Dan C Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 What are some of the oops, gotcha moments that you've done that others could either laugh at or learn from? Could either be a close call with a safety issue or messed up a project. Either way you learned from the experience and by sharing others could too. My list is long, some examples would be I find myself resting my hand on the post vise while waiting for something to heat in the forge, bad idea after clamping down on hot steel. Another that doesn't involve pain is at the end of the day when there's not enough time to forge, but want to be productive, sharpening a knife and use the anvil as a chair while watching the sunset, then realize I'm still wearing good pants, oops. My most serious one involved welding. I know better than try to rush things, was trying to quickly weld something and did it in an area of my garage that wasn't fire proofed. Sparks smoldered and ignited some paper after I'd gone back inside, fortunately I came back out to a smoke filled garage and put it out, the result could've been much much worse. The next day I installed one of these First-Alert-SA710CN-Photoelectric-Sensor as well as revisiting the garage for potential risks and slapping myself in the head anytime I think of trying to just do something quick again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don A Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 After several heats on an 18" bar, the heat was creeping into my handle end (long enough to not use tongs). I decide to drop the piece handle-first into the water bucket (hot end up). Got distracted then went to grab the bar and continue. Didn't take long to put it back down (grabbed the end sticking up). I love palm burns on my hammer hand. I was using a zip wheel on my angle grinder and let it get away from me. Now I have a nice scar on the top of my foot that matches the cut on my boot. Good to have reminders for stuff like that. I have mentioned this before, but I had been wire brushing an antique sledge head. Turned the bench grinder off, took my glasses off, then noticed I'd missed one small spot. Thought I'd just hit it a quick lick and be done, so I wouldn't need my glasses for 10 seconds work. Two days later when the eye doctor was grinding and sucking the rust ring out of the white part of my eyeball, I realize what a stupid idea that was. You should know better than to bring up scars in the company of a bunch of blacksmiths... ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 When you have scars you do not need tattoos. And it makes a much better story. Unless of course you using the tattoo to cover up the scar. (grin) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan C Posted June 14, 2013 Author Share Posted June 14, 2013 You should know better than to bring up scars in the company of a bunch of blacksmiths... ;) LOL yes, but if we can learn from each others mishaps maybe we'll have fewer incidents in the future. Plus you know there's some good stories out there to tell. I'm sure no one would ever embellish... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 There is the scar remains of a mistake on the pad of my right ring finger that I'll never forget giving myself. I was cutting slots in the end of a length of pipe I was modifying into an asphalt cutter so we could drill through roadways without making a big pucker. Well, I was slotting the end for silver soldering carbide bits with a disk grinder. Was I using a cutting disk? Oh no, I was using a grinding disk but what the hey, I was only slotting about 3/8" deep. Well, after cutting a dozen slots I was getting tired but only had the one slot to go and it was about to depth. last slot, time for a break and finish it up in the morning so I let go of the trigger. Ever notice how a 9" Milwaukee develops torque, how it twists in your hand when you turn it on or OFF? Wellll, the disk was still in the slot and the inertia of the grinder is plenty to do exciting things so it grabbed in the slot and launched itself across the shop, about 30' in total. I took a good hit when my hand hit the drill bit in progress, went white numb from finger tips to shoulder. I walked over to the disk grinder knowing the disk was history but I had a box on the shelf so no big deal. When I looked I saw the handle was broken, the trigger and ridge ripped clean off with the wiring hanging out of a split near where the cord enters. DARN!!! (cleaned up for the forum) Off to the shop it goes. DOUBLE DRATS!!! I was carrying the wounded tool back to the table when it occurred to me I had my finger on that trigger, better take a look, I still can't feel it. Hmmmm. I take my first look and gee whiz! there's a big hole ripped in the pad area of my right ring finger and it's oozing a good flow of blood. Off comes the glove and low and behold I have a goodly avulsion where the trigger track, whatever it's called, pinned my finger to the pipe before ripping first the pad and then itself off as it departed on it's airborne trek of discovery. Ooh, I can see my own bone again! Think of this avulsion like taking an icecream scoop and scooping some hide down to the bone but stopping before it comes out completely. Immediate first aid was push it back in with my thumb, shut down and lock up the shop, call the office and drive to the local clinic to get sewn up. A long story for a really brief incident but BAD often is just too fast for us. Lesson learned? Oh yeah, no matter what kind of disk you're using to cut steel, never, NEVER turn the grinder on or off with the disk IN the slot! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 My little almost unnoticeable scar on my left wrist is from trying to learn forge welding, I got angry. Anger has no place in the shop but I used to have a real temper and would throw hammers, tongs, well anything at hand or in my hand. I had a 1/2" piece of mild steel I was trying to forge weld and it just wasn't a happening. After about the tenth time on a 104F day I got really angry and threw it. It hit something and came back straight at me and I put my left arm up to keep from taking it in the gut. The last time I threw hot iron ever. Anger has no place in the shop. Now when something ain't going right I just leave everything and go do something not associated with anything even related with metal. I go talk to one of the dogs, it's just like talking to a Marine, they haven't a clue what you're talking about but they look like they do and that helps a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I've told this story before and perhaps will again because it's a mistake that can kill/maim in the blink of an eye....My friend Bobby (Bear) Garcia RIP could get pretty casual around the shop and never was without a Bud in easy reach and I was guilty of that too on occasion (25 yrs ago)........He had a BIG 3hp 1725 rpm pedistal grinder with a 10-12'' wire wheel for burnishing whatever and decided to pretty up a piece of 1/4'' chain about 5' long with it one fatefull day.....Anyway, presented the chain to the wire wheel and the beast ripped it from his hands, wraped it around the arbor and the tag ends merrily beat his face to a bloody pulp at the rate of 30 wacks a second. He lost his right eye and was never the same. Chain and pedistal grinders don't mix, large or small. 3/8'' chain likely would have killed him outright but people doing smaller chain, jewelers especially, get their fingers ripped off. Chain MUST be firmly wrapped around a board and secured at each end, then and only then it is relatively safe to wire wheel it this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Coke Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Not me, never done stupid things like that.... Yea right.... Wound my loose shirt tail up in a 4 1/2 grinder with a wire wheel like a yoyo.. Got to my belly and took a chunk of meat... Stay tucked in .... Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan C Posted June 15, 2013 Author Share Posted June 15, 2013 it's just like talking to a Marine, they haven't a clue what you're talking about but they look like they do and that helps a lot. hmm...is that an insult, as a former jarhead I'll have to think about that one and get back to you. Things hhappen in a blink of an eye. You hear often about how the grinder is one of the most dangerous tools in the shop, these are good reminders. Not smithing related, but one tool that I didn't give enough respect to is the air compressor. I went to my neighbor's to borrow his power washer and one of the tires is flat. He hands me the end of the compressor hose with an air jack and a pair of pliers saying I'll need them. Stupid me, I should've stopped right then and asked why, I didn't must be the Marine in me...couldn't pass up that one. Anyway some of y'all probably see where this is going but as the tire is full I realize the air jack is stuck on the tire, so get the pliers and start to twist the jack off. At that moment the wheel the tire is on explodes and my left hand take the impact, breaking 4 bones and blood everywhere. Sometimes when driving I'll play the what if game, if the car in front of me does this what should I do. Had I been thinking of potential risks I would've asked my neighbor why I needed pliers to fill the tire and then could've used mine instead, or maybe when it was stuck, shut off the compressor so it didn't keep filling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Why do we not see AND recognize when someone waves the big red flag? I wish that inner voice, gut feeling, what ever you call it, had a volume control. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willis Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 My two favorites. I was using a 7" angle grinder and wasnt paying attention to where the sparks were going. I set myself on fire when the sparks lit up my T-shirt. I went to polish up a knife handle yesterday. Turned on the buffer and as soon as I touched the handle to the wheel it jerked from my hand and sliced the tip of my left index finger pretty bad. I have also ground off about a half pound of skin from my knuckles over the years, ran a quarter inch drill bit thru the webbing between my left thumb and index finger. People who work in emergency rooms call folks like us job security. I do take some comfirt in the knowledge that I help keep some people in a job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyO Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Why do we not see AND recognize when someone waves the big red flag? I wish that inner voice, gut feeling, what ever you call it, had a volume control. Sometime it does, sometimes not. 2 non-smithing stories, but both still give me goosebumps: The time I listenened to the voice was about 10 years ago, snowshoeing with my sibes up at White Pass, around mid-night with a full moon. I was in the rhythm of breaking trail through waist deep powder, came out of the trees to see the full moon cresting over Mt Rainier, and I was enraptured of the moment. After about 30-40 steps I stopped suddenly with that feeling. I pulled my gaze away from the horizon and focused on the task at hand, and realized I was starting to break a trail right across a steep draw, and as I moved my gaze up mountain, I saw that at the top of the draw about 200 yards was an overhang of snow. I immediately turned around and went back to the tree line, took one last look at the moon and started back to the tent. The time I didn't listen was when I was fishing for steelhead on the Toutle river about 15 years ago. I was hiking yup river to get to a boulder garden when the deertrail on the sidehill I was hiking, came to a point where a small slide washed about 4 feet of the trail away. I didn't feel like bushwhacking through the blackberries, so I thought I could just swing/stride/hop over the washout, but as I tried, the trail crumbled below my feet and I found myself scaping down the hill, trying to dig my fingers into the hill to stop the slide to no avail, and found myself sliding into the whitewater right over a huge hole with chest waders on. Luckily for me, when I was about waist-deep into the rushing river, my feet hit a ledge or rock and I stopped sliding. I can't remember whether I relieved myself in my waders or not. Needless to say, the blackberries were not that big of a deal on the way back to the truck. I'm pretty sure I was fishless, but as I drove back home, I thought it was great day nonetheless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Willis's story reminds me of the time during construction on the house when I was going to hang a quick piece of wood on the tarp tent shop when I ran a screw through the plywood thingy I was hanging, through the 2x4 I was hanging it on and into my finger. Any idea how hard it is to just pull your finger off a wood screw? so, there I was violating several safety rules, standing on the second from the top step of a ladder on uneven ground, nobody within shouting distance, my finger screwed to the far side of a 2x4 and my only recourse to unscrew it. All I needed at that moment was to drop the screw gun and I'd be there till Deb came looking or ran an errand. Luckily I got the screw gun reversed and freed myself. Sure, I'd gotten away with this kind of thing for years but it's like drinking from the well, do it enough times and you WILL drop the dipper. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macbruce Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Frosty The Lucky. Yes you were....I guess if you had dropped the drill you would have been literally screwed..... :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 Yes, literally. :blink: Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentiron1946 Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 I like, or disliked, the story about the chain, many a jeweler had a horror story about polishing a gold or silver chain for a customer and then getting flogged by it as it gets wrapped around the polishing lathe spinning at 3,450 RPM. A jeweler friend of mine had to have over 80 stitches in his hands and forearms before he could back away from the machine, those fine gold chains cut deep at 3,450 RPM. Now a jeweler will just throw the chain in a rock polishing drum with some stainless steel shot to polish it up, no chance of it getting caught in the buff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Turley Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 The angle grinder. In the early days, my leather apron began to smell funny and smoke was on the rise. The sparks blew a little hole through the apron and the leather in that area got all discolored and wrinkly. I was not hurt, but a lesson learned. Years later, I started a woodpile fire about 30 feet from where I was grinding, thus proving that the sparks go a looong ways. The chain fall. Make sure the hoisting chains or cables are rising equally to the center of the load before fastening to the hoisting hook. Likewise, make sure the hoisting hook is centered over the load. Otherwise, the load tips sideways or flops around or the tripod falls over. Don't ask. Sayings and Cornpone "The staple remover is a better invention than the staple." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianinsa Posted June 15, 2013 Share Posted June 15, 2013 There are times when one should wander about us "as Quality breeding stock" Ha ! I mean these genes get passed on! There are times when you feel a little someone/gaurdian angel etc. whispering in your ear when they should really be smacking your ear..(Remember both chains and chainsaws are hartless things) Here I'm as guilty as most, lucky too I supose. I remember walking across a deck reinforcing matress to place some balluster sleeves, when I found myself unable to moove. When I looked down I found that a 3/4" cropped peice of rebar had pocked up through my foot about 1.5" behind the toe cap.This my freinds is somewhat less that ideal and has been known to hamper mobility somewhat! You then also discover the little known fact that it is difficult to cut rebar whilst trying not to laugh and while the impaled subject(me) bleats insessantly that they must keep the bar still as it hurts when they move it. :D Lastly I found it a "chalenge" to climb down scaffolding with a chunk of rebar still through my foot and boot. This was a few years ago and thanks to sucsessful surgery nigh even a scar, Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windancer Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 My closest almost was one day when I was routing a square hole in the end of my table saw for an insert. As I was plugging in the router this little voice said 'hope it is not turned on' but I finished plugging it in. The high torque router motor went crazy, spinning and bouncing across the saw table. So the second stupid thing I did was to grab it to prevent being damaged when it hit the floor. The lucky thing was that the bit hit my left middle finger with enough remaining torque to spin y hand away when it hit. I ended up with a very clean cut to the leave the bone exposed. Lost only the fingernail and some meat and was thankful that the damage wasn't worse. Could easily have lost that hand. Now I stop whatever I am doing when that little voice talks to me. Thanks to all for sharing- maybe we can learn a little from one another and not have to do every stupid thing ourselves. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toolish Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 More power tool related i guess, Was just doing a quick wood working job, just drilling a hole in the wood then putting a screw through it. Was wearing a pair of thongs at the time and holding the bit of wood down with my foot. Drilling into the wood and the drill kinda jumped as it got snagged on a knot in the hard wood, went up a little bit then went down onto my big tow as the drill slowed. Thennn.... As I tried to get the drill off my toe I squeezed at the handle lifting it while pressing the drill trigger at the same time..... Got down to the bone and had a few days off walking lol . Power tools can always hurt you more and faster then a hand tool ever will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjh66 Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 I learnt the hard way to tell people to go away when using dangerous tools so that you don't have to worry about them and not take care of your self. Long story short trimming and cutting down trees for someone as a favour, saw movement out the corner of my eye, turned to see where they where and had saw catch on some wire netting ing the grass that I didn't know was there. Saw kicked back opened my throat from under jaw below ear to chin. 40 odd external stitches later learnt to tell people that don't know about the dangerous tools to rack off when I'm using them so I'm not watching them instead of what I'm doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyO Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 ...gaurdian angel etc. whispering in your ear when they should really be smacking your ear.. I've often imagined meeting my guardian angel and that's the only thing I'm afraid of about crossing into the next beyond. S/He's probably gonna look pretty ticked-off and worn out and no doubt will ask why I NEVER gave him/her a day off..... :rolleyes: . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Stupid trick #74: About 15 years ago when I was alone on a job site out of town. I needed a reducing bushing. I couldn’t find one in the parts box with me inside job site, so I went to my truck to get the new box of them from the back. I open the side window of the bed topper, and saw the larger cardboard box with a lot of new boxes of parts. I grabed that larger box and it would not move, it was partially held fast by the pile of by other things, like tool boxes, saws cases, and a 7/8 spline drive hammer drill. That baby can drill a 3 inch hole through concrete in no time its such a big old boy, it was in its folded steel case with nice sharp corners. Rather than make the effort to remove the heavy monstrosity from the back of the pick up, I pushed it aside, it slid back, so I moved a few more things, restacking things as I went and of course that hammer drill was on top of this new pile. I reached in to dig around to find and retrieve the box of reducing washers, and the large hammer drill case shifted. Of course the heavy hammer drill was in that case , and as it slid into the box of parts while my right hand was in its way, sharp sheet metal corner sliced open my right hand and party removed my thumb at the palm. So I gave up and called for an ambulance, while waiting for it to arrive, I locked the job site and truck, thinking how stupid it was to lose a thumb over a reducing washer. And being annoyed the truck was a manual transmission I could not now shift to drive. Later they did reattach the thumb, and I managed to drive that stick shift the 50 miles home, and according to Dr I lost only about 2% of use from the right thumb. I personally have not noticed any losses :) But I fear I turned my guardian angel into an alcoholic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 I learnt the hard way to tell people to go away when using dangerous tools so that you don't have to worry about them and not take care of your self. Long story short trimming and cutting down trees for someone as a favour, saw movement out the corner of my eye, turned to see where they where and had saw catch on some wire netting ing the grass that I didn't know was there. Saw kicked back opened my throat from under jaw below ear to chin. 40 odd external stitches later learnt to tell people that don't know about the dangerous tools to rack off when I'm using them so I'm not watching them instead of what I'm doing. AIIIII!! I'd already learned to just drive people off when I was cutting unless I knew darned well they knew what was going on and how to behave around chain saw work. So I almost bought it cutting solo. Glad you survived Brother, we do NOT need more folk in the fully paid up lucky to be alive club. Your story gave me chills, I've been so close I don't want to think about it. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted June 17, 2013 Share Posted June 17, 2013 Heck Steve driving our gaurdian angles to drink may be the only reason they stick around ornery old cusses like us. :P Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.