SAFETY! - experience tells the story

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Posted by enrique on August 05, 1998 at 23:11:52:

Folks,

Just had to share a safety issue with you because it's something many don't believe in. If you run any kind of grinder you need to be careful and attentive or you may loose some meat! Story in point. My son Monte, who is 17 years old has started working with me in the shop. He is helping clean the scale off of forged steel and has been doing it for a couple of weeks.

When I first showed him how to use the grinder, I made it very clear that this tool can do bodily harm if not used correctly. I also spoke about loose clothing, hair, and the like, as being something grinders like to grab on to. Well, it happened yesterday!

Monte had just started working using a knotted wire wheel on a 4" grinder that has the safety auto off switch. He was cleaning individual components to the dragonfly railing which I am currently working on. It was a gentle curved grass blade forged from angle iron. No major curves or points, just a simple curved piece. It was early in the morning and I hadn't left the house yet, when I saw Monte hobbling slowly to the house and he was holding his hands close to his privates. I thought it strange and watched him enter the house. He looked up and said, "Dad, I cut myself!" I looked down at his right leg and saw blood and a great big gash in his pant legs. What the H*LL?

I ran over to him and made him lay on the couch and pull off his pants so I could see what damage was done. Meanwhile, he is telling me how the grinder jumped off of the piece he was working and grabbed on to his LOOSE pants leg. He said that he let go of the grinder, but it was still eating at his leg. It seems that the pants had already wrapped around the grinder and refused to let the auto off switch cut off. Monte ended up yanking the cord out of the wall socket. Imagine if the cord would have been on a long extension cord!

My wife, who is a nurse, happened to be coming back from the store and she looked at the wound and said it had to be looked at by a doctor. When Monte came back from the doctors office, he brought back more than he took with him. And that is several shots in the leg to kill the pain while they put five stitches in because there was no skin left where the wire wheel had been chewing, and another Tetnus shot for good luck.

I hope I haven't turned any stomachs. But if I have, just realize that this could happen to you if you wear too loose a clothing or if you don't pay attention to the direction of cut and the corners of the metal you are working with. Please be careful folks!

The attached photo was taken AFTER Monte came back from the doctors office. I missed the before shot because of all the excitement. You probably wouldn't want to see it anyway. This one is included so that maybe you will not have to experience it first hand.

enrique

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