another call for safety!

[nachoman]

The other day, I was working on my car, and a small spring loaded part broke free and caught me in the eye. Saftey glasses seem obvious when working with power tools or in situations where debris are flying. They don't seem so obvious when doing simple disassebly, but that does not mean they are not just as important. Luckily, my eye looks worse than it is, but it is quite bruised and quite red. My vision seems okay, but I count myself as lucky because that stupid little spring clip could have permanently damaged my vision had it hit about half a centemeer to the left.

And then yesterday, my friend's dad cut the tip of his finger off using a table saw. He spent the rest of the day and evening in the hospial getting microsurgery and plastic surgery.

So once again, be safe out there. Accidents ofen happen in times when in hindsight we know we should have known better. Pay attention to what you are doing, because a simple lapse of attention may be all it takes to earn a trip to the emergency room.

kevin

 

[Jim Krause]

Amen to your comments. I once spent two days in the hospital while in the army. Combat wound? No! I got hit in the eye by the cork from a champaine bottle. I was working as a waiter in the officers club. Had a heck of a time trying to convince the duty officer that I hadn't been in a fight.

 

[Torpedo]

Years ago, I was repairing an IBM typewriter (remember typewriters ). It was a typebar type, not a Selectric with the ball. On the typebar machines, there was a rather large over center spring that kept the segment (the curved slotted thingy the type bars fit into) either up or down, depending on whether the shift key was depressed or not. When I removed the spring, it flew straight at me and struck my safety glasses, spider webbing one lens.

I took the glasses off and sat them on the customer's desk. A couple of seconds later, the cracked lens simply fell apart. I explained to the customer, the manager of a corporate farm in the boonies, who had seen the whole thing, that I couldn't continue working until I got a new pair of safety glasses, and I would return the next day. He ptiched a fit about my leaving his machine in pieces and demanded that I continue with the repair sans safety glasses, which I refused to do.

Just one of the reasons that I got out of the office machine repair field.

Edit: Forgot to put my main point in. This little event made me a very firm believer in safety glasses. Nothing like having a convincing demonstration right on your own face. I didn't own any safety glasses prior to getting that particular job. They were an issue item and wearing them was mandatory. Likely as not, that work rule saved the sight in one of my eyes.

 

[brakie]

I SHOULD use safety glasses while I am using my Dremel but,since it takes only a few seconds to do the cutting I don't bother .Thank goodness the higher powers that be has kept me out of harm.Now I have lost count of the times I have cut myself with a X-Acto knife over the years...I have burnt myself with a soldering iron more then a few times,got shock twice,got ground foam in my eye and lost count of the times I have bump my head or back on a club layout..
IMHO that is part of the hobby.

 

[nachoman]

"it takes only a few seconds to do the cutting I don't bother"

But thats exactly what I always seem to thinnk before I get hurt!

A few years ago, I was at the bottom of the grand canyon. An injury would mean evacuation by helecopter. Some colleagues of mien thought it would be fun to cliff jump into a sparkling pool of water. I weighed the pros and cons, and one glaring con was if I got hurt, medical atention was many, many hours away. A broken bone would be rather serious. So, I didn't jump. My colleagues did, and they were fine. thier biggest issue was how to rerieve their shoes from the cliff that they just jumped from. But hiking he trail back to the boat, I slipped on some gravel and fell about 6 fee and lannded on my chest. Luckily, I was just bruised. Ironic, though...

kevin

 

[MasonJar]

Good points about needing safety gear ALL THE TIME. It's not just for power tools or for dirty jobs, or for jobs that take hours...!

If you cannot find GOOD QUALITY gear, check out www.leevalley.com. They carry good quality stuff, and will ship worldwide. They also have hard(er) to find small sizes for children and youth. I do not work for them, but I am a satified customer with both eyes, functional hearing, and clean lungs...

Andrew

 

[MadModeler]

I always cringe when I see people using their lawnmowers while wearing running shoes, sandals or even bare feet. I always wear my safety boots when cutting the grass. The way I figure is that stitches and casts are a lot more uncomfortable than safety boots and the safety boots can be taken off when the cutting is done. You have to wait until the healing is done before removing the stitches or cast (I've had both so I know what they are like).

I had a very close call years ago when cutting the lawn. I didn't see a lid to a metal can in the grass and went over it with the lawn mower. The lid shot out from under the mower, hit my boot and ricocheted up. I heard it whistle past my ear! It hit my boot so hard I thought it had pierced it and ripped open my foot. I shut down the lawn mower, went over to the stairs and took off my boot expecting to see the boot full of blood. What a relief! No blood and my foot was unscathed. I checked the boot and the leather was neatly sliced off where the lid had hit and the metal toe underneath had a deep scrape in it. After that, I made damned sure I was wearing my boots when cutting the grass!

 

[MasonJar]

I always cringe when I see people using their lawnmowers...

I wear boots, long pants, gloves, eye protection and hearing protection when running that infernal combustion beastie. It's darn hot, but like you say, you can take it off when you are done...

Andrew

 

[Gary S.]

Andrew... you have a lawn mower? I thought all yall had up north was SNOW.

 

[kf4jqd]

I always wear my glasses. But when I get out my Dremel or other power tools. I get out my work safety glasses out of my lunch box.

Andy

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

I always wear glasses since they have plastic saftey lenses in them.
But one timer I was taking apaert an old alarm clock (the wind up kind) for the gears to use on my MRR. The clock had seized up from someone winding it too tight and I forgot how much tension can be in one of those coil springs. anyway I took three of the four gearbox screws out and just as I released the fourth the entire gearbox exploded in my hand, My bare hand. the spring is pretty sharp and cut my hand up pretty good as well as clock parts flying by my head. I ended up wraping my hand up in an old t-shirt and driving to the walk-in clinic. No stiches but lots of bandages.

 

[MasonJar]

Andrew... you have a lawn mower? I thought all yall had up north was SNOW.

Ah, summer.... That beautiful week in July when enough of the ice has melted off the lake that you may go swimming for a few precious seconds...!

But don't be concerned for my safety, I have similar insulated safety gear for operating the snow blower too.

Andrew