Cup brushes are dangerous

[ausfire]

Mate of mine called round yesterday. Hand badly damaged from a wayward angle grinder fitted with an aggressive wire cup brush. It kicked (as they do) and caught the edge of his glove pulling his hand into the wire. Not fun. The glove is still tangled up in it.

 

 

[Tubalcain2]

NO GLOVES with rotary equipment !!!!! That goes for all grinders and power saws. it's not a joke. I know folks who have lost fingers and almost whole hands that way. those cup brushes are handy but please no gloves or loose clothing !! Shoot, i have even had those things grab my jeans and rip into my leg. they eat cloth like I eat potatoes. (and that is a lot) 

[Glenn]

Angle grinders are dangerous. Wire wheels are dangerous. When you put them together you created a double danger.  They throw wire darts, throw debris, and are flesh eating monsters, always looking for a moment in time or opportunity to eat you alive.

You can improve your chances to avoid injury by using cup brushes on a flat surface, and running the leading edge of the cup OFF the work.  Safety glasses do not work when on the top of the head, they must cover the eyes.  A good apron when hanging up only protects the nail it hangs on. The apron must be worn to provide protection. Ear protection is a must to protect the hearing as well as keep debris out of the ear channel. Never work tired and always keep your wits about you.

I am glad the injury was no more serious that it was. Thank you for the warning about wire brushes and angle grinders,

[JHCC]

I have to disagree with you, @Glenn: a hung-up apron protects the wall under the nail.

[Daswulf]

Aus, was tha side handle on that grinder? 

Many times people take them off to reach into tighter spaces. Removing the handle makes the tool Much more hard to control and Much more dangerous. Sometimes you just need the right tool for the job and die grinders with smaller wire wheels are better for tighter spaces. 

I do often wear gloves when using the angle grinder. The key is knowing and respecting the tool and keeping safe using it. I wear tighter gloves like mechanix gloves when using those. You need to be able to control the tool so loose or bulky gloves are not the best. Also No loose clothing that it can grab and wind into it. 

 

[ThomasPowers]

I had an Industrial arts teacher who wore clip on bow ties after he nearly kissed a running metal lathe.  The Principal used to hassle him about it until he was show the safety pics about people not so lucky...  Long hair in the shop can cause problems too.  Luckily I'm using an all natural method of avoiding that issue...

[Lou L]

2 hours ago, JHCC said:

I have to disagree with you, @Glenn: a hung-up apron protects the wall under the nail.

That's EXACTLY what I was going to say when I read @GLEN's post.  You beat me to a good one!

However, he is right.  I caught myself cold chiseling with my glasses on top of my head yesterday.  It was only about two strikes before I realized it.  Something felt "wrong".

[Charles R. Stevens]

Yep, had a neighbor caught his long hair in the belt on his swamp cooler

[ThomasPowers]

Once you get used to wearing PPE it becomes second nature and you can get amusing episodes with it.  When I worked with the Sword Maker  we were so used to glasses and masks and hearing protectors that sometimes we went in for lunch wearing them and didn't realize it until we tried to put a forkful of food in our mouths...

[Frosty]

Sometimes you just have to wear gloves around rotary tools. Tight or at least close fitting gloves are a must and they need to slip off easily. If you wear gloves you'd better be hoping they get caught in a way you can slip out. Rotary wire brushes and buffing wheels are blood thirsty monsters just waiting for a slip, ANY mistake and you're supper. When leather gets wrapped in your wire brush it jams it pretty quickly. Denim shirt, Levis? HAH that's just the stairway to supper for spinning brushes.

There are or were FatalGrams about people getting tangled in rotary tooling. On the drills I used to use the auger ran between the power head guides with about 8"-10" clearance until the  power head bottomed out. Get caught by the auger and it would wrap you around itself faster than it will coast to a stop if you grabbed the clutch on the way in. 

I hung THAT Fatalgram in the office where the guys who don't operate machinery could see why we refused to do things their way.

Frosty The Lucky.

[ausfire]

On ‎16‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 1:44 AM, Daswulf said:

Aus, was tha side handle on that grinder? 

Yes, it did have a side handle fitted but it was on the right hand side. You can see the hole for the fitting on the left side is blocked off. The operator is right handed, so you can see he was using the tool in an unnatural position for him. That was a contributing factor to the incident. You need total control over a tool like that.  I'm right-handed and I would need the side handle on the left.