Angle Grinder oops

[njl]

Had a close one the other day with the hand held angle grinder. Don't know why but for some stupid reason I had the switch in the on position as a bent down to insert the plug into a trailing extension lead. Well it sprang into life and jerked right out of my hand and fell the short distance to the floor, hitting the ground cutting wheel first. I guess I was very fortunate but I didn't think so at the time, that the spiral bevel gear on the end of the motor shaft instantly shattered and the cutter wheel stopped turning. It could have been very nasty if had kept on spinning, no idea what damage it might have done.

On the plus side I now have a new project waiting for the time when my machining skills improve enough such that I can make a new set of gears for it!

Nick

 

[SAM in LA]

Nick,

Glad you are uninjured.

Angle grinders are carnivors.

They love eating flesh.

SAM

 

[Brian Rupnow]

NJL---Back in the day, about 1980 or so, I used to do a lot of custom hotrod work. I was inside the cab of a 1956 Ford pickup, with my big old 7" black and Decker angle grinder with a 36 grit sanding disc and fibre backing plate on it. I had the interior all stripped out of the truck, and was grinding welds in a new floor pan I had installed. I didn't have much room, and was in a really awkword position, when the friggin electrical cord got caught up in the spinning arbor of the grinder. I had about 20 foot of heavy cord on it, with lots of loose loops laying on the truck floor and trailing out the one open door to an electrical outlet. They were a big heavy grinder, and they had a detent button you could push in to keep it running when you took your finger off the trigger. That damn thing jerked out of my hand and chased me around the inside of the truck like a rabid wolf, taking a bite whenever it connected with me. I swear to God, it must have orbited all the way around the inside of that cab about 4 times before I escaped out the door and yanked the cord out of the wall. Fortunately for me, I had on a pair of heavy coveralls, a thick wool shirt, safety goggles, and a pair of leather welders gauntlets. It only got though to red meat in a couple of places, but scared me so bad I had to go in the house and have a couple of "courage pops" before I did any more work that day.----Brian

 

[Lakc]

On the plus side I now have a new project waiting for the time when my machining skills improve enough such that I can make a new set of gears for it!

Hypoid miter gears are not for the feint of heart or wallet. I suspect you will find a much easier time with some donor gears from a far eastern import. Glad nothing seriously injured but your pride, as spinning grinder wheels can be fatal.

 

[njl]

Thanks for the replies guys.

SAM - I know you right I'm very glad mine didn't bite me.

Brian - hearing you story makes me even more glad the the gears clapped out.

My grinder was a Red Devil. Quite a heavy thing, 600 watts mottor I think. It had a detent switch too; a cross between a spring loaded slider and a rocker switch. It was a bugger to operated with welding gloves on and that I think is why I stuffed up.

Lakc - yep it had rather fancy gears with 's' shaped teeth. They looked to me like they are made from sort of white metal and possibly cast. I don't think I could replicate them but was thinking a set of bevel gears might do the trick. I know then it might the win the award for the nosiest grinder in town but it might work. OTOH if I can find the propper gears somewhere that would be a better solution.

Nick

 

[Lykle]

I was alone in the factory and grinding away at some welds overhead when the big angle grinder slipped out of my hands.
At full speed it hit my left wrist.

It cut my steel watch strap almost in two and dug a deep groove in my wrist, just missing my tendons or bloodvessels. I walked into the office, showed the groove to the secretary asking for help and she fainted. Walked into the bosses office, asked for help and he went all knobbly knees.
So I wrapped some gauze over it, it was slowely beginning to bleed, and drove to the hospital.
The operated on me, cutting the damaged flesh away, stiched me up and sent me home. All the time telling me how lucky I was to have a steel strap on my watch.

 

[lee9966]

Decades ago in middle school wood shop some of the students thought it was fun to lock the trigger on a big belt sander before some poor sucker plugged it in. They take off like a dragstrip car.

Isn't it nice that all of us here survived... somehow?


Lee

 

[steamer]

Decades ago in middle school wood shop some of the students thought it was fun to lock the trigger on a big belt sander before some poor sucker plugged it in. They take off like a dragstrip car.

Isn't it nice that all of us here survived... somehow?


Lee

And I wonder how the shop teachers avoided heart attacks.....and homicides ;D

 

[Captain Jerry]

My son-in-law is left handed. He can't help it. He just is. I have told him many times that mos tools are made for right handed people and he should try to learn to use his right hand. Last week we were hanging a new gate on one of the fields, which requires drilling a 1/2" dia hole through a six inch post for the pintle bolt. Sure enough, he was holding the drill in his left hand. It was a powerful 1/2" drill with a side handle which was on the wrong side for him so he's all cross handed. When the bit jammed in the hole, instead of jamming the handle into his palm as it would for a right hander, it pulled out of his left handed grip. The left handed grip also tends to press the trigger lock without meaning to so the drill was ALIVE!

It spun around the bit hanging in the post for a few seconds. Then the long bit bent and it really got scary. Then the bit tore itself out of the fence and the whole contraption hit the ground with the bent bit acting like a one legged whirling dervish. It was hooked to a generator in the truck by a 100' extension cord which is held in a cleat so it dosen't pull out by accident.

I headed for the truck to unplug it but just as I got there, the whirling bit found the other end of the cord and started reeling itself in. I got it unplugged before it caught up with me but it did take a couple of whacks at the side of Jimmy's new truck.

Jimmy learned his lesson. Only right handed grip on the big drill when hanging gates. But wait...."Dad, you're right handed."

Oh crap! I should have seen that coming.

Jerry

 

[johnthomp]

with spending 12 years or more useing the 9" dewalt angle grinders on roofs cutting tiles and slates i learned a trick or two
when its bloody cold in winter you need some heafty gloves on to keep ypur hands warm most of all but i found it a complete nightmare to use the controll switch with my gloves on so i just cut the thumb off one glove so i could fel the switch but keep the rest of my hands covered it worked a treat
nowadays i always have a pair of gloves modified in this manner just for that grinder
in the interest of safety id rather just risk one thumb in aid of controll than my entire hand
reguards john

 

[Ken I]

After 40 years in engineering I rate angle grinders as extremely dangerous (close second to a chainsaw).
Even the "little" 4" jobs can be very nasty.
A good friend of mine - an experienced artisan, spent a couple of months being put back together after a 4" disk broke while working in a confined space and went so out of ballance it got away from him.
Cut right through his jawbone and up to his eye socket - some interesting scars - but he survived.
Its tempting to hold those little guys with one hand - don't !

Safety gaurds and side handles are there for a purpose - hold on tight and stay behind the wheel and as much as possible stay out of the line of "throw" - always assume the wheel will break - sooner or later it will.

The best advice I got from an old hand was the "All machinery will remove surplus bits of your anatomy if you are careless - they don't care or feel remorse."

 

[oshb5]

Hi All

Have to totaly agree with the nastyness of angle gringers I had a very near miss only suffered a few grazes I had a heavey wire wheel on removing some deep rust when the dam thing got away from me (gloves again) it hit my coat and ripped into that them my tee shirt under than and just managed a small scuff on my belly..before it ground to a halt. Doh As someone has said i have to rate it into the top few Chainsaws and petrol hedge/ brush cutters bieng the top followed by grinders BUT having said that ALL electrical and petrol tools can be very dangerouse in the wrong hands weather that be the untrained or the unweary. The Grindeer be it 3 1/2" 4" 7" or 9" it is a very unforgiving beast.

One of my most hariy moments was drilling a wall up a ladder. The drill bit grabbed the drill was to powerfull for me to hold onto as well as holding on to the ladder before i knew it the drill was spinning the cable had got wrapped around it and was holding in the trigger. Not dangerous normally but 10ft up a ladder it was a different story. things went very fast and i was at a loss what to do as you can imagine. Then the best thing happend the plug pulled out of the extension. fewwwww.

Andy

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Just two weeks ago I was grinding off some rust on my tractor bucket using one of those paint remover wheels that look like a hard sponge. Even using both hands, it caught the edge of the bucket, slammed into my inner arm and immediately started taking the rust off there. It took about four square inches, quite deeply. So I sprayed some primer on it and gave it new coat of paint...on the bucket that is. My arm now has a major bandage on it to keep it from rusting any further and also to keep the blood inside.

 

[peatoluser]

had a similar experience to Captain Jerry's son-in-law and Andy in my youth. I was using a wire wheel fitted in an electric drill and was concentrating too much on wheel and not where the flex was. wheel snatches the flex and next thing its wrapped round my hand , and being left-handed I had inadvertently pushed in the trigger lock and couldn't release it. For a moment I stood there watching the chuck eat into the cable before I, basically, kicked the plug out of the extension lead. when i unravelled everything, the chuck had eaten throughthe cable exposing the earth wire. if it had been the live wire, and given that the drill was an old metal bodied Black and Decker, and my hand was bound tight, I wouldn't be sitting here typing this.
since then I think nothing of disabling the trigger lock on electric hand tools, and if I can get them, fit a curly flex.
stay safe
yours Peter