Workshop tips and tricks

[marlinspike]

Thinking about that photo on here of a guy's face after his angle grinder kicked back into it is usually enough to make me take extra care with power tools.

At school the woodwork teacher told us that if you cut your wrist with a chisel or saw, the blood would spurt out with such force that it would hit the ceiling. Probably not true, but it scared me enough to take extra care around blades.

 

[eSCHEn]

When you work with a knife pulling towards you wear protection on your groin and upper leg. You don't get very long if you hit the femoral artery...

 

[anto44]

Always think about whats going to happen to metal as you cut it, which way is going to bend/fall when you cut it. Seen loads of near misses with grinders caused by the metal being cut pinching the blade or twisting it because both sides of the cut weren't supported properly

 

[Liquid Metal]

Always think about whats going to happen to metal as you cut it, which way is going to bend/fall when you cut it. Seen loads of near misses with grinders caused by the metal being cut pinching the blade or twisting it because both sides of the cut weren't supported properly

Excelent point that, also a post above that says about somebody putting a circ saw blade in a 9" grinder...... I saw something once, on one of the 24hr A&E type programs, a guy decided to do exactly that, to cut apart a set of bunk beds.
Cutting through the legs, as was in one piece, low and behold blade pinched, grinder kicked, span 360 deg hitting him in the stomach.
After hearing him scream and then crying out for help before he fell unconscious, his wife ran upstairs to find him lying on his back on their kids floor with his bowels and god knows what else lying beside him. Apparently it looked like a scene from a horror movie.
If I remember rightly though, thanks to paramedics and doctors at the hospital im sure he survived it??? Long time ago i saw it, just the post by mrfuzzy reminded me of it lol
Some people really do some stupid things

 

[Keith 66]

Always think where the sparks are going from your grinder & what might be laying in the spark zone. A bloke i worked with ignited a bucket of acetone once. Not to be outdone i set of a one pound tin of curtis & harvey blackpowder. Think i have told the story on here before, It was rather exciting.

 

[Maker]

Something my cousin told me to do with his Snap on stuff is to keep a clean cloth and some WD40 on the toolbox and always wipe whatever you're putting away, even if your hands are clean. I'd never given it any thought before but now I do it with all my tools.

 

[Liquid Metal]

Oh My Good Gracious Je Fuc wept!!!!!!

How stupid can a person possibly get???
That heavy that they dont want it damaging their floor so they get a young kid to hold it????
Who the hell could be so impossibly stupid to even think up an idea like that, let alone consider it!!!

Ok the lad should hav said no he wasnt doing it, but no doubt going by the majority of company owners Ive worked for, and amount of times ive heard young yard lads told it, he was probably told "well if you wont do it, theres the door, ill employ somebody who will", and they probably took the attitude of "Oh well, were gonna have to put an add in the Job centre" and thought of the lad as just a payroll number!! Despite the fact that the poor kid will probably spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, they probably saw it as an inconvenience that made the job run a few days over budget.

Ok I dont know the guvnors of the firm he worked for, and cant tar them all with the same brush, but the type of people who run businesses only do it to line their own pockets, not for anybody elses benefit.

People like that get on my last nerve, and even writing this is winding me up now lol

 

[Liquid Metal]

Always think where the sparks are going from your grinder & what might be laying in the spark zone. A bloke i worked with ignited a bucket of acetone once. Not to be outdone i set of a one pound tin of curtis & harvey blackpowder. Think i have told the story on here before, It was rather exciting.

I bet it was lol

 

[anto44]

Seen a few car batteries explode from grinder sparks, they make a proper bang

 

[MattF]

Some one mentioned, never put your fingers into anything or anywhere you wouldnt put your willy in--

Makes you wonder if any proctologists have ever been taught that saying.

 

[mcostello]

Ya have to watch the proctologists, if You happen to notice both hands on Your shoulders during an exam................

 

[MattF]

Something my cousin told me to do with his Snap on stuff is to keep a clean cloth and some WD40 on the toolbox and always wipe whatever you're putting away, even if your hands are clean. I'd never given it any thought before but now I do it with all my tools.

It's a good thing to do. Some people have a very corrosive touch, so to speak. It's good form regardless though. For how long it takes to give a tool a quick wipe, there's no reason not to wipe and remove any crap which may have taken hold. Ring spanners, sockets etc. are prime examples. They pick up crud in the V's during use like nobody's business.

 

[MattF]

One guy took hold of the handle on my fly press, fiddled with it then put his finger under the business end to show his wife what it does swinging the lever to show her the movement in the tool.
I was dying to flip the handle with my elbow. he even got shirty with me when I questioned what he was doing.

On the flip side of that point, sometimes a controlled demonstration can save grief down the line. People are far less likely to shove fingers in places once they know from experience that it can inflict pain quite easily.

 

[Spark plug]

I just can't understand some peoples stupidity, and disregard for the safety of others.

 

[colnerov]

Some one mentioned, never put your fingers into anything or anywhere you wouldnt put your willy in

Stan

Even if you do put "it" where it's supposed to be, there is no guarantee that there won't be trouble

Colin

 

[Moosevan]

On the flip side of that point, sometimes a controlled demonstration can save grief down the line. People are far less likely to shove fingers in places once they know from experience that it can inflict pain quite easily.

Only problem comes when the guy doing the controlled demo removes his own brain / is an arrogant idiot / shows off...

Many years ago, as a newly appointed teacher in a very 'posh' school near a big hill in Somerset, I was instructed that I MUST use my first 'free' period (day 2 of the new term) to observe the "H&S demo lesson" by my Head of Department (in the days when school DT departments had 'proper' kit) as part of my 'induction training'. Most of the lesson went ok & the kids were suitably "focussed". When he got to the floor standing pillar drill (running at about 80 rpm as I recall) he placed a piece of cloth loosely round his neck to show the kids what could happen to a school tie - BUT HE ALSO LEFT HIS OWN TIE DONE UP TIGHT underneath the cloth...

After his tie had been snatched by the drill & I'd managed to hit the stop button BEFORE he rearranged arm & face, he asked me to finish the lesson while he 'sorted some paperwork' in the office. He never forgave me for telling him he was a "Bl**dy lucky d**khead" after the lesson. It took me three days to figure out that job/school wasn't for me. I resigned without a job to go to & ended up with a much better one for the next 6 years.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Only problem comes when the guy doing the controlled demo removes his own brain / is an arrogant idiot / shows off...

Many years ago, as a newly appointed teacher in a very 'posh' school near a big hill in Somerset, I was instructed that I MUST use my first 'free' period (day 2 of the new term) to observe the "H&S demo lesson" by my Head of Department (in the days when school DT departments had 'proper' kit) as part of my 'induction training'. Most of the lesson went ok & the kids were suitably "focussed". When he got to the floor standing pillar drill (running at about 80 rpm as I recall) he placed a piece of cloth loosely round his neck to show the kids what could happen to a school tie - BUT HE ALSO LEFT HIS OWN TIE DONE UP TIGHT underneath the cloth...

After his tie had been snatched by the drill & I'd managed to hit the stop button BEFORE he rearranged arm & face, he asked me to finish the lesson while he 'sorted some paperwork' in the office. He never forgave me for telling him he was a "Bl**dy lucky d**khead" after the lesson. It took me three days to figure out that job/school wasn't for me. I resigned without a job to go to & ended up with a much better one for the next 6 years.

The school that has its own stables?

 

[Moosevan]

I wouldn't like to say... in case I might incinerate (or was that incriminate?) myself... arrogant bunch though buying up most of the town in the 80's 'expansion program'

Was funny when they bought the farm below the Tor, expecting to use it immediately w/o change of use planning & they were refused by the Council (and then the travellers moved in & squatted for about 8 months)!

 

[Robotstar5]

My uncle was a fitter at a sewing factory before they all moved away. The company he worked for had an automatic £50 compensation, if a worker got a needle through their finger. He says some workers would do it on purpose regularly.

At the foundry in the 70's one guy would "accidentally" leave a finger on top of the moulding box as it went up to compress the sand just to get the compo when he was short of money , when I saw him, he was missing 2 fingers from one hand and one from the other.

 

[Spark plug]

At the foundry in the 70's one guy would "accidentally" leave a finger on top of the moulding box as it went up to compress the sand just to get the compo when he was short of money , when I saw him, he was missing 2 fingers from one hand and one from the other.

Some people are beyond comprehension.