I almost died today. Safety with old wheel grinders

go mike said:
I'm glad you were not physically hurt. I can't even imagine how terrified I would have been.

I'm really glad you posted this. It really helps put things in perspective in the dangers of trying to save money, time, and just cutting corners.
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Thanks Mike.

This wasn't a case of trying to save money, time, or cut corners, just old curiosity, and thankfully I am not a cat.
 
Taking the calculated speed of 60 f/s, and figuring on a 4.5 pound chunk of the stone, it would have impacted with roughly 247 foot-pounds of force.

--nathan
 
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Sam Salvati said:
Nathan, I sure as heck said a few prayers afterwards.
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GOD, does appreciate a thank you now and the also, afterall he was already looking out for you!!!!!!!!!!

Been there done that, well not that but,I have been guilty of doing one of the things that makes you ask yourself what the he!! was I thinking. Like "chipping hot slag off a weld with no shield". I saw it coming and got the eye shut but the hot slag welded my eyelid shut. Luckly it didn't hurt the eye but hurt like he!! when I snatched it out with tweezers but wasn't about to wait in a hospital for hours for someone else to do the same. GOD was watching out for me that day!!!!!!!!
 
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Amen God's grace was on you. Be sure to remember we are all made for His purpose. That you were not injured is wonderful. I can't even count the times I should have ended up injured or worse. Kiss the woman, hug your kids and pet the dog and most important Thank God. Uncle T
 
Dixieblade57 said:
Like "chipping hot slag off a weld with no shield" the hot slag welded my eyelid shut but didn't hurt the eye. GOD was watching out for me that day!!!!!!!!
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I did this exact thing once, but I reached up and tried to wipe the hot slag off before I even knew what was going on. It didn't brush off, but smeared the skin. We all do dumb stuff now and then, the important thing is that we don't do the same dumb stuff twice.
Glad you weren't hurt.

-Mike
 
silver_pilate said:
Taking the calculated speed of 60 f/s, and figuring on a 4.5 pound chunk of the stone, it would have impacted with roughly 247 foot-pounds of force.

--nathan
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Only 100 footpounds less than a .45 ACP at the muzzle , if the ballistic charts I looked up are correct. That explains the havoc in your shop

-Page
 
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Whoops. Discovered a little error in my calculations. The number I stated is for a 4.5 pound chunk (rougly 2 kilograms). I'll correct the post to reflect that. A 1kg chunk would impact with the energy of roughly 123 foot-pounds of force.

Even so, I'm sure that 4.5 pound chunks were possible. The closes muzzle energy I found in handgun loads for a 2 kg chunk was equivalent to a .38 special and a bit higher than a .380 ACP.

--nathan
 
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Sam , I could have told you that !! You need adult surpervision .
[ I gave Sam the grinder !]
 
Sam Salvati said:
Thanks Mike. This wasn't a case of trying to save money, time, or cut corners, just old curiosity, and thankfully I am not a cat.
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Sounds like you might have more cat in you than you thought. Hope you have a few more lives left in you. We'd miss you for sure.

I agree with Mike, THANKS for baring your ass and sharing the news with us. Not only do we appreciate the wake-up call, we're glad you're alright and grateful to have the chance to tell you so!!!

My being an ADD type guy, I cannot begin to tell you the number of crazy stunts I've foolishly attempted. I have often said, the fact that children make it to adulthood is probably the best proof there is that there are indeed guardian angels. We're surrrrrrrrre glad yours was on duty!
 
I hate grinding wheels. I've seen people loose eyes and suffer other injuries due to them coming apart. Much prefer a belt.

Still and all, I've been looking for one of those old sharpening stone wheels for years.

Don't reckin you'll do that again?
 
Man....Your an idiot!:eek:
But, I'm glad your a LIVE idiot!:thumbup:
Thanks for warning the rest of us idiots about your idiotic behavior.
Only a moron would be selfish enough not to share what a stupid thing they did.;) Kudos to you...
All kidding aside....glad your O.K. Sam
At any point did you think to yourself this would be a bad idea?(maybe why you were off to the side?):confused: Just wondering.
Mace
 
That's how a lot of the old time grinders in Solingen used to die, and they knew what they were doing and were using stones made for that purpose.

This is why surface grinders and bench grinders using stones are such very angerous machines: If anything causes the stone to shatter, it's like having a fragmentation grenade go off in your face. An Austrian knifemaker spent some weeks in the hospital not too long ago when a rubber composite wheel shattered and hit him in the lower face. They said if it had hit his forehead he would have died. Even so, he was in a coma for days and required reconstructive surgery. Lucky he had health coverage!

Hooking a machine like yours up to motor is really – how can you put it nicely? – a major lapse of judgment.

But your posting may have saved the life of the other poster in this thread who was thinking about having some stone cut out by a water jet vendor and mounting it up on a grinder! That could easily have been fatal.

So consider yourself lucky and it might be time to re-connect with the Church of your choice. May Somebody was trying to tell you something?

I'm glad you weren't injured!
 
I wouldn't say motorizing one of those wheels is an inherently bad idea, but it can be very easily.

I'm glad you're ok Sam, hopefully you can afford the repairs to your shop easily.

If anyone is inclined to make a motorized large wheel grinder keep the RPM low, shouldn't spin any faster than 200RPMs. Yours was doing close to 600RPMs.

Stay safe guys, high speed tools are very dangerous.
 
Knife grinders in Sheffield were the most highly paid in the cutlery industry because they generally died young from either silicosis from breathing in sanding grit or a natural sandstone wheel that broke sending out fragments like shrapnel.

So you really had a lucky escape because even if the stone did not break, the sanding grit would have wrecked your lungs in a few years.
 
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