Goofs & Blunders You Should Avoid.

rwdenney said:
My lesson for May:

I was welding up the front brush guard of my church's tractor, and needed to smooth my craptastic 6011 stick welding down a bit. Couldn't get a flap sander into the spot, so I used a carbide burr on a die grinder.

Carbide burr grinders make 2.4 bazillion needle-sharp chips every second and a half. They are like living nanobots seeking to embed themselves into the nearest human as part of a plan to take over the world. The mistake is: Don't use welding jig magnets when making those sorts of chips. It's been a couple of weeks, and I'm still digging chips out of my fingers using my very expensive watchmaker tweezers. The chips stand straight up on the magnet with the sharpest point aimed out, turning the magnet into a chia-pet porcupine. Next time, the magnets get moved to a different building and the burr gets used only when the chips can be aimed right into a shop vac.

But there was a good trick I learned: The kind of duct tape that uses that worthless gooey adhesive that has no redeeming qualities whatsoever works pretty well at pulling sharp chips off a magnetic welding jig.

Rick "20x microscope and sharp tweezers getting a lot of use this week" Denney
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I despise my carbide burrs for the same reasons. There's absolutely no way to not get a couple metal splinters when using them. They even penetrate clothing to find the "liquid red" inside. Even weeks later, I'm still finding steel needles all over. Sometimes on the floor, sometimes on the bench and sometimes when I put on a shirt weeks later (after several washings) and I still get "poked". I actually root through my dresser now for shirts I can throw away after using the carbide burrs rather than trying to wash them. Probably better for the washer too.....

There's times when nothing else will do and you're forced to use the burr, but I do everything in my power to NOT have to use them.....
 
I have an auxiliary workbench outside the shop, roofed over with a dirt floor. I regularly blow or sweep off the bench.
I've learned to use the burrs out there - The deadly little needles just rust away to nothing, pretty quickly.
 
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wayback machine said:
I have an auxiliary workbench outside the shop, roofed over with a dirt floor. I regularly blow or sweep off the bench.
I've leaned to use the burrs out there - The deadly little needles just rust away to nothing, pretty quickly.
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Decent idea, but I have dogs so that wouldn’t work.

truthfully, I’m more worried about the dogs somehow getting a burr shard that myself. At least I can do something about it if I get stuck, but I have to hope I notice my dogs limping or something like that if they somehow get stuck. It’s probably the main reason I avoid the carbide burrs if at all possible…
 
We used to have little dogs with a lot of hair between their toes - NOT fun pulling sand spurs (A nasty plant we have here) out, with them trying to bite you, the whole time.
I can imagine steel splinters being worse ........... No, on second thought, I don't want to imagine it.
 
Didn't know where to post this.. But I hope it at least makes you aware of the possibilities.
The wife sent this to me... Obviously she wants me to play with my tools while it's lightning out... ;)

abc7ny.com

Lightning strikes man inside Cranford, NJ home

Officials say the victim was using a power tool when a lightning strike occurred.
abc7ny.com abc7ny.com
 
I have seen first hand what a direct lightening strike can do. A friend had a small TV repair shop and lightning hit his outside antenna. It travelled down the twin lead, jumped to the power circuit, and blew a silver dollar sized hole in the breaker box. A fire ensued, caught the the styrofoam insulation in the ceiling, and totaled his store.

A good practice whenever lightning is in close proximity (5 sec. or less between the flash and the thunder) is to stay away from anything withwires attached. Aside from anything connected to the mains, this includes land line phones , TV's connected to cable or outside antennas, and audio sound systems.
 
RJSakowski said:
I have seen first hand what a direct lightening strike can do. A friend had a small TV repair shop and lightning hit his outside antenna. It travelled down the twin lead, jumped to the power circuit, and blew a silver dollar sized hole in the breaker box. A fire ensued, caught the the styrofoam insulation in the ceiling, and totaled his store.

A good practice whenever lightning is in close proximity (5 sec. or less between the flash and the thunder) is to stay away from anything withwires attached. Aside from anything connected to the mains, this includes land line phones , TV's connected to cable or outside antennas, and audio sound systems.
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Another good practice is to ground your antenna through a GDT (Gas Discharge Tube). That's actually code in most places, and recommended by antenna manufacturers everywhere, but seldom heeded. Though I've seen a 'professional' installation that was grounded with what must have been 30AWG (tiny) wire, which is nearly pointless.

GsT
 
GeneT45 said:
Another good practice is to ground your antenna through a GDT (Gas Discharge Tube). That's actually code in most places, and recommended by antenna manufacturers everywhere, but seldom heeded. Though I've seen a 'professional' installation that was grounded with what must have been 30AWG (tiny) wire, which is nearly pointless.

GsT
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The old method of grounding was a open air spark gap. The size of wire wouldn't matter much when you're talking about tens of thousands of amps. The wire just vaporizes and the arc discharges along the ionization path. In this case, it didn't matter much as it was the ionization plasma that started the fire.

On a direct strike, there isn't much you can do to protect yourself. A utility pole nearby was by by lightning. The grounding wire survived but the pole is well charred up to around six feet from the ground. I expect that the rain put the fire out, saving the pole. Had that been on the side of a building, it probably would have been a complete loss.
 
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