It might not need to be said in most cases but...dont hold the clamp nothing like a rotating piece of steel coming at you with vice grips
christmas eve, a few Years ago, I was using one of those 1 inch unibits in a cordless snap on 18 volt drill to enlarge a hole in a muffler bracket "just a touch"...well, as all lovers of the unibit know, You have to be able to see the damn thing to make sure You didn't go too far or not far enogh. gloves.check. safety mask.check. nice jacket taken off to avoid metal chips in pockets. check. loose clothing away from potential spinning sharp shit. check. made it about 1/3 of the way to where I was going so I bent over to see how many levels of the step bit I had left. the stupid right hand (You know, the one that gets us into this shit to begin with.) never takes it's finger off the trigger and keeps drilling. naturally, the bind-o-matic unibit lived up to it's name. it yanked the hefty and torquey drill out of my hand, allowed it to make 3/4 of a revolution when it stopped. it stopped when the heavy ass battery made contact with my temple going about 40 m.p.h. when I woke up, ( good stories always have a "when I woke up" in them, don't they?) I relized that I was hurting pretty bad. my wrist was wrenched pretty good, and I could feel something warm running down my face. I reached up and first, put the nasty glove in it. which, of course burned like FIRE! then I pulled the gloves off. seems the huge amounts of schmegma that had built up on them had some spice to it. pulled off the face shield (I use these kickass things that look like paintball masks) and then blood and metal shavings ran into my eye. FUCK! go into bathroom. smash shin into vice stand which was knocked over by Yours truly getting to know the pavement. (long string of expletives deleted here. You get the point. I will say that at one point, even santa clause got a good cussing.) finally stumble into the bathroom releived to discover I hadn't scalped myself. what I did have was a cut/bruise configuration on my temple. it was the battery release for the snap-on drill. kind of a triangularish deal with some grippies on it. then I looked closer. apparently, it also had a snap on logo. that's right kids. I had received corporate sponsorship. only cost me a doctors office visit to check for concussion (nope) and some antibiotic goo for the infection cause by never getting all the crap out of it when I jammed my mung glove into the wound. point being, You can be the safest kid on the block. it is worth NOTHING when Your right hand gets stupid. watch out for that thing.
slightly ot Never kick a lightweight plastic trashcan unless your sure it's empty. My truck was messing up and the company wouldn't fix it until it was broke all the way and I was pretty pissed about it because there's no excuse for being stranded out in BFE when there was a warning unheeded. anyway we had this old plastic trashcan out back by the door that was always empty and good for a kick when your mad. I was really mad and with a few quick steps I gave it a full blast... It was full to the top with fresh grass clippings. I still remember the feeling of my sneaker clad toes folding over the top of my foot then the ball of my foot bout near meeting my heel. Toes were black and yellow. wouldn't wiggle for a month. one more to ad...I was a spectator. I was helping a buddy bring a car home. it was overheating. We stopped at a rest area and I gave him a 44oz drink glass full of water from the drinking fountain. when I came back out from filling the other Timmay' was rolling in the snow plastering snow to his right ear which was red as a baboon's ass. he claimed the car just up and scorched him blowing water in his ear. Couple weeks later we were having beers one night he was explaining his scabby pizza dough ear to the bar and I figgured it out. I starting laughing so hard I couldn't stop. He was like what's so funny? I was like "Your left handed right? and the rad cap on the malibu was on the left correct?" Timmay says yup. I was like "how close to the hole was your right ear, when you heard the water you just poured into the hot motor talkin to ya?? f' you was all he could say when they got it and everyone cracked up. poor guy I can't imagine how much that hurt
Thats why I never use an electric drill unless I have NO choice. My 18V Milwaukee will drill anything and if it grabs, you let off the trigger and it STOPS DEAD. But of course, you have to let off of the trigger. Haha...
What was my favorite work in the garage Tshirt got ventilated last weekend from something quite similar. A piece of spinning angle iron just short enough to miss the post on the drill press can be nasty. It probably means I should keep my belly a bit further from the work too. <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
is the drill still on the bit? hahah man what a hassle this cast is i cant do shit even taking a piss is a production...im already in withdrawls from the shop and its not even a day old yet bunch of hamb time and organizing the shop in my future
man..I can't even read this thread...almost busted my wrist a couple of times...brings back bad memories. I now either use a drill press or have a death grip on the drill.
I love my Milwaukee magnum ½ drill, that little drill has so much torque. I hold it like I’m lighting an M80 with a short fuse.
One of the funniest things I've ever seen in person was my late father-in-law standing on the top rung of an eight foot stepladder drilling a hole in the top of a sign we were building. Using an old no name 1/2" drill with a 12" piece of gas pipe screwed into the top for a handle. It hung up of course and he couldn't get loose, watching him trying to climb up over the top of that sign as the drill went right on turning it's little heart out was hysterical. We didn't get along well before that and my laughing didn't help our relationship at all.
Yep. I feel your pain. My cheap Harbor Frieght and my old gear reduction Black & Decker have both put me in some serious hurt.
After a few encounters getting pretzeled with 1/2" elec drills, I primarily use my Snap-On 1/2" air drill. Noisey, but fairly harmless. I have an encounter from a drill press. While I was a heavy truck mech I was drilling something with no clamp/vise. The bit caught, pulled the material from my hand, and as I ducked for cover, the spindle came up while spinning and hit the little black plastic knobs on the feed lever and busted one of them off like a golfer with a driver on the tee. Unfortunately it didn't yell "FORE", and hit me in the eye brow......saw stars from that one for about 5 min. I have respect for drills, they'll knock you out and tie you up if given the chance.
The Jalopy Journal
