Dumb things you have done to yourself while working in the shop

[jonah]

Well, inspired by my recent accident and stories about shop accidents here is a thread to confess the mistakes made in the shop. I know it is easy to get involved in working and take for granted how potentially dangerous some of the tools and materials can be.

If you missed it in my build thread, here is mine:

Building a fan shroud for my new electric fan conversion and was getting ready to prep for paint with some muriatic acid. Finished the work, flipped up my safety glasses while I put everything away. My spray bottle with the acid had been jamming up and I was messing with the trigger, it un-jammed and sprayed me right in the eye. Burned like hell, ran in the house and had running water on it within 10 seconds or so. Rinsed for 20 minutes with cool water. Quick trip to the opthamologist showed no serious damage. So I got lucky this time, good reminder to pay attention in the shop. Mr. Chapman (my Jr.High shop teacher) would just shake his head in dismay.

What have you done?

[daniel_buck]

I've got a few, nothing serious though. While pushing my jeep forward in the driveway, leaning forward pushing the front tire forward, I almost ran over my legs because they were standing in front of the rear tires. haha!

Unaware of welding sunburn, while making some tables last week in my t-shirt (I did, and always do have proper welding mask and long gloves however) I ended up getting a good bit of sunburn on the underside of my left arm! That was by far the most amount of time spent welding I've ever done in a block of time (welding every day for a week straight, quite often every day) I now have a leather welding jacket :-)

I've connected a source of ground to a positive wire terminal several times while wrenching. Several times while undoing a battery cable I connect the terminals with a wrench. And once while I was working on a friends truck, a wrench contacted the positive terminal on the starter motor. I have no idea why current was running through the starter wire.... but it connected, and sparks went everywhere! I jumped and hit my head on the exhaust, haha! Nothing serious, just scared me :-D

I always end up with cuts on my hands while working on the jeeps. I just can't get used to wearing gloves all the time. (there's a condom joke in there somewhere... haha!)

While in college, I was removing the A/C pump from my camaro, first time ever doing that, I didn't realize that freon would spray out. Fortunately I had my eyes closed (probably because I was pulling so hard on the wrench), because it blasted me in the face!

I spilled my beer onto the engine once :-(

[6spdYJ]

In high school, while learning ARC welding, I thought the clear lens on the welding helmet was too smudged to see through. So as the slag was still red hot, I lifted the helmet and started swinging the slag hammer. The very first piece landed right in the corner of my eye. It took the instructor a while to quit laughing - and even longer to quit telling me how stupid I was.

[daniel_buck]

yea, it's amazing how quickly welding can get cold metal to a molten state, we can often forget that it takes alot longer to cool down

[inVERt'D]

I'm not telling everything!

[inVERt'D]

In high school, while learning ARC welding, I thought the clear lens on the welding helmet was too smudged to see through. So as the slag was still red hot, I lifted the helmet and started swinging the slag hammer. The very first piece landed right in the corner of my eye. It took the instructor a while to quit laughing - and even longer to quit telling me how stupid I was.

I did something like that a few weeks ago. Then again a couple of weeks ago, then again last week.

[dirtman13]

While building my Jeep I caught my overalls on fire twice with the sparks from my grinder.

[jonah]

In high school, while learning ARC welding, I thought the clear lens on the welding helmet was too smudged to see through. So as the slag was still red hot, I lifted the helmet and started swinging the slag hammer. The very first piece landed right in the corner of my eye. It took the instructor a while to quit laughing - and even longer to quit telling me how stupid I was.

That hot slag will get you everytime!

While building my Jeep I caught my overalls on fire twice with the sparks from my grinder.

I must admit I have done this a few times myself. Like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon, working away, sniff sniff, "what's burning", oh I am!!!

[RAT]

The only real stupid thing was done years ago. Building a 72 Mach 1. Had it up on jack stands. Installing the C6 transmission. sliding out from under the car I put my foot on one of the jack stands and pushed. The car came down on my hand and the cross member bolt went through my hand and pinned me to the floor. Wife was not home, no one could hear me yell, so I laid there for two and half hours until the wifey came home. That was fun...

[Zoobi]

With an exception to Rat's little adventure, you guys are telling me these things are NOT suppose to happen?

How about trying to unstick an air ratchet buy unscrewing the head, plugging in the air, reaching in the top with your pinky finger and giving the drive pin a little push. Nice dull rounded top pin, tore all the way across the top of my finger. A few stitches later the doc gave me a "light duty only" slip. Boss made me stay home for 2 days to heal. Working on commission, $29 an hour, averaging 16 hours a day. Counting the first half day and the next two, you could say my "DOH" moment cost me pain and a little over a grand.

[brokenujoint]

good thread.. Let me count the ways.

1. My 1st vehicle, which was a cj5. Had a new motor put in. swapped all the accessories over. Didnt realize that (if i recall) the water pump was put on the new engine (4.2) and something about it didnt match up with the newer model (4.2). Needless to say, I keep having over heating issues. SO, While the hood was open I attemped to open the radiator cap. I blew fluid about 10 ft up, I jumped back while trying to jump back rather, I hit my elbow on the hold open rod and the THICK cj5 hood came down like hells furry and cracked me in the back of the head and pinched me under the hood on the hot/wet radiator. I fell back and saw stars and zig zags. close to knocked out but not. I ws SOOOO pissed. Sold it 3 days later and bought a conventional car. Stupidest thing i've done was sell that cj.

Another one. Helped a fellow jeeper who didnt know much in a 0-something rubi. stock, on john bull. He was getting stuck every 10 ft pointlessly. I was getting a bit irritated. I got my hi-lift out and kept helping him get unstuck. Well, at one point I had the lift on his front bumper and started jacking. The handle got away from me and cracked me in the occipital bone above my right eye and i started bleeding like a stuck pig. I fell back and started cussing. I stopped the bleeding, got in the guys jeep and got him out 1st try, then told him I was done helping him and maybe he shouldnt be on this trail if he wasnt familiar with wheeling. Still have the scar several yrs later.

I got a million stupid things but those 2 come to mind.

DONT use a hi-lift jack except for last resorts. Those things are dangerous. And, if you do be sure to use a limiting strap on your suspension and use blocks or tree stumps or whatever you can.. It'll kill ya!

[Dcope17]

I have a bad memory so I can only recall recent stuff...

I removed the side handle from my 4 1/2" grinder so I could grind upside down on something. While grinding, I certainly watched all my fingers to keep all 10 on my hands with the job finished. I succeeded at that.
Then, as I lowered the grinder in my right hand ( as I always do) and wait for the wheel to stop, I forgot that I had it upside down. I lowered it into its position of grinding wheel edge to thumb. Feeling the flesh quickly being removed, I just dropped the grinder even before I looked because every 1/100 of a second meant that much more flesh removed.

I easily survived but being so careful then not showed in the end results.

[inVERt'D]

A few months back I was using my 4-1/2" angle grinder and since I'd recently hit my fingers several times, I decided to put a glove on my left hand. I grabbed a glove, and cradled the grinder in my left arm so I could pull the glove on with my right. Now the grinder is a Porter-Cable with a paddle-switch with a flip-off safety (same as DeWalt's). As I reached to pull the glove onto my left hand, I squeezed the grinder between my chest, bicep, and forearm just to keep it from falling. I don't know whether I'd not released the paddle completely or whether I somehow disengaged the safety, but suddenly the grinder snapped to life with the 24-grit grinding wheel on my forearm. Of course, it immediately started digging in, and I could feel it. I reacted so fast I'm not even sure exactly what I did now, but I had the grinder off of my arm and in my right had an instant later. I was actually very pleased and relieved because at 10,000 rpm it could have gone much worse very quickly. The grinding wheel was very close to my chest and bicep, and I was not using a guard.

It gave me about a 5-inch long abrasion on my forearm that looked kinda like a long, skinny V opening towards my hand. Took probably three weeks to heal closed and I still have a raised, pink scar about 3-1/2 inches long. I had mostly been using a rather new, 5-inch, very aggressive 24-grit disc, but had switched it out for a smaller and significantly less aggressive Harbor Freight 4" 24-grit disc (actually seems more like 60-grit). I think that that other wheel would have torn me up much worse.

About a month ago I was wearing a rather loose t-shirt (not my habit), and I guess I was hunched over a bit with my workpiece in my left hand and the grinder with a wire wheel in my right, when the grinder suddenly caught my shirt. I recoiled my gut from it as it wadded itself in my shirt. It happened so fast, but I got away from that one without an injury. Sure felt dumb, though.

[inVERt'D]

The only real stupid thing was done years ago. Building a 72 Mach 1. Had it up on jack stands. Installing the C6 transmission. sliding out from under the car I put my foot on one of the jack stands and pushed. The car came down on my hand and the cross member bolt went through my hand and pinned me to the floor. Wife was not home, no one could hear me yell, so I laid there for two and half hours until the wifey came home. That was fun...

:beer:

[nwoods]

I used to work a lot on composite model gliders. I have super glued my fingers together more than once. Requires an Xacto blade and a great deal of patience to wait for the wife to quit laughing and cut you free.

Not too long ago I was using a borrowed angle grinder with the guard removed to "clean up" mangled bits of undercarriage on my jeep. I wore gloves, eye protection, and heavy apron..... But kneeling on one knee the apron slid up, the cutoff wheel hit the rubber puck body mount spacer, and the grinder sling shot'd directly into my exposed leg.

I was home alone, wrapped up my leg in a towel to absorb the red stuff, and had the presence of mind to grab my Kindle before driving myself to the emergency room (I have spent waaayyyy too much time waiting in ER's!).

The awkward part was driving up to the ER entrance. There were no parking spots nearby, and I had a moral quandary, dare I park under the ambulance drop off, potentially blocking access while I'm attended to, or do I try to walk in while holding my freshly aerated leg together?
I hobbled in. That took a fair number of stitches. Still a nifty scar. I got so lucky though. Didn't hit anything major.

Calming down the wife after she came home to find a missing husband, and bloody tool and red spray patterns on the driveway was less fun.