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Best injuries while building

Blood in the Hangar.....a cliff hanger.....

A drilled out rivet head on a drill bit makes a dandy miniature buzz saw. It’s amazing how a few cc’s of blood can make a shop look like a crime scene.

It is true: a little blood goes a long way!

This is an old thread with current implications. From one who has to sew up these unfortunate encounters with sharp and flying objects: if it is a hole that looks like you need to have it repaired, DO NOT use Super Glue! Half of the time it takes to put said hole back together involves trying to remove all of the Super Glue. And that is not much fun. Something bleeding? Wash it in cold water and apply pressure. Put some tape on it (not duct tape: hard to remove the stickum) and keep working so you don't forget where you were. ;) Then go have it looked at. You have 5-6 hours to get it repaired if it needs stitches, up to 24 hours if on the face. If it is a large hole or if your SO tells you to get to the emergency room, go now. :eek:
 
A loooong time ago, when I etched my own circuit boards, i had a tiny drill bit mounted in a dremel tool resting on my workbench.

This was in the spare bedroom of my apartment which had been repurposed as a workshop/airplane parts storage room. One morning, I needed a tool, so I walked in wearing a bathrobe and bare feet. I stepped on the power cord of the dremel, and the drill fell off the workbench and landed on my foot.

It hurt a bit, but no big deal... although I noticed that the drill bit had snapped off the tool.

Three months later, I slipped in the shower and stubbed my toe. The pain was pretty agonizing, so I eventually made my way to the hospital. After an X-Ray, the doctor mentioned that I had become an 'interesting' case. The drill bit that was embedded in my toe had broken into two pieces.

Getting the two pieces out from underneath a tendon was quite challenging and required some interesting implements. I learned my lesson, so now I wear steel-toed slippers and a fireproof bathrobe whenever I work in my shop.

Please don't ask me about the automatic center punch that I put through my finger last year...

Vern
 
I was using a combo belt/disc sander on a bench. I think I was cleaning up the end of a piece of angle that I had cut on the band saw. I swear I saw that chip the whole way, in slow motion. Off the sander, bouncing off the table, up UNDER my safety glasses and into my right eye.

Managed to drive myself to urgent care, where they flushed out my eye. Said they could see some scaring on my cornea, but have never had an issues with vision before or since.

Stay safe builders!

Laugh all you want, but after nearly the same thing happening to me (no ER visit), I modified all my safety glasses.
 

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Fun with electricity

I learned (the hard way) that when safety wiring, one should be very very certain to make sure the loose tail of the safety wire does not contact the positive battery terminal. Otherwise you can find yourself holding the business end of a hotwire cutter (or wire welder, or high amperage fuse….. choose your favorite analogy here). Fortunately no fire. But it’s safe to say I won’t ever do that again……


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Speaking of stitching up wounds

Learned this lesson the best way: vicariously.

When it comes time to stitching up some harnesses there is nothing like a very heavy duty upright sewing machine with a walking foot and a below table pin feeding mechanism.

One particular machine had a drive train powered by a massive flywheel. It took a clutch to get it going and once up to speed it would give you six or more stitches from the flywheel momentum alone....no brake so one needed to plan ahead. In learning to use and appreciate the power of this machine a student often will be given pieces of plywood over an inch thick to stitch together.

One rule was to never align your fingers in front of the stitch like you would normally do on any other machine. Reason was that it had a sharp pin that would come up from under your webbing stack, stick about 3/8" into your work from below, then pull the whole stack you were sewing toward the presser foot (and needle). That presser foot had two halves that 'walked' independently on top of your stack and smashed the layers together with about 100lbs of force just before the 4" long needle made its pass. Those feet would easily step high enough to accommodate a wayward finger.

That rule became all the more important when your stack of webbing was less than 3/8" thick as demonstrated by a buddy working alongside me one day on the rigging floor.

The first explicative burst from my workmate when the drive pin came from below through the webbing and speared his middle finger: "F%$#" He yelled aloud. Next the pin pulled his finger with the rest of the webbing stack below where the walking presser foot was coming down "SH$#-Fu@!" he said with some gusto realizing there was now no way out of what was coming next. It was a slow and inevitable build up of anticipation: "oh sh$#...OH SH#@...OH GOD NO....AUGH$#@$#@!" as the 3/16"x4" needle came down making its first stitch dragging 100lb test twisted dacron line through his fingernail and bone and then pulling the bottom knot up into the middle of his finger temporarily making him one with his work. It took about ten to fifteen seconds for the machine to make the next five stitches straight up the center of his middle finger including two joints, each stitch excruciatingly slower than the last. To his credit he kept the same steady chorus of profanity all the way through to the last stitch. Nothing anyone could do but watch and wait.

It was nice tight, tidy work that didn't bleed much. But those particular stitches had to come out again.

'Experience is that quality of knowledge you recieve just after you need it"
 
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My worst/best injury was to my SO and build partner. We were dimpling fuel tank skins using a C-dimpler. About 200 dimples in (tired) and working near the leading edge bend (opening the bend, holding down against the die), the hammer-wielder (me) struck a glancing blow that crushed a wayward finger of the holder (her). No pictures here to protect the squeamish. It required an ER visit, an ambulance transfer, an overnight in a Covid-swamped trauma center, and months of recovery. In addition to losing assistance for months, the hammer still induces PTSD responses with the SO, and it cost me a new bedroom set and a living room sofa.

Be safe out there.
 
Laugh all you want, but after nearly the same thing happening to me (no ER visit), I modified all my safety glasses.

After reading all the horror stories about grinders, I got myself a face shield. I think, OSHA requires both the safety glasses and a face shield when using grinders.
 
My worst/best injury was to my SO and build partner. We were dimpling fuel tank skins using a C-dimpler. About 200 dimples in (tired) and working near the leading edge bend (opening the bend, holding down against the die), the hammer-wielder (me) struck a glancing blow that crushed a wayward finger of the holder (her). No pictures here to protect the squeamish. It required an ER visit, an ambulance transfer, an overnight in a Covid-swamped trauma center, and months of recovery. In addition to losing assistance for months, the hammer still induces PTSD responses with the SO, and it cost me a new bedroom set and a living room sofa.

Be safe out there.

Sounds like my purchase of a DRDT-2 dimpler was a wise investment!
 
Depends on if you're writing or reading.

I'm very much enjoying this thread :)


- mark
 
Does it have to be sustained while building? I've had the usual drilled fingers, smashed fingers and cuts but the one that I'll never forget was a broken leg.
I broke my Tibia and Fibula slipping off an icey step. Ended up with a 12mm titanium pin from knee to ankle. After a couple weeks recovery, doc put me in a boot and I went back i to the factory building tanks.

Similar injury related to the RV. Upgraded the compressor, and was selling the used one.

When delivering the compressor, I was wheeling it out of the back of the truck on some motorcycle ramps......ramped slipped and the compressor pulled me out of the truck and the compressor landed on my leg.

Picture from the ER....prior to the Ti rod being installed. Ouch.
 

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Owie owie owie

Similar injury related to the RV. Upgraded the compressor, and was selling the used one.
When delivering the compressor, I was wheeling it out of the back of the truck on some motorcycle ramps......ramped slipped and the compressor pulled me out of the truck and the compressor landed on my leg. Picture from the ER....prior to the Ti rod being installed. Ouch.

WOW!! When you do something, you don't mess around!! Yeah, that would require a few rods/plates! Hopefully your recovery is going well!
 
Ti Rod

Similar injury related to the RV. Upgraded the compressor, and was selling the used one.

When delivering the compressor, I was wheeling it out of the back of the truck on some motorcycle ramps......ramped slipped and the compressor pulled me out of the truck and the compressor landed on my leg.

Picture from the ER....prior to the Ti rod being installed. Ouch.

Not the kind of group we want to join!
 
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It probably should be called worst injuries. Truth be known, there are a lot of really good safety tips in here.
 
Okay, not an RV - it was during maintenance on a 182. IA noted air escaping out the exhaust on compression test, suggested we fly it hard, see if we got lucky and burned out a chunk of carbon or lead off the valve seat. I did the flight, others went home. I tried to be careful. I did a mag check in front of the hangar. I pulled the mixture, turned off the fuel selector, pushed it into the hangar, chocked the wheels. Carefully rotated the prop 4-5 times, all seemed good. Brought the prop up to TDC on the suspect cylinder, thought I could hear air out the exhaust. Rotated prop two revolutions, leaned in a bit more, thought I could hear air. Rotated prop two more revolutions, leaned in even further, and…Bang! The cylinder fired, the prop spun 180 degrees, hit me on top of my head. I was staggered, but didn’t lose consciousness and didn’t fall. I looked down, there was blood everywhere. I walked down to the restroom, applied a lot of cold water and paper towels, drove to an urgent care center and got a half dozen stitches. Next day we got the A&P back out. He said, ‘I don’t understand how this happened. The P leads are attached…’ and he touched the P lead, and it moved. Turned out it had fatigue fractured right at the crimp, but the cable ties held it in place, either barely making contact or barely not. To this day, I wonder what the outcome would have been if the next cylinder, 120 deg away, had also fired. Certainly a lot worse than 6 stitches.
 
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27 years later still have the scar

...typical 'drilled into hand'. I mean.....we all do it eventually <grin>.
v/r,dr

 
Used some leftover carbon fiber for the canopy-skin intersection. Turns out it did not stick. While pulling it off the fuse, a 2" shard of resin-carbon shot straight thru the tip of my index finger. Missed the bone and nail. Fortunately I was able to pull it back out with no complications.

Have not used carbon fiber since. :eek:
 
Situational awareness...

...typical 'drilled into hand'. I mean.....we all do it eventually <grin>.

Early in my career as a mechanic, I was drilling two pieces of aluminum I was preparing to rivet together. I was holding the pieces together with my left hand, drilling a series of holes, and the drill went through piece one, piece two, index finger JUST South of the joint :eek::eek::eek: I also still have that scar! That got my attention and I made a pact with myself to NOT do that again. I have come close several times since then but, even with the 13,000 driven rivets in SuzieQ, due to the Don't-Do-That-Again pact, have not done it again. I will even say out loud my little mantra: 'where are your fingers?'. But I am still drilling things so......:p

Using the band saw: same mantra: 'where are your fingers.......' I have enough scars, thank you very much....!
 
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