yeesh, what happened? Was it something preventable?
I fired up the router as normal - nothing out of the ordinary. I'd done an entire cabinet before that project, and this was the second cabinet I was getting through. I'd done nearly all of the cabinet, and was just routing out a few pieces for the control panel.
As soon as I hit the power switch, the router shook violently and I heard a really loud sound. I powered down immediately and the bit was completely missing. It had torn one of the three chuck teeth out and gouged a huge track around the chuck.
I then saw the bit across the other side of the shed. It had narrowly missed me, and embedded itself deep into a piece of timber on the other side of the shed. Had it been off by a few degrees, it would have torn through my mid section like a bullet. The stainless steel shaft had bent 90 degrees, and the bit was pretty badly mangled.
I'm extremely safety concious. I check all my tools regularly, and ensure bits are in straight and tight before I fire up any rotary tool (hand drills, drill presses, routers, etc). This was just a freak accident. I've met one other person who had the same thing happen to him on his CNC machine, putting a hole in his shed wall. Similarly, just a freak accident.
It was a few years back now. I still haven't had the guts to go out and buy another router. For now, I'll stick to iron-on molding until I specifically need a colour I can't find.