Hot Rods The worst incident of all my years in a shop

Thank for the picture @clem

 

After I graduated high school and while going to tech school I worked in a big truck shop . My Dad warned me about working on split rim wheels and told a couple of stories. One he told about was a kid airing up a tire with the ring towards the ground while sitting on top of the tire and wheel , the ring blew off and launched the kid onto the roof of the building.
The other story was when my Dad was interviewing a guy for a job ,and he asked him what the large scar on his forehead was from and the guy said he was hit by a split ring when it came off the wheel . I changed many of them but luckily never had a problem.

 

A guy I raced against was killed in 2016 mounting a race car tire. Prior to that I'd been pretty lax in the way I'd mounted them myself. After it happened I did some research and realized just how much I didn't know about tire safety. Zippers were a whole new concept to me at the time. Now if I see a tire sitting flat or that's been ran low I automatically assume it's junk.

 

I also put this together in 2016. Just an Amazon inflator with a gauge and bleeder. Added 10' of hose and a good clip on Chuck.

When I mount tires in my shop I lean them against the mast of my forklift and stand behind the counterweight. At the track I stick them under the trailer. Not as good as a cage but better than leaning over them when they bead.

 

When we were seniors a high school classmate had the ring come off of a split rim while inflating it. He just happened to be sitting on it at the time... bounced him off the ceiling in the Richfield station he was working at. He got REAL lucky and was back at school a couple of days later wearing a neck brace.

Worst thing I've personally dealt with was when one of my sheetmetal guys ran his left hand into a power sheetmetal roll. He lost his index finger and the tips of the middle and ring fingers... wouldn't wish that on anyone. He recovered and came back to work a couple of months later. Now he's happily retired and living overseas.

 

Worked at a small western Massachusetts machine company for 10 years. There were a couple of serious accidents over those years. One person lost most of fingers on one hand ripping Formica with a radial arm saw. Fed the material in from the wrong direction. It pulled the Formica into the blade and his hand.

Another accident involved a rather sizeable sheet of steel plate and a brand new plate dog. The person was moving the plate from a plate rack to the burn out table. The plate dog failed, dropping the plate on his left foot. He didn't loose the foot, but did wear 2 different sized shoes after that.

And there was one other that could have been worse. A lathe operator who HAD a long ponytail was rough turning a large draw roll. The surface was about the same as a cheese grater at that point. He leaned forward and the pony tail swung onto the roll. Yes it caught and pulled him into the roll. Fortunately he was able to hit the e-stop but it pulled the hair out and his face looked like he had slid down the road face first getting road rash. He had a pretty big bald spot after that as well.

All in all, bad, but no one died during the years I worked there.

 

I knew a guy years ago whose father was killed by a split rim. Decapitated.

 

Used to be a large tire shop in Stockton, Ca that had a high tin roof. There was a good sized hole in the tin where a split ring went through.

Once, on a freeway downgrade at 55 mph I was passed by a split ring going faster than me. Never saw the truck.

 

I’ve never messed with split rim wheels. Never will.
Working in the header manufacturing biz for a number of years, we did have a few industrial accidents. We had Pines tube benders that grab the end of a piece of straight tubing and pull it around a die while an internal mandrel keeps it round. Needless to say the clamp blocks are squeezed together with a lot of hydraulic pressure. The poor guy hit the close button while holding the tube and crushed four of his fingers. He lost them all.
Another fellow was extracting a very large acetylene welding bottle from the storage rack by leaning it towards him and pulling on the cap. The cap pulled off and hit him in the mouth while the bottle fell and smashed his big toe and the one next to it. His toe looked like a tomato that someone stepped on. Needless to say, we were reminded that safety shoes were required in the shop/manufacturing areas.
Sometimes, just a momentary lapse in attention or judgment can bring a whole lotta pain.

 

I have mounted many many split rims on the ranch and Fire dept over the years, with no cage. But I always use a long hose to air them up. I also careful inspected the rims. I never had one come off.
I still use a long hose to air up all tires! I have had tires blow out just setting on trailers! While the split rims are a little dangerous, so are all tires…..you never know when the tire will blow out! If you have ever seen a truck tire blow out…..you will not ever get close to one airing it up! Or at least I don’t!






Bones

 

Blazedogs
I worked on some nice old cars for Frank K. many years ago that had that happen to his brother who raced (dirt?) cars in Minnesota. Spooked me that is brother was like a 5 year old after. I've been care full after that.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys. Through the years we all have done dumb things like slid under a car with just a floor jack with no jack stands and on and on. That day when it happened ,when that rim blew off , what I saw will stayed with me till I die. This post may have been graphic for some who.ve read this. just maybe by reading it we will all be a little more careful when we work on our old cars that we all enjoy Gene in Mn

 

Where I worked as a kid had a ring stuck in the inside of the roof, directly below it was a recently fabricated cage you could place the split rims into and air them up

 

Death is always around the corner. I’ve made two people in my job that died from no jack stands.

 

Common misconception is that the pieces of blown truck tire on the hiway are retread failure.
It is not the process that goes bad it is The Zipper Tear caused either by using a carcass that had been run low pressure, or was good when capped but later on was neglected and run without proper inflation. Causing overheating. ------ I always carried my own air line.

I still, after 52 years, have pain episodes on the back of my skull from dropping a Buick on it.
( Not A Nailhead Ha Ha )

 

I used to help crew on circle track car (13-16 yrs old) Another kid was sitting on a tire / rim as he inflated it. When the tire blew, threw him to the roof of the shop, hit the roof, knocked him out, then fell onto an engine. Took about a year to get him out of the hospital and walking again.

Work related, robot had a run sensor wired into other equipment and not thru the robot controls. Yeah. Robot energized and crushed a guy's hard hat into his skull.

 

I was lucky to work in machine shops and have nothing more than a few bad cuts. We had one guy get his thumb caught in a press brake. Rescue came and there was no quick way to dismantle the press. They shot the guy up with something for pain and finished the press cycle. He managed to keep the thumb, he was in working with me while he recovered.

Another guy I knew got mixed up in a knitting mill machine, his one hand was a fright. Another took a pass over his hand with a fly cutter. Both were lucky to still have all 5.

 

Hey, I just noticed on that split rim pic I tackled a month ago, three of the lug holes have lips sticking out. It's the inner on a '65 International dually. Is the out rim supposed to clock onto these? I just put it back on so I could get to inner valve through one of the holes in the outer wheel. There are 3 holes so maybe I got lucky..

 

When I was young I worked in a large manufacturing plant that made lumber handling equipment and dry kilns. I worked in the machine shop running various pieces of metal working equipment, mostly mills.

We had a huge shear in another department that could cut 1/2” plate. The plate was supported on a bed that had spring loaded spheres that would compress flat when the plate was clamped.
One day a helper was bumping the plate up against the shear’s back stop, but had his fingers under the plate.
The shear operator thought that the helper was clear and dropped the clamp.
Four fingers on the helper’s hand were obliterated.

 

My department head, when I started teaching, was missing the ends of three fingers on one hand from just below the finger nail of his index finger to the first joint of his ring finger. He used a Jointer to take them off 1/32" at a time.

 

.When starting out as a kid, I got in the habit of putting my left hand on on the lathe chuck to slow it down when turning off, Stupid, Yes, where I served my apprenticeship, zero safety training/advise of any type, nothing but constant butt chewing over something, So........ my wedding ring, a thin gold band caught the edge of the chuck key opening, ripped the ring off my finger, did not break finger, but very sore finger/hand for weeks. You get the shit jobs starting out, had to take die cast dies/molds apart for repairs and was using a big drift holding that with a vice grip, using a big hammer. So.......... management comes over, chews my butt for being a pussy, takes the drift, holds with hand, winds up, big swing and precedes to smash his hand, he had to have surgery, casts on for months. Then when he comes back after a week or so off with his cast I get called into his office and get my butt chewed for quite a while for laughing when he hit his hand, it was a wonderful 4 year relationship with him as my boss/employer.(his Daddy's Shop) I did learn a lot there from fellow workers, all journeymen, they all took a liking to me after I laughed at the boss for smashing his hand, my thought was, Dumb Ass, what did you think was going to happen, duh. The Old Timers shared their skills and some great advice that I passed on to my employees when I had my shop. You need all your fingers, both eyes, they all have a purpose. Stop ! Think about what you're doing, no extra pay for stupidity. When I did train young men I watched them like hawk and tried to point the dangers of operating machines, 36 years in business only the one serious injury, the young man that cut his thumb off was not using the various pieces of wood at the saw for pushing material when using saw. And to repeat myself, "I'm Luckier than Smart"

 

The first mechanic job I had was a 1 man shop and I made it 2. Quite a while after I quit, the owner was under a car removing the gas tank with a drop cord (incandescent bulb) under the car. Tank had a lot of gas, was heavy, dropped onto the drop light, ignited, and after a few days in the burn unit the guy died. Was a good friend, but careless.

 

One guy I knew in another shop had a similar incident. He had to go back to the shop and fetch the severed digits in a coffee cup (with ice) and bring them to the hospital. I think they got some of the 4 back on.

 

I was hired in a small car shop in 1980 to do alignments, only thing his rack was outside waiting to be installed. So I did general stuff but knew springs and brakes well. The owner and head mechanic were trying to muscle a front coil spring in place with long pry bars. I came over with my spring compressor. I was told to mind my effing business. Moments later I hear a SPROINGGG... we run over. The boss is out cold with a big lump on his head. The head mechanic has a broken arm. I was out of that shop as soon as I was able to.

 

I’m such a scared person around wood working equipment. I use two boards, one pushing and one holding it in place, when I run something through the table saw.
I’ve a fear of that spinning blade.
Another thing to be mindful of are key chucks for lathes and drill presses, never leave them in the chuck so you can find them later.
My small Logan sits on wood, so I drilled two holes in it , one sized for lathe chuck key, the other for the key for the tail stock chuck key.

 

One of the last jobs I had while in the Air Force was working in the wheel and tire shop. We built up wheels and tires for all the planes that came through Hickam AFB in Honolulu. We had low pressure units ( below 125 lbs of air ) and high pressure units ( 125 lbs to 300 lbs of air ) . We had heavy duty tire cages for inflation. One of our favorite things to play with was the C-124 inner tubes. You have all seen them…..inflated normally, they are about 8 feet in diameter. We would put a C-124 inner tube in the inflation gage and hook up the high pressure air. Somewhere around 275 lbs of pressure, the inner tube would explode and lift the entire inflation cage about 4 feet off the ground.
Our sense of humor was not appreciated. All wheels we built up were split rims. We found that if you did not torque the bolts before inflation, the bolts became bullets.

 

You shouldn't use any machine you are afraid of. Maintain a healthy respect for the capabilities of machines, absolutely.

 

Our tax dollars at work. LOL

 

In one machine shop we had a young stoner in with us. He would leave keys in chucks and draw bar wrenches on top of the Bridgeport spindle nut. ZINNNNGGGG... as a 3/4" box wrench flew across a crowded shop.

We had another older guy, he would for some reason hold parts in another smaller vise and hold that in the mill vise. He lost more parts that way and even chewed up the small vise.

 

I knew a guy who had the tire and wheel in a cage, but was right next to it when the ring blew off. The air pressure alone knocked out his front teeth.