New years eve 1999. I kicked the foot petal away from the drill press, then apparently took a step exactly in the same direction. I reached to change the belt speed my foot triggered the switch. Hearing the motor start I quickly pulled my finger from the spinning pulleys. At first glance everything appeared normal, then blood started to appear where my fingernail used to be. They told me I did a great job removing it. They fished around under my cuticle with a miniature spoon looking for the rest of it. If I had not pulled the entire nail out they would have had to finish the job.
kb58
Dork
10/5/16 2:35 p.m.
I don't feel so good, so I'll have to top that, one of those "friend of a friend" ones, so who knows.
So this guy works in a two-story building which is mostly open to the area below. One day he decides to impress people by jumping over the railing and landing part way down the stairs. That would have been fine had his wedding ring not caught on the screw on a conduit coupler right at the top of the railing. He landed fine and looked up to see about 2" of his wedding finger, still attached to about a foot of tendon. Yeah I didn't feel good after that story either.
The roundabout moral of the story: no rings, watches, or gloves around moving equipment.
kb58 wrote:
I don't feel so good, so I'll have to top that, one of those "friend of a friend" ones, so who knows.
So this guy works in a two-story building which mostly open to the area below. One day he decides to impress people by jumping over the railing and landing part way down the stairs. That would have been fine had his wedding ring not caught on the screw on a conduit coupler right at the top of the railing. He landed fine and looked up to see about 2" of his wedding finger, still attached to about a foot of tendon. Yeah I didn't feel good after that story either.
The roundabout moral of the story: no rings, watches, or gloves around moving equipment.
Heard a similar one to this from my uncle. Young guy just married, doing some wiring job for IBM involving running wires across a wall with a ladder...can't remember all the details, but basically he came off the ladder, wedding ring got caught on some mounting hardware on the wall, and off goes the finger.
92dxman
SuperDork
10/5/16 3:20 p.m.
I used to work as a vendor for a manufacturer that involved building sample displays in Lowes Depot stores and i've dropped fence panels on my feet, wacked myself with a mallet, twisted my work gloves in the chuck of my cordless drill. Probably child's play compared to some of you guys 
Wow. Just wow.
As far as berkeley ups go, this one was pretty bad.
I was using a 6X48 belt sander and the belt grabbed the piece I was sanding and pinned my two index finger between it and the moving belt. My right finger recovered almost 100% but my left is about a 1/4 inch shorter
JG Pasterjak wrote:
Although one time I was pulling my socks on and my hand slipped off and I punched myself in the nuts.
Dude, how berking high and tight do you pull up your socks?
evildky
SuperDork
10/6/16 10:27 a.m.
Alright, my top 3 self inflicted injuries:
-
Impaled myself with a BarBECUE fork (in the leg, walked into it, just a few stitches as the cuts were deep but narrow)
-
Burnt my hand with an oxyacetylene torch (building a challenge car no less, second degree burns)
-
As most fo the staff is aware as well as many fellow challengers, I cut my face open with a chainsaw (long story, all better now, had a great plastic surgeon)
evildky's face today:
You can see his plastic surgeon did a wonderful job getting him back to his former likeness.
This whole thread makes me a bit queasy. As an Army Medic and then as an ER CNA, I've seen a ton of "stuff", it's my imagination that's better these days. I can much more easily imagine so many of these injuries happening to myself (or my kid). As I get older, each fresh new hurt takes longer to heal and the lingering effects are more noticeable.
CLNSC3
HalfDork
10/8/16 5:53 a.m.
Hahaha I was making a pressure bleeder a few month's ago and drilled deep into my palm with a brand new large drill bit. Fresh out of first aid supplies i wrapped a microfiber towel around my hand, zip tied it and drove to the store. After taking pics of course. It was disgusting there was fat coming out of the hole after i got it cleaned up.
CLNSC3 wrote:
It was disgusting there was fat coming out of the hole after i got it cleaned up.
Still have the scar on my finger from an archery accident ~15 years ago, same thing though, you could see to the bone and had fat cells coming out
akylekoz wrote:
New years eve 1999. I kicked the foot petal away from the drill press, then apparently took a step exactly in the same direction. I reached to change the belt speed my foot triggered the switch. Hearing the motor start I quickly pulled my finger from the spinning pulleys. At first glance everything appeared normal, then blood started to appear where my fingernail used to be. They told me I did a great job removing it. They fished around under my cuticle with a miniature spoon looking for the rest of it. If I had not pulled the entire nail out they would have had to finish the job.
Funny how it doesn't hurt till you see the blood!
SCCA liked the article too, they posted the GRM link on their FB page.
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Best shop safety article EVAR!
Since we are coming back from the dead, I wound a deck screw through a piece of pipe and then well into my finger. Then I dropped the drill which I think is a natural impulse. But I was well and truly stuck so I had to bend down, stretch to reach the drill,pick it up and reverse it, and wind the screw back out to free myself. The whole thing was a kind of an exercise in horror and disbelief. Feeling the screw winding back out will stay with me, as will the scar.
In preparation for the Challenge I needed to remove a section of two exhaust pipes on $h?tbarge. I do not have a working sawzall. I do not have a chain cutter. I do have a badass 4" angle grinder, and thanks to my former employer, a sh!tton of cutting and grinding discs.
After removing the rear mufflers from their hangars I quickly laid waste to the right side exhaust and pulled it out of the way. Perfect, I little sketchy with the "dropping an exhaust towards my head while on jackstands" but no issues. Off the the driver side. As I laid making the final release cut I realized that my hands were opposite from the left side so I quickly slid my left hand forward out of the way of the heavy exhaust that was coming down. Of course placing it in the direct path of the also-falling angle grinder spinning at "remove all layers of knuckle skin down to the crunchy white part"-RPM was likely the best way to avoid the exhaust bumping my arm.
The response time of me getting out from under the car and into the kitchen was truly Olympic level. I beat the first drop of blood to the sink by an easy seven seconds. Triple antibacterial, gauze and duct tape were applied then I went back to work. Kelly, was rather shocked in the amount of carnage that occurred. I was expecting worse.
This is probably my favorite column of all time, and EXACTLY why i feel at home here.
Can we talk about JG's First Aid Kit for a moment? That's terrible. A properly organized box is what you want when you're trying to get an injury under control is not the time to try to find stuff in your random box...
Actually - legitimately - let's talk about First Aid Kits - Everyone should have a substantial first aid kit in their garage. It should be next to your fire extinguisher (I know everyone has those right?).
It should include bandaids for boo-boos, but also massive gauze pads to fill in holes where you once hand meat and bone. In additional every person here should have supplies necessary to treat heavy bleeding. Working around industrial equipment/tools that can puncture you - you do not want to bleed out before 911 gets there. Adventure Medical Kits makes a nice "Trauma Pak" that includes hemostatic gauze and other materials specifically for treating major bleeding. They're about 25 bucks and last 2-3 years. Cheap insurance if you're ever severely injured.
The other thing garage first aid kits should have is burn care supplies.
If you do not have a quality first aid kit and fire extinguisher in your garage. STOP and go get both. No working garage should be sans a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, and jack stands.
In reply to RevolverRob :
Not just in your garage, in your car too. Fire extinguisher saved my butt when my RX7 ate an alternator at the big end of the drag strip, by far the best money I've ever spent. Never know when you'll need that first aid kit, either.
I tested the laws of physics one afternoon by attempting to have my left ring finger and my crappy table saw's dado blade occupy the same spatial coordinates. Physics won.
Good news was that the finger still works, sorta... Bad news was that I can't wear my wedding ring any more, prompting decades of spousal reminders of my lack of faith in science.
Side story: The attending ER doc had been a ring doctor for big time wrestling back in the day and regaled me with stories of The Sheik, BoBo Brazil, and several other heroes of bygone days while putting my finger back together.
And I eventually did get the shop shelves finished...
Done the drill thing it sucked. However hitting you hand with a 3600 PSI pressure washer is way worse. Kind of like a burn and a deep cut all wrapped in to one. I have a 3+ inch scar above my left thumb that is in the shape of the Nike sneaker brand logo.
Oh forgot about welding three fingers together with molten lead. Did not really hurt until the surgeons took it off. That was the start of about 3-4 weeks of pain. Lots of pain!!!
These are just the car related bits of stupidity.
RevolverRob said:
Can we talk about JG's First Aid Kit for a moment? That's terrible. A properly organized box is what you want when you're trying to get an injury under control is not the time to try to find stuff in your random box...
Actually - legitimately - let's talk about First Aid Kits - Everyone should have a substantial first aid kit in their garage. It should be next to your fire extinguisher (I know everyone has those right?).
It should include bandaids for boo-boos, but also massive gauze pads to fill in holes where you once hand meat and bone. In additional every person here should have supplies necessary to treat heavy bleeding. Working around industrial equipment/tools that can puncture you - you do not want to bleed out before 911 gets there. Adventure Medical Kits makes a nice "Trauma Pak" that includes hemostatic gauze and other materials specifically for treating major bleeding. They're about 25 bucks and last 2-3 years. Cheap insurance if you're ever severely injured.
The other thing garage first aid kits should have is burn care supplies.
If you do not have a quality first aid kit and fire extinguisher in your garage. STOP and go get both. No working garage should be sans a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, and jack stands.
For the record, that's mot actually the first aid "kit." That's more of the supplemental owie box so you don't have to actually go into the real first aid kit for minor nicks and scrapes, possibly depleting a vital resource you may need in a true emergency down the road.
But, yeas, every shop where dangerous stuff happens (which is pretty much al of them) needs a REAL first aid kit, clearly marked and located, and periodically checked to make sure the supplies are stocked and up to date. A supplemental owie box with most-used supplies is a nice touch, too. Mostly liquid bandage and tape.
