PSA: Do your self a favor and wear PPE!

[freedom_in_4low]

Metal in my eye ranks highly among my worst fears. I had a piece of something fly around my glasses into my eye while cutting a bolt earlier this week. Ran into the house like a flash holding my eye open, straight to the bathroom mirror. It landed right in my tear duct and turned out to just be a fleck of some rust or something that didn't seem like it had any sharp edges. Got it out pretty easily but finished the job with my welding mask.

As for the tool itself, I stay out of the plane of the disc. I've never had a full size wheel come apart on me but I've sent enough dremel discs into low earth orbit to put the fear in me.

 

[Ephry73]

Countless stories of cheap discs self imploding and cutting facial tissue or others around you. Good quality discs and good PPE for sure. I had a supervisor who had to have the right side of his face reconstructed and three teeth put back in. He still wears the droopy face on that side almost 30 years later.

 

[DrDmoney]

Countless stories of cheap discs self imploding and cutting facial tissue or others around you. Good quality discs and good PPE for sure. I had a supervisor who had to have the right side of his face reconstructed and three teeth put back in. He still wears the droopy face on that side almost 30 years later.

Use Made in the USA discs and wheels not Cheap China ones.

 

[Modoc Guy]

NOTHING takes the place of a guard on a die grinder or disk grinder.

 

[tr21triton]

Where I work they require you to wear a face shield and safety glasses when running a grinder/cutting disc… for a reason.

it was the same where i worked. safety glasses, face shields, cut resistant gloves and bump caps were a must ! yea we all bitched about it but there were many times i was glad to have it ! and many times I wasn't using them and wish i had been !!!

 

[Chris]

I didn't know Matt Walsh was on the forum

 

[Zorba]

it was the same where i worked. safety glasses, face shields, cut resistant gloves and bump caps were a must ! yea we all bitched about it but there were many times i was glad to have it ! and many times I wasn't using them and wish i had been !!!

There was an incident at my work involving someone plugging something - I forget what - into a 440v outlet. It exploded on him. But because he was wearing the required gloves and other PPE, he was unharmed. You can bet the safety office made sure everybody knew about it (with the affected worker's permission.).

 

[WallyWest]

Safety glasses are a must. And never wear fabric gloves with any spinning tools, if you value your fingers...

Where I work they force us to wear crappy fabric gloves while grinding.

I told them that was stupid and I wouldn't do it. So I can't use the grinder, fine by me

 

[Midnight LJR]

Anyone recommend some good gloves to use while cutting?

 

[Metalmoto]

As a machinist, working for a billion dollar company, They want production. But "safety first". And it's all good until someone get's hurt. Complacency they say, is one reason, perhaps. Last major accident, a guy lost 4 fingers, polishing a part on a lathe.
I didn't witness it, but they say his fingers hit the wall behind him. He was wearing cut-resistant gloves, which is a not allowed while operating rotating machinery. A recent accident, they believe an electrical short caused the machine to malfunction.
I ran that same machine, a few hours before. And there is no possible way, this accident should have occurred.
In my place of work, if they can't make the machine safe. Then it's dismantled and it's parts are sold for scrap metal.
I myself, have been a machine operator since I got out of high school. And even running vintage machines with open gears and no belt guards, I have never been injured in 35 years of my profession. Seen a lot of manged fingers in my time...
Just today, I was given this (attached), and wanted to share this with everyone, about the use of gloves. Hope this saves someone from injury.

Also, seen this sticker on a lathe that Adam from Myth busters had on his YT channel.

"Be careful. This machine has no brain. Use your own".

This says it all in a nutshell.

 

[tr21triton]

Where I work they force us to wear crappy fabric gloves while grinding.

I told them that was stupid and I wouldn't do it. So I can't use the grinder, fine by me

where i worked we had to wear them all the time. you had to have a bump cap, safety glasses and gloves on, unless there was no way to do the job with them on. i remember seeing a guy completely wrapped on bubble wrap walking around to show them how they could prevent all injury's !

Anyone recommend some good gloves to use while cutting?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3137431554...d=link&campid=5337789113&toolid=20001&mkevt=1i like these, they are comfortable. just before i retired i got lucky and our safety rep. was told to get rid of everything in his cabinet and he had cases of these. he threw them on a table and told the guys to get what you want. i got a bag of these in 2 different sizes. still wear em all the time

 

[DrDmoney]

Anyone recommend some good gloves to use while cutting?

Mike, I buy these for the guys in a cut level 3, they fit snug so you can grab small screws and have good dexterity. They have lots of different styles for different applications, for us it’s banding, metal panel edges, unbroken glass, and such but I’ve seen guys wind them up in a drill bit when tightening a keyless chuck drill.

 

[freedom_in_4low]

A good buddy of mine works in a paper mill with a lot of 4160V and 600V equipment. They even have their own power plant, but are also connected to the grid because their on-site plant isn't enough.

He used to lead a technician crew and their PPE included a 100 cal arc flash suit. As he told me, 100 calorie is the biggest one, because beyond incident energy of 100cal/cm^2 even if the suit protects you from burns, the pressure wave from the explosion kills you instead.

They were suited up and closing a breaker after some maintenence on a machine, which is done remotely, not entirely unlike TV depictions if setting off dynamite. The incident energy, which how much energy can be released by the breaker and is based on the supply and how long the breaker takes to close, was 237 calories/square centimeter.

It didn't close. They gave it a couple minutes and then began to investigate. They entered the room and determined the remote actuator didn't work so a guy went to get a different one. Unbeknownst to them, one of the blades inside the breaker had fallen out and landed across two phases on the load side. While the guy was getting the actuator, 10 minutes after initiating the first one, the breaker closed, shorted two phases, exploded, threw my buddy out of the room and another 10 feet through the door, and continued to pour sparks and fire until the power company (Not the onsite power plant...but the power company) noticed the spike and called the mill to see what was going on.

Almost inexplicably, my friend survived with some minor burns, but some PTSD that gave him a panic attack when he entered that room 2 weeks later. He ended up getting promoted into an office job and put in charge of electrical safety for the mill, and they invested millions in an upgrade of all the breakers in the plant to reduce incident energy below 100.

I tried to hire him a couple weeks ago but I guess he's doing a good job because they threw some money and another role at him to address what he was unhappy about.

 

[Metalmoto]

As a machinist, working for a billion dollar company, They want production. But "safety first". And it's all good until someone get's hurt. Complacency they say, is one reason, perhaps. Last major accident, a guy lost 4 fingers, polishing a part on a lathe.
I didn't witness it, but they say his fingers hit the wall behind him. He was wearing cut-resistant gloves, which is a not allowed while operating rotating machinery. A recent accident, they believe an electrical short caused the machine to malfunction.
I ran that same machine, a few hours before. And there is no possible way, this accident should have occurred.
In my place of work, if they can't make the machine safe. Then it's dismantled and it's parts are sold for scrap metal.
I myself, have been a machine operator since I got out of high school. And even running vintage machines with open gears and no belt guards, I have never been injured in 35 years of my profession. Seen a lot of manged fingers in my time...
Just today, I was given this (attached), and wanted to share this with everyone, about the use of gloves. Hope this saves someone from injury.

Also, seen this sticker on a lathe that Adam from Myth busters had on his YT channel.

"Be careful. This machine has no brain. Use your own".

This says it all in a nutshell.

View attachment 308612

View attachment 308613

NOTHING takes the place of a guard on a die grinder or disk grinder.

I'm glad I don't have to operate grinding machines. Our guys most duburr small parts, and sometimes they go flying!
My main job in internal threading, Guess because I good at it. But often I have to run hydraulic presses. I can't even imagine what 5 tons of force would do to your hand or fingers. Ouch!

 

[Midnight LJR]

A guy who works for my dad was walking behind a guy using a bench grinder (not on my dads job) like 20 feet away. Piece of metal flew out from the side. Came and hit the guy from behind bounced off the inside front of his glasses and into his eye. He ended up losing all vision in it. Moral of the story, safety glasses with side protection are important. Even if your not the one using the tool.

 

[RINC]

I suit up when I leave my house