I've made my final post on the subject at this time.

The horse was dead long before David brought it up again. Please leave that honor to him.

Thanks for your input........I wish more would have spoken out about how they felt.......Seems like no one cared....or we countered each other well enough for everyone. :) 

Another excercise in futility.....................

Next you can tackle the big three on their cars....but will they be safe with no doors?....

After that, you can push for a 5 point harness for everyone....as that would surely save lives....Then you may want to push for helmet requirements in cars as well......Beyond that you could fight for a 5 mph speed limit...That ought to reduce automobile related deaths substantially......Dude....your list is just beginning........You have lots of work to do.

Go get em tiger! :P 

Steve,

There are a number of heat presses, where one-hand operation is all that's necessary or available. Some, made by Geo. Knight.

In fact, I visited a distributor of Geo. Knight heat presses and found none of the models posed a risk of finger injury, except for the DK20S.

Hence the topic.

Steve, you would get your hand caught on the shield plate, admit it.

That would also violate the handicapped laws in some way. [Yes it was said that way intentionally.]

I decided to give Chuck a rest and made my friend Steve the target today.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

Harvey's Tips Page When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Frankly the whole Pinto was a Design flaw.... :) 

Just look at one....

Of all of the examples examples that you gave, non were from operator error. All of them were examples of products that were found to be bad by design, not because someone didn't actuate them properly.......No, when those things happen....it's called an accident....and accidents happen even with well designed products like car doors, and heat presses.

My silly post was to get people to think about how far things can be taken when "dumbing down" products, or requiring government mandates for certain kinds of fuels, or child seats until the age of 9 as in our state. To me, all of these things are a devolution of our society. Taking the responsibility from the people/parents, and putting it on the government, police, or corperations to fix our every accident, or making some other entity pay when we have one.

Yes the press could be improved as could any product......My suggestion to knight would be to use a bar that came forward with a foam handle kind of like a lawn mower handle, instead of going out like the handlebars on a bicycle. I agree entirely with Harvey that it is natural in an emergency to grab at the middle where leverage is best, but your situation wasn't an emergency. It was just a simple accident. Otherwise a basic warning sticker would probably help the average person that would put their hands on the center....I'm not entirely sure you would have looked with the description of the way you handled the machine.....but it might have helped had you looked before you "hoisted".

If all that fails........Just keep your hands off the blasted thing, you shouldn't be operating equipment of any sort. :-) 

Hi Harvey,

Your point about the shield plate made me laugh....I had forgotten this, but one of the first times I used our first hix press, I lifted my hand to grab the handle. On the way up it brushed the front corner of the press.....The thin sheet steel heat sheild was rather sharp and hooked me and took a big chunk out of my hand....Not so far as needing stitches, but worth taking notice....yes dripping blood.......I came back and took a file to it to take the edge off.

Problem solved...... No threats to the vendor were necessary.....Just a simple accident.

:)