Scary Stuff

[HayTay]

I found these links when, you guessed it, I was searching for something else. Isn't the internet GREAT!

Strawberry Pop-Tart Blow-Torches

Fun with Grapes - A Case Study

At first it's kind of funny, who would ever think that Strawberry Pop Tarts and Grapes could be so dangerous? Then you think about your kid(s), with their short attention spans, toasting and microwaving their meals unsupervised and your smile/chuckle sort of curdles and dies.

Brings back memories of when I was in college and returned to my apartment only to find my blackened toaster in the hallway. It seems that one of my roommates was toasting some bread when some hot babe gave him a call. The toaster jammed when it was ready to 'pop' and got stuck in the ON position. By the time my roommate realized that something was burning and got to the toaster he said that flames were coming out of the slots. He quickly unplugged the device and took it outside where it burned itself out. The toaster was then banished to the hallway because of the awful smell. Using a bit of elbow grease, I cleaned up the toaster really good and managed to get another 15 years, or so, use out of it.

[bigz1]

LOL. Talk of the devil saw the Plasma effect with the grape only yesterday on the Brainiac program.

Definately not one to try at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Oow4632OwQ

Although the Brainiac babes are compulsive viewing. Doing those dangerous scientific expermients so that you don't do them at home.

http://www.skyone.co.uk/programmes/b...lsgallery.aspx

[HayTay]

More microwave mayhem from the Brainiac crew.

Baked Beans

Gunpowder

Newton's Cradle

Paint Can

Toothpick

Crazy Microwaves - HOLY MOLY BATMAN!!!

[CoolHand]

Had a pretty good one this last weekend (11-26-06), let me lay it out there so as to both illustrate my own stupidity and prevent others from suffering from the same.

I had to drill a series of holes into a piece of sheet steel (~ 16 ga galvanized) that I had folded into a U shape. One small one through the bottom leg, and a larger counter bore (for lack of a better term) in the top leg directly above it. It was 18" long, and the long parts of the U's were 1.5" each. I needed the holes all in a straight line, so I opted to use my Bridgeport instead of laying them out and using a hand drill. I chose to use a drill bit for the small holes (a #7 IIRC), and a 1/2" HSS end mill for the counter bores (so I could control the depth of cut better and prevent a mark on the opposite leg of the part).

I had a 6" Kurt vise on the table, and it was secured properly. I put this part into the vise and cranked it down as tight as I could (if you've ever clamped sheet metal in a machinist's vise, you will see where this is going).

So now I have an 18" part marginally clamped in a 6" vise. I then proceed to drill three holes along the part. The one in the center goes fine. Drill counter bore, great. Now I move onto one end, which has about a 4 in overhang out of the side of the vise. Seeing this I stack up blocking under it for support. I drill the hole, no problem. I start with the end mill, and then it all goes pear shaped. The tool was brand new, HSS, so it was sharp as hell. Just as it popped through the bottom of the cut, it hangs up, pulls the part vertically out of the vise, and begins to swing it around at about 500 rpm (luckily I was still in high gear).

I had been feeding with the quill, so the first customer for the whirling wheel of doom was my right forearm. The piece hit it, dug in, and kind of bent a little bit, which turned the cutting edge up and blunted subsequent impacts (got lucky there). It then continued across my body hitting my abdomen about 2 in below my nipples. Since the edge was turned at a funny angle, it didn't so much cut as force my shirt through the flesh there. Tore about a 6" long stripe across my abdomen.

By that time I had finally started to react and try to get away, however, the strike on my belly had let the piece grab my shirt, which was now being wound up around the tool. When I first felt it tug and heard my shirt ripping, I knew exactly what was happening, so I immediately turned to my left and tried to get down to the ground so as to be under the table and the still spinning piece.

I never made it to the floor, as the spindle and I came to a compromise somewhere slightly above a crouch. Luckily I was able to stand my ground and stall the spindle out. I had no shirt left, save for the collar that was now across my collar bones like a yoke. We sat there in a sort of mexican stand-off with the motor humming away for about a second before my old man (who was not real far away) came running up and turned the motor off.

I disengaged myself from what was left of my shirt, and surveyed the damage.

One pretty good gouge on my forearm, luckily it didn't go very deep since the piece had to accelerate from a dead stop to hit that arm in just under 6 inches. Bled quite a bit but nothing that won't heal.

The 6" tear in my abdomen was a different story. That required a trip to the ER and 15 stitches to repair.

The part was scrapped, as is (I believe) the end mill. The arbor that it was in is likely bent too. Maybe I'll get lucky and the spindle itself won't be bent, I haven't checked yet.

I'm still in one piece, more or less, so it was a lesson well learned. Looking back at it, even just a few mins afterwards, I could not believe the depth of my own stupidity.

So, moral of the story, don't work with long overhangs, and don't try to clamp sheet metal on edge in a smooth jaw machinist's vise.

It sounds like advice that everyone should already know, even I myself knew this beforehand, but I did it anyway.

Don't be tempted. Do your sheet metal work on the bench or properly clamped on a drill press.

[thkoutsidthebox]

Glad to hear your ok CoolHand.

[CoolHand]

Originally Posted by thkoutsidthebox Glad to hear your ok CoolHand.

Yeah, I'm alright. Most of the damage was to my pride.

I still cannot believe the retardation of my actions.

It seems my stupidity knows no bounds . . . . . .

[NeoMoses]

Perhaps we should make a line of tear-away clothing specifically for machinists. It's amazing that a shirt would hold up enough to stall out a spindle!

Glad to hear you survived, though.

[merl]

Je.....CHR.......!!!!!
Cool Hand, if the guy that pulled you out of that mess didn't say it then I will,
Did you KNOW that what you were doing was wrong but you went ahead and did it anyway?!?!
No one deserves to get hurt for their dumb mistakes so you know how light you got off for this one considering how it could have turned out.
The human capacity for impaitients and forgetfullness never ceases to amaze me.Just today I caught myself reaching into a running spindle to check a dimention. The hell with the loss of a $120. calipers, it probably would have taken my hand and the rest of me in with it. I couldn't beleive what I was going to do.
Lets please not turn this thread into a contest to see who can do the dumbest thing on any given day, OK?
The next time you need to work with a peice of flimsy material, try clamping it to a sacrificial peice of plywood or somthing and then clamp that in your vise.
If you have a part that is U shaped fit a chunk of wood in it to take up the space inside and make the part more ridged for vising.
Please proceed carefully

merl

[CoolHand]

Originally Posted by merl Je.....CHR.......!!!!! Cool Hand, if the guy that pulled you out of that mess didn't say it then I will, Did you KNOW that what you were doing was wrong but you went ahead and did it anyway?!?! No one deserves to get hurt for their dumb mistakes so you know how light you got off for this one considering how it could have turned out. The human capacity for impaitients and forgetfullness never ceases to amaze me.Just today I caught myself reaching into a running spindle to check a dimention. The hell with the loss of a $120. calipers, it probably would have taken my hand and the rest of me in with it. I couldn't beleive what I was going to do. Lets please not turn this thread into a contest to see who can do the dumbest thing on any given day, OK? The next time you need to work with a peice of flimsy material, try clamping it to a sacrificial peice of plywood or somthing and then clamp that in your vise. If you have a part that is U shaped fit a chunk of wood in it to take up the space inside and make the part more ridged for vising. Please proceed carefully merl

I agree totally, as I sat in the truck on the way to the ER, sans shirt, with a shop towel over my newest weight loss scheme, I was literally in awe of my stupidity. I knew better, I don't know what the hell I was thinking, I know those tricks, I'm not a new hire, I just had my head up my ass on this particular day, and I got bit for it.

As you say, just enough sting to drive the lesson home, but not enough for a permanent limp.

I think in this case I was trying to swat a fly with a sledgehammer. I should have gotten out my sharpie, a punch, and used the bench vise and a hand drill like I've done a thousand times before.

When you've got whiz-bang tools, it's very hard to resist the urge to use them for everything, even if they're really not the best tool for the job.

If nothing else, it reminded me that I need to pay more attention, and that I need to install an E-Stop on my manual machines.

At any rate, as I type, I'm sporting a stylish duct tape bandage over my stitched up gullet and a new found quest to not do stupid **** while I'm in the shop.

[handlewanker]

Hi, when I was apprenticed on the mines in South West Africa we had this big 8 foot guillotine and one day.....................
Strewth!
Ian.

[thkoutsidthebox]

Originally Posted by handlewanker Hi, when I was apprenticed on the mines in South West Africa we had this big 8 foot guillotine and one day..................... Strewth! Ian.

Im not sure if Im glad you left the end of it up to the imagination or not! S#*t !!!
Was it you? Did it take bodyparts or...well you know...just hope you weren't the unlucky bloke under it!

[massajamesb]

When I was in metal shop in high school several years ago, we had a variety of mills and lathes. The largest lathe had a chuck that was at least 24" in diameter, thing belonged in a shipyard or something, not in a pre-adolescent environment. The lathe had to be 25-30 feet long, if I remember right. Anyway, this thing had a motor and gearing to match it's bed size. One day, a practical joker left the chuck (had 4 or 6 different chuck key holes) with all chuck keys filled with 22 long rifle shells, and then put chuck keys in all the holes, awaiting the next person to use this beast. Well, about a week later, someone used the lathe, trying to turn a piece of 8" solid round stock aluminum about 6 feet long. The user saw all the chuck keys, and removed them, but missed the 22 shells. The end result was one kid getting expelled and arrested, and one kid trying desperately to find a place to hide his now soiled underwear. Not to mention the holes in the ceiling, and two rounds imbedded in the Lincoln arc welder.
I had a 4.5 inch grinder fit with a wire wheel spinning at roughly 10,000 too many RPM's while I cleaned up a tube frame section with it. I had the frame section leaned up against the wall, and did not have my shirt tucked in. Shirt, of course, caught the wire wheel and the hilarities ensued. The grinder wrapped its' way up my shirt and began to strangle me with my own shirt, and all the while it was scrubbing away a few layers of (hopefully) unneccesary epidermis. At some point in my shock, I decided I would like to breathe again, and the thought struck me, "hey, I can't breathe, and this kinda tickles. Wait, no, it really f'n hurts". I finally unplugged the darn thing, and the tension eased on my neck. Altogether, I rate it about a 9 for fun and laughs. Just kidding, I have a new found respect for 4.5 inch grinders.

Then there is the time I tack welded a tab on a crossmember I built. I didn't like the location of the tab, so instead of simply reaching down and grabbing the hammer NEXT TO THE TAB, I proceeded to strike it with the palm of my hand. Well, it was still REAL hot, and instead of the tack weld "magically disappearing", it sheared off the tab and my hand went smack into it and across it. 10 stitches later, I realized that what I had done was unwise.
The sad thing is, I have frequented the ER here from the time I was 5 until now, they all know me well. They had a new ER doctor that day, and he kept trying to get a cover over my hand so I didn't have to watch him stitch. I got fed up after about 5 minutes of this, and told him so. He kept asking me if I was about to pass out or anything, or if it hurt in certain areas. I was carrying on a conversation with my buddy who drove me up there while doc was sewing, and I finally snapped at him, " look, I am to the ER what Cliff was to IHOP (don't know if all of you will get that one), I am like Norm was to the show Cheers. Sew me up and let me get out of here."
He was a little shocked at that, but then the nurse informed him that, yes, I was a regular, and so was my father before me.