Worst accident you've ever even heard about?

Longhair ? That's been around for many years .In WWII with many women working making military things .They had no experience with machines so they trained them such as posters using Veronica Lake and other movie stars , showing dangers !!

Table saws - there has been , for a number of years , a gadget that will stop a table saw that will Instantly stop if you put your finger in it ! IT WORKS ! I know some of the people who developed it ! They demonstrated it at trade shows with a hotdog , stick a hotdog into the blade and it STOPS !
 
Gil Hibben drove a blade into his thigh with a buffer and about bled to death before a neighbor heard him screaming.
One of the early makers(I cant remember who) had one of the hard wheels explode and had 50 chunks of stone in his front and chest.
 
A buffer is definitely one of the most dangerous tools a knife maker can use.
 
I cut my thumb off and sliced my index finger almost down the middle on a table saw. I kind of double sucked my hand in before I could pull out. I swear my wife said don’t cut off a finger about 15 minutes earlier on her way out the door.They sewed thumb back on but it is 3/4” shorter than my other thumb.

My thumb was actually hanging by skin by knuckle. I held it together until ambulance and FD came.I couldn’t look so turned my head and asked fireman how bad... he said pretty bad.

Still get deja vu when on table saw.
 
I couldn't look either. My accident is coming up in 2 months. Im still beating myself up almost daily for my split second of stupidity.
 
I once put my arm too close to the gap between the belt and work rest. Swoosh, it took merely a split second before the sleeve of my sweater got sucked down, along with my arm following. The sweater was porous enough to rip to pieces before anything really bad could happen. But I got my arm pretty well ground by the 36 grit belt that was on. A nice forearm facet that required some healing time.

The grinder in this case is direct drive with a 3 HP motor.
 
You can do the same function a million times. It's that one time where something can go horribly wrong. The phrase "you can never be too careful" is an understatement!!
 
I had a 7" grinder snag on a sharp corner and walk up my arm with a brown scotchbrite. It left my arm oozing for the rest of the week. If it had happened with the 24 grit sanding disk that I had just swapped off it could have been a bad deal.

I had a co worker who had a cutting disk blow up and come within 1/8" of his carotid artery.

My cousin worked at a saw mill and after a lot of long hours one if the guys hit the hip switch when he was pulling something off the line. My cousin put pressure on the stump to keep him from bleeding to death and someone else grabbed the hand inches before it went in the chipper.

Yuck
 
I was walking by a cnc router one day, a sheet of lexan had pulled up off the vacuum table and walked up into the shaft part of the cutter as the machine head was rapid traveling, the cutter snapped and went flying right in front of my face against a lexan window. It took a pretty good chip out of that window too.
 
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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metal working uses vises and clamps, controls the cutter and workpiece with cranks and screw mechanisms.

Wood working, you use your fingers to hold and move everything and come way closer to the cutters than you should.
 
12345678910 said:
the best dr's with all the experience and seniority dn't work evenings, nights, or weekends.

If you get sick or hurt, do it on the day shift.
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I am proof of your comments!! I am also not a fan of our local hospital. However, due to my injury and being an emergency. I was in no position to be picking and choosing. Just part of my bountiful bad luck!
 
Most of you have heard of the "helicopter blade" on a drill press. It happens when you don't secure your blade to the drill press table before drilling hole...especially a 1/4 inch hole. You can't hold on to the blade and it cuts you in a millisecond. Here are two photos which show the problem and the solution. Larry

bD2mZnXl.jpg
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Noticed that most of the time when we have had our accidents there were a little voice into our heads pointing out the danger a few seconds before it happened? That voice alone could be the best IPD if we give it enough credit :)
About the buffers danger, i believe hand sanded finishes got very popular for this reason too.
 
Probably the scariest accident I've ever had was at our manufacturing shop in New Mexico about 17 years ago unloading a shipment of steel. We were taking it off the truck and loading the 20' sections on the A frame rack by hand about shoulder height and the rack arm broke dropping a couple thousand pounds of steel on me. When it broke and fell it hit the rack under it that one broke too. It pinned my leg pretty good and thankfully didn't break anything. My uncle ran over with a section of steel to pry it off my leg best he could as my grandfather and brother pulled me out. Bruised me up pretty good and took a couple weeks before i could walk without a limp. Needless to say when we built a new rack it probable could have held a couple of parked tanks on it no problem. It definitely could've ended a lot worse.
 
I think one of the most dangerous things many of us use without a second thought is an angle grinder with a cut off wheel haha. I tried a cheap brand of cut of wheels once and they were working ok but I was burning through them fast.

Well, eventually one decided to fracture and the angle grinder sent a piece of wheel straight into my faceshield. I could've easily lost an eye! Got stuck straight in it.
 
The worst accident I ever saw was not knife related. At the Ford plant back in the 70's,I was working as a stock checker and my Dad did the medical there. There was a supervisor who was out in the stock yard to count how many frames of certain model truck we had. I was counting other parts nearby. They were in two tall stacks up against the building wall. Because of other frames stacked on both sides he could only see them from the front. After counting the front one he had a forklift driver pick up that stack and pull it back. The driver lifted the stack about up and pulled back about ten feet. As he did, the supervisor stepped in to count the frames. When the driver stopped, the frame stack rocked .... and collapsed ... over on top of the supervisor. FUBAR doesn't do justice to what he looked like. I was working nearby and went to help when it happened. Dad had seen a lot of bad stuff in the war and in industry but this was the worst he ever saw. It was certainly the worst thing I hope to ever see.

The point is that this tragedy was caused by haste and by something unexpected happening. "I have done it before and nothing happened." won't help if parts of you are are red mush ( or all of you). If the man had waited thirty seconds more until the driver set the load down, he would have had dinner with his family that night.
 
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