Shop accidents!

[toxo]

An almost accident but a powerful lesson learned.

A guy in the pub asked me if I wanted a couple of days work. It wasn't until later that I found out that he was a nutter with no fear of heights at all.

We went to a brickyard in Kent where they wanted another 12ft built on top of the chimney. It was tall but not so tall that this guy had built some scaffolding around it up to the top level. I use the the word "scaffolding" in the loosest possible terms. When we first got there I went up for a look at the view. No guardrail and only 3scaffold boards wide. Not impressed. My job was to send up the bricks and mortar. On the second day I found myself well in front so I went up to look at progress. He'd built around 4ft. I was on my haunches livening up the mortar out of the strong wind until I stood up. I was already on the last board, the wind got me and I did the proper windmill bit with my arms. I still wonder how I managed to stop from falling to this day.

[chuck123wapati]

43 minutes ago, billybopp said:

My first rock concert was Ted Nugent in 1980.  We rolled down the windows on the drive home, and it took a minute or so to realize we couldn't hear any wind noise!  I'm convinced my hearing still isn't entirely back to what it was before!

Does that count??

-Bill

lol I saw the Nuge in 77, maybe that's why I'm deaf too. Couldn't have been those three big waukeshas that would bellar and backfire every time you started out of the hole with about 3 miles of pipe and spewing diesel smoke so thick you couldn't see five feet. A rig is a behemoth of energy, all steel and every part is pumping, turning, Electrified , moving, hot or oily, and slippery, pressurized with steam or 3000+psi mud. And built to drill holes 5 miles deep. And if your lucky you get to work derricks, 90 feet off the floor, latching pipe on a diving board 18" wide with only a safety belt tied to your ass. If you fall and are lucky enough dangle in mid air until someone can get up to pull you in. Oh, and possible poison gas or blowouts to think about while you work lol. Damn, that was fun times if you never thrown chain you missed out on one of life's biggest adrenaline rushes. 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Samalan]

Avoiding accidents #1: if you think Wow, this looks like something I shouldn't do then don't do it. #2 Everyone, well 99%of the time in that 10th of a second before something happens, you know it's going to happen. This is generally when using tools of some kind. like when that wrench just starts to slip and BOOM knuckles #3 rushing something not good or not paying attention, talking to someone while running that unforgivable table saw, you know that 5 horsepower one with the 12" or 14" blade, or that carving gouge you push toward your hand that's holding the wood you should not be holding and you know it!, or the safety glasses you know you should have on while driving cement nails dumbass stuff but we all do it, have done it, or will do it.

[Samalan]

One more thing, I once stepped backwards onto the 8' high set of stairs I just finished taking all the treads and risers off of there was one riser still on that caught my ass, my foot caught the stringer, as I was falling backwards, I was then hanging upside down between the stringers my wife came to the doorway and yelled are yo all right I said I think so jus need to figure out how to get out of this. LOL

[AEBL]

@Dwight - I was also in the Navy, and there's some accidents I saw there that I'd rather forget. Some that I was glad I didn't see was a fella being grabbed by a 5" 54 caliber loading pawl and stuffed into the loading breach.

In college, there were all sorts of warnings around the lathe. You had to take a safety class before you were allowed in the building. So, despite all of that, there was a gal who was running the lathe wearing a long pony tail. It was a closed casket funeral. Rotating machinery is terrifying.
 

[Northmount]

1 hour ago, AEBL said:

there was a gal who was running the lathe wearing a long pony tail

Then there is the guy that was using an electric drill with a wire brush.  He had an itchy spot on his head, so gently reached up with the drill to scratch his head and bumped the trigger.  There went a good chunk of his scalp!

[AlZilla]

1 hour ago, Northmount said:

Then there is the guy that was using an electric drill with a wire brush.  He had an itchy spot on his head, so gently reached up with the drill to scratch his head and bumped the trigger.  There went a good chunk of his scalp!

Soon as I read "... reached up ..." parts of my anatomy sucked up into my abdomen. My beard is long enough that I tuck it in my shirt if I'm using a dremel or other spinny thing in my hands.

[Sheilajeanne]

Farming is definitely one of the more hazardous occupations there is. My great-grandfather was killed back in the early 1900's when the horses were frightened by one of those newfangled 'horseless carriages' and ran away. He fell off the seat of the reaper, and his foot got caught in the sheaf carrier strap. He was dragged back to the barn with his head banging on the ground, and suffered a fatal brain injury.

My dad's youngest brother was using the hay elevator to load corn cobs into a silo, and the cuff of his overalls got caught on the elevator. The woman helping him didn't know where the shutoff switch was, so had to run a fair distance to unplug the cord from the outlet. By that point, Gord was hanging from the top of the elevator by his ankles, with the elevator belt running over them. He was in a wheelchair for a couple of months. They set up an intercom system from the house to the barn, so he could supervise his sons while they were doing the milking and chores. That did not always go well. One day they got into a fight while Gord and his wife were entertaining company. The language coming over the intercom wasn't exactly 'family friendly'! 

Another time, his second oldest son was riding on the back of the tractor while his father was moving a disc harrow from one field to another. When he hit the hump from the field to the grass, his son fell off and was run over by the harrow. Broken leg and some internal injuries. Thank God it wasn't the chisel harrow...

His friends at school weren't very sympathetic. They'd stick tacks in the rubber ends of his crutches so they'd slip on the floor... 

When my dad was in his old age, he developed respiratory problems, probably as the result of all the dust he inhaled while working on the farm. His chest x-ray showed a healed fracture of one of his ribs. "When did you break a rib?" I asked.

He had to think for quite a few minutes. "I guess it was the time I stepped back so my dad could drive the Model T into the barn loft, and someone had left the trap door open. I fell through it and hit the concrete edge of the pig pen, and was knocked unconscious."

He came to a short time later, lying on the daybed in the kitchen. His dad had brought a rare treat back from the store in town: a brick of ice cream. "Come and get your ice cream, Harvey, before it melts," his mom said, when she saw he was awake.

A broken rib and a concussion. No doctor's office visit, just "Come and get some ice cream..." 

Farm kids sure are tough!

 

Edited July 16 by Sheilajeanne

[terrymac]

Mine was finding out how efficiently a chainsaw can remove teeth. We were cutting firewood all day and I had one last log to finish. Caught the tip on something and it kicked back and got me on the chin and front teeth. I have had saws kick back but never like this one. I had removed the tip guard on the chain thinking it was just in the way.  That was a dumb mistake as the saw didn’t have a hand brake as found on all saws today. I soon got me one that did have the hand break. After a couple hundred stitches done by a plastic surgeon and some replacement dental work, I was good to go. I actually was very lucky as it could have a whole lot worse.