SCHOOL OF HARDKNOCKS. (please feel free to add yours too those are the best safety messages in my opinion)

J

JHerdebu

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Ok I have 2 to begin this thread with. The First one is about BAD HABITS from more than 40 years ago. The other is about the Physics of Motion from just last winter and why its important.

#1 Back in early 1989 I was a young Army Mechanic that needed to repair a leaking exhaust pipe. I was gas welding with the Oxy-Acetylene torch and a stick of filler rod welding away . The bad habit I would like to share was scratching spots that itched with the back end of filler rod. I normally weld with torch in left, rod in right. Well my head itched and I scratched with the torch instead of the back end of the Rod. Singed my scalp real quick.

#2 Last winter I was basically new to the engine lathe and their operations but I inherited an old tired Craftsman 618. So I read a lot and gathered knowledge from many friends and bought a brand new 30 lb. 4 jaw and back plate. I took them to a professional shop and goy them mated together, I thought this is great, put it together turn it on and start making chips. WRONG! Like an idiot, I had it in the highest gear change, fastest belt speed ratio, turned it on and tensioned the belt it was running true and level but I did notice it was really screaming. at least 2000+ rpms. I didn't want to wreck anything so I slapped my cool new Emergency Stop button. The 618 doesn't have a locking collar or anything so when the motor stopped the drive line slowed really quick, the chuck didn't and came off flying at my head. I reflex slapped it away from hitting me in the FACE, so a few stitches and a really bruised hand and here I sit a year later on a really cold Sunday morning, sharing with you what I found out not to do.
 
(1) I hurt my back filling a 5 gallon coolant tank in an engine lathe. There is a reservoir that you can pull out, fill with CF & then slide back in. Once it was full of CF, it was so heavy & low to the ground that I hurt my back getting it back in place, even though I was trying to be careful. The back pain lasted 3 months, and I even missed a few days of work.

Nowadays I just pour the CF directly into the chip bin which drains to the reservoir tank.

(2) I sliced up my finger & thumb really badly pulling a LONG, stringy chip out of my shoe lace. I know not to grab chips with my bare hands, but when one got into my shoe lace while the lathe was running on a power feed, I panicked because it was still smoking hot (I was thinking fire hazard). In my panic, I grabbed onto it as tightly as I could so I could get it out on the first pull before it caught my shoe lace on fire or pulled me first first into the chuck. The lacerations bled quite a bit.
 
dont go full crazy ape mode cutting with a hacksaw i was cutting a rod in half as i wanted but i was cutting really fast my hand flew forwards into the sharp bur on the piece sliced my knuckle open bad and have a big scar from it slow down when you are at the end
 
No machine tool horror stories yet, have had a couple of close calls on a table saw.

First close call was when using a wobble-wheel dado blade. I set a piece of plexiglass next to the blade (saw not running) and adjusted the dado height to cut a rabbet about half deep. I was squatted down to gunsight the blade and 1/4" stock. Got the blade height set and flipped on the saw. The wobble wheel did its thing and wobbled into the back of the plexiglass and shot it back at me. I felt it brush my hair as it shot by. Never saw it.

Second one was using a universal jig that's like an angle plate that rides in the miter gauge slot. I was cutting tenons on the ends of some cabinet door frames using a molding head in the saw. I was using a short piece of the stock clamped to the back of the stiles to prevent tear out on the back side. Sacrificial block was clamped to the stile with a hand screw. I'd just made a cut and the hand screw vibrated loose and fell into the molding head. It was probably maple 2" square, but shattered into a dozen pieces. Felt some hit me in the apron which my dad (shop teacher) always encouraged kids to wear as a buffer between kick-back and their torso. He absolutely hated it when kids used the table saw, seems like everyone wanted to thin rip something.

I am missing 2/3 of my right index finger which was a stupid mistake on my part, not shop related. I was splitting wood with a buddy. I was loading the splitter, he was cycling the ram. I was setting a log on the splitter just as he cycled the ram which crushed the end of my finger. Yeah, you wouldn't load a stamping press with someone else hitting the palm buttons. To top it off, he'd been drinking all day. I should have grown a pair and walked away, but water over the dam now.

Bruce
 
I saw the title, School of Hard Knocks, then started to read, it’s machine related. Not to confused with the School of Hard Knocks, that are marriage or women related.


For a short period of time, I was the head of machine maintenance, in a furniture factory. We had a guy cut off the fleshy tip of his right thumb, on a big table saw. He was out of work for about 4 weeks, about a week after he got back, the owner, stopped to see him, asked how he was doing, apparently during their conversation, the owner asked how he did it. The guy showed him, this time cutting even more off the end of his thumb. About 4-5 weeks later, when he had healed up, he came back to work, as the new shipping clerk.
 
I was hipping slag from a weld when a large piece of hot slag flew into my shirt collar and dropped to belt level. I grabbed the front of my shirt and my belt and pulled to let the slag drop out. Unfortunately it landed in my shorts.
keep your shirt buttoned all the way up when welding.
 
When welding be careful spatter+hair=not good and weld spatter going down your gloves isn’t fun most of the time I don’t wear gloves
 
I was a young and eager buck of 19 or 20. I was deep into putting a SB chevy into my buddy's 1948 CornBinder. (International).
Had to cut rivets off to move a crossmember. Under the truck, cutting torch and confidence running well. Did not quite have the head of the rivet hot enough when I hit the oxygen. A big ol bunch of molten metal went nearly thru the head, and reversed course, much falling into my left ear.
I bashed my head twice getting out from under there, but I did not feel that at the time. All I knew was that I was hearing ear wax boil!
No lasting injury, but dang sure a lasting lesson.
 
It's only by blind luck that I've made it seventy-five years with all my digits and most of my senses.

1. Assume every gun is loaded.
2. Assume every machine wants to hurt you each time you approach it.
3. Assume every person knocking on your door, calling you on the phone, sending you an e-mail doesn't necessarily have your best interest at heart.
4. Measure three times, cut once.
5. Assume when you've considered everything, you've overlooked at least one thing.
6. Never brag on how reliable/accurate a machine has been. It will soon hurt itself and hurt you just to embarrass you in front of everyone.
6. The perfect is the enemy of the good. You ain't never gonna see perfection and probably good is beyond most of us. Just git 'er done. Robert Watson-Watt, who developed early warning radar in Britain to counter the Luftwaffe, propounded a "cult of the imperfect", which he stated as "Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes."

jack vines
 
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Keep your thumb away from gears while they are turning...

Anybody want me to post a pic? Lol

-Bear
 
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