Thread: safety

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"If I'd known I wuz gonna live this long I'da took better care of myself." We all act like we're Superman, don't we?
When I was about 15, I was going to show some buddies what the mercury in a temp sender looked like. Took a hacksaw and held the sender in my left hand, sawing away with my right. Bells went off in my pea brain when I realised temp senders don't have two long wires attached. Can you say, "blasting cap!"?!!
Rolled out the wires, touched 'em to a car battery. BANG! Looked down at my hands, and apologised to each finger for being an idiot.

Dave Severson brought up a very important point about jackstands. Those cheap stamped ones will sometimes collapse at the worst times. I have had it happen. Now I use only the ones that are cast iron (like 20 ton ones) and these have become inexpensive enough, especially when on sale at places like Harbor Freight. However, I still leave the floorjack under the car at the same time, for extra security.

One other item to keep placed around the shop are fire extinquishers. You can place 3 or 4 of these around in very accessilble places, because anytime you are working with gasoline, or laquer thinner, or whatever, you have the potential for fire.

I also always put a fire extinquisher somewhere in the cockpit of my cars. I have seen quite a few cars burned to a crisp along the interstate over the years, and one time I actually saved a guys truck. I did a U turn in my roadster and put out the fire under his hood. If I hadn't shown up it would have burned to the ground, as all they could do was stand around watching it burn. Even the grass under the truck was on fire.

I think it is also worth mentioning that gas tanks are a particularly dangerous area. One spark while you are removing the tank or working on it and Kabooom. And it isn't the gasoline that gets you, it is the fumes from the gasoline. So a drained tank can be more dangerous than a full tank. I am deathly afraid of gas tanks, and really stress out when I have to work on or around one. I put soapy water into the tank to try to neutralize the residue and leave it uncapped so it can breathe.

Hotroddaddy mentioned getting burned while welding without a protective shirt on. I have gotten quite a few sunburns while doing this. I will be welding for a couple of hours, and when I look in the mirror my chest and arms are beet red. Usually with a white stripe across my chest where my right arm was held on an angle and shielded me. I've only done that like a million times.

Don

And, if you can't find suitable jackstands, make sure the lumber is at least 4 x 4's. Don't use 2 x 4's under any circumstances.

Actually, I pirated this picture from someone else on here awhile ago, but it demonstrates exactly the kind of stupid stuff to avoid.


Don

Flash burns from the TIG and a few forearm brands from hot welding rods when I was in tight spots is about it. I did slip last year while pushing my '34 back in the garage a bit, and my head hit something hard and sharp on the front of the engine and put a nice gash above my right eyebrow. The ER put a butterfly on it, and I was just fine. I always wear safety glasses and shields when I'm grinding.

What amazes me, though, is the number of people on the TV shows who totally violate standard shop rules. They do it on American Hot Rod, American Chopper and Extreme 4x4 all the time. Welding without flash burn protection , welding without eye protection (I'll close my eyes just before I strike the arc) and grinding without safety glasses are the main ones I see. The guys on Horsepower TV never do enough work to be in danger.

I do what we call toolbox safety meetings once a week for all the guys in my work deptments. It seamed to be just another waste of time for everyone involved but, the accident rate is down a bunch. Safety glasses are a must, as are gloves. For you painters wear some eye protection when you paint, this is the second most vulnerable area to ingest the nasties. Stay safe so you can live to build another day.

This is one of those "I've done it a thousand times and besides, it's too much trouble to get to the battery". When the battery cable comes into contact with the steel fuel line, this happens.
I now have a master disconnect located under the hood for the next time. It would have been worse if I hadn't had a 20 year old fire extinguisher handy. It actually worked.

my brother was welding somthing intricute at 1 time and he couldn't see with the standard lense welding helmet so he figured he would just close his eyes, when he got back, he had welders flash, blured tunnel type vision and his eyes were burning clear into the next morning. I use an autodarkening helmet so it's all good for me

FYI
A good remady for welders flash. Of course use a helmet but should you get it, as I have in the past raw potatos sliced and put on your eyes while laying down takes the sting out. I found this out at a hospital about 40+ years ago the hard way. Don't laugh it works.

Reminds me . . . Back in the 70's, I was tuning my GTO. I changed the rear jets in the Holley 3310, which dumps gas all over the manifold. I had been checking the timing with one of the old neon timing lights, and forgot to clean up the gas or disconnect the timing light. When I turned the motor over, the spark from the #1 plug ignited the gas. I went running into the house, and the fire extinguisher wasn't where I put it last. When I asked my wife where it was, she said "what do you need it for?" That question was almost as dumb as my starting the fire in the first place. I ran back outside, grabbed the garden hose and turned it on fine spray. It put the fire out in seconds, but I had to replace all of the wiring on the top of the engine. There was no other damage, but I hate to think what would have happened if the gas line had burned through with a Holley red pump back by the gas tank. Dumb, dumb, dumb . . .

I had the same prob a few yrs back when i was grinding some carbon steel tubing. I had shield on but when i would lift shield up the shaving would fall back onto my forehead and into eyes. After a lot of irritation I also went to doc and he plucked and drilled all shavings out of both eyes I had patches on both eyes for 2 days blind as a bat. I would prever if doing alot of grinding underneath use goggles and shield. I know its uncomfortable, but hell it will save the doc visits and alot of pain..

Some months back ASTER started a thread that dealt with safety ("safety" sounds better than "stupidity") that became a long line of postings by a lot of people, me included, "fessing-up" to really dangerous and unwise things they have done. It might not be a bad idea to re-read these threads occasionally.

Jim

My closest call was when I was replacing the rollers ,idlers and tracks on a D-7 Cat in the bush.
We had the machine jacked up and blocked with some huge wooden blocks.There were a few broken bolts that would have to be drilled out and extracted. I had all my tools all laid out and when I figured I'd head to town to get some eye protection. The boss comes over and asks what the hold up was. I tell him that I'm headed to town to get a set of goggles.
He got pi$$ed at me and said that he would have to do it his self. Well to make a long story short after 2 minutes he got a metal splinter in his eye and had to be rushed to the hosiptal 20 miles away , he was off work for 2 weeks.
Which gave me plenty of time to finish the job

by the way we never mentioned what happened again and I worked for him for 2 more years .

think about safety before starting
hank