What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

On Sep 8, 4:52 pm, Ken wrote:
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

A very predictable accident:
Elderly man has free-standing scaffolding 10 feet high. Puts ladder on
scaffolding plank and leans it on the side of a house and climbs
ladder.
The base of the ladder pushes the scaffolding sideways. Elderly man
falls on to pile of bricks on ground where he put them.
He survived OK.

On Sep 8, 12:52?am, Ken wrote:
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

my old neighbor wanted to put in a new bathroom floor, finding loose
boards he accidently rain a nail thru a water line. bringing down his
kitchen cieling

so he decided car repairs would be better, removed the air cleaner,
gunned the engine, metal air cleaner assembly fell into fan went thru
radiator new fan, radiator, and air cleaner assembly his wife
decided he shouldnt fix anything.

he actually was relieved.

Serious, sobering stuff...

http://www.amgron.clara.net/circular.../accidents.htm

Ken kirjoitti:
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.


I have heard this one from a man who saw this happen in his yard in the
60´s.

A man had a homemade circle saw, (diam about 1,5 meters) with a
hydraulic table to move the log back and forth. He and his son run a
service to cut the timber of the customer so the machine was movable.

The father was operating the machine and the son was at the other end
piling up the ready cut timber.

The hydraulic table got stuck because of a piece of wood. The father
leaned over the table to remove the jammed piece. His hand touched the
lever switch that operated the table move. He fell over the sawtable,
was driven to the blade and was cut in two pieces. The bodypieces of
the father fell in front of the son who was shocked. An ampulance came
to pick up the son. The crew of the ambulance were also shocked and were
unable to do anything to the body of the father so my friend had to
collect the bodypieces in a plastic bag. He had been in WWII in the
russian front and seen all.

Later in the investigation was foud that the lockspring of the operating
lever had been broken and missing.

On Sat, 8 Sep 2007 04:52:53 UTC, Ken wrote:

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

Let's guess...you're researching for another of these dumbed-down,
sensationalist TV programmes?

--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
poster, and specifically may not be published in, or used by
http://www.diybanter.com

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:52:53 -0700, Ken
wrote:

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

The guy who owned the house two doors over from me was going to paint
his house himself. He first decided to do a bang up A-number one job
of stripping the old paint by blistering it with a torch and scrapping
it to the bare wood.

So I am sitting in my den with the windows open when this big cloud of
thick smoke blows past, I go "wtf was that?", and step outside to
see............ta da.......he has set his house on fire and the roof
is fully engulfed.
Dave

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:52:53 -0700, Ken
wrote:

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.


Handyman used an aluminum ladder and was electrocuted. The city had
to shut down a portion of the city's electricity to retrieve the body.
It was a frightening site. I buy wooden or fiberglass ladders.

Ken wrote

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman
or handywoman accidents that you've experienced so far
(or someone you know, or saw it happen to, got to experience)
and please elaborate on what unfortunately went wrong.

This has just happened in my town, to people known to me.

The first one was a classic agricultural accident, the individual
was wearing a coat that got caught in the tractor PTO shaft.
By himself, not much left except mangled remains.

Then at the wake, another was silly enough to climb the
TV tower because the antenna wasnt working properly.
The tower collapsed and he was killed in the process.

"Ken" wrote in message
oups.com...
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

This happened to my boss some years ago ...

Ladder up against the house; leaned over too far and ladder slid; he fell.

Then the worst part ... he landed on a picket fence and drove a picket up
through his chin and out his mouth. He survived and was back at work
in a week or two, though his face looked pretty gruesome for quite awhile.

Ken wrote:
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.


Not letting the router spin down before moving it smartly into my jeans
and JUST missing my femoral artery.


Lighting bonfire with petrol, from a distance if 15 feet on a hot still
day, intending to throw the ball of lit paper at the fire from a sfae
distance.

Petrol vapour travels a long way at ground level.

My then Irish neighbour who called the fire brigade and the ambulance,
claimed that HE knew of a man who picked up a small rotary lawnmower by
the cutting deck in order to use it as a hedge trimmer.. ;-)

Rod Speed wrote:
Ken wrote


What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman
or handywoman accidents that you've experienced so far
(or someone you know, or saw it happen to, got to experience)
and please elaborate on what unfortunately went wrong.


This has just happened in my town, to people known to me.

The first one was a classic agricultural accident, the individual
was wearing a coat that got caught in the tractor PTO shaft.
By himself, not much left except mangled remains.

I have a cousin who caught a sleeve on a corn (husker?) when he was
about 7. It broke his arm. His father stopped the wheel with one hand
while he flipped the kid over with the other in order to free him. My
cousin was climbing on the roof of the barn the next day.

I have a friend whose father amputated three fingers with a table saw.
He had retired not long before and had taken up a new hobby.

I worked as an occupational health nurse for years, and the most
memorable injuries I know of came from punch presses, waste paper baler,
lathes. At each place of employment, there was one particular department
that I never wanted to hear from. At a printing plant, a pressman was
target of a ruptured line that supplied ink to the press...it would have
to be the red ink ) Once I got past the red stuff splattered all over
him, and my brain registered that he was smiling I was ok. One of the
most frightening was when an electrical panel exploded in someone's
face. The electrician working on it had minor burns, but burns are
something I don't ever want to see. Another time, three guys working on
a pressurized steam pipe made a rapid evacuation of the area when the
pipe broke. All I had to do was put ice bags on the sore spots they
landed on when they jumped six feet to get away from it. Then there
were two guys in maintenance clearing out a culvert who encountered a
skunk .. they weren't hurt, but I sent them shopping for tomato juice to
bathe in. They said it worked fine )

My closest call was when I was painting a kitchen. I sprayed shellac
primer on the ceiling and the room was thick with mist when I remembered
that I had not shut off the pilot light for the oven. I thought for
about 1/10 sec. about running outside but the family was sleeping so I
got down and put out the pilot real quick. In the same project, I blew
off the blade of a utility knife while trimming wallpaper around an
elec. switch...was wearing rubber gloves, so no harm done to me.

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:52:53 -0700, Ken
wrote:

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.


A guy I used to work with was cutting wood with a chain saw. The saw
hit a knot in the wood and kicked back and got him in the face. He
survived but no amount of plastic surgery will help.

I posted a question earlier about the feasibility of using two step
ladders and a board for scaffolding... I think I've changed my mind
about trying that

"al" wrote in message
ups.com...
I posted a question earlier about the feasibility of using two step
ladders and a board for scaffolding... I think I've changed my mind
about trying that

I missed your question, but I've done that many times. I don't recommend it
unless you're really careful. On most surfaces you'll still want to either:
1) nail a brace to the wall you're working on, C-clamped or whatever to one
or both of the stepladders; or 2) prop the stepladders with a long 2 x 4
from behind. I put a stake in the ground, nail the 2 x 4 to it, and clamp
the 2 x 4 to the stepladder. I use two braces, one to each stepladder.

Using stepladders that way has long been a way to set up a low scaffold, but
you'd better have good balance and not try to get too high with it. It does
work, however. Using the braces slows the whole process down. It's a
question of how you feel about broken bones.

I've also built homemade scaffolds and it's a real PITA, in my opinion. I
use 2 x 4s for the verticals and 1" electrical conduit for diagonals. Never
count on those diagonals to handle compressive loads; use two, crossbraced,
so the load is always in tension.

The slickest solution I've used is two regular ladders with ladder hooks for
a scaffold plank. I'll go up about ten feet with that, but no higher. Again,
you want to nail a brace to the wall. Use a short plank or else make sure
you're using genuine scaffold plank, which is undressed and thicker than
framing planks.

--
Ed Huntress

"JP Sipponen" wrote in message
news
Ken kirjoitti:
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

A guy a few blocks over was painting the outside of his house from a ladder.
The ladder fell over while he was on it and he fell into a window. In the
process he nearly completely severed both arms... Moral of that story is
don't set up your ladder on uneven ground without a means to steadily level
it.

Years ago my wife's uncle was building his home. He was using a circular saw
to cut up a piece of plywood supported on saw horses. His young son was
playing and went under the plywood... took the saw blade in the head. Cut
through skull... fortunately not deeply. Left him with relatively minor
brain damage. Moral of that story is keep the kids away from you while you
are working.

John

Bob Eager wrote:

Let's guess...you're researching for another of these dumbed-down,
sensationalist TV programmes?


Hmmm... Researcher of some kind ;-)

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=author%3Alavrulr111%40hotmail.com

Good topic, but which ones are the real DIY stories? ;-)

However, for those who haven't seen it before we must nonetheless
highlight the expanding foam story in this crosspost.

http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/humour.html#foam

--
Adrian C

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

My then Irish neighbour who called the fire brigade and the ambulance,
claimed that HE knew of a man who picked up a small rotary lawnmower by
the cutting deck in order to use it as a hedge trimmer.. ;-)

When I was in school in the early 80's, I had a friend who had a
job entering consumer product lawsuits into a database that was
to be used as part of a research project. It was amazing reading
some of these lawsuit summaries. Using a lawnmower as a hedge
trimmer is actually a fairly common thing. A few beers beforehand
always seems to make it look like a better idea. In the case
that I read, the person got hurt badly. He sued the lawnmower
manufacture and won some big money. The court ruled that the
company was at fault because they didn't have any labels on the
mower or any text in the owners manual that specifically said
to not do that. That was said as if someone dumb enough to do
such a thing would either read the manual or take the advice
of a warning label.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

In article .com,
Ken wrote:

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

Last weekend I was setting a tetherball post in an old tire. I was
carrying four ninety pound bags of concrete stacked on top of one
another, so I couldn't see in front of me very well. I tripped over my
wife, who was sunbathing on the deck. She got so mad about being kicked
in the ribs that she went inside and slammed the door.

I lost my balance and fell face first into the kids' wading pool. The
four bags of concrete split open, and I lost consciousness as my head
slammed into the uppermost bag after it crashed into the pool. When I
came to, the concrete had absorbed the pool water and hardened around my
head. I couldn't see and I could barely breathe.

I had heard that you can cut relatively fresh concrete with a chainsaw
(the city crews around here do that to make the expansion joints in the
sidewalks) so I groped my way to the garage and got the chainsaw and
fired it up. It was slow-going but after about a half hour I managed to
get one side of my head freed up. Unfortunately I cut off my ear on that
side.

By that time I was getting impatient and frustrated and the chain was
dull, so I stumbled inside to get my shotgun. I fired four rounds at my
head. That seemed to be working pretty well, but then I blew out six
teeth and an eyeball.

Well, a man's got to know his limitations. I finally yelled out to my
wife that I really needed some help and she could finish being mad at me
later.

She is pretty intelligent and resourceful, so after just a few minutes
of pondering, she got out the electric drill and drilled a big hole
through the concrete. The thing grabbed and went about two inches into
my neck, which caused me to experience some discomfort.

Then she disconnected the flex gas line from the stove and jammed it
into the hole. Of course she told me to hold my breath so I wouldn't get
killed. Always thinking of safety and kindness, that one. After my
concrete head was filled up with gas, she jammed a wine cork into the
hole to keep it from escaping.

Then she handed me a bic lighter and told me to wait til she was in the
other room before I used it to light the gas. The concrete blew to
pieces! Thank god that's over. I did lose my remaining eardrum from the
explosion, and a few of the windows in the room were broken by the
flying bits of concrete.

I've had some seizures this last week but I'm not sure whether they're
related. Anyway, I guess it's back to the store for more concrete now.
I'm glad nothing real serious happened to me.

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

#1
Neighbor was painting slipped off the ladder, fell about 10 feet, hit his
hips on a clothes dryer bounced off then hit almost head first onto a
concrete floor. He's back on his feet today but it took a while.

#2
Uncle was cutting plywood with a circular saw using his hand to support the
plywood. Lost his pinky.

#3
Brother-in-law using radial arm saw to cut a too short board. Took off tip
of thumb.
3a Same BiL was repairing barn roof. Using chainsaw to trim overhang. .
..while standing with one foot on roof, one foot on over hang and chainsaw
cutting between his legs. Think 3 Stooges. Nothing but bruised pride.

John A. Weeks III wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

My then Irish neighbour who called the fire brigade and the ambulance,
claimed that HE knew of a man who picked up a small rotary lawnmower by
the cutting deck in order to use it as a hedge trimmer.. ;-)

When I was in school in the early 80's, I had a friend who had a
job entering consumer product lawsuits into a database that was
to be used as part of a research project.

I remeber protyping a medical databaase with test data.

I chose random numbers.

Imagine my surprise when one of my test injuries was a 'sprain' to area
'gentials' :-)

Hired a college boy for the summer to help roof. Gave him a 100' tape
and told him to measure the ridgeline on a 2 story house. Next thing I
know he is laying in the bushes at the end of the house. He had hooked
the tape to the gable end and started walking backwards. You can guess
the rest....

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Imagine my surprise when one of my test injuries was a 'sprain' to area
'gentials' :-)

I have that happen a lot... (g)

"Smitty Two" wrote in message
I've had some seizures this last week but I'm not sure whether they're
related. Anyway, I guess it's back to the store for more concrete now.
I'm glad nothing real serious happened to me.

Seizures? I believed the rest of the story, bit I think you are
exaggerating that part.

"Ken" wrote in message
oups.com...
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far

I've had small cuts on my fingers a few times. Otherwise, being careful has
worked for the best part of half a century since I started doing DIY.

Colin Bignell

Adrian C wrote:
Bob Eager wrote:

Let's guess...you're researching for another of these dumbed-down,
sensationalist TV programmes?


Hmmm... Researcher of some kind ;-)

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=author%3Alavrulr111%40hotmail.com

Good topic, but which ones are the real DIY stories? ;-)

However, for those who haven't seen it before we must nonetheless
highlight the expanding foam story in this crosspost.

http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/humour.html#foam

That just has to be the funniest thing I've ever read :-)


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

Handy, Woman wrote:

On Fri, 07 Sep 2007 21:52:53 -0700, Ken
wrote:

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

A guy I used to work with was cutting wood with a chain saw. The saw
hit a knot in the wood and kicked back and got him in the face. He
survived but no amount of plastic surgery will help.

When using a chain saw I always try to position myself at an angle to
the saw so that in the event of kickback it's path would be past me and
not into me. I never use the anti-kickback chains as their performance
is atrocious compared to the "real" chains.

On Sat, 08 Sep 2007 08:05:25 -0700, alvaradotx
wrote:

Hired a college boy for the summer to help roof. Gave him a 100' tape
and told him to measure the ridgeline on a 2 story house. Next thing I
know he is laying in the bushes at the end of the house. He had hooked
the tape to the gable end and started walking backwards. You can guess
the rest....

Was helping roof a two story house in Susanville Ca back in the 80's.
Most houses there have an almost vertical roof that's made out of
sheetmetal because of the snow load. I was all the way at the top,
sitting down, when I started to slide. Because of the pitch of the
roof I was afraid to stand up less I go ass over tea kettel. I started
sliding faster and faster, all the while trying to get the roofing
hammer into the sheetmetal to stop me. Alas, I had no luck at that. I
go flying off of the roof and manage to land on my feet. The roof
nails I had in my bag went everywhere. I am standing there shaking
like a leaf and my friends father in law comes running up asking if I
am ok. I was fine but I was shaking so bad I could not talk. I took
the rest of the day off and went fishing. Came back that evening and
found out that almost the same exact thing happened to my friend but
he was not so lucky. He hit some bushes on the way down and broke his
leg. The next day his fater in law hired some real roofers to due the
job.

Everyone I know always pokes fun at me for my attention to detail and
safety. Stupid accidents will never happen to me.

That is until one night when I had a rush job, doing something I had done a
hundered times. I was too tired to be out in my shop and was too stressed
from a rough day at work. I was doing repetitive cuts on a project and I ran
my left hand over my table saw blade.

As I said I was too tired, I failed to reset the blade height and for the
first time that I can remember, I did not use a push stick.

I cut my middle finger just where it attached to my hand, severed my index
finger and my thumb right at the knuckle.

It was about a thirty minute ride to the emergency room, with my finger in a
bag of ice, and then another fourty five minute ambulance ride to St. Lukes
Hospital in Houston.

The finger and thumb were reattached and are mostly useable. They do serve
as constant reminders to never take any tools for granted.

Oh by the way, I do still jump a little when I hear my table saw start.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

"Smitty Two" wrote in message

I've had some seizures this last week but I'm not sure whether they're
related. Anyway, I guess it's back to the store for more concrete now.
I'm glad nothing real serious happened to me.


Seizures? I believed the rest of the story, bit I think you are
exaggerating that part.


I had trouble believing he was carrying 360 pounds of concrete, and
that so much concrete was needed for a tetherball, so I didn't get
past the first paragraph.

--
The e-mail address in our reply-to line is reversed in an attempt to
minimize spam. Our true address is of the form .

Ken writes:

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

My dad always took the attitude that if you were careful, there was
really no need for things like blade guards on table saws, or using
pushers to feed the wood into the saw. Then he got distracted one day
while cutting some thin (maybe 1"?) strips for planter boxes, and the
saw hit a knot.

My first thought as he came up the stairs was that he was teasing me
with a red plastic snake. Then I saw that it was blood all over his
hand.

If you ever end up getting a finger (right index finger, in this
case -- and dad was right-handed, and he was an accountant, and this
was right before tax season) amputated, *don't* let the doctors
convince you that it'll be less noticeable if they go ahead and take
the knuckle along with it. They're right, but you really do want as
much of the hand as possible for stability.

On Sep 8, 4:10 am, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Not letting the router spin down before moving it smartly into my jeans
and JUST missing my femoral artery.


I've got a nice crescent-moon shaped scar on my thigh from sitting on
the deck of my boat, grinding some new fiberglass work with an angle
grinder, and forgetting the "spin-down" part before setting it
down...which is not an uncommon accident among boatyard workers. I've
met several other guys with similar interesting scars.

Most of us only do it once, though! And before somebody leaps in
yakking about guards, you can't use a guard on a grinder when flat-
grinding glasswork. It's impossible.

More than a few fall off ladders in boatyards, as well. Everybody
gets confident about their ability to climb one-handed (or no-handed)
while carrying heavy tools or awkward parts. Most of the time, it
works, too...

Bob

friend of mine was on tractor and his wife, who had long hair, was behind
guiding post-hole digger. her hair got wrapped around mechanism and
partially tore out part of her scalp.
"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Ken wrote

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman
or handywoman accidents that you've experienced so far
(or someone you know, or saw it happen to, got to experience)
and please elaborate on what unfortunately went wrong.

This has just happened in my town, to people known to me.

The first one was a classic agricultural accident, the individual
was wearing a coat that got caught in the tractor PTO shaft.
By himself, not much left except mangled remains.

Then at the wake, another was silly enough to climb the
TV tower because the antenna wasnt working properly.
The tower collapsed and he was killed in the process.

In article tPBEi.2171$Ot1.929@trnddc07,
"newman" wrote:

friend of mine was on tractor and his wife, who had long hair, was behind
guiding post-hole digger. her hair got wrapped around mechanism and
partially tore out part of her scalp.


Whoa, that made my remaining hair stand up. Several years ago, I was
doing a long rip with a circular saw and noticed that a few long hairs
were bouncing off the blade. Only a few hairs had come untied and none
got caught by the blade, but it scared the **** out of me and so that
was the last day I ever had long hair (not that I could anyway lately).

PDX David

"Ken" wrote in message
oups.com...
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.


You don't need all sorts of high tech camping accessories to start a fire if
you run out of matches.

Brought home a new plunge router and decided to play with it on some scrap
wood in the garage. In the manual, I got as far as a page where it described
which direction the router should be moved for certain types of work.
Figured these were just fine points to be concerned with later.

Turns out a router in the hands of an amateur will toss burning bits of wood
for quite a distance. Some of those chips will be smart enough to land in
the kindling box, or on plastic web chairs. :-) Fortunately, the fire
extinguisher was just a few feet away.

let me guess-Texas A&M?
"alvaradotx" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hired a college boy for the summer to help roof. Gave him a 100' tape
and told him to measure the ridgeline on a 2 story house. Next thing I
know he is laying in the bushes at the end of the house. He had hooked
the tape to the gable end and started walking backwards. You can guess
the rest....

In message .com, Ken
writes
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

Tosser x-posted to numerous DIY related Ngroups

He accidentally fell into the north sea with his feet encased in
concrete

How we did laff ...

--
geoff

my best friend took my advice and those of his family and added a
railing to his porch steps. he welded pipe in place then stepped back
to admire hs job, feel off the steps and broke a rib while flatening
some new porch furniture.....

he noted this was the first time anyone had fallen on their steps.....

he finished the railings a month or two later.

JP Sipponen wrote:
Ken kirjoitti:

What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.


I have heard this one from a man who saw this happen in his yard in the
60´s.

A man had a homemade circle saw, (diam about 1,5 meters) with a
hydraulic table to move the log back and forth. He and his son run a
service to cut the timber of the customer so the machine was movable.
We have had two pretty messy farm equipment accidents in the
last decade in the St. Louis area. One was a teenager who was
home operating some kind of harvesting gear and it ripped both
his arms off. Luckily the arterys snapped back and didn't spurt
or he would have died in seconds. He got up, walked back to the
house, opened the door with his teeth, and called 911 by using a
pencil to dial the phone. The paramedics rushed him to the
hospital while a fire department team got his arms out of the
machinery. His arms were not severly damaged, and they were
reattached. The newspaper went back and interviewed him after a
while. He was still working on getting his arms usable, and was
making progress. I think this made the national news at the time.

Another one was an elderly gent who had a big saw that was
apparently powered by a tractor PTO. He somehow got caught,
maybe on a log, and was sawed in half from the groin to
mid-chest. Amazingly, unlike JP's story, he survived this and
was basically put back together. In the hospital, he asked his
wife what happened to the saw, and she said "It'll be at the
bottom of the lake by the time you get out of the hospital!"

Jon

On 8 Sep, 05:52, Ken wrote:
What have been the worst (serious or humorous) handyman or handywoman
accidents that you've experienced so far (or someone you know, or saw
it happen to, got to experience) and please elaborate on what
unfortunately went wrong.

This one really shook me up.

I was using a Paslode (gas) nail gun on some decking. I had to hold a
small piece of timber against the side of joist, in order to nail it
with the gun. I was working kneeling downwards, a bit uncomfortable,
with the gun horizontal in a bit of a confined space. Basically doing
everything wrong.

I fired the gun, and the nail went in. But in a split second the gun
recoiled, and as I was pushing it against the timber it went forward
and across slightly and the tip squashed hard against my index
finger.

This happened so quickly that I really thought I had shot through my
finger.

The pain was intense, as was that feeling of sickness in my stomach
and light headedness at the thought of having no finger.

When Iooked, my finger tip was bloody and cut but in one piece.

But it was a lesson for me to have greater respect for tools.

dg