Worst accident you've ever even heard about?

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mike-E

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Mar 2, 2013
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Im trying to squelch a safety discussion.
What is the absolute worst accident you've ever known about from a belt grinder?
 
I sanded my fingertip down so much it reached my fingernail and sanded some off of about half the width of my finger. I wasnt a knifemaker then, i was in a wood shop making spiral staircases. Everything grew back normal looking.
 
Had a guy come in to the ER with two fingers in a bag and one partially torn off and obliterated bones in his hand, and a large lacearation on his right thigh. He said he was reshaping an large lathe tool at a funny angle and the belt grabbed the tool funny and threw it down into his thigh. In the mix he grabbed at it and his hand went around a large wheel and through some kind of safety housing. It was a pretty high horsepower belt grinder going pretty fast it sounds like. You don’t need speed so much to pull fingers off as you do torque, power, and the right angle on the digit.
I’ve seen a lot of severed fingers in the ER usually from saws, but consistently the most impressive injuries I’ve seen from tools are ones where a body part or a whole body were sucked into a powerful turning motor.
I had a guy turn an arm into a fleshy bag of soup up to the shoulder and create a flail chest segment on his entire right rib cage when he got sucked into some kind of big commercial lathe.
 
I heard some maker lost a finger to a rotary platen a while back. Knew a guy who got face slapped by a 36 grit belt that snapped at high speed. Took a month for his face to not look like red asphalt where it smacked him. And have heard a few stories over the years of folks with long hair gettin snagged and dragged into the wheels, ripping out some hair and bit of scalp.

Personal worst for me is a few small finger cuts and friction burns.
 
I was polishing a drop point hunter on my buffer. It grabbed the blade and sent it down between my second and third toes. It hit the gap between my toes at about a 45 degree angle, in effect spreading my toes apart before it sliced them. No, blade was not sharpened. Had it hit at a 90 degree angle to my toes, it would have chopped both toes off. Blood gushing out of my tennis shoe, hobbled to House, wife drove me to ER, bleeding all over their floor. Buncha stitches later to the insides of both toes and I was back at home. I taped my admission band to the hospital across the top of the buffer as a reminder to T-H-I-N-K stupid!
 
Just comparing the safety factors of saws and belt grinders. I know a few guys who have lost fingers in saws. Never heard of anyone getting more than an abrasion from the grinding surface or a small cut from an edge.
 
Worst knife making accident I've heard about was a maker at a show talking about how using the buffer and a sharp knife gutted him, and the long recovery and showed the scars. Worst one I've heard about was a rig I was on years ago, the diverter (big honking multi ton pipe fitting) got knocked off the hydraulic lift and smushed a newbie on his first day on the rig.
 
Yep. I know about buffers. It's belt grinders specifically I'm curious about. I googled belt grinder accident and came up empty handed. Just wondered if there were any stories untold.
 
Belt grinds have been responsible for serious cuts, lost fingers, and knives stuck on chests, stomachs, and legs/feet. I lost part of my left palm when a blade grabbed during sharpening.

Lets all be honest here. Knifemaking equipment is inherently dangerous. Knives will cut/stab you. Most knifemaking equipment is run with no safety guards in ways and positions that would not be allowed in industry. 1000 and higher temp steel will severely burn you. Forges can start fires. Red hot blades plunged into oil is a bad combo. Propane tanks and hoses don't play well with hot blades. Etc. The only thing that keeps us somewhat safe is understanding … and RESPECTING … those facts.
 
mike-E said:
Just comparing the safety factors of saws and belt grinders. I know a few guys who have lost fingers in saws. Never heard of anyone getting more than an abrasion from the grinding surface or a small cut from an edge.
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I was most afraid what if belt break on high speed while I grinding ...........Then I watch on tube video where belt break while running .Nothing dangerous , obviously belt have no mass to keep spinning .....But 40 grit ceramic on 6000/8000 SFPM can bite hard finger in fraction of time :mad:
 
Natlek said:
I was most afraid what if belt break on high speed while I grinding ...........Then I watch on tube video where belt break while running .Nothing dangerous , obviously belt have no mass to keep spinning .....But 40 grit ceramic on 6000/8000 SFPM can bite hard finger in fraction of time :mad:
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I guess it depends on how it breaks and the layout of your grinder.

I had a 36 grit belt snap while running at approximately 6000 SFPM. Damn, it scratched up my full face shield totally, and slapped across my chest through a thick sweater. I had the marks across my chest for a couple of weeks.
 
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Stromberg Knives said:
I guess it depends on how it breaks and the layout of your grinder.

I had a 36 grit belt snap while running at approximately 6000 SFPM. Damn, it scratched up my full face shield totally, and slapped across my chest through a thick sweater. I had the marks across my check for a couple of weeks.
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I imagine the broken belt wrapped around the drive wheel and started spinning like crazy. This is similar to sanding on a lathe and losing control of the sanding belt. I have done that and it is scary, and really really loud, and will damage any part of you or the machine in its path
 
Randy3000 said:
I imagine the broken belt wrapped around the drive wheel and started spinning like crazy. This is similar to sanding on a lathe and losing control of the sanding belt. I have done that and it is scary, and really really loud, and will damage any part of you or the machine in its path
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Nope, when a lower grit belt breaks it comes forward under centrifugal inertia as the belt opens up and slaps you right in the head/face/chest. If running fast it can really sting. Even if it doesn't slap you hard, it can soundlike a pistol shot and scare the crap out of you (perhaps literally).
 
Are belt grinders inherently less dangerous than table saws? Hard to say. Tablesaws are certainly more prolific, which may account somewhat for the increase of injuries and stories thereof.

Getting a finger in between a belt and wheel, or belt and work rest could be pretty devastating. I see a lot of belt driven setups with no guards. Glass platens have been known to let loose and explode. Pieces get snagged and thrown. I had a drive shaft break and send the drive wheel rolling across the shop and a pretty good clip. That could have been worse.

Bottom line, there’s plenty of ways to get hurt on any tool, especially when you throw powerful motors and moving parts into the mix. Fortunately, most of us get by with little more than burnt and abraded finger tips.
 
On FiF one of the smith's home forge had a safety sign to the effect everything in here will cut, burn, poison, kill, or maim you.

Everything in the shop has a high degree of bodily damage potential.

Jim
 
IMG957430.jpg So many things can go wrong in a shop. Speed of machines, extreme heat, etc. I have donated skin to my grinders. Thankfully nothing serious.

Not shop related but I did just suffer a serious injury with my residential sized wood chipper. First serious injury I have ever sustained. I considered myself very safe until this happened. It really shook me up and woke me up.

Jim
 
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I read some history on Sheffield knife production. The thing that i remember most was the life expectancy. The guys grinding the blades made it to about 35 years old before dying. I think not wearing a respirator when grinding metal is probably the most dangerous thing you can do with a grinder.
 
jll346 said:
So many things can go wrong in a shop. Speed of machines, extreme heat, etc. I have donated skin to my grinders. Thankfully nothing serious.

Not shop related but I did just suffer a serious injury with my residential sized wood chipper. First serious injury I have ever sustained. I considered myself very safe until this happened. It really shook me up and woke me up.

Jim
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Holy hell, I hope you heal up OK.
 
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