Thread: safety

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Hey i just thought i would give a public service anouncment about safety, Me being the dumbass thought it would be a good idea to do some grinding without the proper face shield, you know what i was thinking (ive done it a million times) well this time i went and got a small spark in the eye, that lodged a piece of metal. After a day of irritation, and thinking it would come out on its own, i finally went to the doc, where much to my great dismay, he had to scrape my eye to get it out, now thanks to my own stupidity im going to lose a couple of days of precious build time,so my thought for the day , is be safe out there,would not want any of you to go through that

The owner at my favorite fabrication shop lost an argument recently between his body and his bench grinder. The story he told me was that he leaned a bit to close and his t-shirt caught on the grind wheel and pulled him (he is not a small man if you catch my drift) into it......Left a nice little gouge in his chest that required 20+ stitches to close up...If it was not for his wife coming in to bring him dinner and yank the power cord out of the wall, it could have been a lot worse................

I used to be the dumbest guy going when it came to shop safety, but 3 or 4 trips to the emergency room to get steel slivers out of your eye tend to wake you up. I thought nothing of grinding or cutting something with no safety glasses on, but the time the emergency room Doctor told me if I hadn't come in when I did that I would have gone blind in 24 hours, it made me rethink my dumbness.

My Son had to go in once where they actually had to grind on his eyeball to get the piece out, and another time a chopsaw cut his leg really badly, requiring lots of stitches. I can't count how many times he has set himself on fire cutting or welding something. (Isn't that spark down in ear a pleasant little thing? )

The fact is, we car builders/fixers work with tools that can hurt or kill you in a heartbeat. Everytime we fire up one of them we have to be aware of the dangers and do everything we can to protect ourselves. Here in Florida we tend to work in just shorts, because of the heat in the shop, so there is a lot of exposed skin to get damaged.

I think this is an excellent thread, because it is so important. I now have safety goggles and faceshields stategically placed in our shop so one is always at hand when you need them. I have also started buying cotton work gloves by the box, because those pesky little steel slivers you get in your fingers are a pain in the butt, too.

Excellent thread, Hotroddaddy.


Don

I try to wear leather gloves in the shop as I seem to get more burns than I care to mention. The thing that realy hurts is the sparks from welding or burning going into the top of a gym shoe . I went out last night and bought a new pair of work boots so no more burnt feet. ( I hope)

Great idea to post on safety hotroddaddy. Too often we dont think. I too had rust in one of my eyes and endured it 2 days before going to the walk-in clinic. Why had I bought a face shield for if I was to leave it on the wall.
A guy I know temporarily fixed his acetylene hose with a clip at the handle.It got him out of the bind but it became a permanent fix until it leaked and caught fire. Luckily he was not alone when it happened and the others turned the tanks off and drove him to the hospital. Let me tell you that the month off work, the risk of infection and overall danger smarten him up.
You're right Itoldyouso when you state; "we car builders/fixers work with tools that can hurt or kill you in a heartbeat. Everytime we fire up one of them we have to be aware of the dangers and do everything we can to protect ourselves". I couldn't say it any better there is certainly no room for negligence.

Those grinders can hurt. Few year back I was grinding a file down to make into a small extractor tool when the file broke at the end and I was leaning to heavy on it and it pulled my finger down and took off my nail along with part of my finger. Not pleasant but learned a good lesson. Now when I grind and don't lean into the part I'm grindiing on. I let the machine do the work.

Here's an oldie in a similar vein; http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/sho...9943#post39943

We have a guy in the shop that got his finger caught in an end mill. He can only count to 9 1/2 now.

Just an additional note of caution on a safety item that probably not many of you concern yoursef with.... This just happened to me on Thursday morning. I was installing the trans cooler on my pickup and rolled under the truck on my creeper, drilled the holes and bolted it up. As I was rolling out from under the truck, my ponytail got tangled up in the creeper wheels!!! Took me about 10 minutes to get off the creeper and untangle my hair!!! Got to remember to tuck my ponytail in my T-shirt after this!!!

Ok, it did happen and it's funny. But doing things safely in the shop isn't a laughing manner. I've had a friend die when his cheapy cheapy stamped steel jackstands broke and a '66 Caddy fell on him. Another friend is missing an eye from a hot spark while grinding, and yet another had 80 some stitches in his chest and arm when he was hanging over the fender revving the engine and the clutch fan blew up. Hot Rodding and Racing our toys is great fun, don't screw it all up because you think safety gear is for sissies!!!!!!

Thats funny you should mention the weather here in florida, and wearing shorts, im always guilty of welding without sleaves on, i tig weld alot so i dont worry about sparks ,but that flash burn can be a real pain,the weirdest thing ,i got my new garage about a month ago, so the first thing i did was paint the walls and floor white,to look kinda clean, so the first time i fired up the new tig machine,the reflection off the paint burned my face under my hood, i guess it got so bright behind me cause the paint it in turn reflected off the inside of my lense, by the way after another visit to the doc today and lots more eye drops my eye is better thank god, ill try not to do that one again

I got a chip of grindstone in my eye years ago, can still see it up and to the right in bright sunlight. Getting smaller though!

Could have burned to death.....cutting torch under the truck and wearing a polyester work suit...caught myself on fire, my son was right there to put me out.....could have been fatal.....been to the eye doctor several times to remove shrapnel from my eyes.....rusted in....wrapped up a shirt in an angle grinder.....could have choked me to death......

Thanks for this thread.......

well i will add to this i have had my eyes burnt from hot steel from a mig welding and from gas welding put a line rigth down the middle with the mig and burnt a small hole in my eye gass welding not on the lens. i have have them pick with a needles and the small dumore grinder the first time they did this to me they did not numb it. have not add it up but 4 times for hot steel and many times for steel over 5 times and all the time i had glass on and one time i was washing my hair and some steel fell out of my hair and went right in my eye . i now i wear a welding hat if i do any welding or grinding but the last time i was so happy i had them on .i have a belt sand with a belt on one side and a 8 inch disc on the other side i am using the belt and i hear tinny sound look over and the disc came off and hit me right in the face it hit me good the one side of my face was scratch abit not bad but it felt like at first it took my lip and cut it in 1/2 but did not just cut it abit i was so happy i could see and my face was not all cut up to bad but when i pick the glass off the ground i got sick the hole one side of the glasses was ground up the lens look like you just put it thru a ginder if i did not have them on i would not have a eye and some of my face i now am 42 and so thankfull i still have my eyes

Jeez Pat, it sounds like you should be older......like 90......

i had a gas welding set when i was 12 i forgot the time i brunt my eyelashes off .nope but i have the body of a 70 year old no joke