What’s the most dangerous tool in your workshop

[Anonymous]

Power guillotine – once you hit that foot pedal it isn't going to stop no way no how.

Andrew

[David ColwillParticipant @davidcolwill19261]

The scariest near miss I have had was while working 7 meters up at the full reach of a tallescope (google if you're not sure) I was using a 9 inch angle grinder to cut through a welded box section structure when the sparks set fire to my trousers in the area of the zip! Unfortunately I had no choice but to finish cutting through the piece so that my mate could lower it to the ground, before putting the grinder down in the cage and then beating the flames out as gently as possible all whilst swaying alarmingly. The fire had burnt my trousers, tee shirt and jumper but somehow not me. I have since tried to set fire to cloth with an angle grinder ( while not wearing it ) but have never managed it.. The thing that bothered me most about this was the fact that this scenario never entered my head.

It is one thing to do something slightly dangerous if you know the risks and are prepared for them and another to be totally surprised by some unexpected calamity.

Regards.

David.

[JellyParticipant @jelly]

Oxy-Acetylene set.

I can’t think of anything which offers up the same level of destructive potential.

Even though the most dramatic dangers are now a very remote possibility with modern check valves and arrestors fitted; my real concern is how low a concentration of Acetylene is explosive, and the potential for a dangerous build-up over time in the event of failing to close the valves fully and purge the hoses on shutdown.

Grinders come a very close second, as anyone who’s had a wheel burst anywhere even vaguely nearby will attest to.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Handtool: Screwdriver. Millions of gashed hands around the world every year.

Power tool: Drill press. If it's not tearing jobs out of then-shredded hands, it's firing swarf into eyes.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Oxy-Acetylene set

I second that man

I've seen 3 flamer kick-offs and I don't even work around them, the last one about 3 years ago in a vehicle garage I was visiting

Separates the headless chickens from the cool heads when an oxy set gets antsy

Edited By Ady1 on 08/05/2017 00:52:32

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

I agree with majority its me first then others.

Lack of thought, idiots, lack of maintenance and electrical storms.

[Matthew ReedParticipant @matthewreed92137]

Reflecting on the self inflicting pain over the last year….

What bright spark came up with the idea of putting a storage cabinet under my mill. Pretty much guaranteed to hit my head on the handle or, if I'm really lucky, on the corner of the table. Considering a hard-hat area……

[nigel jones 5Participant @nigeljones5]

I was feeling for a drill bit coming out of the bottom of a casting…drill bit came through and didnt notice for a second that my finger was in its path. Wend straight through my left index finger from side to side – missed the nail. There wasnt much of it left. At hospital they packed if full of some gel substance, bandaged it up and told me how utterly remarkable fingers were at repairing themselves!

[IanTParticipant @iant]

My Shaper – have to remind myself all the time that this hypnotic, gentle machine will not pause for a second if I'm tempted to do something really daft, like touch that surface to see if it's as smooth as it looks……..

IanT

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Table Saw. and me.

(I can still count to 10 though)

regards Martin

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

Posted by fizzy on 08/05/2017 08:18:57:

I was feeling for a drill bit coming out of the bottom of a casting…drill bit came through and didnt notice for a second that my finger was in its path. Wend straight through my left index finger from side to side – missed the nail. There wasnt much of it left. At hospital they packed if full of some gel substance, bandaged it up and told me how utterly remarkable fingers were at repairing themselves!

That just so reminds me of watching a young colleague hand twisting a screw ended bone pin held in a hand chuck through a cat's femur.. and bracing the joint with her other hand. One last twist and it shot through the end of bone and straight through her palm – and (of course) had to be slowly unscrewed to release her from the patient.

[Antony PowellParticipant @antonypowell28169]

There is a common theme with all these incidents and that’s the workshop keys….
No keys No tools No risks !!

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

The comments about working against the clock whilst tired at the end of a session have really struck home with me. Not just the realisation that's when I have most scrapes, but there's the amount of work I've spoiled when tired and impatient. Tiredness, like alcohol, makes me much more likely to take risks. The silly thing is, being retired, I don't have to hit time targets any more. Perhaps old habits like that should be added to the list.

The scariest accident down to me was when my car rolled off the jack just after taking the front wheels off. I'd put axle stands underneath and one of them tipped over too. Had I started work I would have got squished. Looking for reasons I found that my drive isn't quite flat and that the foot of the jack had sunk lopsided into a soft patch in the tarmac. Worst of all, I hadn't lowered the car onto the axle stands so they were taking the weight.

Thinking about it cars are far more dangerous than model engineering. Even if my driving happens to be up to standard, there are all those other idiots on the road!

Dave

[John GardenerParticipant @johngardener91897]

Posted by Graeme W on 07/05/2017 17:26:57:

ME!

Or Me

[matt merchantParticipant @mattmerchant42413]

Thinking about it cars are far more dangerous than model engineering. Even if my driving happens to be up to standard, there are all those other idiots on the road!

Dave

usually in a certain automobile manufactured in Germany .

15 years of contracting work up and down the land

[Barnaby WildeParticipant @barnabywilde70941]

Posted by matt merchant on 08/05/2017 14:55:01:

Thinking about it cars are far more dangerous than model engineering. Even if my driving happens to be up to standard, there are all those other idiots on the road!

Dave

usually in a certain automobile manufactured in Germany .

15 years of contracting work up and down the land

You can be the bestest & safest driver out there, this does not stop you becoming involved in someone else's incident.

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

Machine handles!

Drop something, scrabble around on the floor, find the dropped thing, stand up and smack your bonce on the nice shiney metal handle!

I now have tennis balls, with a hole cut in, too push on machine handles not in use………

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

I had a couple of close calls when welding on old cars when slight fuel vapour leak has caught fire but managed to get the ensuing fires out quickly without damage to vehicle or me.

The worst was using a gas fluxer whilst brazing. Had pulled car into garage, Lit the pilot light on the Oxy/acetylene economiser valve (using this you can hang the torch on a hook which shuts of oxygen and acetylene valves and puts out the torch, pick the torch back up, valves open, flick through pilot light an away you go again). I had used this thing loads building suspension for my FF1600 race car. As I was brazing a lot I had a gas fluxer connected inline with the acetylene, the acetylene bubbled through the flux and you just used the brazing rod like a welding rod no need to cover with powered flux.

I bent down and turned the fluxer on, (small knob on the top of fluxer). Next minute a massive boom, garage full of flames and fires everywhere including me on fire from head to foot. Glasses blown off face (had not put welding goggles on as was still setting up) .Oh sh.t thinks me, ran outside and rolled down lawn to put out my fires. Ran back into garage to see fires everywhere (under cans of cellulose thinners, cellulose paint etc.and all sorts, anything paper on fire, all plastic shrink wrapped, all paintwork bubbled as though a blow torch had been on it. Even the up and over garage door was bent out at thirty degrees and the garage roof had lifted 3" and dropped back down. Found fire extinguisher and started putting out fires. Old man came into garage (working in his garage) gave him fire extinguisher and then ran to bath and jumped into it, all taps and shower on. When cooled down suddenly remembered no flashbacks on cylinder so back into garage. Move my 10 tone press, turn bottles off, get them outside and vent them to the atmosphere. Then hijacked car coming down the road to take me to hospital. 1st/2nd degree burns to 30% body. My mates at local garage could not believe it as they said how ell I looked after my kit.

Even now 30 years later I can still picture being surrounded by flames. The burns had all healed within a month to six weeks.

Still got the fluxer but never used it since. The Fire Brigade were called by the hospital and they took it away for investigation. It appears the set screw holding the knob had sheared and the four pints of highly flammable flux and been sprayed out under the pressure of the acetylene. Hit the pilot light and the rest was history.

It was a standing joke when I went back to work on the Monday, after the mishap on the Friday before, all the jokes came out. How hot, how hot, ask Colin

So it was not the oxy/acetylene per se just the kit attached to kit.

Be careful.

Colin

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by jimmy b on 08/05/2017 16:46:42:

Machine handles!

…

Snap. In grabbing at a falling Digital Caliper this morning I punched the sharp end of a handle crank. Ouch! Expletive deleted. My pain was wasted – despite smacking into a concrete floor the £4.99 caliper still works perfectly.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by Colin Heseltine on 08/05/2017 17:22:34:

…

Next minute a massive boom, garage full of flames and fires everywhere including me on fire from head to foot…

Colin

Wow! That's spectacularly horrible. Glad you survived. I shall think of 'how hot, ask Colin"' next time I get the blowlamp out.

Dave

[Colin HeseltineParticipant @colinheseltine48622]

Dave,

One problem Is that I was wearing a nylon jacket, this was early December, and it melted on my hands and arms. My poor Labrador had been next to me in the garage when it all went bang and I found her cowering down the garden (unharmed) , next the 8ft fillet of wood from above the window which had blown out from behind the barge boards when the roof lifted up.

I brought flashback arrestors the following week.

Colin

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

Me!

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Charged capacitors can be dangerous. I worked with a radio ham who wanted to have a go at spark transmission for a bit of fun. He charged a load of capacitors at 240Volts, then started to connect them in series. His wife shouted up stairs, "Coffee time". When he returned he forgot that the daisy chain was charged and got a belt of about 2k volts through his finger! He was detained in hospital as they had to cut through the finger to remove the plasma burnt copper so that gangrene wouldn't set in!
Modern battery chargers (Bosch for example) and some microwaves have charged capacitors inside them even when unplugged.
BobH

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Bob has it just right – all the equipment in my workshop is quite safe just so long as it is left alone. The risk arises when anyone goes in there – engage brain before proceeding!

Norman

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Acetylene is dangerous as above stories tell. Our plant had piped acetylene from a central distribution point, one Monday we came to work and we could not phone half the plant. Over the weekend a contractor installed an extension to the acetylene system and to do a pressure check they pumped compressed air into the system but forgot to put the plate in to isolate from the live part of the system, fires broke out everywhere and one destroyed the main phone cables to much of the plant. The phones were soon repaired but the acetylene plant was never used again.

A friend was a pipe fitter and had some welding to do in a particularly difficult place to get to so instructed his mate to stand by the bottles and turn them off in the event of a blowback, well blowback happened and the mate legs it so my friend had to extricate himself and turn off bottles himself, not happy with mate.

Mike

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