[TheForge] fingers

Sat Jan 12 17:03:49 EST 2013

Okay, that counts as a "dumb stunt" worth getting 86'd for in my shop too. 
I'll let hars words slide unless you do it again though.

Why? Here's ONE of my disk grinder misadventures. One of the semi-rare jobs 
we did drilling was auger through pavement to do a centerline investigation 
on bridge approaches.  The auger really screws up asphalt pavement by 
lifting the surrounding soil up to a foot around the hole. Think BIG zit 
looking thing that's really hard to smooth out so folk aren't hitting a big 
weird speed bump as they're entering a bridge deck.

Well, I'd come up with an idea to simply cookie cut the asphalt around the 
hole before augering. That way the pavement would be relatively in tact and 
the base  soils are easy to shovel in, level and compact. The drill uses a 
hex to drive the rotating steel, auger in this case as well as connect 
flights of auger, the bit, etc. I found a piece of reasonably heavy steel 
pipe, welded a hex coupler, centered to the top and started notching the 
cutting edge for carbide bits.

Here's where my STUPID shone brightly, I just stood the soon to be bit on 
the bench, the coupler socketed into a female coupler welded into the 
bench's top. You could really reef on stuff but it wasn't solid by any 
definition, plenty of rattle room. <sigh> So, there I was using a 9" 
Millwauki (sp?) right angle grinder to cut notches to braze the carbide bits 
into. Use a cutting disk? NAW, not me!

So, there I was on maybe my 4-5th slot and the whole pipe shifts, jams the 
disk and launches the grinder across the shop. My right arm goes numb to the 
shoulder from the blow and not seeing blood I walk over to pick up the disk 
grinder. No surprise the disk is toast, about 1/3 is in a few pieces around 
the shop and the rest is looking like abused penut brittle. Then I pick the 
grinder up by the handle and the handle is floppy. Floppy handle? What THE! 
Darn, the trigger is ripped almost all the way off, hanging by one frayed 
wire and the rest of the handle is pretty smooshed up.

I carry it back to the bench doing a quick mental survey listing a quick 
parts list to repair it. When I set it down I finally think about the fack I 
was holding onto the handle with my finger on the trigger! Yikes, there's a 
hole in the ring finger of the glove and it's getting soggy and red. Oh 
yeah, the numb is starting to wear off my arm to not happy reports from the 
nerve endings. One quick look and I give the office a call, lock the shop up 
and drive to the local doc in a box to get stitched up.

An evulsion isn't a fun thing but better than ripping a finger off the hard 
way. I took about 10 stitches, 5 deep to reconnect tissues from the bone up 
and another 4-5 to put the closer to the surface tissues and skin in close 
proximity. Darned thing was numb for a couple years, then as feeling started 
to return it was kind of weird feeling, not like my other fingers. I still 
have a fat spot on the ring finger of my right hand but I've either gotten 
used to the feeling or it's returned to as normal as anything about me is.

I think that's more than enough confesson of dumbness for one day.  Jer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andy Gladish" <anjgladish at gmail.com>
To: <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 3:04 PM
Subject: [TheForge] fingers

> Jer, I already feel like the world's biggest idiot, so have at it!
> I went out to the shop a week ago intending to get busy again after a
> for-the=record=books busy holiday season, and thought I'd begin by
> repairing a knife handle by enlarging the slot with a hand held grinder.
>
> The operation is similar to one I used to do when knocking these out by 
> the
> dozen, from surplus bandsaw blade- it's my biggest seller in the knife
> department...but first, I don't do it that way anymore (it's so quick to
> just blast a hole for the handle rivet with the OA) and also, I did it on
> unsharpened steel with a board backing. Can you imagine? Holding it down 
> on
> the table with one hand and running a grinder with the other? I'd have 
> come
> running over and hit anyone on the head with the damn grinder if I'd seen
> em doing this in my shop...
> So it caught on the wheel and whipped around.
>
> Yeah, I know- this is the kind of thing I spend all day NOT doing...but 
> one
> bad day I did everything wrong and wasn't lucky.
>
> My buddy was telling me a few days later about temporarily losing a thumb-
> he leaned over a table saw and put his hand down...."shudder"...now this
> guy is a top notch cabinetmaker with decades of experience. Why would he 
> do
> it?
>
> The angle grinder is the "table saw" of the metalworking shop, just 
> waiting
> for a chance to get ya.
>
> -- 
> Andy Gladish, Element Fe Metal Studio
> Blacksmithing and Blades
>
> Talent develops in tranquillity, character in the full current of human
> life. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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