Frosty Posted November 13, 2020 Author Share Posted November 13, 2020 There are or were hazard alert posters that got distributed pretty freely called, "Fatalgrams." There were I don't know how many photos of people killed by getting tangled in rotary tools. You don't need to see to many pics of someone wound up: in a winch drum or around a driveline, or drill auger, or a lathe, etc. Just a home owner drill press can drag you in to kiss the drill bit before it pulls the hair out of your scalp. The number of people who've had a wire brush on a disk grinder climb their arm to eat their face is legion. An acquaintance of mine was wire brushing a knife blade when a neighbor waved and said high walking an errand. He returned and the brush was still running but under no load. He looked in to find Gordon laying on the floor with the blade through his heart. Coroner said he was dead before he hit the floor. The wire brush grabbed it, took it around the rear guard and shot it straight through his: leather apron, shirt and chest. I'd be surprised if he knew a thing, it would've hit him going maybe 40-45mph unless he was running a 3,450rpm. motor then figure 80-90mph. The barest touch of one of these machines and you're going IN! IF you're lucky it'll only strip your flesh to the bone. These machines aren't evil, they're not looking to get you, it's worse, they just don't care. Make a mistake and there's no more forgiveness in their nature than in a land slide. Staying safe is entirely on YOU. OSHA (committee) designed guards and safety devices are too often more dangerous than the bare tool. This usually gets straightened out quickly but it happens. You have to cover your own Butt literally, winning a lawsuit rarely puts the pieces and blood back in, especially if you're the defendant too. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 Very true Frosty. These are powerful unknowing machines designed to do a job stronger and faster than your flesh. They just function. They dont discriminate between what they work on be it flesh and steel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnut Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 Too right Frosty. At the rubber refinery it seemed like all the old fellas were missing at least one knuckle. One thing too often overlooked is that familiarity breeds complacency with some people. Pnut Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deimos Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 True, saw it happen many times with people sharpening TIG electrodes, best cases went trough fingers, worse cases went deep into legs. I was always lucky, i worked in a factory with just 3 other very grumpy old men. It could listen/learn or go home. 1. rotating things are deadly 2. if it falls, let it fall 3. if you use the crane, both hands are on the control 4. before you start rotating your pressure vat on the Welding Rotators, find a way to freely run away. 5. always use your welding mask, even when tacking (learned that the hard way) Seen vast fall from the rotators, seen other students lose his fingers because he wanted to stop a 6x2 meter plate about 20mm thick from moving, he got his hand on it right when the plate swung against the wall. Seen people forget that big pipes with flanges on them fall when you open up the bench vice (foot goes crunch) But the worst one to this day is seeing my classmate return after 6 months in a hospital to get his face back after he headbutted the lathe, faces should have a nose, just saying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 Worked in a custom wood shop once and watched the new guy decide he could reach in and stop the sanding belt on the 10 hp 37" wide sander---everybody in the shop yelling NO! at him as he started moving. Luckily he did stop it when it jammed his hand in the knife edges; otherwise; well it sanded kiln dried white oak wainscot panels without slowing down any, a hand would just be "light duty". We damaged the machine tearing it apart to get his hand out and then made him stick it in ice water on the trip to the ER. He didn't want to but we thought it might help the crush injuries. At least it wasn't the gang saw or the finger feed 2' wide joiner or even worse the owner's frankenstein dentil molding cutter that used several circular saw blades on a pendulum system. (The owner's stated goal was to never employ enough workers that would mandate a shop inspection by OSHA! We used a lot of beautiful 100 year old industrial equipment with NO modern safety features.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deimos Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: Worked in a custom wood shop once and watched the new guy decide he could reach in and stop the sanding belt on the 10 hp 37" wide sander--- Sounds like he was one of those "special needs" kind of person. We had a few of those when i was a hydraulic mechanic, interns who wanted to take a "shortcut" trough the machine we where building, while it was turned on... (bending, punching, joining. All at 20m/s) Was a machine sort of like this one, only this one is slower and much smaller, some interns had to be stopped multiple times because the thought they would be fast enough. (machine we where building was for G.E. about 70 meter long) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 2 hours ago, ThomasPowers said: We used a lot of beautiful 100 year old industrial equipment with NO modern safety features. I worked in a sawmill like that once. Once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 It was interesting to note that the Folks who had been there for years all still were decimal counters. It was hammered into us that the safety equipment was kept stored between our ears and it was up to us to use it. Younger guys who were smarter than the old guys tended to forget that. Biggest hazard in my opinion was the Boss; when he got frustrated he would throw tools. (He once spent a summer reroofing a barn in Colorado when he was in college; to speed things up re sheathing it with 3/4" plywood he wired the safety on the 16p nail gun up. Yup, he ended up nailing himself to the roof and expressed his displeasure by throwing the nearest tool as far as he could off the roof. Then realizing that it was the hammer he needed to pull out the nail holding him to the roof. Had to wait a considerable time till someone else showed up and he could ask them to fetch a hammer....Slow learner if he was still throwing tools decades later.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deimos Posted November 13, 2020 Share Posted November 13, 2020 I love people like that, we had one who would shout and make all kinds of noises all the time, so when we had our lunch break and he was shouting and making noise we just washed our hands and started eating, took a good 15 minutes before someone got fed up with him and went to tell him to just stop so we could eat in peace. He found him with his hand stuck in a machine... He never cried wolf again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted November 14, 2020 Share Posted November 14, 2020 On 11/13/2020 at 1:12 PM, ThomasPowers said: Slow learner if he was still throwing tools decades later My brother was like that, may he rest in peace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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