PPE basics

Just to reiterate on the cut off wheels..if the tool holding the cut off wheel falls or even tips over the cut off wheel goes in the trash period. I have worked in the body shop environment and have seen enough broken cut off wheels in the ceiling to know better.

One more tip is keep the guard on you grinder! If you need to take it off to make a cut put it back on.
 
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One more tip is keep the guard on you grinder! If you need to take it off to make a cut put it back on.

I will admit the guard is the first thing I take off. It is such a pain in the ass to work around. I do agree it's not the smartest thing to do.
 
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I'm horrified at the thought of some of the stuff I did without PPE when young and dumb. It's shocking I've never had to do the eyeball thing. I've had close calls even with safety glasses...miraculously ended up being a big piece that just laid flat on the surface and I could remove with a finger looking in the mirror.

I used to just raw dog it barehanded and clean up with half a pound of Fast Orange and have black in all the little crevices around my fingernails. When I worked as a Toyota tech the more experienced fellow in the next bay never shut up about all the chemicals we dealt with and how bad that was to just soak into your skin, so that's when I picked up the nitrile glove habit. Ear pro started when I developed tinnitus at 26. I don't run a grinder for 5 seconds without ear pro.

We have probably all done stupid stuff. I have flash burned myself more than once, broke a finger using the wrong socket for the job and had more than one knife or axe draw blood. I even worked a monster truck event years ago starting the drags street race style with no protection whatsoever.

I have had to train myself to wear gloves as well because I really do not like them but just like our eyes we only have one set and we need to take care of them.
 
I will admit the guard is the first thing I take off. It is such a pain in the ass to work around. I do agree it's not the smartest thing to do.

I like the Milwaukee grinders the guard is toolless to rotate or remove.
 
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N95 masks are for particle protection only. They are worthless for volatile organics in paint. You need a cartridge respirator with the correct volatile organics cartridges. Also when not in use the cartridges need to be stored in an air tight container because they will degrade when exposed to open air.
 
The point made earlier about ear plugs to keep spatter out of the ear is well taken....that sounds awful.
The sound of bacon sizzling nicely in a hot cast iron skillet is not an awful sound until it is. The best part is you get two lessons. The first is to wear something to keep weld berries out of your ears. The second lesson is something to protect your noggin like a welder's hat or beanie to stop from slicing some part of your head open on the undercarriage. You will rotate your face to turn the up ear into some position to get the weld berry to fall out at a speed that is not conducive to being fully aware of the unforgiving undercarriage you're welding on.
 
I used to think safety glasses and gloves were for pussies...then after the 2nd time having rust dremeled out of my eye balls I changed my tune.
Sadly, the 4 or 5 times I've had metal removed from my eyes, I was always wearing good safety glasses when it got in there. Not sure how that works but it certainly doesn't not suck.
I like hand condoms because I'm a clean freak kinda person
I'm not a clean freak, I wear gloves 100% of the time when the welder or plasma cutter is used. What I have a problem with is wearing any type of glove for other than welding. I despise the loss of dexterity and feel. I equally despise the feel of trans fluid, coolant, brake fluid, grease, or oil on my hands.
I'm still working on thick leather gloves while grinding etc and usually forget to put them on.

Ear protection is important but something I have never used and will most likely pay for later on in life
I explain to everyone to wear hearing protection no matter what. They don't listen and when they get older they won't be able to.
 
Bandaids and first aid gear. Don't be like me at 47 and all my hands are scarred up and arthritic. It sucks. You get a cut stop...clean it up and keep it clean.
I think a lot of that is how your immune system reacts. I nick, scratch, cut, and or abrade some part of my hands daily. The damage never gets infected, never gets the red edges that tell you it isn't happy, they just heal up pretty quickly. Inversely, one of the guys we wheeled with got a little sliver in some part of his hand and almost lost a finger due to the infection. I do have band-aids, I put them on to stop from bleeding on stuff. I have yet to do other than wipe off the mess with a paper towel so the band-aid will stick better.
Welding jacket...welding UV light causes all sorts of havoc.
I have tried to explain the damage UV causes to skin (why I always wear gloves welding, and long pants, and long sleeve denim shirts) I was told I was being a big fat Nancy. They'll figure it out but it will be too late when they do.
 
Is that a cutoff wheel or a grinding disc? Grinding discs making me a lot less nervous. It's the super thin cutoff wheels that barely feel thick enough to hold together when they're brand new that give me the creeps.

I have to explain to the help over and over that you can not grind with a cut off disc. They are already scary dangerous, don't make it worse. Lazy fucks with knock the burrs off of edges with the cut off disc rather than set that grinder down and pick up the one with the flap disc on it laying 22.5" away from them.
 
I will admit the guard is the first thing I take off. It is such a pain in the ass to work around. I do agree it's not the smartest thing to do.

We don't talk about that in polite company. All I will say on the matter is my pile of discard cut off discs that I save to give away are right at 4.5" in diameter.
 
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We have probably all done stupid stuff. I have flash burned myself more than once, broke a finger using the wrong socket for the job and had more than one knife or axe draw blood. I even worked a monster truck event years ago starting the drags street race style with no protection whatsoever.

I have had to train myself to wear gloves as well because I really do not like them but just like our eyes we only have one set and we need to take care of them.

I had a helper once. There were very few times I welded something that he did not check to see if it was hot with his bare hands. He just couldn't help it no matter how many times he burned himself. He is also responsible for me almost dying from laughing so hard. He was holding a piece for me to Tig in a very odd position and somehow managed to forget basic electrical conductivity rules and why we also wear gloves around any welding. He managed to pick the piece up off the grounded table and become the ground path through his bare hands. When I hit the foot pedal, the resultant little girl high pitched scream and the part flying across the shop set me to laughing and I wasn't sure I was going to ever stop.
 
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The sound of bacon sizzling nicely in a hot cast iron skillet is not an awful sound until it is. The best part is you get two lessons. The first is to wear something to keep weld berries out of your ears. The second lesson is something to protect your noggin like a welder's hat or beanie to stop from slicing some part of your head open on the undercarriage. You will rotate your face to turn the up ear into some position to get the weld berry to fall out at a speed that is not conducive to being fully aware of the unforgiving undercarriage you're welding on.

I just did some private pole vault lessons for a doctor’s son the other day. He is in the process of inventing an HD camera otoscope and releasing it to market. Basically an endoscope for the ears. He was geeked out on it and asked if he could look in my ears. I told him sure, you might even find some metal in there. I felt a hot piece fall in my ear when I was grinding under the Jeep for the midarm and outboard. Sure as fuck he looks in there and there’s a piece of metal in there.
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We rigged up an extractor with a magnet on the end and got it out
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All that to say I will be wearing ear protection from now on.
 
I just did some private pole vault lessons for a doctor’s son the other day. He is in the process of inventing an HD camera otoscope and releasing it to market. Basically an endoscope for the ears. He was geeked out on it and asked if he could look in my ears. I told him sure, you might even find some metal in there. I felt a hot piece fall in my ear when I was grinding under the Jeep for the midarm and outboard. Sure as fuck he looks in there and there’s a piece of metal in there.

We rigged up an extractor with a magnet on the end and got it out

Well, the good news is if you ever go get an MRI with another piece of metal in there, there isn't much to slow it down on the way out the other side
 
I just did some private pole vault lessons for a doctor’s son the other day. He is in the process of inventing an HD camera otoscope and releasing it to market. Basically an endoscope for the ears. He was geeked out on it and asked if he could look in my ears. I told him sure, you might even find some metal in there. I felt a hot piece fall in my ear when I was grinding under the Jeep for the midarm and outboard. Sure as fuck he looks in there and there’s a piece of metal in there.
View attachment 376550
We rigged up an extractor with a magnet on the end and got it out
View attachment 376551

View attachment 376552
All that to say I will be wearing ear protection from now on.

It's the Trader Joe's receipt that gets me. What did you do for the Dr in return, buy him some groceries? 🤣 That's a good trade...

p.s. I'd like a piece of pizza please!