Poll: Shop Accidents

[wareagle]

Let's see how many out there have had or witnessed a serious shop accident. Please do not include scraps and abrasions, minor cuts, bruises, minor burns, stubbed toes, hurt feelings, etc. To keep this poll related to the purposes of our hobby, please limit the positive responses to shop related events and discount the "neighbor hacked a toe off with a weed eater" type of event.

What qualifies:

• Home shop accidents involving oneself, family or a guest
• Workplace accidents (shop environment) to oneself, a coworker, or visitor

Accident criteria:

• Injuries requiring medical attention
• Injuries requiring more than ten days to substantially heal
• Loss of a body part(s)
• Injuries causing loss of movement in an extremity
• Fatalities

This poll is set to run for 14 days.

Always work safe!!!​

 

[Twinsquirrel]

Seen 2 nasty accidents and have been lucky enough to avoid personal injury myself.

The first was in college when a lecturer lost 2 fingers from his right hand on one of those reciprocating shapers, he did this after delivering a lecture on the safe use of the machine!!

Second was at my fathers garage (does this qualify?) when one of the mechanics was fooling around with a 1/2lb hammer, he was pretending to take a mighty swing at a car (bright guy huh?), as he raised the hammer behind his shoulder it hit the foreman square in the face. The poor guy had many many stitches and a shattered jaw/cheekbone. It's really difficult to imagine how much blood there was and as far as I know he never worked again.

With the recent debate on safety on the site it's really difficult to see why anyone would actively complain about a few safety footnotes at the end of a post.

 

[Powder keg]

Since everyone is sharing. I have one that I don't like to talk about much. In 94 when I was in school to learn to become a Machinist. There was a girl there. She was running a 13" lathe. I think they had 6" chucks on them? Some of you probably have lathes this size or bigger? They aren't that big. She was threading a shaft between centers. The lathe dog snagged her shop coat. To leave out the messy details, She lived. Barely. They stopped counting at over 400 stitches. There were many more. Mainly on her face and head. Her shop coat and shirt were wrapped so tightly around the chuck and her part, you couldn't unwind them. They had to be cut from the lathe with a razor knife. Me being 19, This was a tough pill to swallow. It happened so fast that no one really noticed...... A guy part was across the shop said that he heard a weird noise. He looked over and she wasn't by her running lathe, which was a NO, NO there at school. He went to shut it off for her and she was lying on the floor.

Please be safe, Wes

 

[chuck foster]

we had some lathes in my high school made by a company in the u.k. called kerry, they had thread on chucks with a lock ring. the lock ring would lock the threaded chuck on even if the spindle was in reverse. well long story short the lock ring was not engaged and when 2 guys in my class decided to run the lathe 2000 rpm's forward and quickly throw it in to reverse the chuck unthreaded and fell on the floor (going 2000 rpm). it spun on the concrete floor for a few seconds and then went shooting across the shop and went right through the block wall lodging is self into the bottom of a locker out in the hall way.
no one was hurt but the potential was there for a much more grim story.

chuck

 

[Bogstandard]

ACCIDENTS DON'T HAPPEN, THEY ARE CAUSED !!!!!

There is an underlying cause for every one of them.

More safety, less accidents.

John

 

[Cedge]

Let's see... Having worked as an emergency medical tech and rescue type, how long of a list would you like?

The human torch
Shot charcoal lighter fuel from a can onto an already burning outdoor grill. 85% burn coverage when the can exploded. Six weeks agony before becoming fatal.

Bird man...
The guy who got a wee bit smoked up and forgot to turn left. He parked his Honda Civic in the top of a Redwood tree . No injury at all .....until he opened the door and stepped out. Yup.... landed about 60 feet straight down. Needed to work on his landing technique, once his legs were pieced back together.

St Vitus Dancer...
Made the mistake of falling into the final power amplifiers tank of a 4 mega-watt long range coastal defense radar. He suffered internal burns to his organs, his hair turned white a week later and his whole nervous system was a total wreck. He had no control over the constant body twitch. He lived.... sort of... but medical retirement at 27 is no picnic.

The man with one jaw....
Decided that cutting rubber tires off aluminum hospital bed wheels was too much trouble. His method as to hold the casting while a baling press cracked them as the press head passed by the top of the machine's door. He managed to crack between 20 - 30 wheels before one of them removed his lower jaw from his face. He lived.... but I hear his love life is a wee bit off these days. I also hear that 20 years later he dreams of solid foods in his sleep.

The human donut....
Decided to air up a newly assembled truck tire...after it was bolted on the truck. The 25 pound iron retainer ring was not seated and blew off. It basically Die Cut the poor beggar, mid abdomen. DOA before he hit the ground.

Three separate fatalities,
Each one proving that the "Machine Starts Automatically" warning sign is telling the stark truth. All three were basically pureed by total press face pressures ranging from 70,000 to 180,000 pounds.

The Human Pekinese
He thought filling old fuel tanks with water would make them safe to cut with a cutting torch. When the end of the 1000 gallon tank hit him, it broke every bone on the front of his body. The plastic surgeons were eventually able to get his eyes located back on the front of his face... almost.

The Darwin effect took some of those guys safely out of the gene pool. The others are still free to breed.... if they are still capable. Just remember... their children could be one of the guys working right next to you.....eh?

If you need more examples.... just ask. I've certainly seen more than my share. I personally don't think there can be too many safety tips.

Steve

 

[DickDastardly40]

I am thankful that I have never witnessed a shop accident, bad or otherwise; if I see questionable shop practice in my vicinity the perpertrators are given a full rebrief! (Perks of being a Warrant Officer). That said being in the Service I do hear of some nasty accidents involving heavy machinery (not necessarily machine shop) and the common thread running through most of the stories is that the correct Standard Operating Procedure had been infringed in some way, i.e. safety interlocks gagged, incorrect sequence of operation, guards removed, incorrect PPE worn. This is often done to make a job quicker/easier due to time constraints.

As John(BS) said accidents don't happen they are caused.

Sometimes (possibly most often) the injured party has no idea that the safety protocol has been infringed and happens to be an innocent bystander or involved in the process but not in charge of the safety aspect.

IMHO Risk assessments shouldn't be a fusty document found at work whan something goes wrong to prove that the wrong process was followed, but a constant questioning process by an operator whether what he or she is doing is correct and safe not only for them but whomever is in the 'fallout' zone.

Al

 

[kvom]

I have never been in a machine shop, but have observed a number of near misses when working on our Jeeps:

1) Guy setting his frayed jeans on fire while welding

2) Guy trying to drill a piece of steel plate with a drill press and the piece not clamped down.

3) Steel splinter near the eye from using an angle grinder without a face shield.

Most of the offroad guys I work with are pretty safety conscious though. I do see pics of accidents waiting to happen, often when using hi-lift jacks instead of a floor jack and jackstands to raise a vehicle.

 

[zeusrekning]

I've got another one. Funny how I can't remember all the minor accidents.
You are not supposed to hit hardened steel with a hammer. I was still fresh but knew better. I had grabbed a steel parallel probably 1/2" x 1" x 6" to help tap a key out of a part. Then corner chiped It was about the size of a large grain of sand. It went about 1/2" or more under my skin ( the soft area below the inside of the elbow) I barely felt it but It was squirting a small stream of blood out and had to let it push itself out was the pain. It could of shot across the shop and got an eye .
Tim

 

[Bogstandard]

Kvom,

Talking of jacking up vehicles, a chap that lived about 100 yards from me had a bit of an accident a couple of months ago, he was working under his people carrier that was supported on bricks.
They police and rescue reckon it wasn't the weight of the vehicle sitting on top of him that put his lights out, it was the fact that his displaced lungs tried to make it up his throat and out of his mouth. I gather not a pretty sight.

A truly stupid and unnecessary accident.

John

 

[rickharris]

My well trained and experienced technician was cutting a circle out of timber with a band saw. He was distracted by a question at the exact time the blade cut through the wood - the blade then cut through his finger severing the tendon. - 8 weeks off work in plaster after they sewed it back together.

 

[rake60]

I have to say my most painful machine shop injury happened when I was flipping a
rock crusher bowl over with a crane. The part weighed about 4 tons and I had rigged
it to the crane using 1/2" link cross section chains. Just as the weight was starting
to break over one of the chains became slack and was going to catch on one of the
mounting legs of the bowl. For what ever insane reason I reached in and jerked the
chain back to try to snap it around the leg.
It caught the thumb of my glove and pull it in between the chain and the 4 ton
bowl as it rolled slowly over.
I knew the thumb was crushed, but it didn't really hurt.
That's NOT a good thing! When I finally gathered the nerve to take the glove
off I saw this.

A broken thumb, a few stitches and 5 weeks to get any movement back.
That was 10 years ago and that thumb will still only bend to about 40 degrees.
All for an instant of stupidity.

Rick

 

[malcolmt]

Hi chaps and chappesses
I was working in a machine shop more years ago than i care to remember when the chap who swept up and kept us all in tea was asked by the shop foreman to put up a piece of timber to fix coat hooks to so that we may hang up our shop coats, The shop was adjacent to a hire shop which we had a very good relationship with, if ever we needed some tool we didn't have we could "borrow" from them. Well, said tea man was not the sharpest tool in the box and when he explained the task to the hire folk's they loaded and handed him a HILTI GUN, (explosive propelled masonry nailer) loaded with the highest power cartridges and 3" hardened nails, explaining that all he had to do was hold the piece of 4" x 1" wood in place on the wall, press the gun against it and pull the trigger, then move the gun along the wood and repeat firing until he was satisfied it was secure. Unfortunately neither the teaman or the hire staff had checked what the wall was constructed of....... Thermalite blocks. behind the wall was a corridor. The teaman did as he was instructed held the timber to the wall pressed the gun against it, pulled the trigger, moved the gun fired again, seven times, when he let go of the wood it fell to the floor......
he then came over and asked if i knew anything about these things as he was certain the gun thing didn't work.
That's when an almighty scream was heard throughout the shop, even above the noise of all the machines. we rushed into the corridor to see the most horrific sight of blood sprayed all over the opposite wall of the passage, a row of nails sticking out of the opposite wall and the secretary laying on the floor with her brains leaking out onto the vinyl. Stone dead !
NEVER LOAN ANYONE PROFFESIONAL TOOLS

 

[d-m]

I have been in auto repair for 30+ years I have had my share of cuts bruises sore back and stitches. 5 years ago I was with the US Border Patrol in Arizona and was training a fellow employee to run a brake lathe. Jay wasn't the smartest guy in the shop but he was a good guy always seem to have a lot of questions,not a bad thing, until one of his questions distracted me from what I was doing. The result my index finger got sucked between the cutter and the rotor. I still have the end of my finger 5 years later the skin still hasn't healed smoothly and the feeling is gone oh ya :-[ that's the second time that finger end has tryed to separate it's self from it's body and live some were else lol.
I hate pain it take's all the fun out of your day!!!!!!!!!
Dave

 

[gilessim]

I managed to cut the end off my thumb about 10 years ago, out of tiredness and laziness, I only had about 20 to do and was stacking each cut one against the saw rather than take 2 steps and put them against the wall, as a consequence my feet were getting gradually further away from the saw and I was having to lean further each time until!!!!, it's only about a 1/4" shorter than the other, It has a funny curly nail but the feeling came back at least!,24 hours in hospital though and a skin graft, not pleasant!!

I know a lot of woodworkers here in Italy and in the UK ,nearly all of them are missing bits, or whole fingers, wood saws are very easy to get complacent with!

Re the Hilti guns, I once heard a nail fly VERY close past my ear going like a bullet, a guy near me tried (unknowingly, it was hidden under the plaster)to shoot a nail into a steel girder!, it frightened the s**t out of both of us!

Giles

 

[rake60]

We had our usual 4th of July family picnic today.
My brother in law Bob was there and we were talking shop talk.
He's a machinist with 30 years to his credit.

About 15 years ago he was finishing up a part in a three jaw chuck
that had been stated by a man on another shift. The part was chucked up
in soft jaws that had been bored to fit the job. What Bob didn't know was
the jaws had not been deburring after being bored so there were razor sharp
edges on them. While polishing up the finished piece with emery cloth, the
emery grabbed and jerked his right hand into the chuck.

He said it was just a bump and the finger was gone.

Rick

 

[rawblacksmith]

ok; now i get to know what i'm talking about and be fully machinistry related.

in my former life in EMS i was called to this scene...
a dentist's drill bit fell down the throat of the patient.
patient's laceration to inside of throat caused him to think the bit was stuck there, but after xray, he was finally convinced that surgery was necessary to remove it from his gut. until then he was joking about the dentist not worrying about the drill bit, that he had more of them.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

I don't know where I heard this:

Some people working on an oil platform ignoring pieces of safety valve material coming up with the oil and hydraulic fluid, something about letting the batteries die on the emergency cut off valve assembly, arguments with management about shutting down vs. making money, then some gas, an explosion, over a dozen killed.....I think there were some after effects too.

Don't know whatever came of it, you sure don't hear much about it.....not.

-T

 

[dradi]

Hello , just joind your club...
I did something stupid, I'll tell about. I wanted to shorten a bolt and it dint need to be neet, so I grabed my Dremil tool and started cuting, the Dremil grabed my t-shirt and started to role it up till in rolled right up to my jaw, and chipped 2 teath...boy did that hurt, from then on I put on leather aprin when i work with ANY power tool, and dont wear anything loose, that can get grabed.
Daniel
Crookston MN

 

[wareagle]

dradi, that doesn't sound like much fun! It is funny, the Dremel tool is pretty small but can cause a severe injury if not respected!

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