Safety

[TxRedneck]

Hey y'all,
I was recently injured on the job. It was pretty major for the fact I am looking at a full recovery and all. ANyway, it has made me think we really ought to have a safety section on this forum, although I have agreed, and still do theres a lot of excess on the forum arleady, a safety section or even if we label it up to a sticky or something not sure hwo the software permits. Safety is soo important. Even when you are doing things about as safe as possible, accidents still happeen. ITs awful. Anyway, I had a cutoff wheel on a grinder blow apart and tear into my leg. Did some damage, 4.5in surface gash. IT went pretty deep too. But dint hit anything importnat...just muscle. Welding can be very dangerous! Ive also in my career suffered from metal fume fever. Ive also gotten metal frag into my eye. Im a freakin mess I know, but if your not doing things right,and being as safe as possible accidents do happen. I just want to imprrss upoon my welding friends how dangerous our line of work is. One must always take care. good luck to ya all and stay safe

[chopper5]

hope you get better soon i had a cutoff wheel cut my rist through my slvev and glove and shirt 16 stiches later to stop the blood
chuck

[TxRedneck]

wow chuck, this one gave me 8 stitches for the fascia and 24 above that for the skin. Its a dandy im glad your better now

[chopper5]

thanks it cut the lenght of my rist the doc said if i was trying to off my self that
was the way to do it ,get this it did not cut my shirt glove or sleve
just me i new i got hit and my arm hurt so i took off my glove and moved my sleve and watched the blood spirt ,wen i got back from the hospital i went to get me a new wheel and my boss had trashed all of them he said thay were to dangerous i told him dude i have used em for years and this is the first time i ever got hurt by one **** happens no matter how carefull you are ,
but you should look out at all times machines dont care if you get hurt or killed
chuck

[WulfGSXR]

A fifteen foot fall off of a ladder that folded sideways on me ended up in L4 L5 discs being ruptured and S1 nerve damage. Six months of being laid up and year and half of rehab. Accidents can happen in a blink of a eye but crappy work conditions don't help prevent preventable situations. Cheap iron companies need to be ran out of business in my opion.

[TxRedneck]

Yeah I admit this was to a large degree that same problem Wulf is descirbing. The company has plasma cutters. We had three in the main shop. Now there is one. For all these guys theres no way. I had a pretty big box to cut, so I used the cut off. Well big mistake. It binded in between metal and shattered. I knew better, but then again your limited to the tools you have available in the timeframe alloted. Go figure

[Sandy]

I see folks grab the Harbor Frieght cut offs by the handfull because they are cheap. There's little to no web in those things. Probably put together with hide glue. Accident waiting to happen.

I've had one cut off fly apart and it smacked my leg flat ways. Thought I'd been shot. Welt about an inch high. I buy well known brand names form now on. No more problems.

HF wire wheels throw steel darts that will penetrate 1/4 inch into your leg, can't imagine what that would do to an eye. Got about 45 minutes out of one of their wire cups once. Picked daggers for a month. Enough for me.

[smithboy]

Chris...what the heck!?!? I didnt realize that could happen with one of those things. Dang! I have never had a cutoff or grinding wheel do anything but get smaller slowly. I guess 10,000+ rpms is MUCH more dangerous that I ever thought. I always use a full-face shield when cutting or grinding, but now I am not sure that would be close to adequate to stop a projectile like hit you. I guess I need get some hocky goalie gear and opt for the best wheels I can find.

[PAToyota]

Not pointing fingers. Just wondering, though. Did you have the safety guard on the grinder? I thought the guard was too much trouble until I had a cutoff wheel explode. Luckily the shrapnel embedded itself in things other than me! I'm a bit more careful about my grinder now.

[TxRedneck]

lmao Dont worry smitty...well maybe you should..but perhaps Ill explain my circmstances might breathe a sigh of relief. Ok, I was using the biggest mother I could find a 7in cut off. I was also ising a 5 in dewalt. The blade/wheel binded and with a 4.5 in this would mean total disentegration..but before that the motor would have bogged down and the rpms of the wheel at breakapart speed wouldnt have been as fast. The 5in never even slowed a wimper....well further the thing was right near my leg...like prolly too close...but with a grinder this big, and how critical this cut was...I really needed to brace myself. Well all in all its a freak accident and im going in the morning for surgery. I guess something was cut that originally wasnt thought to have been. I think its bad timeing and bad luck. Anyway, I will be a lot more nervous and careful around these things in the future. Im still having flashbacks and nightmares but ill get over it. I always do. I value what you think smitty, but of course the laws of physics dont. all the same, im glad youre getting to hear this from me. Hopefully it will be a tool for you with regards to safety when getting the oppurtunity to either teach or atleast pass knowledge on to others. I know you will be granted these oppurtunities. We tend to be granted oppurtunities to teach safety a lot more often then we usually realize we are. We take for granted that things will always be as they always were. Infortunately, as Ive said before despite all science and engineering of our modern welding world, the welding codes are in all actualality a history book of failures and finding things that so far havent failed. If we look at any one welding code we find a book of accidents. Some without injury to human life, and some with great. This will never go down in AWS D1.1 code book, but its still a lesson for all to learn. Hope someone else learns from my set back Again in themorning I go in for surgery so wish me luck and incase I miss y'all till then Merry christmas and a happy new year...for those who dont celebrate christmas hope you have a happy celebration of whatever your religoous or cultural traditions grant you.

[TxRedneck]

pat, sorry you are prolly right a safety guard would have helped...not really sure how much...maybe entiredly, possibly not. However, this is a shop owned grinder. Kind of stuck if I want to work at this shop and use their tools I use the tools in the condition they are in. Ive never worked in a shop with safety guards except when osha was present...big construction jobs. I had a smaller grinder and kept the guard on part of the time...but it got taken off...then they burned the lil guy out. So I was given an older(anything but brandnew out of the box) dewalt 5inch. I dont think the guard would ever have left the box on this one....just cause thats how they do it around this place. ITs infortuantate but it happens. One of lifes little lessons. I have had them peel apart on me btw. This is just the first time they tore a strap outta me. Ok, enougn of my ramblings y'all take care

[WulfGSXR]

Best wishes with the surgery. Its done before you blink at least my two surgeries seemed that way. Also doctors have away of over eggagerating the loss of movement or mobility. So If I were you I wouldn't worry to much about that, if that is your situation.
Merry Yuletide

[PAToyota]

TxR, best of wishes on your surgery and recovery. I know all too well the difference between "production" and "OSHA" methods... I also can say that most (if not all) of the serious accidents I have seen resulted from some extremes in the previous category...

OSHA gets pretty ridiculous about some things. But I've reached that age where I try to take a good hard look at what could possibly go wrong before I start working and take the proper precautions. I know it has saved me a number of times and I also know that the times I've been in a hurry and haven't taken that step have been when the injuries do occur.

The worker's own mind is the first piece of safety gear out there.

[ctardi]

You do know that it is your responsibility not to use the tools without safety equiptment, right? And it is the employers responsibility to provide the safety gear.

[orphan68]

Best wishes on your surgery and for a speedy recovery.

as for:

"You do know that it is your responsibility not to use the tools without safety equipment, right? And it is the employers responsibility to provide the safety gear."

Yes it's true, but I worked at a place where it didn't matter. If you were told to do something, you had better do it. I got into a fight with the supervisor over this and was told that if I didn't do as I was told, I would suffer serious consequences. Well, I went straight to the safety coordinator and he backed me up 100%. The next day I was told to go to the supervisors office. He had a written warning for me and told me that next time I did not follow orders, I would be terminated. Well, I went to HR and plead my case. I did not get the warning in my record, but a week later was transfered to nights, eventhough when I was hired, it was with the understanding, in writing, that I could not work nights. 1 month later, a whole bunch of us got laid off because the plant was moving operations. Just about all of us that got laid off were the guys that would not do work in unsafe conditions. I still won't to this day, but as you can see, it does has its consequences, depending on who you are dealing with.

Enough of my sob story.

[Hyjnx]

Two days before thanksgiving I was grinding on something wearing safety glasses, and still got a piece a metal in my eye, the safety glasses I was using were my safety glasses from when I was in the Marine Corps 21yrs ago, the Poindexter's, not long on fashion or safety... I went to the eye doc to get the metal out of my eye and it wound up to be a big deal, it was embedded in my eye and had to be dug out, when they drilled a little hole in it so any remaining metal wouldent rust in my eye... kinda scary missed a day and a half of work, so all in all it was about a eight hundred dollar F*#@ up... also what Sandy said about the harbor freight cuttoff wheels is the truth they are JUNK.. I have been peppered by them to many times.. I have several left over that I refuse to use..... since this I have bought new glasses and a face shield.... safety first.... heal up Chris
Have a Merry Christmas Marty

[Boss Cooker]

You are all on the money about safety. Here is what happened to me. On Oct 1st I was using a grinder with a dewalt 4.5 inch wheel. It exploded tearing off the guard, and peices hitting my gloved right hand. End of the day spent having sugery to repair my index finger using pins and screws. Then two months in a cast. Good thing I'am a lefty. Still working on getting my hand to flex and grip.
Have found out that exploding wheels aren't uncommon. Guess I was luckey.

[CarterKraft]

I had a grinding wheel come apart and drive itself to the hand that was holding the piece being ground, it then cut off the tip of my thumb before leaving the work piece.

My dad had a cutoff wheel shatter and hit him in the cheek.

You can never be too safe.

[TxRedneck]

thanks all. Im healing up. no more staples. walking on my own
considering a new job

[zapster]

i have a permanant seargents stripe on my left arm
courticy of getting my jacket tangled up in a engine lathe...

damn near ripped my arm off and beat me to death with it...

but 20 yrs later all is well...

be very careful around machinery that has no mercy for metal...let alone flesh and tissue..

you are no match for it


and it dont say "im sorry" to you as you lie bleeding on the floor...


...zap!

[TxRedneck]

....................

[BBchevy396]

.....................

[TxRedneck]

....................

[zapster]

what exactly does all that mean?

...zap!

[TEK]

[QUOTE=zapster]what exactly does all that mean?

What exactly does THAT mean?