Okay, maybe not but this nail gun guy is getting a lot of airplay. I have
seen numerous medical professionals on TV with the x-ray in the background
describing how 'easy' this can happen etc. I listen to several talk shows
nightly, all of which have dedicated segments to this guy. I can't wait to
see what Saturday Night Live does with it.

Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

-Brian

"Cherokee-Ltd" wrote in message
...
Okay, maybe not but this nail gun guy is getting a lot of airplay. I have
seen numerous medical professionals on TV with the x-ray in the background
describing how 'easy' this can happen etc. I listen to several talk shows
nightly, all of which have dedicated segments to this guy. I can't wait to
see what Saturday Night Live does with it.

Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

-Brian

My dad told one about his pre-OSHA factory days...

A co-worker operated a foot-pedal pneumatic riveting machine, which would
punch a hole in sheet metal and install and crimp a rivet. In a moment of
inattention, he placed his thumb in the unit, and punched a hole clear
through flesh, bone, and thumbnail, placing a rivet in his thumb and
crimping it over. You could see right through it.

He returned several days later, after having the rivet drilled out of his
thumb. When asked how he managed to do what he did, he proceeded to
demonstrate - on his other thumb...

A friend of mine was demonstrating a peice of machinery. He told those
watching to "never do this" and he proceded to shorten his finger by about an
inch. He got his point across. (no pun intended)

Remove the 'remove' in my address to e:mail me.

Cherokee-Ltd wrote:
Okay, maybe not but this nail gun guy is getting a lot of airplay. I have
seen numerous medical professionals on TV with the x-ray in the background
describing how 'easy' this can happen etc. I listen to several talk shows
nightly, all of which have dedicated segments to this guy. I can't wait to
see what Saturday Night Live does with it.

Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

-Brian



Not the most damage I've seen done, but the most painful looking
happened when I was a helper about 32 years ago. Hanging drywall on
metal studs in a mall and the guy I was helping screwed his thumb to
the wall with a drywall screw.

He would not allow me to use the screw gun to get him off the wall.
I had to use a screw driver to ease the screw back out far
enough to release him from the wall. He climbed down off the
scaffold and went off to the hospital. Back at work that afternoon.

I am vary wary of screwguns since that incident.

I have shot myself numerous times with nail guns. 4 times with a
framing nailer, which is by far the worst. Trim gun wounds too
numberous to mention, but never a screw gun and I aim (pun intended)
to keep it that way.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX

"Robert Allison" wrote in message

I had to use a screw driver to ease the screw back out far enough to
release him from the wall. He climbed down off the scaffold and went off
to the hospital. Back at work that afternoon.

With a little tape and some drywall compound you can fix almost anything!
-Brian

A co-worker operated a foot-pedal pneumatic riveting machine, which would
punch a hole in sheet metal and install and crimp a rivet. In a moment of
inattention, he placed his thumb in the unit, and punched a hole clear
through flesh, bone, and thumbnail, placing a rivet in his thumb and
crimping it over. You could see right through it.

He returned several days later, after having the rivet drilled out of his
thumb. When asked how he managed to do what he did, he proceeded to
demonstrate - on his other thumb...


He had it drilled out? Some people pay big money to put holes in their
body!!
http://www.steve.org.uk/body/images/stretch4.jpg

-Brian

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:11:52 -0500, Cherokee-Ltd wrote:

Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

In 1981, I subbed out the drywall on the tri-level house I built. There
were two guys that did the job. One was about 5'6" and 140 lbs. The
other was a strapping young guy who was just back after recovering from
his "accident". Seems he had fallen from a scaffold on a job and landed
on a fireplace footing pad that had rebar sticking up. One bar went up
giving him dual anuses and just missing his heart. They had to use bolt
cutters to snip off the rebar and haul him to the hospital with it still
implanted. Makes me shiver every time I think about it.

Those two guys hung and taped the drywall including the 4' x 12' 5/8"
stuff on the vaulted ceilings and in the garage of a 3000 sq' house
starting on a Friday afternoon and finishing on Sunday afternoon. As I
recall, it cost me all of three grand!

- Doug

--

To escape criticism--do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." (Elbert Hubbard)

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:11:52 -0500, "Cherokee-Ltd"
wrote:
Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

I find this one hard to believe - still.

When I got my first router (Hitachi TR-12) mounted in a table I was
doing everything wrong - it can't happen to me - right? As I fed in
stock, I somehow had my finger caught by the bit and flung out at high
speed (21000rpm, whatever that equates to in linear motion).

I *knew* I'd lost my finger, and my shoulder hurt like heck. As it
turned out, I hadn't even cut the skin, though it was badly bruised
and throbbing from being squashed into the void between the flutes.

My shoulder hurt due to a muscle bing pulled from the force of my hand
being ejected so fast.

SWMBO said I was as white as a ghost. On the bright side though, I am
now *very* safety conscious and still have all ten attached.

i have a flat roof house, and there are different height ceilings so there
are different levels to the roof itself, with small walls between them. when
they were putting the plywood on the higher portion of the roof, a guy had
to go to the other side. rather than walk the truss, he hopped over the
small wall to the lower deck. turns out the rest of the crew hadn't gotten
to that portion of the lower deck, and he didn't look first. he hopped over
the wall, straddling a truss about 6' down, then swiveled off that and fell
to the cement slab 16' down.

held up work for an hour or so. i heard he found a different business after
he got out of the hospital a month later.

"Doug Winterburn" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 08:11:52 -0500, Cherokee-Ltd wrote:

Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

In 1981, I subbed out the drywall on the tri-level house I built. There
were two guys that did the job. One was about 5'6" and 140 lbs. The
other was a strapping young guy who was just back after recovering from
his "accident". Seems he had fallen from a scaffold on a job and landed
on a fireplace footing pad that had rebar sticking up. One bar went up
giving him dual anuses and just missing his heart. They had to use bolt
cutters to snip off the rebar and haul him to the hospital with it still
implanted. Makes me shiver every time I think about it.

Those two guys hung and taped the drywall including the 4' x 12' 5/8"
stuff on the vaulted ceilings and in the garage of a 3000 sq' house
starting on a Friday afternoon and finishing on Sunday afternoon. As I
recall, it cost me all of three grand!

- Doug

--

To escape criticism--do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." (Elbert
Hubbard)

Doug Winterburn wrote:

The other was a strapping young guy who was just back after
recovering from his "accident". Seems he had fallen from a scaffold
on a job and landed on a fireplace footing pad that had rebar
sticking up. One bar went up giving him dual anuses and just missing
his heart. They had to use bolt cutters to snip off the rebar and
haul him to the hospital with it still implanted. Makes me shiver
every time I think about it.

Some years ago (1984?) I visited the Mayo Clinic Museum in Rochester MN,
USA. They had a wax model of a farm worker who (IIRC) fell some 10 feet
onto a pitchfork handle and experienced a similar injury. Parts of the wax
torso were cut away so museum visitors could see in detail the organs that
were damaged by the accident.

If you're ever in Rochester MN and you have some time to kill I recommend
you count the number of red cars versus white cars parked on the street
rather than visit the Mayo Clinic Museum. ;-)

-- Mark

"Cherokee-Ltd" wrote in message
...

Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

-Brian

About a year ago, I was in HD looking at a brad nailer, and this guy walks
up looking for a couple boxes of brads and he points (with a bandaged
finger) to the one I'm holding and says "that's a good nailer".



I say, "you got this one"? He says, while pealing back the bandage, "yeah,
but keep your fingers away from the tip, sometimes the wood will force a
brad out of the board sideways". Under the bandage was a perfect little
hole going in one side and out the other of his finger. He said it had
happened earlier that day.



I bought the brad nailer, and I have a vivid image of his bloody finger
every time I fire a brad.



Kevin in Bakersfield

writes:
Okay, maybe not but this nail gun guy is getting a lot of airplay. I have
seen numerous medical professionals on TV with the x-ray in the
background
describing how 'easy' this can happen etc. I listen to several talk shows
nightly, all of which have dedicated segments to this guy. I can't wait
to
see what Saturday Night Live does with it.

Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

-Brian

Not an injury but could have been. The boss of 20+ years I referred to
was a general contractor, specializing in underground utilities and
earthmoving, translated: lots of iron (heavy equipment). On the job one
day, he stopped Greg (super and boss' son-in-law), had him climb down off
the Michigan 210 scraper, then he parked in front of the scraper, about
five feet in front. Do you have the picture imbedded in your mind?

Boss was good at ranting and raving and storming off. He did his ranting,
then turned around to climb in his truck and leave. He changed his mind
and went elsewhere, on foot. Greg, already on the equipment, started the
scraper. Now those of you who have ever been on one of those know that
visibility from the top does not include close to the front. We are on a
construction site, after all, nothing around but dirt *and* the boss' Ford
Ranger which he had headed for to leave the job site. Scraper moving,
slowly at first luckily, loud crunch and bump. Scraper stopped, "What the
h*ll?" Boss turned around to see the front quarter and front of his truck
smashed, hood was toast. Greg said, as boss started screaming at him,
"What kind of person parks a truck in front of a scraper anyway?" 'Nuff
said.

Salt in the wound. A few days later, I stopped at the key shop to have
keys made. While waiting, I thumbed through the collection of cards at
the register, you know, the ones with various sayings on them. I laughed
and bought one, took it back to the office and left it on the boss' desk.
It said, no joke, "Have you driven over a Ford lately?"

I might add, this is the same Ranger truck that a few years before,
another employee ran into it with a backhoe, and drove across a 30-acre
job site to do it. It was the second time for the same emloyee. That
truck had enough body work done to it over the years that ten trucks could
have been built. That same employee walked into a raised backhoe bucket
one day; makes one wonder.

Glenna

"Cherokee-Ltd" wrote in message
...
A co-worker operated a foot-pedal pneumatic riveting machine, which
would
punch a hole in sheet metal and install and crimp a rivet. In a moment
of
inattention, he placed his thumb in the unit, and punched a hole clear
through flesh, bone, and thumbnail, placing a rivet in his thumb and
crimping it over. You could see right through it.

He returned several days later, after having the rivet drilled out of
his
thumb. When asked how he managed to do what he did, he proceeded to
demonstrate - on his other thumb...


He had it drilled out? Some people pay big money to put holes in their
body!!
http://www.steve.org.uk/body/images/stretch4.jpg

-Brian

I don't think "body art" was in high fashion in the 50's, when this
particular incident happened. He might have gotten away with a tattoo, but
piercings??

Not an equipment story but close.

I was about 14 at the time. We lived here in Tucson but I spent a lot
of time on a ranch owned by family friends about 60 miles away. As is
often the case in rural America when a vehicle died it went up on
blocks to await repair "someday."

I was getting interested in cars and there was a 30's vintage Ford
pickup truck up on blocks with a twisted rear axle. I asked our
rancher friend about it and he said that if I could get it running, I
could have it.

In a pre-fifties Fords the axles had integral differential gears on
the inner ends, thus they were captured in the differential housing
and the whole assembly had to come apart to change an axle. I removed
all of the bolts and tried to separate the pieces. Nothing doing. So
I turned the assembly to a vertical position and banged the end of an
axle on the something handy on the ground. I had one hand wrapped
around the axle above the differential and another below. After a few
increasingly sharp blows, the ring gear came loose and shot down the
axle and trapped the meat of the palm of my hand at the base of my
index finger between the gear and the axle. Trust me, there is very
little clearance between these two pieces at that point. (Fifty years
later I still have the scar)

Somehow I get disengaged and run to the house with my bloodied and
greasy hand. We packed up and my parents drove me the sixty miles to
our family doctor.

The doc was kind of a gruff guy and as he was cleaning and sewing up
the injury he asks, "How the hell did you manage this?"

Me: "Aw, I was fooling around with a pickup's rear end."

Doc: "That'll get you in trouble every time."

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 08:40:02 -0500, "gw" wrote:

I don't think "body art" was in high fashion in the 50's,

Low fashion though.

Take a read of "Modern Primitives". America had a big tattoo and
piercing culture back in the '50s and even '30s, but it was centred on
the carnivals, not the suburbs.

Many years ago, while working at a Cabinet shop, a couple of blokes were
moving an 8 x 4 x3/4 sheet of chippy. One of the fellows dropped his end
onto his foot. Upon removing his boot (Much yelling and complaining) all
he had was a bruise on his big toe, however within minutes this bruise
had expanded to a huge blood blister under the nail. It was suggested by
one of the blokes to take 1/16 drill bit and drill a hole through the
nail, than pierce the blister thus relieving the pressure. Anyhow our
reluctant hero sits himself down and holding the small bit between
finger and thumb starts twisting it back and forth on the toe nail.
About 10 minutes later he complains that the toe is still hurting to
all blazes and the drill bit isn't making much of an impression. "Well
chuck it so you can get a decent grip" was the advice given. A few
minutes later there is a godalmighty yell from this bloke and fellows
appear from allover the shop to see what has happened now. Yep he put
the bit in a chuck, placed it on his toe, squeezed the trigger of the
drill, relieved the pressure of the blister, and had a 1/16 hole right
through the toe.
I reckon every now and than one does slip through the evolutionary chain.
John

Cherokee-Ltd wrote:
Okay, maybe not but this nail gun guy is getting a lot of airplay. I have
seen numerous medical professionals on TV with the x-ray in the background
describing how 'easy' this can happen etc. I listen to several talk shows
nightly, all of which have dedicated segments to this guy. I can't wait to
see what Saturday Night Live does with it.

Anybody have personal "you're not gonna believe this" stories?

-Brian

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 01:48:46 GMT, John
wrote:

It was suggested by
one of the blokes to take 1/16 drill bit and drill a hole through the
nail, than pierce the blister thus relieving the pressure.

Red hot stainless lockwire (or paper clip), IMHE. Smelly, but you
don't have to apply pressure.