 wks. Can't see myself being that sedantary for more than a week and will do if I can't work with the pain. My left thumb for the last 4 weeks has stopped hurting (can spontaneously do that), and I am hoping my right thumb will follow suit. Can't take antiinflam drugs as I blew a hole out my stomach 4 yrs ago from using them. The new problem is a half inch to 3 inches away. I think that the exact motion that caused it was power sanding toward 11 oclock from the inside of the bowl. Off to get ice on hand before a big surgery day for me (-not on myself!!!I am a vet orthopedic surgeon). :D Gretch
 
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Perhaps it's time to consider another power sanding option. I found the supported method very easy on the wrist because there's no drill involved, just a flex shaft and a 1725 washing machine motor located off the lathe.

Might want to try it, because it allows sanding with nearly no pressure on the paper and the person sanding. http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/...t=SettingBottom.flv&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch3
 
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MichaelMouse said:
Perhaps it's time to consider another power sanding option. I found the supported method very easy on the wrist because there's no drill involved, just a flex shaft and a 1725 washing machine motor located off the lathe.

Might want to try it, because it allows sanding with nearly no pressure on the paper and the person sanding. http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/...t=SettingBottom.flv&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch3

Michael. Took me 45 minutes to download the 5 minutes of snippets(sanding on one of the snippets) tonite. Tried this same photo album at work (cable speed) last week when you referred to it in another thread but again it took too long and had to leave. Can't say I learned that much about the sanding. Your (someone's) hand covered everything but the head. I'd guess with the light flex shaft, it can rest on the tool rest was the point, Gretch
 
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I sometimes use a flex shaft on a drill for sanding, especially inside narrow openings. I hang the drill from the ceiling with a small quick-clamp on the trigger so I don't have to lock it on full speed. Take up any slack on the power cord so the drill can't swing around and wrap itself round the power cord. :mad:

Graeme
 
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You know how it is with we first-month broadbanders. I'm up and downloading everything in the world. Though I'm close to the theoretical transmission limit, this DSL is as big a step in speed as my first pentium-class machine.

You've got the point. Rather than have to hold something against gravity and the turning of the piece, set your sander down and let the wood come to it the way you do when peeling with a tool. Other immediate advantages in easy control of the portion of the disk in contact, thus basic direction of sanding, little or no pressure required to remove wood and since you're sanding lathe on, a way to prevent diving into soft spots and maintainence of circularity. GCY mentions a drill motor, but I would rather use an induction-run because it's quiet and stays cool, as it's designed for continuous duty. It's also heavy enough on its own to resist torque applied back through the shaft and stay put on the bench. Though you'll want to be careful with paper above 100 if you use it. It can get grabby if you press.

Hanging it over the lathe would not be my choice, because it might grab and wrap longer hair. DAMHIKT
 
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