The little things matter

[Mark Ling]

Or remembering to take off the respirator before you sneeze!

                                                                                                     Littleblacksmith

[Gazz]

A couple of things - I was using a wire wheel in a hand held angle grinder to remove paint off a steel cabinet.  Lot of little stings in my legs as bits of the wire wheel came off but I thought nothing of it until I went to take my pants off at the end of the night.  They were pinned to my legs!  I had to pick the xxxx wires out with pliers so I could get undressed!  One wire was so deep under my skin I left it there and it took years to dissolve.

Stick welding out of position once a bit of weld splatter bounced into my ear right onto the eardrum.  Just like having your ears pop when changing altitude.  Went to eh docs and they did a ear wash as they said they could see the weld berry sitting there on the drum.  All healed now.

I know longer wear gloves when doing hot stuff other than arc welding.  Hot chunks of this or that seem to find their way in down the back of the glove or hot stuff that finds the holes or thin spots in your gloves.

[Glenn]

Old wire wheels shed wire more than the new wheels.

Wire wheels are another reason to wear an apron or other protection when grinding. Those small wires are like darts and can travel quite a distance. Even the dog is not safe when using a wire wheel.

[Frosty]

48 minutes ago, Glenn said:

Old wire wheels shed wire more than the new wheels.

Wire wheels are another reason to wear an apron or other protection when grinding. Those small wires are like darts and can travel quite a distance. Even the dog is not safe when using a wire wheel.

You let your dog use a wire wheel?!  

The guy who demoed the All States oxy propane torch I have had a very friendly dog who was always nosing or buffing my leg for attention. When the fellow picked up a striker to light the torch his dog disappeared. For good reason, the gouging tip called the "weld eraser" by All State is like a bomb going off in use. 

I don't let our dogs in the shop if I'm doing hot work well maybe except light bending. Then again I'm sort of OCD about safety.

Frosty The Lucky.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Dylan Sawicki]

Making sure the angle grinder is at a complete stop before resting it on a table. They tend to jump off if you do that.

[Daswulf]

If the grinder does fall and it had a grinding or cutoff wheel on it make sure you check it and or replace it. You don't want one of those exploding at high speed. 

[Dylan Sawicki]

Of course, I respect my angle grinder very useful but very dangerous sometimes.

[Frosty]

Close to correct Dylan but not quite. Disk grinders are ALWAYS dangerous unless they're unplugged. 

One of the guys who worked in a welding shop I worked for set the 9" Milwaukee grinder down and promptly stepped on the trigger. He was lucky, it only ruined a boot and put a serious friction burn on his ankle. 

ALWAYS DANGEROUS.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Gazz]

Speaking of angle grinders, I worked in a shop once that had air powered 9" grinders, Every now and then after a disc change, the disc would slowly unscrew itself from the arbor and then take off like Odd Jobs hat.  They would bounce off walls or whatever they ran into and really had a fair amount of energy in them.  Fortunately no one was ever hit by one.   I could never understand the physics behind it since the air motor spun in a direction to make the discs tighten up and not loosen.  I suppose its possible that the air motor started backwards occasionally which might cause the problem.

[Will W.]

16 hours ago, Daswulf said:

If the grinder does fall and it had a grinding or cutoff wheel on it make sure you check it and or replace it. You don't want one of those exploding at high speed. 

In my experience, if it has a grinding wheel when it fell and it's in decent condition, meaning the edges are not too thin, you're probably ok. Still, check it. A cutoff wheel though? No way, change it! It probably fractured or chipped, they're very thin and brittle, and if it did, it will probably turn into a million pieces upon the next use. 

[JHCC]

Look at it this way: replacing even the most expensive grinding wheel is a whole lot cheaper than a trip to the emergency room.

[Daswulf]

11 hours ago, Gazz said:

Speaking of angle grinders, I worked in a shop once that had air powered 9" grinders, Every now and then after a disc change, the disc would slowly unscrew itself from the arbor and then take off like Odd Jobs hat.  They would bounce off walls or whatever they ran into and really had a fair amount of energy in them.  Fortunately no one was ever hit by one.   I could never understand the physics behind it since the air motor spun in a direction to make the discs tighten up and not loosen.  I suppose its possible that the air motor started backwards occasionally which might cause the problem.

Some air tools stop more abruptly unlike when an electric grinder winds down. The more abrupt stop could help to kick the retainer nut free. 

I have had 3" roloc grinding discs fly off the arbor pad on my small angle die grinder. That's usually when I change the arbor on those. 

[Scott NC]

 Large drills with trigger locks can be dangerous too.  It's easy to inadvertantly engage the lock.  With a bigger sized bit that can bind up in the hole,  look out.  This happened to a co-worker and he recieved a nasty crack on the back of his wrist and the drill wound its cord around and around and eventually unpluged itself.   Safetywise, you must look out for the unexpected!  

[Daswulf]

I had a large double handle drill ( cheapy one) that would take a while to wind down when you let off the trigger. One time I was using it with a hole saw to cut into a piece of pipe. It caught and luckily I got out of its way as it spun then ripped the pipe out of the vise and fell destroying itself by breaking both handles off before it stopped. At least I only lost a drill to my poor decision making. 

[Will W.]

Not pertaining to metal working, so a little off topic, but right angle drills can be a literal knuckle buster sometimes. One time I was drilling holes in some floor joists in order to run plumbing, using a right angle drill and a spade bit. Well, the bit grabbed, and I ended up punching the floor above me at about 100 mph when the drill took off. I stopped using spade bits after letting a few angry words fly at the drill.