Angle Grinder Injury

[BrentD]

BrentD, Your story seems to be full of some bad work and safety habits. Glad you only had a few close calls, could have been much worse. Repeating the same mistake over and over is not a good idea. I'm sure all of us reading your story will learn from it so thanks for posting it, may help keep someone else from hurting or killing themselves.

Well, my hope was that others would learn from it. Learning by counter-example can be as useful as learning by example.

And yes, my methods are not for everybody, (or probably actually anybody for that matter). I do go to great lengths though to make sure I'm the only person in harms way.

 

[escavader]

Ive accidently got touched by a grinding wheel.Hurts like heck for a long time ,cause it burned out the flesh,hurts worse than being cut by a knife.Ive heard a chainsaw cut hurts worse cause it rips out the hide,havent done that...dont plan to.Thanks for posting ,but hope you have learned yourself.
ALAN

 

[whistlepig]

Well, my hope was that others would learn from it. Learning by counter-example can be as useful as learning by example.

This is a good post. Something in our tool box that can ruin the day and then some. I am glad that you shared it.

 

[etcallhome]

Could have been alot worst ! Glad to hear it wasn't
Take it easy

 

[captaincrab55]

This is a good post. Something in our tool box that can ruin the day and then some. I am glad that you shared it.

I'll second that!.. I just finished a safety course and the one thing that stood out was "Short-cuts".. Most of the accidents that we reviewed, were a result of one taking a "Short-cut"...

Thanks for sharing your bad day..

 

[AlanB]

Glad you are ok. My Nephew just took out his wrist with a 4.5" grinder. Cut the top level of tendons, ligaments or whatever. They were able to put him all back together and functioning almost 100% now a couple months later.

On my Milwaukee 8" grinder, I had a disc come off the arbor once, yes, I ALWAYS use a guard but it still flew between my legs. Looked at my buddy who was standing there with me with a stupid look on my face and after I gained my composure a bit pulled down my pants, maybe 4" down had a slightly bleeding cut on each inner thigh. Man, that was too close, had to sit down for a bit after that one.

Glad you are fine, but I think I would have stopped after the first incident.

 

[CurlyDave]

Alan beat me to it, but I was going to point out that the next time that thing bites you in might be right in your hoo-hoo.

Get a guard, and get a better way to work with it.

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. they will do that. BTDT.. I found out a wire wheel and a wire cup on an angle grinder will eat a hole in pants and skin hid off knees and legs at an alarming pace!

glad you weren't more seriously hurt.

I mostly work on antiques.. and when they say that old iron really gets in your blood.. they mean it!

soundguy

Well, I have just added a pair of pants to the needs mending pile, a band-aid to my knee and a bandage to my wrist that make it look like I tried to off myself.

Working on my dad's cattle trailer. It needs a new tongue jack, but the tongue is a strait piece of large diameter pipe and the old jack was welded on with what looks like about 5 pounds of welding rod. I have been working most of the afternoon with my HF 4.5" angle grinder (using 4" cutting discs since I bought the wrong ones last time I was at the store) and nibbling the remnants of the old jack off a piece at a time. Got to the point that most of the old jack was gone and I just needed to grind the old mounting plate flat, so I broke out the big 8" Milwaukee angle grinder that has never had a guard since I owned it. First I managed a minor knick to my knee when the big grinder caught on a large burr and kicked, then a few minutes later it caught a different burr, kicked again and tore a nice large hole in the knee of my jeans (was using my knee as an added brace to the side handle) and took a decent chunk out of my knee. Went in, scrubbed the disc fragments out with alcohol (that hurt like H***) bandaged it up and went back to work. About 5 minutes later the grinder bucks again HARD. Just barely missed my chest, but somehow kicked my left hand loose from the side handle and the cutting disk caught it right across the wrist. Fortunately not too deep. I didn't even notice at first. Just thought I twisted it or something, then it started bleeding. Just lost some hide, but the area is too long and wide for a band-aide so I've got a gause pad taped over it right now. And yep, had to scrub the disc fragments out again.

I guess the grinder may have been trying to tell me something because that last kick tore the disc I was using (last one I had) up pretty bad, so time to stop for the day.

For what it's worth several times during my work I started to do things that I knew were incredibly stupid and stopped myself thinking about all the angle grinder horror stories I've read on here.

 

[brin]

Years ago an elderly man passed away and his son who was in his early 30's went over to his house to clean out his shop and they found him dead later that day. The son had turned on his deceased Dad's bench grinder and was sharpening a lawn mower blade and a piece flew off entered his chest and punctured his chest.

We all have to pause for just a minute and check things out before we use any of these power tools and do a saftey check and not be is such a hurry. Thanks for sharing your close call with something much more serious.

 

[Egon]

Last summer when working on the trailer I used a wire brush in an angle grinder quite a bit. Pieces of wire brush are still coming to my skin surface and out of my clothes.