No, I have never hurt myself while building, I didn't even drill in my finger. It makes me jeaulous of you all lucky guys!
I do remember one day the pneumatic squeezer was lying on the table, and by magic somebody pulled the trigger. It missed my finger but made a beautifull dent in my engagement ring in the form of a partial dimple. Very decorative!
Even my girlfriend loves it. Speaking of her, she did break her small toe kicking a chair during some building discussion. Can't remember we were discussing primers or nosewheel vs tailwheel :D

OK I'll be the one to ask. Men in the Netherlands wear engagement rings???:D

Yep...sort of. It is made of gold anyway. Never got to the stage of marriage, although we are together more than 28 years. 16 Years ago she asked me: "Shall we have kids together?". I am not sure, but I think I misunderstood her at that time, my reply was: "OK, let's do a kit, a 7A."

We have never regret it, both of us.

Nose
 

Yea, the finger drills are quite painful. Fortunately, I haven?t done that one for some time. My head always seems to be a fair target and lack of hair protection doesn?t help. My worst injury was when I was building my -6 way back in the day. The old kits that weren?t match drilled required a substantial floor mounted jig. The jig used two 2x6 vertical boards which held the firewall. The base of those boards were attached to the floor with Bondo. One day I was kneeling down in front of those boards, probably looking for something I dropped on the floor. As I stood up, I twisted to the right. I was a bit too close as I caught one of those boards with the edge of my nose. I heard a distinctive crack during contact. When I inspected my face in front of the bathroom mirror it was quite apparent my nose had relocated to the left side of my face. The end result was nasal reconstruction surgery. That was all and good but even today, my nose still favors the left side of my face.

Always learning here on VAF!! Kids, kits I could understand how you could misinterpret. Although the procedures to make the 2 are vastly different:D. Very nice build site and aircraft you have!! Just to keep with the topic of this post I believe my worst injury was when I first started building and was using the manual pop rivet puller. As the rivet set the tool pinched my abdomen. I bled and it was painful for about 3 days. Still haven't drilled a finger though.

Big mistake.......

Should have been a 7 ;)

The interesting thing is when you drill down the line of the nail.... under it, straight down the finger, it doesn't hurt at all.

But when you realise what you have done.....

Then you realise it needs to be withdrawn.....

:confused:

Then when you withdraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhh

Yup, It hurts :mad:

Drilling.
 

I drilled through my left hand middle fingernail....from the underside. Brand new bit, third hole on it, might have been on my third beer of the evening. Still hurt. It bled for three days. My brother in law MD provided me with sage medical advice “all bleeding stops eventually”. It was similar to all the stupid moves you’ve read before. It’s my second airplane, a moments carelessness....shoulda known....and the nine year old in me still thinks is was cool as can be!

I’m pretty happy to not have required professional medical attention yet, at least for the the airplane projects. Rugby and dog toys, that’s another story!

Mine sounds similar to Mike's, though perhaps inverted. Was match-drilling the corner of the baffle inlet ramps. Everything cleceoed together, but holding the corner from the top with the left fingertips, and drilling upwards. Bit went right up the middle of the index finger, just between the nail and the nail-bed.

Seems the delay in pain Mike described was not present when inverted...left hand went straight up, pneumatic drill hit the floor, and my boys learned that Dad spoke several languages that day.

And if you do it just right, it leaves this little perfect tubular tunnel, resulting in the fountain of goof! Sacrifice made!

Cheers,
Bob

I was drilling the fabric to the carbed airbox snout with a 90 degree air drill with a stubby #30, things slipped and I ended up with the stubby #30 through the quick of my left thumbnail. Luckily I had a pair of pliers handy to back it out as I was temporarily attached the the front of the airplane....