Best accident with powertool (or any tool)

[Smokin Joe]

I saw a workmate have his finger torn off while cleaning the shaft of an ink mixing machine with a rag while it was running. After he had been shipped off in the ambulance we were asked to try and find the finger from the container of solvent that the blade had been running in. Believe me, we did not look too hard and the finger was disposed of with the solvent.

 

[Night Train]

Guillotine: there was no accident and nothing happened but it was scary none the less.

I had installed the electrics in a print works for a guillotine, connected it up and checked for power thinking all was ok and that was that. The client then wanted me to commission the guillotine even though I hadn't supplied it, it was bought second hand by the client.

Anyway I decided to do it for the extra pay. The client said the guillotine needed to be able to cut a ream of card or a sheet of tissue with equal accuracy. This meant setting the blade on the guillotine.

To set the blade meant loosening the blade locating bolts and nuts and shifting the blade until clean cuts were made. Having seen how powerful the guillotine was in cutting the ream of card and then miss the tissue I had to make some adjustments. To get the spanners onto the head of the bolts was easy, they were at the front of the blade. The nuts, however, were at the back of the blade and the only way to reach them was to put my arm under the blade to hold the spanner.

So with the power off, the fuse in my back pocket, the lock out key in my front pocket, several jabs at the green go buttons and satisfied that the guillotine was not going to cut I proceeded to reach a spanner under the blade.
Take two: Pick the spanner off the floor, wipe sweat off hands, try again.
Take three: Pick the spanner off the floor again, change hands, try again.
Take four: Deep breathes, stop hands shaking, pick up spanner.....

I was really surprised at how scared I was of loosing a hand if that blade came down. I was even thinking which hand I was going to risk. I mean if you were going to loose a hand which would you choose?
I couldn't stop my hands from shaking and sweating at the thought of how easily the guillotine cut through 4" of card, and my arm was now under the same razor sharp blade attached to a 4hp motor. Even though the power was off I had seen motors kick over on a bit of residual charge in a capacitor and that worried me.

It took several goes to loosen, adjust and tighten the blade before each test and it took several adjustments and tests before the cut was perfect. I must have aged several years in the process too. My hands still shake thinking about it.

 

[JtB]

The tale of a guy who tested a tazer on himself

Pocket Taser Stun Gun, a great gift for the wife.

A guy who purchased his lovely wife a "pocket Taser" for their anniversary
submitted this...

Last weekend I saw something at Larry's Pistol & Pawn
Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 22nd anniversary and I
was looking for a little "something extra" for my wife Toni. What I came
across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized Taser.

The effects of the Taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term
adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to
safety.... WAY TOO COOL!

Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two
triple-a batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was
disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed
it against flesh or a metal surface at the same time; I'd get the blue arch
of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs.

Awesome!!! Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Toni what that burn spot
is on the face of her microwave. Okay, so I was home alone with this new
toy, thinking to myself that it couldn't be all that bad with only two
triple-a batteries, right?!!!

There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting
little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really
needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit
I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought
better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this
thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some
assurance that it would work as advertised.

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses
perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and
taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock
and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause
muscle spa*** and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst
would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of
water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.

All the while I'm looking at this little device measuring about 5" long,
less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really (and loaded with
two itsy, bitsy triple-a batteries) thinking to myself, "no possible way!"
What happened next is almost beyond description, but I'll do my best...

I'm sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side
as to say, "don't do it master," reasoning that a one-second burst from
such a tiny little ole thing couldn't hurt all that bad. I decided to give
myself a one-second burst just for the heck of it. I touched the prongs to
my naked thigh, pushed the button, and HOLY MOTHER, WEAPONS OF MASS
DESTRUCTION!

( %& (# %) ( *#*)!!!

I'm pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up
in the recliner and then body slammed us both on the carpet over and over
and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal
position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire,
testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the
oddest position, and tingling in my legs. The cat was standing over me
making meowing sounds I had never heard before, licking my face,
undoubtedly thinking to herself, "Do it again, do it again!"

Note: If you ever feel compelled to "mug" yourself with a taser, one note
of caution: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A ONE-SECOND BURST when you zap
yourself!!! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from
your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst
would be considered conservative.

That hurt like hell!!! A minute or so later (I can't be sure, as time was a
relative thing at that point), collected my wits (what little I had left),
sat up and surveyed the landscape.

My bent glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. How did they up get
there???

My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching.
My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip
weighed 88 lbs.

I'm still looking for my testicles and offering a significant reward for
their safe return.

 

[bonj2]

2 triple As? that's only 2.4V. how can you hope to electrocute yourself wtih 2.4V?

 

[Night Train]

2 triple As? that's only 2.4V. how can you hope to electrocute yourself wtih 2.4V?

It's a taser. The batteries charge up a bank of capacitors that will then let rip with 100,000 volts with next to no current flow.

 

[surfgurl]

I shall always remember the woodwork lesson at school when a teacher walked through the workshop holding his hand up with the missing index finger shooting blood, shortly followed by another teacher with his finger shouting "It's ok, I've got your finger!"

 

[Abitrary]

Friend was once sawing a wall in half with a huge angle-grinder, and he hit a metal pipe, lost control, the grinder flew up in the air and sliced his thigh open on the way down.

 

[Stig-OT-Dump]

I had to drill a 13mm hole with a 13mm clearance bit. The bit stuck and the plate span, neatly slicing the length of my thumb.

I was talking to a mate while using a pillar jig saw, and pushed my thumb quite a long way through the saw blade before I realised my mistake.

I also liked the 2 guys who got sacked on one of my jobs who rigged a template that let them fire nails from a nail gun clear across the site; the bloke who forgot to board-off the end of the concrete pump when he was cleaning it and shot the concrete and foam ball over the hoarding and into some victorian flats, covering a range of expensive cars with concrete splatters (each required a new paint job), and the piling rig that blew all the muck out of a hole, over the site hoarding and covered a young lady on her way to an interview with a muddy slurry - completely ruining her outfit, her day, and her job chances.

Am I bad?

 

[Keith Oates]

I once saw the wheel of a 30 ton hatch cover roll over a mans hand, needless to say the hand was not for further use!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gbb]

My dad was an aviation and shipping artist before he went blind. He'd frame all his work in his studio (spare bedroom ).
While cutting a mount with a very sharp stanley knife, he cut about 8mm off the end of his finger

He picked up the forlorn looking fingertip , put it back on his finger and strapped it up tight (while bleeding and sweating profusely). It healed almost perfectly...you can scarecely see where it happened.

 

[Globalti]

Last year I was trying to cut a rusted bolt off the exhaust of my Landy, so I manouvered the angle grinder up into the space between the silencer and the car floor, facing downwards. I was wearing rubber gloves so didn't realise my finger was pushing the switch upwards; it started powering up to 15,000 rpm and I fumbled it, the blade dug into the palm of my hand and made two nice little burns before I managed to get control of the damned thing. A narrow escape.

 

[515mm]

Cleverly drilled through a live power cable buried in my kitchen wall whilst standing on an aluminium stepladder. That was exciting.

(I thought I was safe as I was nowhere near any switches or sockets. Turns out the tw*t who installed the cable plastered it DIAGONALLY from the wall socket eight feet away up to near ceiling height at an angle of about 45degrees. Pure genius.)

 

[Fnaar]

A friend who is equally as useless as me about diy (I just had to look up angle-grinder, and I'm still not sure) had a classic moment with a saw...
Yes he (honest, not me) wanted to saw a branch off a tree... leant his ladder against the branch he was sawing off and when enough of the brach was sawn through it fell off, and the ladder (and he) fell down! Would make great vid clip... sadly nobody witnessed it, but he was honest enough to tell us about it!

 

[4F]

Whilst trimming down some leylandia I had tied my ladder to the tree however slipped on one of the steps. One of my legs went though the steps as I fell backwards and I ended up hanging upside down 5 foot in the air. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to throw the saw out of the way on my way down.

 

[wafflycat]

Forklift driver Klaus is still my favourite... Seems the full film is removed from YouTube. Shame.. forklift driver Klaus was a joy to behold... but his poor, poor victims

Found it! And better quality than when on YT!

http://www.hugi.is/hahradi/bigboxes.php?box_id=51208&f_id=1000

Not suitable for those of a nervous disposition though!