flion
Well Known Member
As long as I have been building, there are times I forget where I am. This is exacerbated by the fact that much of the RV-6A was built at home (initially in an apartment living room). My shop attitude improved much once the project was moved to a hangar, but I am still prone to bringing parts home, like wing ribs, to flute and deburr. Recently, I brought my rudder parts home so I could build the second rudder in the comfort of my heated garage. No problem there but last night I blundered.
I had done all my T-day preparations; food bought, pies baked, etc. With some time to sit and relax, I decided to rivet the spar into my rudder, having finished the servo wiring. Nothing dangerous there; just pulled and squeezed rivets. No cutting, drilling, or filing. Why not do it in the living room while I watched some TV? Better still, I could kick off my shoes and get comfortable.
Things went swimmingly until I stepped over the rudder to retrieve the container for my clecos. Being tired, I didn't pick up my trailing (left) foot as I stepped over, and it contacted the leading edge. Being barefoot, even though the edge was deburred, it tore through the skin but not much deeper. Actually, thanks to the smoothed edge, it was not really a cut but more of a tear that didn't penetrate ... but it hurt like the dickens and bled pretty well. The picture was taken the next morning after I had cleaned it again and before applying ointment and bandage.
The moral of the story is that anywhere you work is 'shop'. I should not have been barefoot and I can say that my mentality was not 'shop' so I was not as careful around parts and tools as I should have been. I was lucky; had I been moving faster that sheet metal, even dull, could have cut me much deeper, requiring a trip to ER for stitches possibly (at least my Tetanus shots are up to date).
I had done all my T-day preparations; food bought, pies baked, etc. With some time to sit and relax, I decided to rivet the spar into my rudder, having finished the servo wiring. Nothing dangerous there; just pulled and squeezed rivets. No cutting, drilling, or filing. Why not do it in the living room while I watched some TV? Better still, I could kick off my shoes and get comfortable.
Things went swimmingly until I stepped over the rudder to retrieve the container for my clecos. Being tired, I didn't pick up my trailing (left) foot as I stepped over, and it contacted the leading edge. Being barefoot, even though the edge was deburred, it tore through the skin but not much deeper. Actually, thanks to the smoothed edge, it was not really a cut but more of a tear that didn't penetrate ... but it hurt like the dickens and bled pretty well. The picture was taken the next morning after I had cleaned it again and before applying ointment and bandage.
The moral of the story is that anywhere you work is 'shop'. I should not have been barefoot and I can say that my mentality was not 'shop' so I was not as careful around parts and tools as I should have been. I was lucky; had I been moving faster that sheet metal, even dull, could have cut me much deeper, requiring a trip to ER for stitches possibly (at least my Tetanus shots are up to date).