Scary Stuff

[Splint]

Probably the worst one I've encountered happened about ten years ago where I work, there was a young kid pretty much straight out of school who was working on a press that punches out car panels, I'm not sure on the details but somehow he had his upper body between the dies when the thing cycled and it flattened him.
Another one more recently and thankfully far less serious but potentially could be very dangerous happend when someone was using a spring compressor to compress a suspension spring so he could fit the shock absorber. Somehow the spring escaped from the compressor, hit the floor at a great rate of knots, bounced up and hit the guy under the nose, broke his nose.
I know of another guy who was using a wire buff one day with no eye protection, a strand of wire flew out and went straight through his eye. It took about three months of absolute agony for the eye to recover as best it could. The rediculous part about it is that he openly admits that he still dose not bother wearing eye protection when using the bench grinder-IDIOT...

[Patrick2by4]

Thanks for sharing these stories, it helps to remind you of the importants safety. One of the tools that always scared me is the radial arm saw. I know two people who had s with them because the blade wasn't pushed all the way back and when they put a piece of molding in front of the blade, it caught and shot forward. One guy cut his hand in half, and the other open up his forearm. I won't allow a radial arm saw in my shop, only sliding compound saws.
One other thing, one of the carpenters I work with had a terrible with a tablesaw. He put in a dado blade in the saw and didn't put in a throat plate. When grooving a small piece of lumber, the saw yanked in the piece with his hand as well. He now has only 2 1/2 fingers on that hand.

One reminder I appreciate is the need for eye protection. Since I wear glasses and sometimes I don't wear eye protection. But when I hear these stories, it reminds my to stop what I am doing and get a face shield.

[ger21]

Speaking of table saws, i've seen one turn on without touching the switch. Not long after I'd changed the blade on it. Do not ever change a blade (or router bit) without first unplugging it. I never used to bother, but always do now.

[DLMACHINE]

Watched a guy at work turn on a 17" Leblond lathe on with the T wrench still in the chuck once.<- that was scary!

Always hated watching people hand crank start old tractors.

Scariest though->Have a friend who restored an old saw mill, 60" of exposed saw blade running off a belt drive from a tractor.It used a steel chain with 3" spikes to drive the log into the blade!<- I actually left the building for that one. It had no guards and half of it was made of wood!

After thought, the scariest things to see in a shop are the new guys that know it all!!

[Patrick2by4]

Maybe you guys have noticed but the word 'accident' doesn't appear when you type it in. Is there a reason for it?

[Patrick2by4]

I actually used it twice before but it doesn't appear unless I put it in quotes

[High Seas]

Hand Prop a Plane? Bigger its than a tractor! Stumpy will never do that again!

Why do all too many otherwise "really smart-really sharp" guys have less than 10 fingers?
I try and let tools just scare me $%!#-less - so maybe I'm next - or maybe not. I call it respect - 'cause I don't stop using them.

BUT NEVER forget to wear the facemask, ear protection, and safety glasses!
(Not writen for you - for me)

[IJ.]

Patrick: Awhile back "BL" (before laser) I wore glasses and while using a jigsaw to cut aluminium sheet I ended up with a chip in the eye!!

Off to the Eye and Ear hospital I went to have it removed with a stern warning that I neded to wear goggles over my glasses!

Next effort while wearing goggles over my glasses you guesses it! Happened again!! The chip arced up and into one of the vent holes on top bounced off the inside of my glasses lens and into my eye!

Back to the Eye and Ear I go and get blasted about not wearing goggles!

I explain then leave for home, A few months later same tool same thing same end result!! I see a Dr walking towards me and when he walks into a half open door and smacks himself in the forehead I couldn't help but laugh, The nurse looks at me and say "I don't know what you're laughing at he's YOUR doctor"!!

Again have the chip cut out return home and throw the jigsaw in the bin and buy a new one with a chip guard built in!

[CNCPlastic]

I used to work in a machine shop that turned big parts on big lathes, ever see a 3 foot chuck? They are huge. One of the larger parts was this 30 inch break drum about 16 inches deep, it was for some kind of logging rig. Don't know what it weighed, a lot. It was very round on the backside where you had to chuck it and they had to be chucked just right.

One night one of the newer guys was machining a pallete of them and all of a sudden kaboom it came loose blew the door off the lathe and landed right next to him. The whole shop jumped but that guy didn't even flinch! The guy was more scary than the tool.

Anyone see Norm do some unsafe stuff on the new yankee workshop?

[Rob D]

Anyone ever see an inertia welder? It spins two parts in opposit directions at a few thousand rpms then slams them together.
Scary Stuff

Rob D

[Johnuk]

It is labeled cyanide! Holy S--T! Cyanide! What in the world was the previous guy doing with that?

If he wasn't using it to kill things with, it might have had something to do with plating. A lot of plating solutions are cyanide based.

Cyanides are also used in polymerisation reactions, like making styrofoam.

You were right to be concerned. Cyanide is probably going to kill you quicker than any other chemical known to man, including nerve gas.

About safety, I would say that perhaps the single most important piece of safety equipment would be a full face shield.

In my opinion safety glasses are virtually useless and shouldn't really be considered as safety equipment.

Safety goggles are okay, but they have a lot of problems. They steam up or get mucky quickly, and are a pain to clean because of the side protection. I have actually had chips of material move through the air vents in the goggles into my eyes before now. Goggles are not a very comfortable fit if they're on tight enough to be effective. Nore do goggles protect the rest of your face. Finally, if you wear glasses, putting goggles on can actually hurt, as the goggles press the frames into your skin.

Any disadvantage to a piece of safety equipment is going to reduce the chance of the user actually wearing it.

There are ways around some of the problems. For instance, corrective goggles. But realistically, I can ruin a pair of goggles in a few days. So I'm not going to pay 80 pounds for something that might end up broken after a week. Also, I have had things miss my eyes on a number of occasions, and instead, whack me across my face with enough force to cut or bruise me.

So, for me, a full face shield is by far the most comfortable and usefull piece of safety equipment. You can also get them with shaded lenses to protect your eyes from UV.

The only disadvantage I can think of with a full face shield is that it might lull the user into a false sense of security.

As for the most dangerous piece of equipment, I'd go with a Dremel. You can pull you arms off with industrial equipment, or blow yourself to bits, but you're always aware of this while you're using it.

A Dremel, though, sounds like a toy. Loaded up with an abrasive disc, it becomes a 30,000rpm shrapnel producer. If you shatter a disc on these things it comes off so quickly you can't even see it move. While you're busy crafting away on a piece of 15mm pipe with the toy like Dremel, one of the discs shatters and you loose and eye.

Something is only dangerous when you don't think it is.

Remember that most accidents involving tools are at home, not in the workplace.

[Klox]

I had it a couple of times while "enjoying" on the lathe that a chip struck me on the lip, burning a nice big blister! It sure makes kissing the missus a painfull job! LOL!!

Klox