What did we say about angle grinders?

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

Bit of a lucky escape this morning with a 5 inch angle grinder and diamond stone blade. 

While setting up to cut a little bit of brick the power cord pulled out of the extension just as I was starting the cut. I pushed the plug back in but the tool was still switched on (sliding locking switch). The blade grabbed my sleeve and in a flash it was all over, sleeve ripped off, arm badly cut and my friendly neighbourhood nurse (Mrs W is a registered nurse) was happily washing and glueing away saying it could have been a lot worse. Funny how nurses can be so matter of fact when its not them with an extra ventilation hole lol.

Anyhow. Be bloody careful with angle grinders, they don't say sorry and I had to wrestle with this one as it was pulling my shirt sleeve into the shaft,  tightening the blade into my arm and merrily sawing through several layers of me. If it had really got hold I wouldn't have been typing this right handed so I was pretty lucky.

Didn't hurt a bit till I sat down a few minutes later. 

Picture is below so if you're squeamish don't look. 

I will be telling everyone its a shark bite lol

 

[Pullstart 62,829]

Heal up soon, Mick!  I hear say though that chicks dig scars! 

[953 nut 55,156]

1 hour ago, pullstart said:

I hear say though that chicks dig scars!

That explains a lot coming from you!                                Mick, hope you heal up well.

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

OUCH!  Too bad you don't have pics with all the blood!  NOT FUNNY!

 

 

About a week ago I was using a steel wire cup brush on a right angle drill to clean some parts.  I had on a loose tee shirt.  I guess the brush got a little too close to the shirt, grabbed a hold of it and in an instant wound that shirt all around.

 

I did get a little scratch on my belly, but otherwise unscathed.  My first reaction to incidents like that is to look around and make sure nobody saw it!

 

Could have been worse!

 

"Never operate any machine wearing loose clothing!"

 

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by Jeff-C175

[JoeM 7,873]

US mining law prohibits locking triggers on hand held power tools. It was a major PIA because there we not to many manufactures out there making them that way. We would buy the tools and send them out to have that lock disabled. I suppose you could be the poster person for that law?

 

I like the shark story but you will need to juice it up a bit. Like......there was a smoking hot girl being drug through the water by a great white. Without fear, Mick charged the water, swatted the beast.......you know the rest of the story.

 

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

I've seen the lathe thing before, truly scary what these things can do to you. 

Glad I decided to use the 5 inch and not the ten Inch 

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

4 minutes ago, Mickwhitt said:

Glad I decided to use the 5 inch and not the ten Inch

 

I've got a MONSTER 9" grinder.  That thing is so damn heavy!  I put a 7" wheel on it ... STILL damn heavy!

 

Really like my 4" Makita corded.

 

And these things are the cat's meow, the bee's knees, for cleaning deck underside:

 

[Kenneth R Cluley 515]

Had one get away from me and cut a pretty(NOT) good gash between my index finger and thumb. I wrapped it up and finished job like any self respecting man would. Used blue shop towel and electrical tape. Went to local First Care for some cleaning and stitches a little later and nurse calls out to other worker "looks like we got another MANDAGE job here" A MANDAGE is any form of self made band-aid, wrap for a wound made by males to cover/contain until seeking real medical attention. She said they prefer the electrical tape over duct tape as it is easier to remove, just for future reference. Heal well Mick and consider lucky, could have been a lot worse!

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

16 minutes ago, Kenneth R Cluley said:

MANDAGE job

 

I need to remember that one!  Funny! and TRUE!

[Tractorhead 9,064]

Quch, must be a friedly Shark ....

Heal quick Mick.

 

[ZXT 2,401]

Any kind of grinder will get you. Had a family friend that had the grinding stone on his bench grinder come apart, go through the shield built onto the grinder, and take out his eye.

 

He sports an eye patch now. 

[Tractorhead 9,064]

They shall be used definitely with care.

 

used once a suicide blade -1mm Grinderblade to cut a piece of steel.

while first blade was too small, i grabed me a used one.

 

on powering i just hear a zzzzzz and the grinder shakes like mad.

i was lucky, while the flying half missed close my head.

 

i allway‘s handle them respectfully, used grinderblades or blades that fall down i wasted immediately since.

 

[stevasaurus 22,713]

Here ya go Mick...Sharknado week begins April 12th.  

 

 

[seuadr 488]

huh. i thought they were only good at throwing work pieces across the shop! truly they are a tool of 101 uses! 

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,791]

Yikes! When I was machining, we weren't even allowed long sleeve shirts in the work area. Kept my long hair tied up and covered. Its bad enough to get bit by a piece of equipment, but gettin' drug in....oh nooooo no this fella!

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,791]

11 hours ago, Mickwhitt said:

Bit of a lucky escape this morning with a 5 inch angle grinder and diamond stone blade.

If I have to cut brick or stone, I keep an older circular saw with a diamond blade, set yerself up a drip line over the piece and its much safer than an angle grinder. I also have a 6inch lapidary saw for small pieces, set up the piece attach a weight, ease the piece in to get started, and let her run!

[Brockport Bill 1,661]

Jeff C175   --- what are these and where do we get them? look like brillo pads? You use them to clean under the deck???? - -could you please give more info -- do they just clean debris -- or scour the deck itself, metal, rust? thanks

[Brockport Bill 1,661]

what size are they  -- for 5 inch angle grinder -- or die grinder -- or can get for both?

[Brockport Bill 1,661]

11 hours ago, Jeff-C175 said:

 

I need to remember that one!  Funny! and TRUE!

can you give more info on grinder pads - thanks

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

29 minutes ago, Brockport Bill said:

Jeff C175   --- what are these and where do we get them? look like brillo pads? You use them to clean under the deck???? - -could you please give more info -- do they just clean debris -- or scour the deck itself, metal, rust? thanks

 

Hi Bill,  I bought them on a whim after seeing them come up as a suggestion on Amazon.  Thought I'd give them a try:

 

https://www.amazon.com/Strip-Stripping-Grinders-Remove-Oxidation/dp/B08TTX8ZQN/ref=sr_1_4?_encoding=UTF8&c=ts&dchild=1&keywords=Abrasive+Wheels+%26+Discs&qid=1617933819&s=industrial&sr=1-4&ts_id=2665570011

 

Make sure they fit your machine... there are different hub sizes.  I seem to recall that I bought the wrong ones, had to return and get different ones.

 

There's LOTS of different types of wheels to be had!  Check it out...

 

https://www.amazon.com/Abrasive-Wheels-26-Discs/b?ie=UTF8&node=2665570011

 

[Brockport Bill 1,661]

i got a 90 degree Makita battery driven angle grinder last yr -- and then a nice hand held Ingersol Rand die grinder -- air powered - still learning to use them and especially the best disc or attachment for the task -- wire wheels, brushes, discs etc - -past few days i did 6 sets of blades from old mowers  -- cleaned them with grinders and then sharpened on bench grinder and balanced -- they look great - and considering mower deck blade costs certainly saved some $$$$ - - always looking for better solution  thanks for the link -  I'll order the discs

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

17 hours ago, Kenneth R Cluley said:

I wrapped it up and finished job like any self respecting man would. Used blue shop towel and electrical tape.

Oh I did the same, ripped the remains of my shirt sleeve off, wrapped my arm in white shop roll and used masking tape to secure it. Changed the blown fuse in the grinder (thank god it was only a 5 amp so blew pretty fast). Finished off the cuts, tidied up then told Mrs W about my little scrape.

 

 

[Mickwhitt 4,605]

A few years ago I was a volunteer at a local industrial museum. They had a pattern makers workshop set up with all manner of machinery driven by overhead line shafts and big leather belts (Fast and loose pulleys, one of my favourite industrial phrases).

I told visitors how dangerous these things were and that they would never be allowed by todays health and safety rules.

There was a story I could not share for obvious reasons but I will paste the text of it here from a web page...

One morning I was called to the emergency room by the head ER nurse. She directed me to a patient who had refused to describe his problem other than to say that he “needed a doctor who took care of men’s troubles.” The patient, about 40, was pale, febrile, and obviously uncomfortable, and had little to say as he gingerly opened his trousers to expose a bit of angry red and black-and-blue scrotal skin.After I asked the nurse to leave us, the patient permitted me to remove his trousers, shorts, and two or three yards of foul-smelling stained gauze wrapped about his scrotum, which was swollen to twice the size of a grapefruit and extremely tender. A jagged zig-zag laceration, oozing pus and blood, extended down the left scrotum.Amid the matted hair, edematous skin, and various exudates, I saw some half-buried dark linear objects and asked the patient what they were. Several days earlier, he replied, he had injured himself in the machine shop where he worked, and had closed the laceration himself with a heavy-duty stapling gun. The dark objects were one-inch staples of the type used in putting up wallboard.

We x-rayed the patient’s scrotum to locate the staples; admitted him to the hospital; and gave him tetanus antitoxin, broad-spectrum antibacterial therapy, and hexachlorophene sitz baths prior to surgery the next morning. The procedure consisted of exploration and debridement of the left side of the scrotal pouch. Eight rusty staples were retrieved, and the skin edges were trimmed and freshened. The left testis had been avulsed and was missing. The stump of the spermatic cord was recovered at the inguinal canal, debrided, and the vessels ligated properly, though not much of a hematoma was present. Through-and-through Penrose drains were sutured loosely in site, and the skin was loosely closed.

Convalescence was uneventful, and before his release from the hospital less than a week later, the patient confided the rest of his story to me. An unmarried loner, he usually didn’t leave the machine shop at lunchtime with his co-workers. Finding himself alone, he had begun the regular practice of masturbating by holding his penis against the canvas drive-belt of a large floor-based piece of running machinery. One day, as he approached orgasm, he lost his concentration and leaned too close to the belt. When his scrotum suddenly became caught between the pulley-wheel and the drive-belt, he was thrown into the air and landed a few feet away. Unaware that he had lost his left testis, and perhaps too stunned to feel much pain, he stapled the wound closed and resumed work. I can only assume he abandoned this method of self-gratification.

 

Now that beats anything pullstart has done.. 

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,791]

[Jeff-C175 7,199]

9 hours ago, Brockport Bill said:

mower deck blade

 

Hi Bill, just sayin' ... these blades are a bit past their prime! 

 

 

They'll still cut I guess, but they have obviously been sharpened MANY times judging by the amount of material missing (the yellow).

 

As long as the metal hasn't thinned too much in the green area they should be 'safe' to use with no pieces flying off them.