Stupid ideas!!!.....

Mace

Mace

Joined
Apr 8, 2003
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I was thinking about Sams thread on his grinding stone exploding and what a sport he was to share his "stupid idea". Maybe it will save someone a trip to the hospital or worse...the bone yard!:eek:
Any way, I thought we could share a few more "stupid ideas" and maybe save a few more lives.
Here is mine:

A couple of years ago I started getting into damascus. I built a forge for this and the biggest tank I had was a 40 pounder. It kept freezing up on me. I was trying to come up with an idea to make that stop(instead of just spending the $$$ on a 100 pound tank!) My idea was to get the electric wire heaters you put on the edge of your roof to melt the ice dams. I have learned over the years to "talk things out" with a friend or two to get input on the idea. Someone said it was a bad idea because what if it grounds out on the tank? BOOM!!!!
I decided a 100 pound tank (w/o heater) was a better idea!:thumbup:

So, Whats your stupid idea?
Mace
 
I must say that same idea has crossed my mind as well but i have been smart. i would say stay off skate boards ;). all joking aside I would say the most common stupid thing i do is saying o i need to grind this real fast and say o my glasses or mask are way over there, o well it will be OK. 99% of the time i am wrong and ether get something in my eye or bad crap in my nose. i have gotten a lot better with this but its something i think is common. and another one is change the belt on your grinder and replace a warn out belt. its the same concept that almost all of us tell friend or family, and that is that a shaper knife is safer then a dull one. i would say that applies to belts as well. the has been times where i have a warn out 50 grit blaze belt on the grinder and I'm trying to squeeze every last bit of grit out of it and am pushing really hard and slip and grinder my fingers. where if i used a fresh belt i would have to push quite a bit less and i would end up with a better grind any way. this is a good thread to start and I'm interested to see what people post. i have more but i will Wait.
 
I was relaxing having a few cordials when a fly decided to interrupt me. The little bastard not only flew on my face but went down the neck of my beer for a wee drink. That was war! So I grabbed my fly spray and smothered it. The little bastard didn't die but proceeded to contaminate my beer yet again but with this time poison! So I pulled out my lighter and used the fly spray as a flame thrower. I was revealing in roasting the vermin when I realized I had set the window curtain on fire..... You just can't mess with an Aussies beer
 
I used to get a lot of them when I was 16. Not so much now.

A couple of things I can say is you're probably better off not wearing gloves when buffing, polishing and grinding. It's different in a production environment that I worked in, you pretty much have to wear gloves so you can continue to polish things when they're hot.

One other thing that comes to mind is safety with ammonia. I see ammonia mentioned here once in a while and not really any mention about safety but ammonia can be deadly if mishandled. It's effects are immediate and if something happens at a time when nobody is around, well, somebody will find you, eventually.
 
This kind of goes with JT's post but never grind or chip slag from a weld without eye protection. I posted about the hot slag welding my eyelid shut in Sam's thread but to be honest that was not the first time. :jerkit: The first time the hot slag stuck under my eye by about an inch.
I also can't count the times I have had grinding particles in my eyes, and don't wait a week before going to the doctor as they get extremely wizzed off when you tell them it happened yesterday and they tell you, " ah NO the metal is already rusted"!
The last time I thought I was going to lose some of the sight in the right eye. It was so bad that I had to go back every couple of days, for three weeks for them to pick steel particles from that eye and doctor it. I had no one to drive me and to drive and be able stand the light I had to wear two pairs of sunglasses, otherwise the glare would cause my good eye to water and I couldn't see at all to drive.
I guess I am a candidate for heres your sign award but I do not do anything with out safety glasses in my shop anymore! :rolleyes:
I am one of those people that can put on the enclosed kind of safety glasses and they fog immediately. So mine are open and occasionally something still gets around them but at least the biggest percentage is stopped. It is real hard to build a knife by the brail method!! :o
 
I had a blade in the vise and was working on the handle with an exacto knife when this fly decided he wanted to bug me . So instinct says , swat at that damn thing . Boy did I get lucky , in the corner of my eye I saw that knife coming at my face and moved just in time .
 
I slapped a mosquito on my face while forgetting I had a ball point pen in my hand.:jerkit:
 
That last smiley was directed at me.

I also took the guard off my little angle grinder that I used with a cut off blade for cutting barstock. I grabbed it with one hand too far up and grazed my knuckle with the cut-off blade. I put the guard back on after that.
 
Oil quenching in a small garage with a propane stove warming the oil and a propane forge both running is probably not the smartest thing I have done.

Lets see, drilling tang holes on a sharpened knife while clamped in a vise and with a hand drill it another not so bright idea... Geez, how did that 4" cut get in my shirt!?

It's funny how the memories come back after you think you're not that dumb. :)
 
These are all things I've had direct experience with:

It can be very expensive to mill out of a drill chuck.

Close the safety door.

Keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.

Don't weld while wearing an oiled canvas coat.

Don't peak over your safety glasses while making a cut.

Wire nuts with even a single wire strand sticking out can still shock the everlovingshit out of you.

Don't just blindly trust electricians, check the work.

Check the brakes on the old car before taking it out of gear and rolling it into your house.

Hot steel doesn't necessarily look hot.
 
I know this is a no-brainer, but don't let gloves come anywhere near a drill press! At least I only lost the finger of the glove and had a sore hand for a couple of weeks.
 
good thread mace. its always best to listen to what someone a little wiser has to say when making or modifying anything spinning fast or working with anything flammable. if there is a safer way to do something even though it might cost a few dollars more its better than a trip to the hospital or as you say "the bone yard". i have seen guys come up with some pretty dangerous and stupid things over the years that can qualify easily for a darwin award. i think i'll do some updating on my shop safety sticky.
 
I was tapering a tang last week and when I was done on one side I grabbed the tang to take it off the magnet and start on the other side. Nobody ever told me that a knife didn't have to be red to be hot!!!:grumpy: I got some nice burns and yelled out a couple of spanglish four letter words I think.
 
Don't let your kids be around your shop or forge without shoes. My four year old once stepped on a set of hot tongs barefoot, and we've all got metal shavings in our shops that love to find their way into feet.
 
A pearl I learned from Jim Ferguson when I first started making knives: if you have a knife in a vise and you aren't working on the blade, cover the blade with a split hose. At this point I use vinyl tape, since one size fits all.

So when Jim gave me that really good advice, I promptly forgot it...for about a month. At the end of that month I had my first dagger point up in a vise, was working on the tang/guard fit (had a really limited amount of shop and tools then) and reached over it for a file.

Stuck the dagger 2" deep in my forearm. It wasn't sharp, just really pointy. The doctor said it was good I hadn't closed it with superglue because it was pretty deep and need to be irrigated. He also opened up a 1-2 sticth cut so he could sew the muscle I cut. Turned into a 9 stitch job before it was over.

I never made that mistake again.

Gene
 
l

One of my most memorable moments in my shop:

I had a 3hp veryable speed router mounted to a 2 inch table top, via a welded metal bracket. I had checked with the supplier where I purchased the drum sander mounted in the router's chuck, about maximum speed he recommended for their product. He said they would run at any speed, he was wrong.
By the way, this took place in an 8x10 room that was completely closed and lit by an 8 foot florescent fixture.
When I reached down and turned the rpms up on the router, the shaft on the drum sander, bent 90 degrees with enough force to lift the heavy table it was attached through it against the wall holding the breaker panel. Everything died at once, the lights the router and I thought I had also died.
It took me a few moments to realize I was not dead, only standing there in a completely darkened room feeling a bit foolish.
And yes I did contact the dealer that sold me the drum sanders and told him, "the drum sanders do have an rpm limit" I know that much for sure.
Work safe guys, Fred
 
Great Thread Mase I thought ide wait to read a few . This one has been kinda said but I use to sharpen my knives before they were finished and had to work around not getting cut . well over 12 stitches later and 2 visits to my doctor I now sharpen last and if I have any touch ups at all I DUCT TAPE the blade. The worst cut was when the knife was in the vice anf i was filling some patterns on the spine .I set the file down slightly under the knife and just lifted my hand 7 stitches and just missed the 2 tendons and the main artery in the back of my hand.
 
SAFETY GLASSES FOR SUPERGLUE!!!

About 15 years ago I was pushing some maple inlays into the walnut stock of a wheellock pistol. Naturally, I was making sure there was plenty of CA on and around the inlay as I was pushing it in (they were thick inlays, probably 3/32 or so).

Well, you guessed it!

BAM! A big squirt of extra-heavy-duty CA squirts out like a grapefruit RIGHT INTO THE MIDDLE OF MY RIGHT EYE!!! Smack-dab in the center of the black part--A big Nickelodeon-looking splotch of CA fused on there. It was like looking through a piece of acetate!

It tried to stick shut, but I wouldn't let it. I could really taste the superglue, and it was burning way up into my sinuses as it dried.

I went to the emergency room. They looked it over, and sent me home with pain meds. Didn't think I'd need them at first, but then --- Oh boy!

It was like needles sticking in the eye as the sharp stuff sluffed off over the next 2 weeks. No sleep because when you'r eyes would do that REM thing, it was like a jab from the needles again! I had to stay in a dark room the whole time. My eye turned blood red and my face swelled on that side like I was hit with a bat.

Short form --- Careful with that stuff!!!
 
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