o/t Hand grinder horror stories, who's got one?

Man, you could have at least cleaned it up a little and held the laceration open so we can see just what you damaged in there.

 

Fixin these sort of injuries was my bread and butter, I have to say you can not under estimate how important cleaning a wound like that is. You may feel like a pussy but for fucks sake GO TO THE HOSPITAL.

 

Last week, cutting out the last bit of a floorboard in a car, I was using a dremel cut off wheel because of the angle and a new wheel, disintegrated on first touch to metal, a piece flying right at my right eye. Fortunately, I had on safety goggles over my glasses or ..........

Many times I've allowed a thumb to touch the wheel on the grinder/cut off wheel...doesn't take long to cut through gloves either. Nothing serious (thanks to gloves) but a few black streaks on thumb tips.

Revolving sharp equipment always alerts me to more care though reading this will incite even more safety precautions seeing the damage done even when using safety gear.

 

WOW! Some bad stories here. I have one for ya.

It was a hot south Texas day and I'm in the shop running a wire wheel over a fender off the A. I'm in my zone, back and forth, back and forth, you know the routine. I have a shop fan that was on and blowing towards my back side. I'm wearing a tshirt and the tail is flapping in the breeze. You can see this coming. The shirt tail blows into the wire wheel spinning at about 10 grand and in the locked position. It snags my shirt and the rodeo begins. That thing knotted my shirt up in a split second while beating me like a rented mule. Whap, whap, whap. It wound so tight it stalled the grinder enough so I could turn it off but not before the classic parting shot to the groin by the handle. So I'm bleeding from the stomach wounds and hurting like hell from the crotch shot. Didn't go to the hospital but was hurting for a few days. Everybody has to experience that at least once in a lifetime. Moral of the story: tuck in your shirt tail and any other loose clothing before using a grinder or wire wheel.

 

Ewww! You know, maybe the first reaction to this shouldn't be to get the camera!

 

its been along time since ive hurt myself but ive had two close calls in the last few weeks. both on my index finger, the cutoff wheel went thru my mechanic glove and then hit my latex glove under it and popped the glove but didnt cut me... i use alot of chemicals at work and thats why i had the latex gloves on but it ended up being a good visual of how close i came to cutting the end of my finger off... makes my butt hole pucker to think about it.

 

man, thanks to this thread i was all freaked just a few minutes ago using the zip wheel to fab a trans cable bracket.

 

So, one day when I used to bodywork in a shop- I was sitting on a rollaround stool being lazy- and grinding the welds on a 1/4 panel. Well, my legs were open cause I was leaning forward with my elbows on the knees- right?

Then the grinding disc explodes. Well, I had goggles on, but no nutcup. Lucky for me- that cool breeze through my shorts was just one of the big pieces as it whipped past.

...and cut the crotch wide open down the middle.

 

I had that done when I was 8 years old, snapped a muddy bungy cord into my eye and a little chunk of dirt was embeeded in the cornea. Doc puts that wire eyelid opener thing in there and says, "look straight ahead no matter what you see, or I could blind you" as my eye is wattering like crazy. Did I mention I was 8?

 

Oh ya, I'm with you guys on getting wire wheels caught in your shirt. That'll jack you up for sure. Happened to me when I was a kid cleaning the rust off the underside of my dad's 1920's era Massey-Ferguson tractor. Twisted up tight against my chest and buried that thing deep. Those wheels will take off more than rust.

And then my mom was pissed off at me for ruining the shirt.

 

About 1985 or so dad was down in the engine bay grinding on the frame of an old Buick, making clearance for the headers for a 455 we were about to stuff in it. The big, ancient B&D grinder bit and swung around and hit him right on the side of his knee cap. Knocked his left knee cap around to the side of his leg. Man, it looked sick. You would have had to have known my dad to understand what happened next. He climbed up on the fender and with the palm of his right hand knocked the knee cap back to where it came from, went inside and wrapped it up in an Ace bandage, took a BC powder and went back to grinding. Dad was a real tough guy!

The worst I ever got it from a grinder was modifying the kick down bracket for the TH350 I'd just put in my '63 Impala. I was done grinding and stepped over to the wire wheel side to clean it up. I was just about done when it grabbed, the bracket rode between the wheel and the shroud all the way around and almost took my thumb off. Twelve stitches and a bunch of hydrocodone and I didn't care if I had a thumb or not

 

Yesterday I bought a new 4 and 1/2 inch angle grinder from Harbor Freight. After reading this thread, I guess I will return my new $12.00 purchase! It is way too scary! Just ... joking. Had the ole angle grinder with wire brush cup come loose and crawl up the left arm, wacking me in the jaw. Guess you got to be cautious when using power tools.

 

i had a whoooops. Just a little knick.

 

I was using a wire wheel on my 4' hand grinder and it slipped and took off a few layers of flesh right above the tattoo on my wrist. At first it looked like nothing then the pool of blood rose and wouldnt stop for quite some time. My first reaction was "Shit, my tattoo!"

 

I still don't know how it happened, My pointer finger on the right hand got pulled in behind the wheel of the grinder after I turned it off. It rubbed a big chunk away by the first knuckle. I went to work that night and told my supervisor. She asked if I went in for stitches, I told her there wasn't anything to stitch.

 

Lot's of "ouch" in this post. Worst that has happened to me is a very small speck of the disk wound around through the air, slipped through a small spot somewhere in the side of my safety glasses, bounced off the inside of the lens, and stuck in my eye. Seems like it took a couple of 180 degree turns to get there. I learned that, just because the sparks are flying "away" from you doesn't mean that Murphy can't prevail and bounce one off a mosquito flying by and send it your direction.

 

not a grinder but a 1/2" drill. My dad-in-law gave me an old 1/2 inch industrial drill, the kind with two pipe handles and a washing machine looking motor on it. Well I was drilling a peice of metal on the floor and holding one of the bars and the bit gets stuck in the metal and the drill keeps spinning(its locked on).

I have both hands on the both bars now and my feet on the metal and one of the bars is jammed against my leg and my arms feel like they are gonna explode. I dont dare let go, I dont want a helicopter flying around the room. My friend just happened to come by at the same time, Im bent over holding all this and screaming at him to "unplug this bastard!!" He could tell by the girlish scream I was serious and unplugged it before my leg was broken.

I have a big honkin delta drill press now.

 

Severed a nerve, artery and 3 tendons in my right wrist. Had stomach pumped, 5 1/2 hours of surgery and 2 out patient operations. Stayed in hospital 5 days. This was about 35 five years ago.

 

Have to ask why you had your stomach pumped for a wrist injury?

 

Had eaten several hours before they had to knock me out for surgery. It is not a pleasant experience.

 

i had a tooth get knocked out due to a disc exploding and a chunk hit me in the side of my face, i had my mouth open of course. the disc hooked an sharp edge and caught then bam the wheel just shreded. it was really stupid but i still don't wear a sheild old habbits are hard to break

 

My story could have been worse but thankfully it wasnt. I wasnt near a bench grinder and I had to sharpen my tungsten electrode so i grabbed the hand grinder and turned it sideways to see the electrode grinding and coming to a point. I was holding the wheel so the sparks were shooting away from me but all of a sudden i felt a huge thump of pressure against my face. A 3/4 inch stub of the tungsten caught the grinder and must have slung shot around with the wheel and hit me square in my safety glasses. I always wear them but never appreciated how important they are until that day. Thank God im not blind right now or dont have an electrode stuck in my face. Moral of the story, dont be stupid and use the wrong tools for the wrong job, and wear the proper safety equipment ALLWAYS.

 

Gore!!!

MORE GORE!!!!

~Jason

 

Got my leg in 64, you can still see the scar.

 

Stupid moment # 6547A
Using a drill mounted hole saw to vent a propane exhaust pipe through the house last spring, you know, one of those big suckers with pistol grips, a two hander for sure. Except I had to use one hand to keep myself perched at the absolute top of the ladder and lean into the house so I wouldn't go over backward. I was almost through when thet drill grabbed and the saw stuck ... and the drill started spinning instead. Sprained my thumb, smacked myself in the head with one of the swiftly rotating handles and somehow managed to use all of that inertia to twist my wrist and arm in all kinds of wrong directions. Drill flies out of my hand,and because the cord was now wrapped around my arm didn't fall to the ground but smacked me in the chest and knocked the wind out of me. Owww. I've broken bones, but all that pain happening in so many places at once makes all those breaks feel like love taps. Somehow managed not to fall off the ladder. Limped inside and finsihed the hole from indoors. Oh agony.

 

Had a foreman at the die shop i used to work at put a 8" cutoff wheel on a 9" grinder, Cutoff wheel rated for 3450 r.p.m. grinder about 12,000...it didn't even get up to speed before it exploded. The fragments cut his safety glasses in half at the nose piece and cut his face real good. He got pieces of the wheel stuck in his eyes and was in the hospital for a couple days...they had to dig out the pieces. We found one half of his glasses on the far side of the shop, about 75' away.

 

I was using my right angle grinder to clean some rust off the edge of a piece of sheet metal and the backup disc caught the edge and snapped of the arbor rod and the disc and back up pad hit me in the calf and left a nice groove.
Then a couple of weeks later I was drilling a hole on the new tubs I was installing and I was standing outside the car with my head inside the window and drilling from the inside out and misjudged the angle of the drill and when it went through it caught my jeans and augered and nice hole right down into my thigh.
Went in to tell the wife and she says didn't you know your leg was on the other side?
Gee thanks honey.

 

Worked in sheet metal for nearly 30 years now and have seen a lot of bad accidents all the way up to death. Got quite a few scars from grinders. I wear full protection now. Had a kid worked for me, never wore his shield or glasses unless I rode him about it. Quit and went to work for someone else that wasn't a hardass like me. He was using a cutoff wheel on a 4-1/2" grinder, no guard, no glasses, no face sheild, nothing, in a confined space and the grinder hung and bounced off his forehead, back to what he was cutting and then right between his eyes. Luck was on his side as he didn't loose an eye, but over 80 real tiny stitches and he looks as good as Frankenstien now. WEAR YOUR SAFETY GEAR!
BOB

 

Here's the injury that made me take a week and a half off from the car in early November. I stuck myself in the thumb with an .045" Cut Off Wheel. I couldn't grab any thing with my left hand for a few days. I seriously could have cut my entire thumb off







I am a puss when it comes to Narcotics. My GF gave me 1/2 a Vicodin and I passed out. I guess the dog crawled on me and she snapped a pic haha



I could have used a stitch I guess, but I am all good now. NEW LESSON: Always wear gloves

 

My old man just had surgery on his had (again) from a cutting wheel.
Working on a small part holding in one hand and using the air cutoff in the other, no gloves no safety guard on it. got his finger pretty good, 8 stitches and they sent him home. 3 weeks later it wasnt healing like they wanted it to. Doc opened it up to find the tendon partially cut, lots of metal filings and grinding wheel parts inside. cleaned it out, touched up the tendon and tied it shut again.

I've got a couple scars still from other wheels.
in high school I got a nasty one on my hand from a drill press mounted sanding drum. girlfriend came in and distracted me, sanded half my hand down a couple layers, still shows.