Crazy/Insane Shop Accidents

Yeah--I was about to chime in with some ghastly wounds from the past, but decided instead to tiptoe away and trade the deuces for a stamp collection!
And I'm gonna get a Red Man suit and a crash helmet, too!
Howinhell does ANY car nut ever survive past age 16??

 

Parenthetical question: As I read this, I find I can calmly remember and discuss cringeworthy events of my own mechanical past, but reading about someone else's fingernail/eyeball/favorite bodypart collisions with high velocity metal starts to give me the creeps...anyone else react that way?

 

OK,I told this one on here before but it's too funny not to tell it again. :
A friend of mine bought some used PT Cruiser seats to put in his old pick up and he had them on his work bench testing the wiring to see which wire actiavted which seat postion when he put power to the yellow wire. PT Cruiser seats have air bags in them. The airbag went off with enough force that it knocked him on his ass and made his ears ring for an hour. But the best part...... his dog,Harley, was in the shop and poor Harley shit all over the floor when the bag went off. After my buddy picked himself up off the floor....yup he stepped right in it !!!
Neither him nor the dog have been "right " since.

 

So I've got the can of JASCO out and I'm stripping paint off some motorcycle parts. Of course, I'm in shorts and a short sleeved tshirt. But to my credit, I've got on sunglasses and some industrial rubber gloves. As I'm brushing on the juice, I hit a seam in the metal. The brush bends and flicks. I feel a gob of stripper hit me just under my right eye.

So what do I do? Shriek like a girl, drop the brush (onto my shoe), and wipe it off with my hand...my gloved hand...the gloved hand with stripper on it as well. Genius.

My lady comes home to find me in the kitchen with my face in the kitchen sink. Faucet flowing over my head. Knowing my propensity for "fixing" things (in her mind, I create 2 new problems for everyone 1 that I fix), she shakes her head and leaves the kitchen. I thought I could faintly hear her saying something like, "way to go, jackass..." She denies it.

Just call me Capt. Awesome.

 

Damn... I feel all that rage when I cant reach the screwdriver I need when I am laying on the floor.....

 

Two incidents come to mind.
1.A few years ago, I installed tubular control arms on my Nova subbed 38 Chevy. After installing the the control arms the sedan sat too high. Easy solution remove the lower control arm and cut the coil and reassemble. Everything was going great, car supported on jack stands and my son is operating the jack to lower the control arm. I have a bad habit of placing my right thumb on the end of the impact gun, this upcoming incident cured me of this bad habit! As I'm removing the lower ball joint nut the front spring uploads; I had thought that the floor jack would support the lower control arm. WRONG!!! The jack tips over and also the jack stands kick-out. Remember my bad habit of thumb placement, within a split second my right thumb and my impact gun are supporting all the vehicle weight. My son panics, and runs to get his Mom. Meanwhile I am pinned to the floor by the impact gun and the car. I manage to right the floor jack with my leg and work it into place and with my free hand , I jacked up the car and freed up my swollen thumb. The thumb swelled to about double and turned blacl instantly. After a trip to the ER, diagnosis was nothing broken, all I lost was the fingernail. Damn lucky!
2. Many years ago, when my wife and I were first married, we were out in the garage. She was helping disassemble a Ford nine inch third member. The pinion nut was real stubborn and I decided to loosen with my 3 lb ball peen hammer. After multiple hits, I missed my target and the hammer deflected and hit me in the knee cap. I screamed like a little girl and almost passed out. My wife takes me the ER, first of my many trips through the years. While I was in the examing room, the nurse and doctor were inquiring about the accident. Smart ass that I am, I told them that I got out of line and my wife hit me. The nurse immediately calls security. The security officer and an off duty policeman proceed to vigorously question my wife! Took awhile to straighten out the mess I created. Boy; was that a quiet ride home.

 

im sittin here laughing...I did the same damn thing

 

Man, I'm kinda scared to go out to the garage and work on anything!
This has been a good laugh gentlemen in a sick kinda way.
"WHY HAVE TATTOOS WHEN YOU CAN HAVE SCARS!" -stick
P.s. I've welded my stainless watchband to my wrist with an ammeter. (forgot to disconnect the ground) Oh the smell of burning flesh.

 

Had a few employees with less than 100% between their ears:

One guy didn't like the end of a tire iron and went in the spring shop to use the grinder, the 20 HP grinder with the big muther hunking 3x18, 24 grit rocks.
Stuck the iron vertically against the rock, the rock caught his gloved hand and jammed it down between the tire iron and the rock, jamming the tire iron between the tool rest and the rock! He was lucky it ONLY ground off two fingers and the heel of his hand.

Another guy came back from lunch and was all excited about the .357 he just bought, and wanted to show it off to everybody. Reached under the seat to pull it out and grabbed the trigger with the handle. Luckily, it went through the floor instead of up. Said he didn't know it was loaded. Duh!

Another guy had his company car quit on him. Stopped right on the railroad tracks, out in the country. So Brainiac starts walking to get some help. Yep, you guessed it. Here comes the Union Pacific coal train, runnin' about 80. Stopped it in about a mile. Next time, push the car, Numbnut!

 

Back in the 60's I was spin balancing a front tire with A Hunter On-the-Car balancer...it kinda clamped to the rim...You'd spin it to about 80 mph and clamp your hand around three little rollers on the wheel to smulate weight and stop the shaking...the bitch flew off the wheel and took about 1/2 of meat off of my left ankle..still got the scar...

Another time at a Chevy dealer worked at...I had a drive-on lift in my stall...another wrench pulled a car onto my lift..overshot it and drove off of the front into my toolbox...still got the box...I got outta the way...

 

Back in the mid 60's when I was abut 15 years old I worked in a body shop for the summer. I was in the back room where we mixed paint and was pooring some lacquer thinner from a 5 gallon can into a cup of a Binks #7 spray gun. I bumped the cup with the spout of the 5 gallon can and the cup tipped over pooring lacquer thinner all over the front of my jeans. The old timer who was watching me started belly laughing at me and I couldn't understand why. After about 30 seconds I had my jeans and underwear down around my knees and my nuts in the slop sink running cold water on them to stop the burning.

 

I used to work with this old british fabricator, Norman, in a vintage race shop. He was building an Aluminum dry sump tank for a Brabham F-2 car, once he finished it he used some Zyglo to check for leaks (fluid you put inside a tank that will come out of any pin holes, detectable with a blacklight, also Highly Flamable!), sure enough there was a pinhole leak in one of the welds, Norman, Not thinking about rinsing the tank before re-welding it struck the arc on the Tig and BOOM! 40 hours of hand bucked and formed oil tank down the drain. No one was hurt, Norman was wearing a full welding helmet and leather welding jacket but he was well shaken seeing as it was the magnatude of a good size acetelyne bomb.

 

Guess I better chime in since I was the fool that started this thread.
Early 80s,,,customer comes in with an early 60s Buick that needed a timing chain.I think it was a Wildcat.
The thing was a real beater,,V6.
A couple of bolts broke off in the block while removing timing cover,,no biggie.
It had a nylon cam sprocket,stripped,with all the teeth in the pan.Called customer,& he agreed to us taking the pan down too.I get the front of the block all cleaned up using scotch brite discs in the angle die grinder.I ended up taking the rags out of the front of the exposed 'mouth' of the oil pan,since we were going to drop it anyway.Used at least 1 can of carb spray so I could see wtf I was doing to the front of the block.Got the 2 broken bolts prepped for extraction.First one came out with no problems,,great.
Had a hard time with the second broken bolt,& decided to get the propane torch.
I started heating the area around the bolt,& WHOOOOSH.
Instant fire shot from the mouth of exposed oil pan,right into my face.Blew my hat off,most of my facial hair,& somehow sliced my right hand on the edge of the hood backing away from the inferno.
After about an hour of recovery,I resumed finishing the job.

Another time,same shop,we had a mid 70s Chevy pickup towed in that wouldn't start.No fuel pressure,,305/350.The old boy that was working on changing the fuel pump was right next to my stall.
I hear him cranking the thing over & all of a sudden KA FUCKING BOOOOM.
I looked over & saw a ton of white smoke/vapor.It was like a smoke bomb went off.Come to find out,the old fuel pumps diaphragm was leaking internally,filling the oil pan/crankcase with raw gasoline.
When it started with the new pump,it blew up.Somehow a spark or fire made it past the rings (we guessed)
Heres the great part.When it exploded,it ballooned the oil pan beyond recognition and blew BOTH valve covers off the heads.The stock 1/4 screws holding the covers on were still in the heads,& the covers' holes were just ripped right through from the heads of the screws.
The guy working on the truck drank alot of beer that night.

Ive gotta few more in my cranium that I'll think of later.
Thanks for the great stories everyone,,my side still hurts from laughing my ass off last night.And be careful,,!!
tc

 

Oh yeah.......once when grinding the mixture screw covers out of a quadrajet...dipshit me forgot to drain the gas out first, when I tilted it to get a better angle.......Kafoom! instant fireball in my hands. I won't do that shit again.

 

I was about 13 years old . We were in the basement of the house I grew up in.We were trying to start a minibike engine with an electric drill with a socket chucked in it.The engine finally starts at full speed the nut that holds the flywheel on promptly stays in the socket. The flywheel comes off and rips a large piece of my knee off. It hurt a lot. I think I swore a lot.

 

By the way we would ride the mini bike and go karts in the basement. to make it more fun, we would smear motor oil on the floor and when you would hit the oil slick you would spin out of control. we caught hell for that. its not easy to clean motor oil off of the floor when you are 12.

 

This isn't much but it is something that i hadn't heard of before.
Today i stopped by the shop and was telling my dad about reading about hsop accidents and he told me that he painted a local guys 375 horse 396 chevelle in the late 70's and when he got it finished he thought he would drive it up the road to see how the car felt. He said that when he pulled out of the lot he opened it up a bit and a pair of plier handles stuck right up threw the hood. Seems that the pliers had got left under the hood and fell into the fans path. He said till this day he doesn't try out any paint jobs.

As for me i have done plenty stupid things. Right now i currently only have one black finger nail and it is almost gone. Just 3-4 months back i had my wifes 66 mustang on the rack removing undercoating and i found that if you just barley wave the torch by the coating it loosens it up just enough to scrap off. Long story short the torch also loosens up skin very easily. While scraping the hot undercoating off the floor and making good progress i manage to run my arm right infront of the torch and instantly my skin bubbled right up. All i can say is that i haven't had that problem again. I have a big reminder that i see everyday. And it looks like it will be there a while.

Anyway, you all have had some very interesting stories.
later,
Bo

 

I worked nights at a gas station as a side job. the head mechanic liked to come in nights to rebuild VW engines when the bays were closed had a bug about waiste high on the lift setting timing etc on a new motor .I had just left the back of the car when there was a bang and a HUGE fire ball that shortened my hair ANd stained my shorts !the coil which mountedstock pointed right at the fuel filter the coil shorted and blew off the top which took out the fuel filter and lines quick work with 2 fire extinguishers saved the car and the shop.
same shop same mechanic 2 days later hes under the hood doing diagnostics on a ford LTD its hooked up to the engine analizer he's up on the car reving the thing when it jumps into reverse takes him off his feet and drops the hood on his back and then backs through the glass baydoor dragging the analizer with it the tire couldn't get a grip on the bottom metal panel so it sat there kinda hopping but couldn't get over that panel or they would have all ended up out on the main highway !

while welding in a heat treating area i was wearing a thermal set of coveralls to keep me a little cooler well with these things zipped up and snapped I cought the crotch on fire!and the damded zipper pull came off in my hand ya can't beat the fire out so there were a lot of new dance steps invented to the closest water faucet !
heres a true tip for you NEVER EVER let the little lady use fabric softener on your work clothes might as well dump gas on em! when I finaly got out of that suit we found a dryer sheet stuck to the inside of one of the legs a few weeks later Lincoln electric sent warning about fabric softeners to our shop seems that to soften the fabric it puffs up fibers making them easier to ignite also 100%cotton only for work around ignition sources like welding /grinding it will scorch but wont burn as readily as synthetic and if it does ignite it wont melt to you. now im not saying it wont burn but it does take more to ignite it

 

a few years ago i was changing the rear main seal on my jeep .i had the jeep on the lift with the oil pan off.with a 258 6cylinder you have to remove the motor mounts to remove the pan .so i had a tall jackstand under the tranny holding up the motor.i was cleaning the pan in the parts washer across the shop ,when i hear a cracking noise.i look up and see the front of my jeep pointing straight up.and boom it falls off the lift.the lift dropped about a foot .the jeep fliped off the lift and landed on its side. just missing a customers truck.only thing holding the motor in was the exaust and the tranny mount.i also had the tires off at the time .there wasnt enough room in the shop to flip it back over.so we had to drag it outside and roll it over.it ripped the front drive shaft off cause it got caught up in the lift arms.the windshield/frame was toast.while it was on its side a guy walks up and asked if it was easier to work on it that way....no shit !!!!after i got it back on its wheels we pushed it back in and started putting it back together.it started right up and i only lost 1 pan bolt...

 

Here's a good burn tip for liquids:
any clothing will hold the hot liquid right up tight against your skin, and cotton is the worst for it. This lets the liquid continue cooking you--and liquid and steam burns are the worst (as many here have written about). If you get hot liquid on you, get out of the clothes as quick as possible.


Now, anyone remember the post from a long while back about the guy who was fixing his kitchen sink in the buff, trying to make a point to his wife about something or other, and the pet cat saw the danglies and couldn't resist? I laughed so hard at that I hurt myself. It was one the HAMB, and it was about goofy tool accidents.
-Brad

 

Must have been a guy named Claude Balls......ROFLMAO

 

this isnt a shop accident per say unles your an emt.I swear this was passed out at my emt classes by the instructor as part of the proper protocal/behavior class. gentalman is presented to ER doctors with sever laceration of scrotum major burns to entire postiror of body and broken arm .man has half shaven face .the doctor asks his wife what happened
the guy was standing in front of bathroom mirror nude from taking shower he started to shave the wifes siamesse cat gets realy interested in the swinging toy and attacs it the guy jumps back from the attac and hits the steam pipe which goes through the bathroom to the apartment above and breaks it causing the back burns .Doc breaks in here and asks how he managed to break his arm?then the wife goes on to explain that she started to tell all this to the ambulace guys that had her husband strapped face down on a strecher and were carring him downstairs. she couldn't explain why but one guy started laughing then the other guy started laughing then they lost their grip on him and he went down one flight of stairs and through the wooden railing on the landing and freefals 2 floors strapped to the gurney breaking his arm some where during the fall .theres supposed to be a morel here somewhere about acting proffessional at all times on the job but we were all laughing our asses of in class anyway!

 

OK just thought of one. Didn't get hurt (very luckily) but I nearly cried. A few months back I brought home my new 2nd hand lathe. It's fairly big (3ft x 1ft bed). Made a bracket to slide into the bed to lift it with my engine crane. Worked beautifully. Lifted it out of my ute (truck) put it on the floor and cleaned it up. Went inside for dinner. Came out to set it up and lifted it back up on the crane. Had to push and shove a bit to get it into position because of the long legs on the mobile crane. The bracket slipped and down it came onto its face. That's when I nearly cried. I wanted a lathe for so long. Got one and broke it before I even used it.

Pete

 

ALWAYS WEAR SAFTEY GLASSES!

Last Christmas (actually about a week before) I thought it would be neat to use an old piece of furniture I had to make coffee table for my G/F who at the time didn't have one, and give it to her for Christmas.

I cut down this old "fishtank stand" I had had in a closet for a few years, to form the basis of a coffee table. I bought the wood, sized it up, and built a metal frame out of "L" channel to encircle the rectangular wood, bolt it to the cut down legs, paint it, and presto! It gave it a modern, yet rustic feel. I cut it all apart and welded it all together, then sanded and stained the top to a deep cherry finish. I was pretty damn proud of my furniture-making abilities.

About a day after I finished the metal work, I had an eye irritation.

It bugged me for a day or so, it felt like I had a grain of sand or a bit of sawdust was in my eye, or under my eyelid, no matter what I tried it wouldn't come free. On the second day, when my eye was constantly watering and I couldn't keep it open (nor sleep) I decided it was more than just something stuck under my eyelid...

I went to an opthomologist in town after the third day because it was bloodshot and very irritated. I couldn't stand the irritation anymore and I couldn't get to sleep because it hurt so bad and was constantly watering. It was watering every 15 minutes. It was keeping me from being able to sleep at night, or drive during the day. It was VERY irritating.

The doc looked in my eye with his tools, and said "You have a sliver of metal in your cornea that is beginning to rust." He tried to "scrape" it out by flicking it with a small tool, but couldn't get at it. He called another Doctor (an eye specialist he knew) that was 30 minutes away, and arranged for me to be there in the next half-hour. This was Dec. 22 last year.
I show up and they take me back to the "operatating room". The doc comes in, and ends up scraping away a part of my cornea to get the metal sliver out. He also GRINDS away the part of my cornea (like with a small Dremel) that had been infected with rust. I now have a divot in one of my corneas. They gave me eye drops and a fake contact lens to protect my eyeball as it healed. Apparently, your eyeballs heal faster than any part of your body, and the divot he carved out would be healed by the next day. I got a prescription for some potent eye drops and was told to come back the next day. (Dec 23rd).

I came back as prescribed, and had been taking the eye drops as prescribed. All looked ok and they took off the contact lense that was supposed to help heal my eyeball. I was told to come back the next day (Dec. 24th) for a look-see.

I came back at 8 AM on Christmas eve, (during the night it was acting like it had been, watering, etc. Everything was blurry out of that eye) and the doc was less than happy with what he saw. He wanted me to keep up the drops, and gave me a new medicine and told me to come back at 8 AM tomorrow. Christmas day. Great. (but unbelieveable for a doctor's office hours!)

I did what he said, and despite the complete lack of traffic, I made it there in record time. My eyeball was reacting well to the new drops, and I was improving according to the doc. He said "Come back in 2 days for a check up, but I think the worst is behind us now."

I was wearing safty goggles when I was cutting/welding/grinding that metal for the coffee table. The only way I can figure it made it into my eyeball, was that it must have been either on my cheek or on my finger, and I wiped my eye.

This whole experience was pure hell, both because I suffered a horrible existance for two days as my eye rejected the metal and it began to rust in my eyeball, and for the 2 days afterward where I had to be at the doctor's office, during the holidays.

Please, everyone, make sure- no matter how short your grinding or cutting time is, take the time to put on glasses or a shield. Even though I did that very same thing and somehow something got in my eye, I couldn't imagine having to go through all that again- especially if a set of saftey glasses would have potentially prevented it.

mercman

 

Its BOTH!!! Its not just the youngins' that learn from these type stories, its us OTD guys. That translates to Older Than Dirt. And yes, as my wife and daughter both say I'm stupid sometimes. And I have the scars to prove it.

 

My engine lifter fall while SBC was hanging in it... And also my eye has been drilled once to remove some metal after NOT using glasses...

 

Mercman, That's some damned GOOD ADVICE!!!! I'd like to add a wee bit to it if I could. A couple weeks ago I was about to go to a party with the family and just prior to leaving I rolled under my '47 for a quick lookie see to inspect a problem. I wasn't doing any work so like a complete moron I didn't grab my safety glasses. Well even though I didn't touch anything SOMETHING fell in my eye. I went in the house and looked but saw nothing in there. The wife couldn't either. Long story short mine hurt like hell and since unlike you I don't have a spare I went to Urgent Care right then 'cept they were closed and we ened up at the ER. I would have swore there was something in there, but no they said I scratched my cornea. They gave me some drops (1 for pain - 1 for infection). We had to go to 3 pharmacy's before one was open to get the pain drops. I couldn't drive hurt too much. All this happened as we were supposed to leave for the party. I didn't have the heart to tell the kids we weren't going so I fugured as long as I got the pian drops I'd be fine. Well those drops didn't do shit - hurt like hell for the next few days. I think they purposefully gave me an extra weak prescription - probably to teach me a well deserved lesson. We showed up at the party 3 or 4 hours late. I was in pain all night.

SO like you say DON'T ever work without them no matter how short the job- even if it's something that "couldn't possibly happen" - cause shit DOES happen!!

Here's a few thoughts about safety glasses - just like gloves - ONE SIZE does NOT fit all!!!!!! Put your safety glasses on and see how well they fit up to your face - if you can get your little finger anywhere between the glasses and your face they aren't any too good. They really should fit tight up against your face ALL AROUND. Another thing to keep in mind Safety glasses are NOT safety goggles!!!!! I had shit ground out of my eye before - BOTH of those times I had glasses on - I shoulda had goggles on instead!! SO the point is - if you want to keep out "grain of sand" sized objects you might think about using goggles and leave the glasses to keep out the bigger stuff.


My buddy was a construction worker and was grinding welds in a hallway - lotsa sparks flying all over so he had his full face shield on. Pretty safe right?? WRONG - he SPLIT HIS EYE IN HALF - LITERALLY. Seems a high speed chip/spark bounced off the inside of his face shield and got him good. Literally crakced his eye like glass! Sure it was a 1 in a million chance, but after grinding ALL DAY - I suppose he musta had generated a 100 million sparks. Get the point - we are usually pretty damn lucky and we generally never even know it.

Let's not tempt fate guys - our luck only lasts so long. We watch these idiots on TV welding in Tshirts - grinding with out eye protection - etc etc. Those are bad examples to follow unless you want share a story of you own - and trust me you don't!

Last night I was under the truck again - this time with my glasses on. I was wide eyed and looking straight up when this grease covered chunk of paint fell directly at me - it was bizzare as I actually had enough time to see fall down but not enough time to react. Blam it hit me - but wait - no pain - there it was stuck on my glasses!! Hey at least I wised up a little this time.

Recently I picked up a case of old time looking ash trays and I don't even smoke!!! I am currently hanging one up by each machine - I put my safety glasses in them! Looks cool and practical too. Glasses always an arms length away.

 

My old 61 Impala tryed to fall on me, I was under with the rear on jack stands and notice that they were slower started to TILT. So I quickly slid out from under it only to be pinned agaist the shop wall. I had to push it untill the stands were back up right.

I took a big chunk of my thumb off cutting the rood off of my 49 Dodge.

I was helping Cowoc58 adjust his lifters on his 58 Delray( had to pull the master/booster away from the firewall to get the valve cover off) in his steep ass driveway. Suddenly it threw itself into reverse and started down the driveway, Chandler jumped threw the window(has no door handles) but since the master was disconnected from the peddle all he could do was throw it into park. Not before it made it down the driveway, took a hard left down the street and was about 3/4 of the way into his neighbors yard before he got her shut down.

 

In June last year I got my first haircut in about 8 years.
I was preparing to take my FED to the Nostalgia race in Bowling Green Kentucky in it's recently aquired 24' box.
I had a big maroon 76 Cadillac Sedan Deville with a flat bar hitch on it.
Well I had learned my lesson about bar hitches about 4 years earlier when one broke pulling a light open trailer and sent trailer (race car and all) across the highway right in front of a local cop in Peculiar Mo. Needless to say he was more than a little pissed and promptly jumped my ass and was asking where my safety chains were yada yada yada until I pointed out that the hitch had broken in front of the safety chain holder and the ball and chains and all were still attached to the trailer. LMAO
But I digress.
In my infinite wisdom I decided to install a reciever style hitch on my Caddy for the trip to B.G.K. Now keep in mind I have been a long haired mechanic by trade for many many moons without any incidents regarding hair length other than the ocassional hassle with hardcore rednecks.
To make a long story short,3 hours later after pinning my self to the floor with the creeper 3 times(I'm sure all you longhairs out there can relate to this) and setting my hair on fire not once but twice,I decided it was time for a haircut and walked in the house and picked up a pair of scissors and whacked it off right at the pony tail holder.
I'm still wearing it pretty short today but I guess the pain must be begining to fade because I'm thinkin' about lettin' it grow again.
Oh well,no brains no pain,I always say .LOL
T.OUT

 

Is this why your name is buckeye_01 ??