Who would i sue for an on the job accident? Would it be worth sueing my employer?

You didn't say which state you were in when the injury occurred.  Here in Ohio, and in every other state, you would have a workers compensation claim.  The issue with the workers compensation claim is that in most circumstances the workers compensation act for that state insulates the employer from personal injury claims.  Your medical charges and, if you have uncompensated lost time from work that should be covered by workers comp.  You will not get the classic "pain and suffering" that you would in a non-work related personal injury, but you may have some temporary or permanent partial disability as a result of your injury. One of the ways around that protection for the employer is if there is a law in your state requiring special safety requirements for your particular work.  From your description, it sound like the kind of equipment which would need a guard, but that will vary from state to state and with the specifics of the equipment.  In Ohio it is called a VSSR or a Violation of a Specific Safety Requirement claim.  That will get you additional compensation.  You may also have a direct personal injury claim against your employer, depending on the laws in your state.  Personal injury claims in work related injuries are most often available when the employer intentionally did something, like remove a guard, which would be likely to cause your injury.  The theory that avoids the workers comp defense to a personal injury claim, at least in Ohio, is that such an injury is not "in the course of and arising out of your employment" because you don't expect your employer to do something to intentionally hurt or injure you.  Other states may have other types of personal injury laws in the event of such a violation. You may also have a claim against the manufacturer of the equipment.  That, too, will depend on several issues, including state law, the age of the equipment, what guards were on the equipment when it was manufactured and several other issues.  Each state has a statute of limitations, a limitation of time between the date of the injury and the time you file the lawsuit/file a workers compensation claim.  In addition, many states have statutes of repose, a limitation on the time period between the delivery/installation of the equipment that injured you and the time of the injury/date of the filing of the lawsuit.  Those laws change all the time.  When I was in law school Ohio did not have a statute of repose and the law firm that I worked for filed a claim on a conveyor belt manufacturer that built a conveyor 75 years earlier.  Now, Ohio has a statute of repose that would have forbidden that claim. Check Lawyers.com for a workers compensation attorney in your city and state.  It is likely that a good workers comp attorney in your state will also be able to handle the VSSR type claim and any personal injury claim against the manufacturer, if there is one available to you.