Let's hear about your shop accidents

Forklift accident:

This is no joke......true story.

I used to work at a bottling company for Dr. Pepper and 7 up. It was crap job, but I needed work at the time. They gave me a $1.00 raise if I was forklift certified, so I watched the 1/2 hour long video and took the 10 minute drive test and was certified.

Months went by and I never needed to drive the forklift, until one day, the regular guys called in sick. My boss had be go into the huge indoor freezer to get a pallet of 7 up plus mix. (55 gallon drums on a pallet) I went into the freezer with the forklift, grabbed the pallet and lifted it up over the lift and backed out.

The pallet was too high and didn't clear the door. It tore down the entire cooler. $10,000 of damage in a matter of seconds. Needless to say I was fired on the spot. It's probably a good thing because I started working at Trick Tools right after that and it turned into a career. I never would have worked here at Baileigh. If that never had happened, who knows, I might still be there.....(it sucked)
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Did it look anything like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ZmOgMlyRE&feature=related

 

Looks like there will be overtime for awhile to clean the mess up!!

 

My personel accident: I was doing some wiring on my car and was using an exacto knife to cut the heat shrink. Well, I layed it on the work bench with the point sticking out. Later that day I went to move around the front of the car. Space in my garage is pretty tight so I had to squeeze between the front of my car and my work bench.(you already know where this is going) Anyway I impaled the entire lenght of a #11 exacto blade into my left ass cheek. OUCH!!! It bled like hell and the wife was very impressed when I showed her (I couldn't resist) I'm glad I wasn't facing the other way. I could have damaged something important!!

 

Wow, someone lost a job.

 

they tell me i could write a book on accidents................

like the time i ran a spot weld cutter into my forearm, or the time i burnt my eyebrows and mustash off with the used oil burner, or the other time i cinged a lot i mean a lot of hair off with the useoil burner. or the time when i was a kid and i burnt 5 acers and the mini bike i took from my brother.

theres a shit pot more but i dont keep track anymore.

i'll ask grant to chime in, for some reason he's keeping track.

johnny

 

I do plumbing, HVAC & piping. This happened over 20 years ago.
Installing a 2" air line on a scissor lift 27 ft in the air. I'm setting hangers & stabbing pipe & go to move the lift (all the way up of course) I have to cross a small ramp where there's a opening for a roll-up door. I'm up at maybe 22 ft to floor of lift- probably 200 ft of pipe up there with me between C clamps on the safety rails. Can we say top heavy? I'm moving at pretty good clip parallel to exterior wall about 6 ft away & hit the ramp. Lift pitches over & hits the wall, then goes the other way & I ride the lift all the way to floor. Someone was watching over me that day as all I had was a pulled ankle ligiment & severe bruising. I can still remember hitting the floor still in the basket laying on it's side & watching 200 ft of 2" sch 40 black falling at me in slo motion!
I still do lift work to this day but it takes about 4 hours the 1st day before the jitters go away.

 

o.m.g....all that vodka!!!

 

Ugh... shop accidents...

How about the time I dropped a nut I was wire wheeling with my grinder and my instant reaction was to try and catch it. Nothing like getting your nail and skin wire wheeled off as it gets stuck in the grinder.

Or just last month I was under the MGB GT and though to myself... "i'm going to position my hand this way so I don't wack it on that crossmember..." What do I do? Wack the shit out of it on the stud holding the clutch slave cylinder on. DAMMIT... i'm looking at my bruised thumbnail right now...

Or what about farm accidents?

I was laying out about 300 feet of barbed wire fence when the other end slipped off the pole I had it on. Ever been chased and ran over by fresh barb wire? Of course dad was laughin' his ass off...

How about when I was 17 and just bought a 600 dollar '66 Mustang with a 351 in it? I thought it would be funny to chase a buddy of mine down the concrete driveway with the front two brakes sitting on those wheel dollies... needless to say it hit some gravel and the car fell off one of the dollies crushing my foot with the door sill. Yeah, I didn't even have both feet in the car and had the door open. dumbass...

Too many more STUPID stories...

 

You're crazy if you think Im gonna admit to the stuff that's caught on fire or blown up at my... what was the question?

 

How about the time I nearly took my thumb off when I missed the punch with the 2 pound hammer.

Or the time I decided to be a cowboy and do the ol back the car out of the shop with my left leg dragging out the open door trick. Too bad the door caught the edge of the shop door and bent it back to the front quarter... oops...

Or the time I tried to fuel up a bus after a 16 hour shift and put diesel into the sand hopper. To make matters worse I spilled the fuel all over myself and ended up with mild burns on my legs.

Or my brother jumping to start a 32 Hot Rod on the drive up hoist only to find out it did not have a lock out switch. It fired up in gear, hirtled straight back and took out the left rear and his 16 ft door. (Big oops)

I've fallen off the drive-up hoist way too many times for it not to be considered stupid

Just the other day, I was grinding like a fiend with the "big" grinder, which, as we all know is a whole lot more fun than the small grinder... only to discover I had forgotten to change out of my nylon track pants. Not only did I set myself on fire but I melted the pants to my leg.

Here's the big one. I'm 16 and driving parts for a Ford dealer. I'm sent to pick up the carrier for a semi sized truck. (it's big). When I get there it's not on a pallet and the gusy are not motivated to put it on one. Young and stupid, I figure I only need to go a few blocks what could happen ??? *(Famous last words) 2 blocks out I get cut off and hit the brakes. "oh crap!!!" The center section, still moving at 35 mph, caves in the entire back of the truck cab and knocks the bench seat off it's rails. When I get to where I'm supposed to go I find out it's the wrong part. The right part is still back at the original shop and you guessed it, it's strapped down on a pallet. The parts m,anger actually got a good laugh out of it. Not only did I keep my job but I got a slap on the back and new truck.

 

My brother in law was using a drill press to put some holes in the gas tank straps for my sister's race car. The strap bound on the drill bit, sucking his thumb in as it wrapped around the whole spinning mess. My sister and I spent a few hours cleaning blood and skin off the wall of the shop while the Dr's tried to put as much of his thumb back together as they could. Yuck.

 

This is the bottom ten inches of a plastic 55 gallon barrel that serves as the dog, cat and what ever else needs a drink watering dish and has for about ten years. It also works fantastic for putting out flaming tennis shoes and pant legs while you are welding or cutting.


In the mid 70's I worked for W.H. Thomas in Waco with his son in law JD Fikes who a few guys from Texas on here know well. Anyhow one day I missed my pickle fork with a 2-1/2 lb machinists hammer and smashed the crap out of my right thumb. Tommy handed JD a handful of cash and told him to take me to the emergency room. On the way to the hospital he took a detour to show me a shoebox Ford sitting in someone's driveway along the way. That episode took four stitches.

Over the pat 40 years I have determined that all eye doctors who work on foreign objects in errant mechanic eyes have huge fingers and terrible breath.

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This was probably 3-4 years ago. I had just pulled the 318 out of a truck I was about to junk,and had it sitting on a borrowed engine stand. After I got the garage tidied up,I was moving the engine & stand into the area where I wanted it to sit. I was pulling on it from the left front to move it (probably a mistake in retrospect),and the whole engine and stand went tipping towards me. i tried to jump back and made it most of the way but the engine sort of bounced off my thigh and and exhaust stud grabbed the front of my shorts on one side and ripped the front off,before hitting the ground. It was really hot that day and I was a bit dehydrated and I thought i was gonna puke!!

Anyway,the engine stand was an older 3-wheeled one and needless to say i don't ask to borrow it anymore. My thigh was purple for about a week or so!!

 

In college shop class a friend caught his long hair in the metal lathe. I'm sure he still wears a butch. My worse one is burying a skill saw 3" into my thigh.

 

Working on an offshore deepwater drilling rig, I have been witness to a few accidents. The most memorable one was when we were running anchors out on a new location about a year ago. We (the roughneck crew) were standing on the platform just below the anchor winch while they were paying out the last of the chain.

I was standing just a few feet away waiting to make the switch from chain to wire rope when the kinter link seperated down in the chain locker.. in about 1.5 seconds I saw about 300k lbs of 3 1/4" chain fly past me on its way to the bottom of the gulf (4,400 ft depth IIRC)

The chain links are 3 1/4" diameter, about 20" long and weigh about 140 lbs each.. just to put things in perspective.

 

It was 1981, had a ford pinto that would not start. Popped the hood, looked around and for some reason though jumping the selinoid would be a great idea.....it started right up in reverse, went right out the driveway and across the street into my buddies moms house......I was 18

 

Have a couple.......My boss rolled a customers Dodge Viper on a road test......
I was reversing an old shitbox car out the shop, didn't know it had a blown brake line....needless to say I missed a light poll by 6 inches and hopped a curb.

 

These posts sparked a memory of my best friend's dad's story.

My friend's dad worked at Ford back in the 60's when the 289s were first coming out. He had something to do with stamping out crankshafts. Well one of the huge hammers quit working so they called over an inspector/maintenance man. The inspector stuck his head in there just as the thing let loose. It was hot and smashed his head into the shape of a 289 crank and shot my friends dad with "stuff". When the hammer was pulled back up he said it basically cooked what was left of the guy in the shape of the crank. The coroner had to peel him out of the mold with a big spoon.

To this day he never forgets that, and he is a SAFETY FREAK.

Yeesh...

 

Years ago when I worked for a large freight company I was working in a trailer on a very cold night.
I keep hearing this yelling. It wasn't really a big deal, we all cursed and yelled a lot on the dock to pass the time.
I finally made it out it sounded like, "Help!"
I stopped what I was doing and ran out and heard it again, "Help me."
I ran down the dock and found a jackass pinned in a trailer by a fork lift. He had jumped off of it, left it in gear and did not pull the E brake.
It rolled forward pinning his legs against the trailer wall.
He would push it back and it would surge forward on to him again.
After I backed the fork lift up I told him I thought I heard somthing but I was not sure.
He was so pissed he started cursing me.
I walked the dock telling him what a f-ing dumbass he was.
We never spoke after that night and it was fine with me.

Also had a guy with one eye had no depth perception I stayed away from him too.

 

Never let the customer sit in the car when you're touching anything under the hood.

 

Hahaha....that's awesome...

 

O.K., I'm a Registered Radiologic Technologist (X-ray Tech). Here's the most costly "I" was involved with: Hyperthermia (severe fever-seizures) patient from the E.R., and we're taking him to C.A.T. Scan for me to do a head/brain C.T. Patient's intubated, connected to a hypo/hyper thermia unit (3X3X4 foot machine to heat up/or cool down a patient; probe in the rectum to record/regulate patient temperature). Anyway, a half dozen nurses, techs, and me are taking the patient to the C.A.T. scanner, and an agency nurse is following with the hypo/hyper thermia machine. We cross the hallway into C.A.T. and the agency nurse is nowhere to be seen. Oh-oh I thought. The M.R.I. suite door was open when we went by, as housekeeping was cleaning the room. Sure enough, the agency nurse was'nt paying much attention, and went into the M.R.I. suite, right into the scan room, and got within about 3 feet of the M.R.I. machine when the magnetic force pulled the whole hypo/hyper thermia machine away from him! Three of us tried to move the thing stuck in the M.R.I. scanner, could'nt budge it. Wasted the hypo/hyper thermia machine, caved in the M.R.I. scanner facia, the magnet had to be quenched to get the thing out of the scanner (real expensive), and the M.R.I. scanner was down for 4 days. When it was back online, it was 3 weeks before a new facia could be ordered/installed. $39,000.00 damage to the M.R.I. facia itself, not to mention the downtime, the hypo/hyper thermia unit, the policy changes that were enacted afterward, and I NEVER saw that agency nurse again (?). I actually have two photos we took that night. At the time of the incident, everything was hush-hush; but it sure was funny. That's only one story of a long list of "unbelievables". Butch/56sedandelivery. My "shop" is a little different.

 

I drove a wrecked Harley truck up on my rollback about a month ago, driver side wiped out real good & door don't close. Stuck it in park, (I thought) and hopped out to chain it down. Damn thing took off backwards, knocked me down, I get up and take off after it before it hits a brand new van. Just grabbed steering wheel in time to miss van and T-bone a Dakota. I jump in and pull it forward real quick, look around, nobody saw it! Then I notice the blood soaking through my sleeve. Lucky for me the Dakota was already totaled as well. Only real damage was to me and my pride! Still fuck'n soar from it.

 

I've posted this before, not automotive related really. I accidently shot myself in the right lower calf....I shoot .22 target pistols, low velocity loads (Eley)....luckily it hit the bone before it went through. I can tell you, it hurts like hell. I drove myself to the hospital, so that makes it good enough to post, in my view.

 

I was in my 20's and had a 48 Willys-Overland 2WD station wagon into which I had swapped a 283 Chevy, cast iron Powerglide and a 10 bolt Camaro rear. This was my DD.

The brake light switch was teed into the master, and the master was underneath the floorboards. The brake lights were not working and I traced the problem back to a bad connection where the wire went into the bullet connector that plugged into the switch.

Soooooo...............I figured I'd just resolder that connection in place. I did not even jack up the car, just poked my head and shoulders underneath and went to resoldering that connection, working upside-down. Of course, a huge blob of molten solder drips down and lands squarely on my eyeball, where it sizzled for a few moments until it solidified. Luckily it only hit the sclera and not the cornea.

Damn, that hurt.

 

Three Thanksgivings ago, I got into an argument with my Bridgeport.

The reasons for the accident were many (all stupid, and all of my own making), but suffice to say that when a tool gets hung in a piece of sheet metal and yanks it out of the vise, the entire assembly becomes a great whirly gig of doom.

It took a couple of good bites out of me, and then proceeded to try and wind me up in the spindle.

Seeing the handwriting on the wall rather quickly, I hunkered down (under the plane of the whirly gig of doom) and attempted to make either my shirt or the machine spindle give up before I got strangled into unconsciousness.

Luckily, the shirt gave up just enough that I could breathe, and then the spindle stalled out. I was able to hold the thing stalled long enough for my old man to bound across the shop and kill the power.

I learned a few valuable lessons that day:

1) Don't rush. I already knew this, but needed a refresher apparently.

2) It is possible to stall a 3 HP motor using only a t-shirt and the muscles of your upper body, so long as you are fat enough or you have a good enough purchase on the machine table to anchor yourself down (I had both going for me, fortunately).

3) Don't wear anything into the shop that is too shout to be ripped off your body. If that shirt had been one of those button up canvas Carhartt deals, I'd probably have gotten mangled up real good.

4) If you are going to have chunks of your gullet kinetically removed, hope that the nerves that serve that area go with it. This whole deal would have been a great deal more painful if all of mine were still working. As it happened, the only place that is still numb, is where the bits went missing.

5) Doctors work cheaper than plumbers. Fifteen (15) stitches cost ~$750 to have installed, and took about three hours. My buddy is a plumber. When he came and put in a new water heater for me, it took three hours and cost $1,700. The water heater sprang a leak two weeks after it was installed (pinhole in the middle of an elbow, not his fault). My gullet has not sprang a leak in three years.

6) It is very neat to watch a doctor tie sutures with forceps. It is neater still if you cannot properly feel the installation of said sutures.

7) After being disinfected prior to getting reassembled, I now know what a Buick feels like while it's being washed or waxed.

8) Microfiber towels absorb blood like a mofo. They work good as a makeshift dressing too, but you gotta make sure you don't let the blood on them dry and stick to the wound. Open wounds with microfiber fuzz in them suck.

The moral of the story is to keep your head out of your ass while you're in the shop.

 

I've had many......this was cool looking back, but not at the time. I was a mechanic for 13 years, I have since moved on to a Letterologist. All my life I always heard of the car that started so good, just turn the key and off you go...........I never actually came across any car that started at the touch of the key, till my 55 chevy.I should have known better, I was like 48-50 years old, maybe I was lazy...I forget why I did this, I wanted to check to see if it was in gear, rather than sitting in and check the shifter, I just tap the key, I mean just a bump, not spinning it over..... well, off it went, into my trailer, pushed it into my scaffold, bent that all up, into my back storage room, took out the corner. The 55 broke a headlight, new grill and trim piece and put a hole in the fairly new radiator....... being PISSED doesn't even come close. The one and only car I ever saw that ran at the tap of the key.

 

Then there was the time I worked as a prefab cottage framer building walls on a huge jig using some of the first generation nail guns. At a point in the process you crawl across the wall nailing the plywood to the framework. The owner of the company decided to help us one day and promptly nailed his free hand to the plywood. We cut him out and took him to the hospital. A week later he does it again. Nailing his cast and hand to the wall he was working on. Once again we cut him out and took him in. It was almost a year before we saw him in the shop trying to help.

 

I was in my early 20's working in a local station, working on a friends 69 or 70 vette. Was using a screw jack for something.... don't remember what, well bullshitting with the guy as I let the vette down, the boss starts screaming STOP...... I finally did...... the screw jack went through the bottom of what would be a trunk area in a reg car. To say my friend wasn't happy would be an understatement.

Same shop..... my car...66 nova SS.....350 4speed, in the early 70's....decent running street car. I exploded the tranny, pulled it out, left the clutch and all untouched. pushed the car outside, waiting for parts for the tranny. Next day I bring it in the bay, put it up in the air, I tried and tried and tried to get the tranny back in but wouldn't go. I never checked the clutch, I never touched it, I insisted this wasgoing in. I kept at it till my arms wre shot and so was my patience, across the shop went the tranny on the fly. I go outside to cool off, my boss suggests I check the clutch....I argued I didn't touch it and nobody else should have. I take a look, sure enough the disk fell. How, I don't know, I line it up with a spare input shaft, go get the tranny from across the shop, 2 broken ears on the case. Perfect end to a wonderful day. It did eventually get together.