Flops n Flubs...

[David S]

Ok I will weigh in. Many many years ago I was making some electrical contacts out of strips of phosphor bronze, Perhaps 1/4" wide. Wanted to drill a 1/16" hole through one end .. no big deal.. just hold the strip and drill. Well the bit caught the strip on exit and spun around slicing my finger. And I had cut the strip out with the wess Aviation snips so had nice serrations on the edges. Took for ever to heal. Don't do that again.

 

[Jamespvill]

My flub was due to lack of knowledge when it comes to proper speeds and feeds on a lathe. I was working on turning some 304 SS with a carbide inserted tool. It was a cheap insert with no chip breaker. I was running the feed too slow and thus getting those nice long stringy buggers. I had one hand on the hand wheel while it was auto-feeding and the other on the lead screw lever. The long death string worked it's way all the way behind the hand wheel right before it decided to catch and flop around while kissing everything in it's way...in other words my fingers. I'll lead in with a warning like Ray...

--WARNING--GRAPHIC PICTURES--

But I do believe pictures are a great way to get the point across...My ignorance that is..




Here it is while sitting in the ER. Interesting story, the nearest ER is 45 minutes from me, when we got there the doctor said I just needed some stitches and he's send me home. Luckily my Dad was with me and insisted on going elsewhere. We drove another hour to another ER where there was a nerve specialist. I spend 3 hours in surgery getting my nerves put back together. Luckily for me, about a year and a halve later, I've got all feeling back in my index finger and about 90% in my pinky... So my warning would be; Don't screw with the swarf monster!! If it looks dangerous, avoid it!

 

[Ray C]

My flub was due to lack of knowledge when it comes to proper speeds and feeds on a lathe. I was working on turning some 304 SS with a carbide inserted tool. It was a cheap insert with no chip breaker. I was running the feed too slow and thus getting those nice long stringy buggers. I had one hand on the hand wheel while it was auto-feeding and the other on the lead screw lever. The long death string worked it's way all the way behind the hand wheel right before it decided to catch and flop around while kissing everything in it's way...in other words my fingers. I'll lead in with a warning like Ray...

--WARNING--GRAPHIC PICTURES--

But I do believe pictures are a great way to get the point across...My ignorance that is..




Here it is while sitting in the ER. Interesting story, the nearest ER is 45 minutes from me, when we got there the doctor said I just needed some stitches and he's send me home. Luckily my Dad was with me and insisted on going elsewhere. We drove another hour to another ER where there was a nerve specialist. I spend 3 hours in surgery getting my nerves put back together. Luckily for me, about a year and a halve later, I've got all feeling back in my index finger and about 90% in my pinky... So my warning would be; Don't screw with the swarf monster!! If it looks dangerous, avoid it!

Oh, that sucks. Stringer swarf is the worst. I can't believe the ER was going to send you away without stitching you up.

 

[jpfabricator]

I was working on a job close to home. On monday mornings mr. Safety man gave the same " Be aware of your surroundings" speach. Six weeks into the job he dosent show up on monday.
The foreman does some askin around, and phone calling. We find out he has shot himself through the right hand.
He bought a1911 45.acp, in the left hand configuration ,being that he was left handed. He pulled the clip and let his brother in law look at it. He handed B I L the pistol and the full clip. B I L looks it over good, replaces the clip and chambers a round. He returnes the pistol to its owner with the safty ON. Then the safety man shows his brother the neat feture that this particular model can still fire with the slide pushed slightly back. Before the B I L can stop him he drops the safty reaches up with his right hand to push back the slide and pulls the trigger.
The surgens had to omit most of the bone cluster that makes up the wrist, but were able to rejoin the middle and ring finger to the remaiming bones. His two fingers ate app. .45 inches shorter.
Moral, all firearms are loaded, and should ne treated as so. PERIOD


Jake Parker

 

[Jamespvill]

Oh, that sucks. Stringer swarf is the worst. I can't believe the ER was going to send you away without stitching you up.

Yeah, it was bad, but it looks like you got it worse. That ring finger looks like it is in some serious pain!

As for the extra professional ER, In hindsight it's a funny story...The doctor in the first ER looked at my fingers, said stitches would be all I needed. My dad kept on mentioning nerves and what If they had been cut. The doctor was being really...i'll choose the word "rude", the entire time. He finally agrees to stitch up my pinky only and then look at the index finger more afterwords. Well he starts stitching away and finishes up, then he goes to look at the x-rays that were taken when I first arrived.

I lift the cover from my hand and notice that he stitched up my index finger...and not my pinky. Ooops! So when the doctor comes back we let him know of his mistake, he doesn't say much and quickly leaves. While he is gone my dad is loudly explaining how the doctor messed up and keeps loudly mentioning that we should have gone elsewhere.

Well the doctor returns and explains how he "decided that it would be best to call around" and see if a more fit doctor was capable of handling my injury. He says that he heard my dad "mention" another hospital and called there for us.

The doctor also explains that the stitches need to come out, and then proceeds to very roughly rip then out...keep in mind this is well after the lidocaine had worn off.

Then he scurries off to never be seen again and a nurse comes to give us the details of our next destination. My dad explains that my fingers are hurting really bad and asks if I can get something for the car ride.

When the nurse leaves I say that my fingers don't hurt at all, he says "I know, but at the least, we are getting some good drugs out of this mess!"

Whatever they gave me was strong because I was on cloud 9 the entire trip over to the next hospital. Once we got there were were met by an extremely nice hand-surgeon who explained that If I wouldn't have come then I would have never had feeling in my entire index finger or my pinky.

Anywho, he puts me under and I wake up 3 hours later with a big cast on my hand. And that's about that!

It's actually really interesting, because the SS stinger was so sharp, the cut ended up being super deep, but also very clean so I was lucky in a sense and my fingers never really hurt at all, except when Mr.Er decided to rip the stitches out.

 

[aztoyman]

That was a pretty bad ER experience James. If it weren't so long ago, I'd say to put in a complaint so the case could be reviewed and hopefully never happen again. I'm glad you healed up ok.

 

[ScrapMetal]

Yeah, it was bad, but it looks like you got it worse. That ring finger looks like it is in some serious pain!

As for the extra professional ER, In hindsight it's a funny story...The doctor in the first ER looked at my fingers, said stitches would be all I needed. My dad kept on mentioning nerves and what If they had been cut. The doctor was being really...i'll choose the word "rude", the entire time. He finally agrees to stitch up my pinky only and then look at the index finger more afterwords. Well he starts stitching away and finishes up, then he goes to look at the x-rays that were taken when I first arrived.

I lift the cover from my hand and notice that he stitched up my index finger...and not my pinky. Ooops! So when the doctor comes back we let him know of his mistake, he doesn't say much and quickly leaves. While he is gone my dad is loudly explaining how the doctor messed up and keeps loudly mentioning that we should have gone elsewhere.

Well the doctor returns and explains how he "decided that it would be best to call around" and see if a more fit doctor was capable of handling my injury. He says that he heard my dad "mention" another hospital and called there for us.

The doctor also explains that the stitches need to come out, and then proceeds to very roughly rip then out...keep in mind this is well after the lidocaine had worn off.

Then he scurries off to never be seen again and a nurse comes to give us the details of our next destination. My dad explains that my fingers are hurting really bad and asks if I can get something for the car ride.

When the nurse leaves I say that my fingers don't hurt at all, he says "I know, but at the least, we are getting some good drugs out of this mess!"

Whatever they gave me was strong because I was on cloud 9 the entire trip over to the next hospital. Once we got there were were met by an extremely nice hand-surgeon who explained that If I wouldn't have come then I would have never had feeling in my entire index finger or my pinky.

Anywho, he puts me under and I wake up 3 hours later with a big cast on my hand. And that's about that!

It's actually really interesting, because the SS stinger was so sharp, the cut ended up being super deep, but also very clean so I was lucky in a sense and my fingers never really hurt at all, except when Mr.Er decided to rip the stitches out.

Bottom line here, "LISTEN TO YOUR DAD!" (We aren't as clueless as we seem.) :biggrin: Good thing he was there to look after you.

-Ron

 

[Rapscallion]

Strings are a terrible type of swarf. They can occur with aluminium (especially if you don't have a chip-breaker ground/sintered on the tool) but, strong ones can occur with high tensile steels.

I've never had more than small cuts from swarf but, when I was an apprentice, my journeyman told me of an accident that one of his fellow workers had with stringers.
He was cutting high tensile steel and letting a bunch of stringers bundle up next to his left foot. After a while one of the stringers got caught in the chuck and the bundle wrapped around it. On the way up, one of the strings went right through the guys safety shoe and cut his heel off.

After hearing that I've always been cautious to frequently clear stringy swarf away from the chuck.
Also, if I can (usually while roughing), I rather peck cut high tensile steel by hand rather than use the machines feed. This way I can control the length of strings that I get.

 

[Jamespvill]

That was a pretty bad ER experience James. If it weren't so long ago, I'd say to put in a complaint so the case could be reviewed and hopefully never happen again. I'm glad you healed up ok.

We did file a complaint, and the hospital graciously sent us a bill for two grand and some change, including the insertion and extraction of the stitches. Needless to say I didn't pay it a few times and instead just mailed back the complaint form...after a few times of doing that, I haven't seen the bill again in a little over a year. Called them up and they said I had no unpaid bills...We win )

- - - Updated - - -

Bottom line here, "LISTEN TO YOUR DAD!" (We aren't as clueless as we seem.) :biggrin: Good thing he was there to look after you.

-Ron

It was a very good thing he was there, I'm fortunate to have a dad that has looked out for me since day one, he's gotten me out of plenty of binds and taught me darn near everything I need to know!

 

[Ray C]

We did file a complaint, and the hospital graciously sent us a bill for two grand and some change, including the insertion and extraction of the stitches. Needless to say I didn't pay it a few times and instead just mailed back the complaint form...after a few times of doing that, I haven't seen the bill again in a little over a year. Called them up and they said I had no unpaid bills...We win )

- - - Updated - - -



It was a very good thing he was there, I'm fortunate to have a dad that has looked out for me since day one, he's gotten me out of plenty of binds and taught me darn near everything I need to know!

These situations are tough calls and it really does depend on the hospital you go to. Smaller hospitals just have a basic life support type ER system. All they're staffed to do is prevent you from dying long enough to get you in the hands of the proper specialists.

When I went to the ER, I too was surprised that all they did was stitch things up and tell me to see a hand specialist after 3-4 days. I went to a neighborhood hospital. When I to see the hand specialist, he asked me if I was seen by a hand specialist on-call at the ER. -No soap, I was stitched-up by a nurse practitioner. I could tell he was a little annoyed that I wasn't seen by a specialist that first night. Makes me realize in-hindsight, I should have driven up to Johns Hopkins that is staffed out the wazoo with all types of specialists. Maybe they would have stitched the nerves back together -who knows...

The important lesson in this is be careful in the first place -and if something bad does happen and if it's not life threatening, take the extra trip to the best hospital you know of.

Ray