Safety - Horror stories and near misses

flutedchamber said:
Was the pistol cocked and locked, or just a round in the chamber with the hammer down? I assume the latter, as I have never seen a 1911 in correct order that would fire from a jar if it was cocked and locked.
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Hammer down with round chambered. This happened over 41 years ago, pistol most likely WWll area .45's. Not modern .45's. And you don't carry a .45 in the Army locked & cocked. Hammer down and no round in the chamber.
 
I've seen plenty of chuck keys and wrenches thrown from machines and even small ones can do a lot of damage. The most spectacular was by a guy running an ID grinder. He left the wrench on the spindle and turned it on. The 5HP spindle luckily threw the wrench straight up, it went through the steel roof of the shop and was never found. I also saw a kid throw a chuck wrench out of a lathe which took out several fluorescent light fixtures above him.

Tom
 
Pretty early on (16 years old, first week in college shop) I managed to get two fingers between a sanding disc and the table (adjusted too far out), trying to sand the edge of a thin piece of ply - That *smarted*. I've been super careful ever since.

Didn't stop a colleague dropping a mill table on my fingers though - still doesn't straighten :(

One thing happening that didn't occur to me, not machine-related, was out shooting with a fellow radio ham who had an Icom handy with him, just to monitor the local 2M repeater and catch someone he needed to talk to.

We were happily banging away at clays when his radio faded, so he swapped batteries and dropped the "flat" one in his trouser pocket - right on top of a 12-bore magnum cartridge...

Can you guess what came next?

The brass base must have made contact with the NiCad terminals, and even flat they can dump well upwards of 30A into a short for a few seconds - enough to touch off a shotgun primer!

After the smoke cleared and he stopped cursing we put some clean cloth over the gouge in his thigh and got off to hospital, luckily the round wasn't pointed a little higher, as his subsequent kid is a nice little chap :)

Dave H. (the other one)
 
I am not going to coment other than to say, Why does a hobby machinist website, responding to a shop accident story end up with more tales of horror involving guns. God Bless America.
 
Steve,

Because many of us are hobby gunsmiths as well?

Tom
 
stevec said:
Great hobby, getting shot.:nuts:
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Steve,

Actually gunsmithing and shooting is a great hobby, but getting shot while doing it is a pretty rare occurrence. Any activity worth doing carries a certain amount of risk; whether it be driving fast cars, using powerful machinery, or shooting guns. The plan is to do it safely, without getting hurt, which is what this thread is all about. ;)

Tom
 
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