Dremelling at 3AM and No Protection....Bad IDEA!

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by killswitch

I've worn corrective glasses since the fourth grade, and they saved my ass a thousand times. Then, while I was tubing my honcho out, I needed to take a hair off of a piece of tubing. I fired the dremel up with a HD cutoff wheel in it and was about to remove the material when this happened...



The cutoff wheel mandrel broke at the edge of the chuck. It hit my glasses so hard I ended up with a black eye. The bit was never dropped, wasn't bent or anything. I still can't figure out why it let go. I always wear safety goggles now.

Holy chit!



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[ghtpdm5]

well, seems like this is a bad idea thread....have a new one for today.

was wiring a live outlet, i know this is a bad idea, but i do it all the time and haven't gotten zapped till today. so here's the advice: watch what you are doing and just turn the breaker off, especially if you have a titanium plate in your hand. just that little zap managed to heat it enough to expand a touch and also tapped right into the nerve that rides on it. we'll see when i get all the remaining feeling back

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by ghtpdm5

well, seems like this is a bad idea thread....have a new one for today.

was wiring a live outlet, i know this is a bad idea, but i do it all the time and haven't gotten zapped till today. so here's the advice: watch what you are doing and just turn the breaker off, especially if you have a titanium plate in your hand. just that little zap managed to heat it enough to expand a touch and also tapped right into the nerve that rides on it. we'll see when i get all the remaining feeling back

Ouch.

Breaker off is nice, mechanics gloves (without holes) or heavier gloves work as well on 110-220VAC.

[ghtpdm5]

yeah, had the gloves sitting on the way from my home tool cart to the outlet in question the thing that really made it hurt was accidently touching the shank on the screwdriver, ran up the middle finger and right into that plate. next time i'm just going to kill the breaker though. in my shed, if i'm doing a lot of electrical work, i'll just kill the main switch, in the house that's not really an option. live and learn, sometimes you're the dog, sometimes the hydrant.

side note, i think the feeling is back, my elbow feels like pins and needles so the finger is back on track. gotta love nerve damage

and safety is a huge thing most of the time for me, its a part of life now. was working on a machine, doing a concave swap for different crops. done this many times in the past , but this time was different. had it just over my head, about six feet off the concrete. lost my balance and *WARNING PICTURES AHEAD* lost my balance. this:



fell on my hand, its about 95 pounds and the edge is a quarter inch blunt blade. these pictures are after the reconstructive surgery, they are not for the squeamish. 67 outer stitches, they lost count on the inners. a titanium plate on the middle finger and 2 roughly 4 inch pins driven through the index down to my wrist. some nerve damage, but no tendon injury.







the point of this post is that complacency during a task that you do very often can result in serious injury. just because you've done the task a hundred times without failure doesn't mean that you can let you guard down.

[OllllO Fanatic]

Originally Posted by THX_138

Heh.... Try cutting and welding steel for a living.

If you get a day without doing a hot foot dance or a full day without a sizzling hot spot somewhere you start to think you won a small lottery

One of life's mysteries of how you can have high top leather fully and tightly laced work boots on with pants that cover 5-6 inches of the top of boot.... And yet STILL find yourself shaking your foot around like you're doing the Hokey Pokey dance at a wedding because that ever familiar smoldering ball of lava has appeared IN your boot and under the sole of your foot.


I hate to admit it, but I have lost count of the times through the years either someone has yelled to me that somewhere on me was on fire, or I found out myself when more smoke then normal was wafting in under my welding helmet


But as for no eye protection......... I have learned my lesson with that a few years ago.

I have never worn eye protection when grinding or similar until this happened....
I was using a 4" wire cup grinder cleaning up a surface. Grinding away.... Wirrr...whizzz... Whirr... If anyone has used these they know what I am talking about next.
They get to the point where the wire wheel starts to wear down enough that it begins to expel random twisty wires from the wheel itself. No big deal... Spent years of doing this, it's a sign that it is time to change to a new wire wheel. But.... You figure you are so close to the end of what you are working on that you simply live with the fact the little 4" twisty stainless steel wires are now shooting out and sticking in your sleeves, pants and shirt on your belly... No biggie, some even poking through enough your feel them on your skin underneath.

Until.......

You get grinding away, twisties are flying out, you turn the air grinder the wrong direction and you think you feel something hit your neck. Without stopping what you are doing, you take your free hand and wipe at your neck and sure enough there are a couple twisties poking in the skin on your neck like head hunter blow darts
Your mind wanders a little and think how lucky you are it was not your eye because you are too stubborn and tough to bother with eye protection.

......

Not even before your mind can finish that last thought...

....flump....

You keep grinding but think oooooooo.... That wasn't actually my eye was it?

In that same thought you briefly close your eyes and sigh for that brief time when you think something bad might have happened and you think you might be regretting things.

Except.....


When I sighed & closed my eyes for that brief moment.... One eye closed and the other one remained opened

Instantly stopped what I was doing and went to the side mirror of my truck.
sure enough.... There is about 3"'s of a twisty wire sticking out of the white part of my left eyeball!!!!
Can't feel it, no part of it hurts, didn't hurt when it hit, can not feel it in there.... Can't leave it there right?
So I shake my gloves off and carefully grab the end of the wire with my fingertips and slowly pull at it will looking in the mirror.
Ever see the eyeball of a cartoon character going round in circles as it watches a fly buzz around it's head? Yep... That was my eyeball .... As I pulled the twisted wire straight out, my eyeball was going round and round in circles as it rode the twisted shape of the wire on the way out!

Didn't hurt going in, didn't hurt while in, didn't hurt coming out... But BOY I'll tell you what.... The very second that thing was out.... I felt like a little school girl and damn near passed out... Got all weak kneed and dizzy enough I HAD to sit before I fell

YES.... I now ALWAYS reach for eye protection.... Lesson learned.

Originally Posted by HARDKNOCKZ

Yup...ya made my butt pucker. Thanks

Ill second the pucker effect. You only get one set of eyes don't take them for granted. I am in the air force and safety is number one above all else. Its annoying sometimes, but when something happens and your safety stuff is on, its a sigh of relief.

[override]

I work in the oilfield and safety is preached to us on a daily basis...Now that doesn't mean that we don't get in situations where safety is nearly completely thrown out the door. Though this is the case we still try and do things as safely as possible. My company (Precision Drilling) has a "Target Zero" safety standard that even preaches safety when your not at work, it is drilled in my head and I am always safety minded in everything I do. I don't always wear my safety glasses and shoes, sometimes I'll be in the house working on something in my PJ's with flip flops on and need to run into the garage to dremel or drill something. I have never personally had an accident with dremel but I have drilled into my hand before and man that shit hurts like a bitch.

This is the way I see it though, you only have one set of eyes...Protect them the best you can cause once there gone you can't get them back. Just imagine one day you decided not to throw your glasses on and you shatter a cutting blade. Pieces fly into your eye or worst case scenario both eyes, well man all I can say is you won't be doing your beloved hobbies anymore. Why take the chance with something so precious? Put that PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) on and don't think twice about it. I know there are days when I am off work and I'll freak sometimes cause my hardhat isn't on, then realize "oh yeah I'm not at work" lol it's just drilled in my head that way to the point it even carries over to my personal life.

I have seen simple safety gear save someone's eyes, feet or even life at times. Hell it's saved me a few times and saved my life once (almost fell out of the derrick but was tied off 100% so I didn't splatter on the ground)

Here is one of the safety poems that hangs in our meeting room:

I could have saved a life that day,
But I choose to look the other way,
It wasn’t that I didn’t care,
I had the time, and I was there.

But I didn’t want to seem a fool,
Or argue a safety rule.
I knew he’d done the job before,
If I called it wrong, he might get sore.

The chances didn’t seem that bad,
I’ve done the same, he knew I had.
So I shook my head and walked on by,
He knew the risks as well as I.
He took the chance, I closed an eye,

And with that act, I let him die.
I could have saved a life that day,
But I choose to look the other way.

Now every time I see his wife,
I know I should have saved his life.
That guilt is something I must bear,
But it isn’t something that you share.

If you see a risk that others take,
That puts their health or life at stake.
The question asked, or thing you say,
Could have them live another day.

If you see a risk and walk away,
Then I hope you never have to say,
I could have saved a life that day,
But I chose to look the other way

[MotoMudder]

That is an amazing poem!

Im gonna steal that, print it out, and put it in my shop.

saftey glasses and leather suits have helped me many times. i still forget the glasses at times, mostly for something 'simple and quick', seems recently i do that and something ends up in my eye.

[override]

I have witnessed guys time and time again on the rigs talking amongst one another...."Hey check this guy out, he is about to eat his shit" or "oh oh oh, he is gonna hit himself" and they never speak up and say anything. It erks me when I see this happen, if I see something that isn't right I stop the job. Anyone has a right to do it, anyone has a right to refuse unsafe work acts. One of out Target Zero rules is "We believe that no task or job is so important that we cannot take the time to do it safely."

I'm glad you like the poem MotoMudder, it is a very good one and really can make you think before you act.

[greene7717]

Seems kinda tame compared to some of these, but I had a wire off of my Dremel wire brush go into my toe. Didn't realize it for a few days, had my wife look at my toe cause it was bothering me and she pulled it out. Hurt more once it was out than it did when it was in...

[Bulldog]

I just stumbled across this thread. I won't recount my numerous incidents over the years, like bouncing a 3 1/2" framing nail off my forehead or letting a powerplaner rip into my quadricep or watching a man slice his face in half with still molten plate glass.

Override's poem was amazing and sobering. I will put this out to anyone who reads this and works with someone (or employees) who won't wear eye protection or if you don't yourself.

In a second you can lose an eye. If you want to experience that, try taping off your eye for ten minutes, half an hour, or even a day and try to do anything you used to do. Now imagine that for the rest of your life. it sinks in really quickly.

Also, the key to having good eye protection is keep them clean, clear and unscratched. Treat them like they are gold and they won't bug you while you're wearing them. Greg

[pajey]

Most of the time I just wear some glasses. Never any shoes.... Hmmm I might have to rethink that. But I never wear shoes or anything else really. Its an oz thing. Haha,

[chattinfarms]

After getting a 3 inch piece of wire wheel lodged in my retina with only about 1 inch exposed you tend to wear safety glasses at all times

[cneill24]

I always have shoes but never eye protection

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[ghtpdm5]

i'm still wearing my oakleys for everyday glasses and a little safety goes a long way. i was under my truck, and being primarily a farm truck, a lot of dirt builds up. was chasing down an electrical gremlin when a huge clump of dirt dropped right onto my face. would of had some nice half inch gravel in my eyes had it not been for my glasses. was also soldering some loose wires under the dash (dodge can't wire to save their damn lives) and had some flux drip right onto the middle of my right glasses lens. that one was probably the scariest of all the eye ones.

one thing i had a run in with recently was chem burn. i poured concrete for 4 summers and never once got burned, so every once in a while i get it in my stupid head that i'm immune to it. well, i was cleaning the terminals of the truck batteries, didn't feel anything wrong until later that night. then i looked down to see a nice chem burn (from seeing other people get nailed) on my chest. looked at the t-shirt i was wearing and what do ya know, a hole right there.

[micro racer]

Wear safety glasses; eyeballs are expensive. Seriously, always wear the proper safety equipment. I am only sixteen, but I have got numerous pieces of shrapnel in various places (including my eyes) from working on stuff with my dad, as well as dropping a ~15 pound steel block on my toe, while wearing running shoes. Yeah, that didn't end well.