Terrifying Tools

[BobL]

What 3 tools give you the willies? We were talking about this at church since we're building on to the sanctuary.

Extension ladder. I use one of these 5 times a day, have for years. They still make my blood run cold. Especially using one to get on and off a roof. Never had an accident or even a close call. Something about falling though is my biggest fear. I sure do pray a lot more on days when I use on a lot.

Table saw. When I was 10 years old I helped my dad build an addition to the house. He had his table saw set up in the garage. We were ripping some lumber one morning when the saw kicked back and launched a board through the garage door. Seeing that lightning fast, violent reaction left an impression on my mind. Whenever I fire up my table saw I do so with a healthy respect.

Nail gun. After high school my best friend Jim and I went to work for a roofing contractor. In the name of productivity he had disabled all the safety features on the nail guns. Well one day Jim had a freak accident with a nail gun. He managed to nail a testicle to his thigh. That was enough for me to say a hammer is good enough.

[Les]

1. hook knife both flooring type and roofing type

2. draw shave

3. telescoping or folding ladders both single and step style

[Richard Moore]

He managed to nail a testicle to his thigh.

Oh great! Nail guns didn't use to bother me, but NOW...!!!

BTW, the wife says it's the vacuum, dishwasher and laundry I'm scared off. I am not about to correct her.

[Ben H]

He managed to nail a testicle to his thigh.

Oh great! Nail guns didn't use to bother me, but NOW...!!!

BTW, the wife says it's the vacuum, dishwasher and laundry I'm scared off. I am not about to correct her.

That makes two of us. []

[Chad Fabry]

I'm not afraid of the first two, I respect them and use them with care. The third scares the crap out of me

1.My Metabo power paint remover is an incredibly effective tool but, like a router, it'd chew you up and spit you out and all the king's horses and men couldn't do a damn thing about it.

2. Chainsaws. I've worn out a dozen but they command my respect. I'm never sloppy or careless while cutting wood.

3. Employees. They'll ruin a reputation, get you invited to a lawsuit, have the ACLU over for dinner then steal your inventory and next week's payroll.

[John Kogel]

Scalpel and bone saw. I hate to bleed. []

Dentist's pick, there, that's 3.

[Marc]

Messing with slotted screwdrivers gives me the willies. A screwdriver in my right hand once slipped while working on something that I held in my left hand. It entered my palm at the base of my thumb and stopped just short of puncturing the skin on the knuckle of my first finger (from the inside out). Doc refused to sew it up because he felt that it was important that it heal from the inside on out, which took a long time.

Ever since I fell off of a wall while walking on top of them, nailing them together, I've gotten the willies. That kind of accident changes you forever.

Marc

[BobL]

Talking about accidents, my 4th day as a satellite technician. Didn't know squat really. I was out on a job with my trainer. We were installing Dish in a homeowner remodeled house. Throw a rock anywhere and chances are it would hit a code violation.

Anyway the homeowner installed cable and the electrical. Cable was mostly RG59 and no good so it had to come out. It was a mixed bag of Chinese junk cable. Grabbed a hold of what in my newbie mind had to be some sort of white coaxial cable and cut it. Turned out to be the 240V feed for the stove.

Destroyed a nice pair of Klein dikes and gave myself one heckuva jolt. Lots of spark and smoke.

[esch]

Broken electrical tester.

25 pound t-post driver.... hands on bottom of handle, raise it up too high, binds up and you slam the top over onto your head resulting in staples...

"froze up" goodyear machinery needing freeing..

Matt

[gtblum]

I'm more respectful of a circular saw than any other tool I use.

I've seen more accidents and injuries caused by the misuse, abuse, and complacency while using them, than any other tool I can remember.

My own hunting knife after not paying attention where I put it down so I could reposition a deer. Once I got it where I wanted it. I swung my leg around and directly down on it, driving it through my leg near my shin and barely out the other side above my calf. I thought it was a pointed stick when it happend. I yanked my leg off it, got my sh!t together, and got my ass out of the woods. The boys from camp found it sticking blade up in the mud when they went back for the deer, while I took an ambulance ride.

That was about six years ago. Dog tails, tall grass, towels, and socks remind me to be careful these days. Nerve damage.

[Jim Katen]

The exposed PTO on a tractor.

[Greg Booth]

Jointer, shaper and roto-zip.

[Terence McCann]

Table saw.

My brother was sawing two pieces of Masonite when the top piece slipped and his left hand went into the blade. Cut off the tips of his ring finger and little finger. They managed to save the middle finger but it was permanently bent at a 90 degree, or so, angle. To bad too, he was a hell of a guitar player.

A co-worker at one of the local hospitals I use to work at was sawing blocks of wood, one kicked back and hit him square in the upper lip. Opened up a gash from his nose down. Christ there was a lot of blood. Good thing he was already in a hospital.

Both could have been prevented had proper safe guards been in place.

[Jim Katen]

Messing with slotted screwdrivers gives me the willies. A screwdriver in my right hand once slipped while working on something that I held in my left hand. It entered my palm at the base of my thumb and stopped just short of puncturing the skin on the knuckle of my first finger (from the inside out). Doc refused to sew it up because he felt that it was important that it heal from the inside on out, which took a long time. . . .

Back when I used to run a scene shop in Berkeley, our insurance company sent someone out to audit our safety program. While he was there, I asked him what tool causes the most injuries in shops like ours. He didn't hesitate, "Handheld screwdrivers. People are always sticking them through their palms."

- Jim Katen, Oregon

[Tom Raymond]

I have nightmares about loosing fingers to a table saw, but with a clean work space, no distractions (including guards), a sharp blade, and proper technique it's a pretty safe tool. Remove any of those though and the danger factor increases exponentially.

I'm far more frightened of radial arm saws. When I was fabricating log home kits I used numerous, and monstrous, radial arm saws daily, but one in particular was terrifying. It had a 30" blade and 4' scissor action arm. The last time I ran it a particularly curly grained 8 x 8 log had enough tension in it to bind the blade, and as radials tend to do, it ran all out through the work piece. There was nothing I could do but hang on, but there was no way I was going to counter the torque of the 3 phase motor. When the arm reached the end of its travel the inertia launched me 10' across the shop and planted me on my keester. To add insult to injury, there was enough flex in the arm assembly that the force drew the blade down through my workpiece into the steel conveyor that was set up as the bench top and I was peppered with the 1/4" wide carbide teeth as they bounced back at me off the shop floor and the wall behind the saw. That was 1990 -91 and I still hate radial arm saws. My father-in-law has an 8" craftsman saw that makes the hair the back of my neck stand up every time I see it.

Tom

[John Kogel]

Wow. Bob, add radial arm saw and the good old Skilsaw to your saw list.

And Chainsaw. I've had the saw fly out of my hands and the tip hit my elbow and both thighs. My vitals retreated, were ok.[] Chainbrake saved me that time.

Yes, I'm sure screwdrivers puncture a lot of hands, but saws and PTO's can take them off.

BTW, if you guys in the US had accepted the Canadian Robertson screw back in the 30's, think how much pain you could have been spared. It's mind-boggling.

[ejager]

This is a second-hand story about a local welder who had a big 240 Volt 'hand-held' grinder ('recovered' from a buddy at the railyard). Like all welders in these parts, the first thing to go was the safety shield. The trigger lock was of course left functional. He lays on his back, shimmies under his truck to work on something or other with a big cut off disk attached. Sure enough, the disk bites in, the grinder is torqued from his hands and then he and the grinder play tag in the confined space.

[BobL]

What do you think is scarier electrical work or carpentry?

I'd say carpentry. It has the potential to dismember and be really bloody. Something about exposed bone and gushing blood is scarier to me than electric shock.

[IPRES]

What 3 tools give you the willies? We were talking about this at church since we're building on to the sanctuary.

Extension ladder. I use one of these 5 times a day, have for years. They still make my blood run cold. Especially using one to get on and off a roof. Never had an accident or even a close call. Something about falling though is my biggest fear. I sure do pray a lot more on days when I use on a lot.

Table saw. When I was 10 years old I helped my dad build an addition to the house. He had his table saw set up in the garage. We were ripping some lumber one morning when the saw kicked back and launched a board through the garage door. Seeing that lightning fast, violent reaction left an impression on my mind. Whenever I fire up my table saw I do so with a healthy respect.

Nail gun. After high school my best friend Jim and I went to work for a roofing contractor. In the name of productivity he had disabled all the safety features on the nail guns. Well one day Jim had a freak accident with a nail gun. He managed to nail a testicle to his thigh. That was enough for me to say a hammer is good enough.

Well #3 did it for me! ouch!

[IPRES]

Messing with slotted screwdrivers gives me the willies. A screwdriver in my right hand once slipped while working on something that I held in my left hand. It entered my palm at the base of my thumb and stopped just short of puncturing the skin on the knuckle of my first finger (from the inside out). Doc refused to sew it up because he felt that it was important that it heal from the inside on out, which took a long time.

Ever since I fell off of a wall while walking on top of them, nailing them together, I've gotten the willies. That kind of accident changes you forever.

Marc

That's disturbing

[IPRES]

What 3 tools give you the willies? We were talking about this at church since we're building on to the sanctuary.

Extension ladder. I use one of these 5 times a day, have for years. They still make my blood run cold. Especially using one to get on and off a roof. Never had an accident or even a close call. Something about falling though is my biggest fear. I sure do pray a lot more on days when I use on a lot.

Table saw. When I was 10 years old I helped my dad build an addition to the house. He had his table saw set up in the garage. We were ripping some lumber one morning when the saw kicked back and launched a board through the garage door. Seeing that lightning fast, violent reaction left an impression on my mind. Whenever I fire up my table saw I do so with a healthy respect.

Nail gun. After high school my best friend Jim and I went to work for a roofing contractor. In the name of productivity he had disabled all the safety features on the nail guns. Well one day Jim had a freak accident with a nail gun. He managed to nail a testicle to his thigh. That was enough for me to say a hammer is good enough.

Think I'd go with the ladder.............circ saw & hammer (busted fingers bite!)

[asihi]

Like a lot of guys on this forum, I was in construction (carpenter) before I got into inspecting. I stuck my fingers in table saws, radial arm saws and cut myself with a worm drive saw. Luckily I can still count to 10. I've always had a healthy amount of respect for tools (even though I remember a time when a wise-ass apprentice decided to smart off to a couple of journeymen and got his clothes nailed to the deck of a building we were working on. Oh yea, he was in his clothes. That was funny, but wrong...very wrong).

The tool that I hated working with the most is the power post hole diggers, both 1-man and 2-man. I can't tell you how many times I went flying or got hit in the nuts when the digger hit a rock. Not to mention having to dig it out if we went in too far.

I also have to agree with everyone else about slotted screw drivers. The guy who invented them should be beaten with sticks.

[mridgeelk]

1.Using a 3/4 inch drill with a shear-plate router head in Doug Fir beams.

2.A shaper.

3.An industrial-sized flooring buffer not so much for personal injury but for the damage they cause when the operator loses control. When I was in the Air Force I was was buffing the floor in the dayroom it got away frome knocking a large hole in the wall. The sargeant nearby came over and observed the damage. I was thinking an Article 15 was headed my way. All he said was that he never could run one either and walked away.

[Terence McCann]

Like a lot of guys on this forum, I was in construction (carpenter) before I got into inspecting. I stuck my fingers in table saws, radial arm saws and cut myself with a worm drive saw. Luckily I can still count to 10.

Toes don't count. []

[Tom Raymond]

The post hole digger reminds me of another tool that scares me, I got 18 stitches and a broken jaw from a Metabo drill running a 3/8 x 16" auger bit. The trigger lock on the drill would frequently stick and the skinny auger bit wobbled when hot, combine that with loose clothing and you get an accident waiting to happen. I was working on the bench and when I pulled the drill from my work the bit grabbed my shirt, wound up and smacked me in the face. I could feel the tip running back and forth across my gut, and when my navy blue shirt split up the back and pulled over my head I thought my lights were going out for good. My jaw bone must have fit neatly into the spiral of the auger because my face was cut in a perfect curl from the corner of my mouth, along the bottom of my jaw, and under my chin. The drill never stopped running until it hit the floor after my shirt ripped free and I could toss it. I was the third guy in the shop to get cut with that drill, one guy drilled a hole through his shoe scuffing up his foot and the other took a chunk out of his calf when it grabbed his pant leg, it was in the trash when I returned to work.

Six weeks of spaghetti o's and jello, the only food that I could get in my mouth, was at least as painful that the accident.

Tom