Technical Shop Safety

I can not stress enough Shop Safety . My life long friend , just had a terrible accident in his garage Friday . He was a machinist/mill right by trade . 30 years for GE Aircraft . He has a Regal Lathe , Bridgeport Mill , every welder and hand tool known to mankind in his garage . He sent me a photo of an accident that took place in his garage last Friday , his shirt sleeve was unbuttoned and rolled up . It was snagged by the piece he was turning in his lathe . I have never seen a human hand so battered and still attached . I have been talking to him and praying for him daily . Second surgery was today . It’s just an example of one of those things we all do and know better not to try this . It bit him hard as a pit bull . Please everyone use your PPE and don’t get careless for that split second it will haunt you for a lifetime . I have ridden a motorcycle for most of my adult life , I tell every new rider that I encounter , don’t ever get lax and feel you have the machine mastered , because it will hurt you so badly your Mother will not know you when see comes to see you . Again , please remember that who you hurt the most being in an accident is not you but your family , none of us want to do this . Just take an extra moment to do your daily events as safely as possible .

 

It's something that my former students will tell you I stressed the hell out of and hopefully that lesson stuck.
I saw a photo of a guy yesterday who had had a car drop on his head when the jack gave out and dropped. He is alive but will pack a nasty scar on his face and head for the rest of his life.
I almost lost my best friend when his dad's car fell off a jack on his chest a few years ago on the side of the street but his dad managed to get the jack squared away and lift the car off him.
Long sleeves and baggy sleeves can get you in trouble with a lot of equipment in the shop and is something we may not pay that much attenton to in the middle of the winter when we are wearing different clothes than we do in the summer.
There used to be a photo floating around showing a scalp and hair hanging on a drill bit in a big drill press. My dad was working at Boeings when that accident happened and a gal got her big afro caught in the drill press. She had been told before that she needed to cover her hair when she worked around it to keep it safe. Some young guy who was working with my dad and had a similarly large afro lost his cookies when he saw the hair in the drill and the next day he had a very neat and tidy haircut.
I had a kid get his long hair caught in a creeper wheel one day and he showed up with a fresh haircut the next day. Something we just don't think about until it happens.
I've still got scars on my left arm from scraping them down the trans cooler on my 48 after I had a brain fart and didn't clean up the antifreeze and trans fluid that had spilled out of the engine and cooler when I was working on it in 1982.

 

The tombstone almost always seems to say "OOPS"! The old timers used to say "Never bypass safety, because Murphy's always watching & waiting to remind you the hard way, & he tends to make it permanent!" When someone raises a safety question, the STUPIDIST reaction is to get mad, instead of paying attention to the question!!

 

Like you gentlemen I have always stressed safety in and out of the workshop. One incident that sticks in my mind was a person I knew using a 4" cutting disc on his grinder to grind a bevel on a small pipe the cutting blade heated up, expanded and exploded took his eye out. Twelve months later he was losing the sight in his good eye as it was taking all the strain and he is now totally blind. What really upsets me is the reality TV programs where you see the "stars" grinding , welding and doing general fab work wearing no PPE at all the young guys watching these programs think it is the normal way of doing things, in other words being set up to fail.

 

Safety first !
It’s been my life long motto.
Thanks for the reminders, we all need them !

 

Great advice from everyone. Thanks for the reminders.

 

Am going to repeat my experience here.

Remember my first job out of high school.
Running a radial arm drill press.
Bent in to look down the hole with the drill still running. Caught my long hair and tried to drag me into the rotating 1” diameter bit.
Scared me to death.
Lost a big chunk of hair out of my scalp. Would have been real ugly dragging my body in that mess.

 

No watch
No rings
No work gloves
No long sleeves
No untied long hair

 

The first filmclips they showed me when I started my apprenticeship was of the previous accidents that happened - all in glorious close-up colour. Missing fingers, squashed hands, swarf screwed into an eyeball, chunks of scalp wrapped around a drill chuck, etc. Scared the shit out of a 15 year old me. We sometimes need to see these to refresh our memories. It's no fun trying to wrench with missing or damaged bits.

 

Cheapest thing you can buy for your shop
Best thing to own.

Everything @Casey Riley said.

Also BEING OBSERVANT of what’s around you and TAKING YOUR TIME !!!

We have all crawled under a car with no stands as
“ it’s one bolt”
We have all cut something with an angle grinder with no glasses
“ it’s one quick cut”
We have all used a drill press without securing our work
“ it’s one hole”
We’ve all said
“I’ll be quick”
“It’s fine”
“ I’ve done it before”
“ safety 3ist”

I’ve been there done that when I was younger as “ I don’t have time to..... find my glasses, clamp, guard,fire extinguisher....... this is a 2 second job.

But we all seem to have the time to go to the emergency room for stitches or getting shit out of our eyes etc.


Can imagine losing a hand or worse your life!

 

It happens faster than a person can think. I lost a shirt tail to a power shaft on the backside of a combine header . It was covered in dried on mud . I heard a squeaking sound walked around the header while it was running to figure out when and what it was . My untucked shirt tail got caught onto the dried mud and tore it off. I'm much neater dressed around machinery from that day on.
My Wife worked in the ER as a Nurse . She has stories of crushed wedding bands , rings burned to the flesh and fingers removed .

 

X2 What Smitty stated about the reality shows. We always see the "stars" grinding, cutting and welding with no eye protection.

 

When I show anyone how to use a machine or tool I usually point to a sign like this.

 

A simple thing like changing a drill bit on an electric drill while still plugged in. I watch a fellow do that and he managed to hit the trigger. The torque wrapped the cord around his arm in a second.

 

Had a shop teacher tell me "Tools don't discriminate".

 

Same goes for securing a car/truck when raised up. Be on a solid surface and use quality jack stands. My brothers friend was 18 and engaged. Jack the front of car up and used cinder blocks. Blocks crumbled under the weight of the car. Car came down and crushed him. They buried him in their club t shirt.

 

Gosh! I sure hope your friend pulls thru ok.
A rotating chuck is not your friend.

 

My shop teacher used to hold up his hand and say” Saftey First!” He had half of three fingers missing on that hand! Worked for me!
When I worked in a machine shop, years ago, it was , no long sleeve shirts, eye protection all the time, no rings, short hair, tight clothes.
I never wore any jewelry, until I remarried a while back. Shortly after I put the ring on, I shorted it out( pun intended) turned red hot, burnt my other hand getting it off.
Lesson learned!



Bones

 

Whenever I put a car on stands I grab it and shake the hell out of it. Better to fall off then, than crush me later. If I have the tires off, I put them under to give extra protection if the stands fail.

 

I work in a precast plant. No rings for years, but for the last year I have worn a Silicone wedding band. Otherwise, no jewelry or even a watch. In my lifetime I have had three people in my circle of influence lose a finger to a ring. Two at work.

I am raising a boy, who is 13, and teaching him shop safety has reminded me about a few things I had gotten lax on. The drill press is my biggest weakness. Clamping stuff down had slipped from habit, but now I'm just teaching him not to clamp stuff when I don't. No bueno. This winter we have had the battle of loose sleeves.

It has been fun reliving my youth through his eyes as I show him the old "Shock and awe" injury videos on YouTube.

 

When I was a young man I was working in a job shop for a while. For whatever reason I managed to leave the key in the chuck and start the lathe. Which proceeded to toss the key across the shop and stick it in the wall. I wore the key on a chain around my neck for a month.

Got lucky that day. Got a lot of grief for my necklace for a long time but I got lucky that day.

 

I have a good friend that did almost the exact same thing only it grabbed his heavy work shirttail and was pulling him into the a huge drill press, I was close enough to kill the power before it hurt him too bad.
HRP

 

Santa Cruz Mazda, 1970: Cool ponytail dude mechanic was walking around under the long 2-post tranny hoist, observing the running-in-gear driveline of a '67 Olds.
Ponytail got swept up in turning driveshaft, dude went flopping like a red-stained rag doll before the boss could get up on the ladder to cut the ignition.
Scalped him like that Olds was Geronimo.

Me, 1964: Another Olds vs. 'cool dude' story found me under newly purchased '50 Olds Coupe, w/'57 J2 and '37 LaSalle box. P.O. couldn't get a city block long ride out of it after 3 tranny repairs! Sold it to me dirt cheap...didn't want to see it again!
I was under the car, 4 tall stands, with my big 5/8" drive electric drill, 1/2" bit, one last hole in frame for new cross member repair.
Drill bit caught in too small pilot hole, 'lock' on trigger secure, I went for a circular ride on and off the creeper 'til I yelled "Break off then!" (I was talking to my arm)
The cord pulled itself from the wall plug, but it was coiled around my arm so tight I could hardly unwind it!
When I did, I looked like Popeye! Forearm was swollen to beat the band.
Called my bud, 'Fat Cintas' to finish drilling the darned hole. Let him take the first ride, too.

 

I was working for a steel and foam dock company in the ''70s for a while. Was drilling 1" holes in 1/4" plate with a Black n Decker 1/2" Automotive drill and a necked down bit. The pit hung and I was spinning like a top until the bit finally broke off and it tossed my 135 pound frame across the shop. Damn those old B&D drills were strong.

Later in the '70s I was welding trailer frames in a shop in the south. Was wearing greasy old coveralls that they gave me to work in. I thought to myself, "Damn its hot today." Raised my hood to see the front of my coveralls on fire just then I felt a thud, this big old farm kid tackled me. Stop drop and roll was not an option, more like tackled and wallered.

That was back when OSHA was a paper tiger and was affectionately known as the Oklahoma Saddle Horse Association.

How we survived I will never know.

 

Old style drill motors with a side button trigger lock are made for right handed people, ask any left hander. I've got a big old 5/8" drive drill with a lot of torque that has went twirling more than once when a 1/2" drill bit binds up in a hole. Your left hand just naturally sets the trigger lock button. Now that I'm old I've got to be even more careful of that.

 

Was grinding the bottom of a charter fishing boat in the early 90's getting it ready for bottom paint. It was chilly outside and I had a flannel shirt on...untucked and unbuttoned.
You would be amazed at how fast a big grinder with some 60 grit on it will climb up your chest... still have a scar on the bottom side of my chin to remind me.
I was lucky that the shirt wadded itself around the shaft and yanked the grinder out of my trigger hand before I could grab it tighter. It was almost stopped by the time it got yo my neck... still chewed me up pretty good
Chappy

 

I had safety pounded into my head during 4 years of wood shop in high school. it gave me a great respect for machinery and assorted blades and things that spin fast.. probably twice a year there would be no work due to someone cutting off a finger or something stupid.

my favorite was the guy who somehow managed to rip off the tip of his finger in the giant planer and I'm pretty sure it was a tendon that was streched out across the table on the machine. when it was all said and done he lost the tip and lost movement in that finger as well. good times!

 

Step drill is one of the best inventions !

 

I hear ya! I've been running machines since the age of 12. I took a course in junior high and my parents had to sign an authorization form for me to even go into the shop. Junior high was wood machining but first thing they did was show us a film of a grinding wheel exploding and then the eye surgery that followed. It was pretty gruesome but it sure did stick with me all my life. In high school I moved up to machining steel. One of the guys first week of school was oiling the gears on the business end of an engine lathe. He figured he was pretty smart and decided to turn on the machine and apply the oil onto the gears with his fingers. You guessed it. He went out in an ambulance and they could only re-attach one of the three fingers. We learned real quick about keeping clothes and extremeties from moving parts / machines. Then onto the apprentice course and we all had long hair then. We were told to wear hair nets. I wore mine faithfully. One guy decided a ponytail was okay. He was running an ID grinder. He leaned over to look into the bore. A piece of hair that was not held in the ponytail elastic got caught by the spinning grinding wheel. I heard it and ran over to hit the big red button. By then he stood up and looked at me. He had blood running down where the two inch patch of scalp got ripped out. I still wear safety glasses and steel toed shoes when I'm working outside or in the garage. But, wouldn't you know 45 years of running machines with no injuries.... I'm using a table saw and took off a chunk of the end on my thumb. It sucks. I thought I had my hand / fingers far enough away from the blade. Let's just say the blade gets 6 inches of respect now.
I hope that guy in the OP still has some use of his hand. Wishing him well!

 

Ive had metal removed from my eye quite a few times. The last time I had an inexperienced resident at the hospital attempting to dremel the metal stuck in my eye in the middle of the night I decided I'd never again cut or grind without safety glasses. Ever.

I also cut crushed my wedding ring onto my finger and then my finger swelled. It was bearable I figured the swelling would go down. Well it didn't. I woke up in the middle of the night, my finger swollen to 1.5 times its size and purple. Horrible pain. I cut the ring off with a hacksaw and needlnose. My Grandfather and Father always told me never wear a ring. Now I don't.