Careless shop injury

[Jon Shelley]

For those who like to read about other people's stupid mistakes in the shop, I've got a good one.

I was finishing up my new workbench, and turned the thing right side up for the first time, when I realized I put the vice on the wrong end. Careless mistake, but I figured I'd just remove it and re-install it upside down on the other side. No way was I going to flip the whole bench again, much too heavy. I almost threw out my back turning it over the first time.

I had used a piece of 1/4" hardboard about 4" x 3" as a spacer for the vice. I was gonna put the back bolts in first loosely with the spacer in place, then slide the vice on, then tighten. So I drilled new pilot holes for the vice on the other side, and held the spacer up to match the new holes.

Here's my big, huge, boneheaded move. I had my head down there so I could see as I drilled the first bolt in half way, with the spacer in place. However, I didn't stop to clamp the spacer down(or up, I guess) to the bench, just held it in place with my thumb. Turned the drill on with the hex head chucked and a

1/2" bolt in it, and away went the piece of hardboard. Never even saw it coming. Just felt a big thump in the head and started cursing. Then I looked down and saw the blood coming down, turned out to be a big gash in the forehead.

This ones gonna leave a big scar, and I'm trying to decide whether to go for stitches, it's kind of deep. Could have been a lot worse, though. If my head was up another inch, I may have lost an eye, very scary thought.

Inexperience and carelessness are a very bad combination in the workshop. I hope someone else reads this and avoids making this stupid mistake.

Jon

[dnoyeB]

I believe the stiches will make it heal smoother. Especially if you have a good doctor. They even have that glue stuff they can use.

In all my years of automotive work I have come to believe profanity was made for the shop.

Another 20 years no one will even notice. Glad you didn't loose that eye.

[Searcher]

Well from the time of injury til the time you posted this I think your time frame for receiving stitches is over, I think you have about 6 hours not

100% sure though , If you thinks it should be stitched then by all means see a doctor. What I would do is take out the super glue clean up the wound and glue er shut!

Searcher

[tom]

jon wrote:snip< Inexperience and carelessness are a very bad combination in the workshop. >

How's that saying go? "Good judgement comes from experience, but a lot of experience comes from bad judgement." Glad you're technically okay. Those wounds bleed like a stuck pig, too. If you're sensitive about how others see you(or you see yourself), by all means, get it attended to. Tom P.S. My wife put 911 on the speed dialer. It's now #38.

[Saudade]

I've always believed that experience is a tough teacher. It gives the test first, then the lesson.

Get it checked out if you have any doubts about it. No telling what chunks of hardboard are still stuck in there.

[Richard]

Thanks for sharing your painful experience with us. All too often, we attempt to take a shortcut, and it ends up being a difficult,more costly, and painful experience, and in the long run, we would have been better off doing the procedure correctly the first time. This principle can be applied to many areas in the shop, and it is a message that we need to be reminded of very often, I'm afraid. Thanks again for taking the time to remind all of us that of this painful lesson!

[charlie b]

Ah - a dueling scar! Sabers at dawn in the woods just east of the city. Defending a maidens honor yes?

Oh that? A reminder of an encounter with a tribe of pygmy amazons - Sumatra if I recall correctly, back in '72, or was it '73?

A reminder of my fall , The south route up K-2 is really treacherous.

Almost got the '06 Darwin Award for that one. Some home handyman using plastic explosives to clean the dried concrete in his cement mixed beat me out that year.

From then on I'd always downshift a little earlier in that turn just before the tunnel at Monaco.

If I'd opened my reserve chute a second later I wouldn't be here telling you about this scar.

I'd seen lion tamers stick their head in a lion's mouth and I figured if they could do it . . .

I don't know how I lost my grip on that gator.

Came home drunk once to often and the LIttle Woman was waiting up for me - with a frying pan - or was it a cast iron skillet? My memory isn't all that great since that night - or was it early morning. No, it was after the Raider's game so it must've been around six.

At first I thought it was just a mosquito bite. Turns out it was a brown recluse spider bite. They had to cut out nearly six square inches of skin to get it all. Wasn't enough stretch in the surrounding skin to close the gap and I wasn't gonna let them do no skin grafting. I'm not that vain.

: : charlie b

[Dhakala]

All comedy is tragedy that happens to someone else.

[Jon Shelley]

Well thanks for the support, everybody. As one response mentioned, it was pretty much too late to get stitches by the time I posted, which I didn't know at the time or I would have had it checked out sooner. Good thing I don't really care too much how I look- one of the nice things about being married! :-)

Jon

[tom]

Jon wrote:Good thing I don't really care too much how I look- one of the nice things about being married! That's my excuse, too. Tom

[mac davis]

good on you, Charlie! Can you pass around whatever you're smoking? We could all use a little more humor in our lives.. *g* Mac

[mac davis]

Spoken like a man who's about to lose his wife to someone who does care...

*ducking*

Sorry, Jon.. couldn't resist that one... Mac

[ljaques]

On Wed, 01 Feb 2006 10:30:47 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, mac davis quickly quoth:

No, no, no. That was the Giant Rat of Sumatra, Charlie. Now get your mukluks out of the cellophane before they burn.

Speaking of shop injuries, early this morning, I was rearranging the recycle bin (It's just inside the house at the Shop door) when a large can lid (Wally World Wild Decaf species.) jumped out and bit me. It went in about 1/8" deep and slit all the way across the right index fingertip. I have a feeling that it will be sore for awhile. I cleaned it out and butterflied it together with some Bacitracin on it rather than spending all day and $1,000 in the ER getting a dozen stitches. Gimme 2 weeks and you'll barely see this latest dueling scar.

Mac, I think he musta picked a stray mushroom out of his garden...

[mac davis]

wow.. flash back to the 60's!!! (I experimented with drugs, but i didn't exhale)

Sorry about the finger.. hope it doesn't effect the priorities in life, like sex, beer and wood working.... At least you can say that you take great pains to recycle, anyway... Mac

[ljaques]

On Thu, 02 Feb 2006 21:14:06 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, mac davis quickly quoth:

Yeah, sure. Hey, you makin' fun of my Clintoon t-shirt?

It does. Well, I gave up alcohol 20 years ago, so that's not an issue. I haven't been able to get back into the shop to do some damned cleaning and sorting for awhile now. (I used it all last month as a production area for my NoteSHADES glare guards and the floor is still sticky.) My girlfriend has a cold so the finger incident dovetailed nicely with that. I haven't seen her in a week 'cept via email.

Literally. (Unfortunately.)

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