safety first

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Bonehead

Skull Master
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
12,242
Location
Fruita, Colorado
I thought since there was nothing here yet I'd start off with a couple of safety tips.
I picked up a jeep magazine the other day and in it they show a guy welding in a tank top, and tennis shoes. American Chopper, and shows like it, show guys running 4 inch angle grinders with no gloves, or eye protection.

This has got to stop. The younger crowd may think it is macho not to work with minimal safety gear, but they need to learn BEFORE a costly mistake. Eye protection is a must. I have been to the E.R. a couple of times to get a small chunk of metal drilled out of my eyeball. No fun! but I am lucky not to have perminent damage from that. I have burned a grinder disk into my left wrist twice. ( slow learner) And flash welding burns, I think the worst is on the front ofyour neck. I hear about welders getting skin cancer in that spot.

So the lesson is: Boots, long pants, long shirt,gloves, and a good hood when welding. Ear protection when hammering, eye protection all the time.

It may sound like I am a walking posterchild for band aids, but in 30+ years I am bound to have made some mistakes. :cool:
 
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I've always like my thumbs!

I know this sounds really stupid since I'm nearly 60 & should absolutely know better... I recently got a new *high* torque drill. It came with a twist-on handle for stabilization. I thought... why should I use that, it'll just get in the way & I'm a pretty strong guy. Well the drill got caught up just as it penetrated the other side, torqued over & dang near took my thumb off. I've always liked my thumbs! Three weeks later... it still hurts! Now I use that handle *all the time*! Sometimes it's the stupid little things that wind up hurting u! That's why Don always preaches safety & the Flatster recommended a safety section in his honor. And Bonehead is right about welding... I had to really burn my hand bad b4 I started using welding gloves... seems I've always learned the painful hard way! ; - >

BoB
 
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Good safety tips Bonehead. I've made that trip to the eye doctor a couple of times myself. One of which after I was wearing saftey glasses (not goggles) and the shrapnel still got around them.

Right now I'm looking at a burn in my palm that looks like a third eye because I wasn't wearing gloves when welding. There is a reason for safety tips.
 
I'm a lot like what Bonehead said, "Slow Learner". I've been in the doc's chair more times than I care to remember having hot metal shavings scraped off my eyeball. (Would you believe they make a special band aid for that now)

I got distracted just about 4 years ago while balanceing a tire on the vehicle and wound up breaking 3 fingers on my left hand. (You should have seen that distraction) Needless to say, That hurt like "All Gitout" Yes I can still balance them on the car the way they used to do it "Back in the day"

The moral to my short story is don't get complacent. It is all the thing that you do on a daily basis that you usually gets you hurt...
 
I should be a poster child for what not to do, and I hate to admit it. I have gotten much better about safety glasses, but it took 3 or 4 trips to the emergency ward to get the procedure Flat is talking about before I got smart. I am also better now about wearing gloves when welding and grinding, but the thing I do that is really wrong is I strip down to just shorts and tennis shoes as soon as I hit the shop. It is hot, and I am not particularly fond of clothes anyway, so I wear as little as possible.

I am sporting a couple of good burns on the top of my one foot right now, where a hot piece of steel went down my tennis shoe while plasma cutting. The other foot just healed from the same thing. Last week I was using a die grinder with a wire wheel on it to clean my frame, and had to keep picking 1/2 inch long pieces of steel wire from the wheel out of my skin. I would look down and see blood, and a wire sticking out. :eek:

I have also been using one of those grinding discs that look like a rice cake, and when that plastic comes apart and hits you in the bare chest, it leaves whelts. I won't tell you how many times I have felt heat and looked down to see my glove on fire.

I realize I am an idiot, but I just can't work if I am all bundled up, so I keep lots of ointment and bandaids handy. :eek: :eek: Very good points though Bonehead.

Don
 
15%

I just can't work if I am all bundled up, so I keep lots of ointment and bandaids handy.

Don
I'm gonna try & get u a gig as a spokesman for Johnson & Johnson & Neosporin! U're perfect 4 it but I want the agent's usual 15%! ; - >

BoB
 
I was welding a q panel on a buick a few years back and was doing a few tacks.Well my helmet was way on the other side of the shop and so me being the da that i am at times I cloesed my eyes.well that dose not work too well it felt like some one was grinding sand in my right eye for a few days.Not fun.
 
I've had my eyes burnt by a welder once and by a plasma cutter twice. Both feel the same to me.

Like I said, I'm a slow lerner.

Go ahead, say it "DU-MASS REDNECK" i know...i know...iknow....
some people just never get it...LOLOLOL.....
 
Exactly what I thought would happen. A bunch of car guys comparing scars.
1. When Auto hoods came out I bought a cheap one, don't do that, burned my eyes with it, threw it away.
2. Avoid closing your eyes and tacking stuff together, here we call that "working on your tan"
3. When using a wire brush wheel the wires do come off and stick into your skin, each time that happens, thank God it was not your eyeball.
4.The "dust" that comes off your plasma cutter is so fine, when you breath it, your lungs fill up like a bag in a vacuume cleaner. Use a water table if you can.

I'll post a few more after your done laughing.
 
Alright, I think I have about the dumbest story.
I'm embarrassed to even tell it.
I was welding up some brackets for my 52 and instead of using the vice (on the other side of the shop) I just layed it in my lap. I had shorts on and no gloves. I don't know what I was thinking??????:rolleyes: :confused:
The only good thing that came out of it, was the feeling of neosporine on my crank and bearings!:eek:
I'll never do that again!!!!!
 
Inked Monkey,
Pardon me while I regain my composure.



OK, lemmie try this again. I take it that you still thank God every night that you still have your .....Ball bearings and Stick shift....
 
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I was surprised that it didn't leave a mark, at least that I can tell. It just hurt like hell for a long time and definetly no sex while healing!:mad: I know it had to be funny watching me fly up in the air throwing everything trying to take my shorts off while finding some water for my crotch!:rolleyes: That was a big "Note To Self!" Never again!!
 
ROTFLMAO,

Man I don't mean to laugh at you but I would rather do it where you know about it than try and do it behind your back....

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
 

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