# SCHOOL OF HARDKNOCKS.  (please feel free to add yours too those are the best safety messages in my opinion)



## JHerdebu (Feb 14, 2021)

Ok I have 2 to begin this thread with.  The First one is about BAD HABITS from more than 40 years ago.  The other is about the Physics of Motion from just last winter and why its important.

#1 Back in early 1989 I was a young Army Mechanic that needed to repair a leaking exhaust pipe.  I was gas welding with the Oxy-Acetylene torch and a  stick of filler rod welding away .  The bad habit I would like to share was scratching spots that itched with the back end of filler rod. I normally weld with torch in left, rod in right.  Well my head itched and I scratched with the torch instead of the back end of the Rod.  Singed my scalp real quick.  

#2  Last winter I was basically new to the engine lathe and their operations but I inherited an old tired Craftsman 618.  So I read a lot and gathered knowledge from many friends and bought a brand new 30 lb. 4 jaw and back plate. I took them to a professional shop and goy them mated together, I thought this is great, put it together turn it on and start making chips.  WRONG!  Like an idiot, I had it in the highest gear change, fastest belt speed ratio, turned it on and tensioned the belt it was running true and level but I did notice it was really screaming. at least 2000+ rpms.  I didn't want to wreck anything so I slapped my cool new Emergency Stop button.  The 618 doesn't have a locking collar or anything so when the motor stopped the drive line slowed really quick, the chuck didn't and came off flying at my head.  I reflex  slapped it away from hitting me in the FACE, so a few stitches and a really bruised hand and here I sit a year later on a really cold Sunday morning, sharing with you what I found out not to do.


----------



## erikmannie (Feb 14, 2021)

(1) I hurt my back filling a 5 gallon coolant tank in an engine lathe. There is a reservoir that you can pull out, fill with CF & then slide back in. Once it was full of CF, it was so heavy & low to the ground that I hurt my back getting it back in place, even though I was trying to be careful. The back pain lasted 3 months, and I even missed a few days of work.

Nowadays I just pour the CF directly into the chip bin which drains to the reservoir tank.

(2) I sliced up my finger & thumb really badly pulling a LONG, stringy chip out of my shoe lace. I know not to grab chips with my bare hands, but when one got into my shoe lace while the lathe was running on a power feed, I panicked because it was still smoking hot (I was thinking fire hazard). In my panic, I grabbed onto it as tightly as I could so I could get it out on the first pull before it caught my shoe lace on fire or pulled me first first into the chuck. The lacerations bled quite a bit.


----------



## Braeden P (Feb 23, 2021)

dont go full crazy ape mode cutting with a hacksaw i was cutting a rod in half as i wanted but i was cutting really fast my hand flew forwards into the sharp bur on the piece sliced my knuckle open bad and have a big scar from it slow down when you are at the end


----------



## BGHansen (Feb 23, 2021)

No machine tool horror stories yet, have had a couple of close calls on a table saw.  

First close call was when using a wobble-wheel dado blade.  I set a piece of plexiglass next to the blade (saw not running) and adjusted the dado height to cut a rabbet about half deep.  I was squatted down to gunsight the blade and 1/4" stock.  Got the blade height set and flipped on the saw.  The wobble wheel did its thing and wobbled into the back of the plexiglass and shot it back at me.  I felt it brush my hair as it shot by.  Never saw it.

Second one was using a universal jig that's like an angle plate that rides in the miter gauge slot.  I was cutting tenons on the ends of some cabinet door frames using a molding head in the saw.  I was using a short piece of the stock clamped to the back of the stiles to prevent tear out on the back side.  Sacrificial block was clamped to the stile with a hand screw.  I'd just made a cut and the hand screw vibrated loose and fell into the molding head.  It was probably maple 2" square, but shattered into a dozen pieces.  Felt some hit me in the apron which my dad (shop teacher) always encouraged kids to wear as a buffer between kick-back and their torso.  He absolutely hated it when kids used the table saw, seems like everyone wanted to thin rip something.

I am missing 2/3 of my right index finger which was a stupid mistake on my part, not shop related.  I was splitting wood with a buddy.  I was loading the splitter, he was cycling the ram.  I was setting a log on the splitter just as he cycled the ram which crushed the end of my finger.  Yeah, you wouldn't load a stamping press with someone else hitting the palm buttons.  To top it off, he'd been drinking all day.  I should have grown a pair and walked away, but water over the dam now.

Bruce


----------



## Buffalo21 (Feb 23, 2021)

I saw the title, School of Hard Knocks, then started to read, it’s machine related. Not to confused with the School of Hard Knocks, that are marriage or women related.


For a short period of time, I was the head of machine maintenance, in a furniture factory. We had a guy cut off the fleshy tip of his right thumb, on a big table saw. He was out of work for about 4 weeks, about a week after he got back, the owner, stopped to see him, asked how he was doing, apparently during their conversation, the owner asked how he did it. The guy showed him, this time cutting even more off the end of his thumb. About 4-5 weeks later, when he had healed up, he came back to work, as the new shipping clerk.


----------



## Illinoyance (Feb 23, 2021)

I was hipping slag from a weld when a large piece of hot slag flew into my shirt collar and dropped to belt level.  I grabbed the front of my shirt and my belt and pulled to let the slag drop out.  Unfortunately it landed in my shorts.
keep your shirt buttoned all the way up when welding.


----------



## Braeden P (Feb 23, 2021)

When welding be careful spatter+hair=not good and weld spatter going down your gloves isn’t fun most of the time I don’t wear gloves


----------



## westerner (Feb 23, 2021)

I was a young and eager buck of 19 or 20. I was deep into putting a SB chevy into my buddy's 1948 CornBinder. (International).
Had to cut rivets off to move a crossmember. Under the truck, cutting torch and confidence running well. Did not quite have the head of the rivet hot enough when I hit the oxygen. A big ol bunch of molten metal went nearly thru the head, and reversed course, much falling into my left ear. 
I bashed my head twice getting out from under there, but I did not feel that at the time. All I knew was that I was hearing ear wax boil!
No lasting injury, but dang sure a lasting lesson.


----------



## Packard V8 (Feb 23, 2021)

It's only by blind luck that I've made it seventy-five years with all my digits and most of my senses.

1. Assume every gun is loaded.
2. Assume every machine wants to hurt you each time you approach it.
3. Assume every person knocking on your door, calling you on the phone, sending you an e-mail doesn't necessarily have your best interest at heart.
4. Measure three times, cut once.
5. Assume when you've considered everything, you've overlooked at least one thing.
6. Never brag on how reliable/accurate a machine has been.  It will soon hurt itself and hurt you just to embarrass you in front of everyone.
6. The perfect is the enemy of the good.  You ain't never gonna see perfection and probably good is beyond most of us.  Just git 'er done.  Robert Watson-Watt, who developed early warning radar in Britain to counter the Luftwaffe, propounded a "cult of the imperfect", which he stated as "Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes."

jack vines


----------



## 682bear (Feb 24, 2021)

Keep your thumb away from gears while they are turning...

Anybody want me to post a pic? Lol

-Bear


----------



## MrCrankyface (Feb 24, 2021)

Having the attention span of a goldfish I have quite a lot of these moments. 

One of the less fortunate events was when I ran my angle grinder with a cutoff wheel without a guard(big no no), the grinder kicked in my hand and the blade went all the way down to the bone in my left index finger in just a few milliseconds.
Luckily it didn't hit anything vital and my finger healed up fine, I even have a video of the flexing my finger with the open wound. 
Since then I refuse to remove the guard, no matter what.

Another freak accident is when I was walking through my garage and when trying to step over something my foot slipped on the floor.
As I instinctively throw my other leg to the side to regain balance, I manage to hit the front of my kneecap against a standing sheet of steel, slicing all the skin off my kneecap, down to the bone... 
I now have a 2" circle of purple scar tissue cover my right kneecap.
Lesson learnt? Store your materials safely and realize how dangerous slippery floors can be.


----------



## macardoso (Feb 24, 2021)

I *used *to hold my hand in an OK sign when running the lathe, chip coming off the cutter and going through the circle between my fingers to guide it to the floor. My smartie of a brain through this would prevent bird nesting. Amazingly I made it through 4 years of engineering shop classes in college + off hours access to the machine shop without getting hurt OR anyone suggesting that was a bad idea. I was probably only ever baby cutting aluminum so the risk was probably a bit low.

I finally got bit by a moderately thick aluminum chip. Got pinched between the cutter a shoulder on a part and started to get pulled in. I instinctively grabbed on tight to prevent it from wrapping around the chuck and it sliced my fingers up good. Thankfully the chip broke and I didn't get pulled in, but bled pretty good. I do not touch chips anymore, either on or off the machine.


----------



## tq60 (Feb 24, 2021)

When you graduate, next is university of dried tear stains...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk


----------



## aliva (Feb 25, 2021)

The server here is not large enough for me to list all my screw ups, so I'll pass


----------



## Illinoyance (Feb 25, 2021)

When welding the crotch of my coveralls caught fire......


----------



## JHerdebu (Mar 2, 2021)

Sorry it's been awhile but I swear I have a good reason.  Yupp I did it again.  This one is just plain stupidity.  You see last year I decided it was time to have a really solid place to work here in the shop.  Not really a shop more like a single stall garage over stuffed with my precious Empire of collected tools over the last 40 yrs.
Anyway I was tired of pouring water on smoking wooden bench tops.  I built myself my dream metal working space.  Well while planning and laying it out on paper I simply forgot how much lighter paper is to steel.   Brother let me tell you 3/8" steel plate on 1/8" 1"x2" rectangular  tube frame along with 16 gauge spark stop  back panel, 2 welders my 618 lathes on the back along with all their accessories and spare spools of wire and all my smaller gotta have um cut offs and drops.  I know it weighs in close to 1400 lbs.  I nice beefy 5 inch wheels on it and can normally role it no problems.


Remember you my be as strong as you were 30 years ago means, your still just as Stupid too.  I tried to push the table and it wouldn't so I braced my boots against the wall  and really leaned into it.

And that's how I tore my left hamstring!
I guess that's why only Quarterbacks can still football in their 50s all us Linemen got beat all to heck so they could stay pretty.


----------



## Suzuki4evr (Mar 2, 2021)

Braeden P said:


> When welding be careful spatter+hair=not good and weld spatter going down your gloves isn’t fun most of the time I don’t wear gloves


I have discovered that it is actually also better to weld with flip-flops. I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. When a piece of slag falls into you boot,you try desperately to get away from the burning piece of hell that found a new place to live on the inside of your boot. And while you are trying to get away from it,you get burned all over. But with flip-flops you just kick and your good. If you don't feel safe with this idea, just don't do it.


----------



## Braeden P (Mar 2, 2021)

Suzuki4evr said:


> I have discovered that it is actually also better to weld with flip-flops. I know it sounds crazy but hear me out. When a piece of slag falls into you boot,you try desperately to get away from the burning piece of hell that found a new place to live on the inside of your boot. And while you are trying to get away from it,you get burned all over. But with flip-flops you just kick and your good. If you don't feel safe with this idea, just don't do it.


i wear long pants that cover the boots that helps


----------



## Suzuki4evr (Mar 2, 2021)

I recently just had bad luck. An extremely hot twirly chip got in between my safety glass and cheeck just under my eye. I tried to slap it off but only my glasses flew off,the chip stuck. From the side I must have looked silly smacking myself stupid. I now have three stripes under my eye where it burned me as a reminder. I have so many scars all over my body from my bike accident and workshop war wounds, one more don't  matter to me.


----------



## Suzuki4evr (Mar 2, 2021)

Braeden P said:


> i wear long pants that cover the boots that helps


In summertime in SA,it is just to hot for that.


----------



## twraska (Mar 2, 2021)

JHerdebu said:


> Ok I have 2 to begin this thread with.  The First one is about BAD HABITS from more than 40 years ago.  The other is about the Physics of Motion from just last winter and why its important.
> 
> #1 Back in early 1989 I was a young Army Mechanic that needed to repair a leaking exhaust pipe.  I was gas welding with the Oxy-Acetylene torch and a  stick of filler rod welding away .  The bad habit I would like to share was scratching spots that itched with the back end of filler rod. I normally weld with torch in left, rod in right.  Well my head itched and I scratched with the torch instead of the back end of the Rod.  Singed my scalp real quick.
> 
> #2  Last winter I was basically new to the engine lathe and their operations but I inherited an old tired Craftsman 618.  So I read a lot and gathered knowledge from many friends and bought a brand new 30 lb. 4 jaw and back plate. I took them to a professional shop and goy them mated together, I thought this is great, put it together turn it on and start making chips.  WRONG!  Like an idiot, I had it in the highest gear change, fastest belt speed ratio, turned it on and tensioned the belt it was running true and level but I did notice it was really screaming. at least 2000+ rpms.  I didn't want to wreck anything so I slapped my cool new Emergency Stop button.  The 618 doesn't have a locking collar or anything so when the motor stopped the drive line slowed really quick, the chuck didn't and came off flying at my head.  I reflex  slapped it away from hitting me in the FACE, so a few stitches and a really bruised hand and here I sit a year later on a really cold Sunday morning, sharing with you what I found out not to do.



I was young, maybe 12, and was cutting up some scrap iron.  I tried to cut a piece of cast iron to no avail, gave up and grabbed it without a glove to re-position it.


----------



## Braeden P (Mar 8, 2021)

I was welding without gloves and I grabbed the piece to move it, that was hot but I did not get burned.

Just the other day I was carving wood with my friend  in his garage and I went to half close the valve on the wood stove that thing was hot! so now we use gloves.


----------



## Peyton Price 17 (Mar 8, 2021)

Don't grab fiberglass, my school has trays and the resin cracked off and I got a couple of 0.5 to 1-inch long fiberglass splinters. didn't see the missing resin and still have some in my hand from Tuesday, almost a week now.


----------



## macardoso (Mar 8, 2021)

Peyton Price 17 said:


> Don't grab fiberglass, my school has trays and the resin cracked off and I got a couple of 0.5 to 1-inch long fiberglass splinters. didn't see the missing resin and still have some in my hand from Tuesday, almost a week now.


I did a bunch of carbon fiber layups in college for a project team I was on. Those are also brutal. I do not envy you.


----------



## Peyton Price 17 (Mar 8, 2021)

macardoso said:


> I did a bunch of carbon fiber layups in college for a project team I was on. Those are also brutal. I do not envy you.


I also have a steel chip in my finger joint. have to wait until I get home to remove it. didn't rust yet but I have my tetanus shot.


----------



## macardoso (Mar 8, 2021)

Peyton Price 17 said:


> I also have a steel chip in my finger joint. have to wait until I get home to remove it. didn't rust yet but I have my tetanus shot.


Luckily you won't get tetanus from chips in the home shop. The bacteria typically comes from manure so rusty metal near farms is the risk.

I was out doing some whitewater kayaking and stepped on a rusty haybailing staple (18" long) under a pile of leaves and mud on the side of the river. Went through my shoe, dry suit, entire foot, dry suit again, and the top of my shoe! I pulled it out and still had 8 miles to paddle. Got myself to a WV hospital for a tetanus shot (oh boy the real ones hurt, nothing like the booster). I still have that saved somewhere.


----------



## Peyton Price 17 (Mar 8, 2021)

I remember getting the shot when I was little, the booster feels like riding a bike down my local park and the stinging feeling in my arm. ( apart from going over the bars and hitting a tree) but goes away after a couple of days.


----------



## C-Bag (Mar 10, 2021)

Packard V8 said:


> It's only by blind luck that I've made it seventy-five years with all my digits and most of my senses.
> 
> 1. Assume every gun is loaded.
> 2. Assume every machine wants to hurt you each time you approach it.
> ...


Such sage advise. I was lucky to have early shop teachers who deeply instilled respect bordering on fear of machinery. So I make sure I’m hyper aware of myself and my surroundings. My near misses have been seeing others are doing something dangerous and stupid and getting the hell outta there.

I was doing a special project for my auto shop class in college. So I was the only one luckily working on an automatic transmission halfway back into the rows of steel tables. There was this guy working on the trans test stand dyno that had a little Ford 4cyl engine that powered it. There was no transmission hooked up but there was a torque converter mounted to the engine. I guess the guy was doing something to tune the engine as he was revving and messing about with it, which the placard on it says not to do. I had been keeping a wary eye on him and had just come back from the tool crib which was like 10’ away from the tool crib when there was this huge bang! Followed by 4 more in rapid succession, then this howling growl that went on and on.

 I picked myself up off the floor as I’d automatically ducked and Mr. Rev to Repair was still standing by test stand gawking at the big metal cabinet next to the tool crib(where I’d just been)where the torque converter was spinning away with it grinding into the wall and cabinet. When it had come off the flex plate it had hit the wall, bounced across and hit the table, bounced back and hit the wall in next to the tool crib then back in front of the tool crib and into the cabinet. That would have maimed or possibly killed somebody no problem.

 I have other stories worse than that so that’s why I got kinda over revved when somebody implied that safety is a personal choice in another thread. One guy got killed, basically his head taken off because he would not use the OSHA approved cage for inflating tires and one of the old type of steel retainer rings blew off and took his head off. Right next to the cage.


----------



## Lo-Fi (Mar 10, 2021)

I've watched a guy power plane the end of his fingers off. He was repeatedly told not to hold the work in his hand for that very reason. It was like something from a horror movie! All because he was too lazy to clamp it.

Tips from personal experience... 

Wear earplugs when welding under a car. Molten drops in the ear are horrible.

Wear safety glasses under your welding helmet. Might just mean the difference between a flash and actual arc eye.

A leather apron may save you many sets of overalls and a burnt crotch when welding, grinding or cutting in awkward positions. 

Assume that that angle grinder actively wants to kill or maim you. Only use it without the guard when there's no other choice and under extreme caution. Same goes with the handle. A mate of mine nearly died from blood loss from cutting the big artery in his leg. He was using a 9" cutting wheel without the handle, it bit, flipped, and he didn't have enough control to stop it going through his overalls, jeans and leg. Luckily his other half found him passed out and bleeding profusely. Give the grinder the same respect as a chainsaw! He's since nearly lost a thumb from a 4.5" grinder...

Have your phone near if working alone on anything. It might make all the difference if you're trapped or immobilised. Was a YouTuber last year - I forget who - that got pulled into his lathe chuck and trapped, unable to free himself for an extended period. If he'd had his phone handy, he'd have been able to call for help.


----------



## rabler (Mar 25, 2021)

I've never been risk adverse, as I have a motorcycle, horses including several stallions, use to own a single engine airplane and flight instruct, etc, ...
But there were a couple things that happened when I was young that taught me respect for reasonable caution.

In grade school, a friend of mine got pulled into a tractor PTO and killed.  I didn't see it, but it gave me a respect for anything like a rotating shaft/lathe, and the general idea that these things can kill you.

Later, in high school,  I earned gas money by helping my father on the occasional weekend call when the assistant was off duty.  The standard $100 for a couple hours work was good money for a high school kid in the 70's.  My father was (now retired but still around) a pathologist and medical examiner in Minnesota.  First autopsy I saw was a guy that had been using a tractor to try to pull a stuck bulldozer out of the mud.  The gasoline tractor had flipped on him, ignited, and burned his legs so badly that you could see part of his thigh bones.  I commented on the thigh bones to my father, who stoically picked up the guy's chart, and noted that the guy had survived in the hospital for three days and probably had been conscious for at least part of that time.

  I've gotten away with stupid more than once, but I try not to tempt Murphy.  Teaching new pilots, _one thing I learned about human nature was that getting away with something three or four times is enough for most people to start to feel at a gut level like that activity is safe._   I liked to point out that Russian roulette with one bullet in a revolver is usually safe by that metric.   Use your head, try not to be stupid!


----------



## Packard V8 (Mar 25, 2021)

rabler said:


> I've never been risk adverse, as I have a motorcycle, horses including several stallions, use to own a single engine airplane and flight instruct, etc, ...


Safe is not an absolute.  Having flown and ridden, you're no doubt aware there are the rare few who can routinely accomplish maneuvers which would leave the vast majority of those of us less talented/less experienced in a smoking ruin.

Recently, I watched a professional arborist walk up a 100'-tall pine and in thirty minutes, have it limbed and on the ground in 10' sections.  Same day, I also watched a neighbor put himself in the hospital while cleaning leaves out of his gutter.

Back when I thought I was a racer, I attended a Porsche-sponsored track day.  I was going as fast as that car could lap when I was passed by one of the instructors with a student driver beside him.  As any racer knows, him loaded with an additional 200# should have made that impossible.  I tucked in behind him and could keep up for one lap, but I scared myself too many times doing so.  He had so much track time, he knew that car and that track; he knew what, when and where and I was just hoping and guessing.  As Harry says, "A man's got to know his limitations."

jack vines


----------



## Suzuki4evr (Mar 25, 2021)

Lo-Fi said:


> Only use it without the guard when there's no other choice and under extreme caution.


Not even then.


----------

