So, after 20 years of faithful service, my Bosch angle-grinder only goes and dies. Smoke came out of it and that was the last turn it made. I replaced it with a cheap Hitachi and kept on going.

For some background, I'm taking a lot of steel out of my car and replacing it with a carbon fibre tub. Quite a bit of the steel is rusty where Fisher cut corners, and there's a some steel seam-welded in this car and it can be a real pain to get it all cut/grinded out. Near the end of the day, I was starting to feel like I’d had enough, but was wanting to get one corner finished.

Therein lies the rub . I was wearing a jumper and managed to get the left sleeve of my jumper caught in the grinder (I think I was holding it in my right). Before I knew it, it had whipped the grinder out of my hand, and as it started to spin on the sleeve, it dragged the grinding disk up my arm. Then it stalled.

I don’t like thinking about what it would be like if I had a slitting disk in there rather than a grinding disk.

For those of you still easing out the hangover with a bacon sandwich and a delicate start to the monday, I've put the obligatory picture here in my blog.

I think I'm going to go looking for some kind of gauntlet from now on.

Never underestimate the power of an Angry Grinder. They whip round to face you at an alarming rate
I was saved by the plug pulling out of the socket, and padded overalls.

Could have been a lot worse. Think I might invest in some gaunlets too. I always wear goggles, but have become a bit lax about hand/arm protection recently.

Had a disc shatter on me the other day, that's scary enough!

not good, but could have been a lot worse

I always try to remember that angle grinders will try and kill you given half a chance - if they don't escape and attack you then the disc can explode and send shrapnel in all directions... the extra thin cutting discs are probably the worst at this, but it can happen with any of them

Colleague of mine was using his and it jumped backwards and 'almost' sliced his ear off. Luckily (if I can say that), it hit the skull first, which stopped it going through the ear. Good news was, the ambulance turned up with a film crew, and he was featured on one of those 999 accident emergency programs, which enabled us to all see what had happened, and and of course take the pi$$. It could have been much worse though.

lucky lucky man.
i was expecting lots more gore!!

had a similar, thing, but luckilly was only a wire cup attachment.
bounced back and ripped itself into my tshirt, but always makes you think what if it was a cutting disc!
especially as i never use the guards due to needing to get into corners etc.
cut up an entire shell and a lot of tube using my pair of trusty Makitas, worst i've had is metal in the eye from under my glasses.

Angle Grinders are angry things, I think most of my 'work' scars are from them.

One point of note is that I recently upgraded to a DeWalt angle grinder (£60) after years of using cheapo' grinders and it is so much better (and thus safer), its handles better and has enough power to not dig in and 'grab' like the cheapo' ones do. It also has a nice long and soft cable which makes it alot easier to work with.

it may have cost £30 more than a Clarke/halfords/B&Q grinder but for the saftey alone its worth every penny.

I wasn't too lucky with my experience.

Same as others disc caught and tore it out of my hand. Unfortunately it was a 9" jobbie and I was standing on a ladder at the time. Disc caught me across my face (ouch!) and the handle smacked me on my front teeth knocking me out and off the blasted ladder!

Came to with a crowd around me and after basic first aid the blood congealed and I thought I was OK - which I was really since faces heal remarkably quickly with no scars in my case. Apart from a blasted abscess developing in my front gum where the damn thing hit.

Took 6 months for the dentist to sort it out and I now have a healthy respect for angle grinders. I also have a soft start one!

Cheers!

Thanks all - I appreciate your balanced comments.

I was wearing good goggles, ear defenders and a dust mask. 5 minutes before I did this, I did think: "maybe I should pack in now, but I'll just complete the job".

I will look for gauntlets.

Gauntlets are a good idea, as are a full face visor (less chance of stuff getting up underneath and less stuff hitting your face!). I also like the ones with dead mans handles, it means you can just drop it if needs be and not worry about it.

Had one a while back where I had just fitted a wire brush, but the guard had come loose. I didn't realise til it was too late, then the guard started whipping around and the whole thing shaking, hands slipping towards the brush (I wasn't wearing gloves as I was just testing). Managed to flick it off as it started biting into my finger - I count myself very lucky to have got away with a scar.

Lucky escape! Looks like it was nearly a slit wrist
I've changed to the type that switch off as soon as you let go of them, not the latching switch type

Clothes getting caught in machines is dangerous! At college we're always told no gloves in rotating machine! Except angle grinders
With angle grinders ALWAYS use full face masks

Don't click this if you're a bit squeamish, or are eating jam sandwiches, its nasty, tragic, but a remember to be careful and pay attention and concentrate at all times!
You've been warned, it can't be unseen
http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=41444&start=0

Now, notice he wasn't wearing gloves, and his hands are ok

[Edited on 24/11/14 by blakep82]

I had similar where the grinder bit and caught the back of my left wrist, I had a flap disc on and it looked like i'd burned it afterwards.

9" grinder with cutting disc, when cutting up an old astra, it kicked back and went through my trousers and unfortunately my skin was no match.

When you can see the bone with a grind mark in it you know you lost that day. Even when using full safety equipment anything rotating is a danger.

That lathe accident is something else! Seriously, don't look at the link unless you are in full command of your stomach!

It reminds me of an incident when I was at school where the student at the lathe next to me got his jumper and perhaps also his shirt sleeve caught on the end of a screwdriver which he was polishing with emery cloth. The flat blade screwdriver was mounted in the chuck by the handle and he was polishing the shaft. The blade got inside his sleeve and snagged as you can imagine. I just remember a scream and a cloud of clothing fibres flying up in the air as he fought to keep his arm out of the machine. His "buddy" on the clutch leapt out of the way and it was me who jumped 2 or 3 metres to disengage the motor. Fortunately he only had some friction burns from the shredded sleeve and a bad case of shock. I've never seen anyone so pale, except perhaps the technical teacher who was horrified when he saw what had happened and perhaps more importantly, what almost happened!

The school incident was with approximately a 6 or 8mm shaft, I can only imagine how fast that poor chap above met his demise on a 4 inch shaft turning at 500RPM or so. Kinda makes you wonder if you should be wearing a thin paper coverall instead of a heavy set of fabric overalls.

Did anyone see the end part of the David Attenborough programme "Life Story" where they show how it was filmed?


They were making a frame out of what looked like ally scaffold tube to film the patten the fish made in the sea bed.
With a cutting disc in a small grinder he held it loosely at arms length in one hand. It grabbed and almost jumped out
of his hand. Muppet.


PauL G

Yeah I did see that actually - made me wince a bit...

Ooooh! That's nasty latheness.
When were taught to lathe the biggee was eye protection and that was it from what i remember!

quote:

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Originally posted by ReMan
Ooooh! That's nasty latheness.
When were taught to lathe the biggee was eye protection and that was it from what i remember!

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that's a lot of stored energy in a grinder
mass of disc , gears , armature

if you stop the disk , then that energy will be transferred to the grinder body.

no real point just thought I'd bring some thought science to the wincing subject.

I've been there more times than fingers ( no pun intended ) just been lucky so far although had a few body injury's

I always try to hold in both hands if possible , and yes ware a face mask.

having just cut loads of tube this seams to be particularly prone along with sheet metal .

FWIW steel cup brushes on angry grinders make for very rapid skin removal - I have a patch on my left hand about 1" square where the flesh was ripped clean off exposing everything below after the wheel caught in my sleeve while in "locked on" mode. My hand stalled it.

An old school friend of mine wasnt so lucky. He was using an angle grinder in his shed, something grabbed, disc went through his femoral artery. His wife went down to tell him his dinner was ready and found him dead. The medical crew who arrived later suggested that he would have been dead before he hit the ground...

quote:

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Originally posted by mcerd1

quote:

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Originally posted by ReMan
Ooooh! That's nasty latheness.
When were taught to lathe the biggee was eye protection and that was it from what i remember!

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eye protection and no loose clothing - especially ties and loose sleeves !
that and never ever ever leave the chuck key in the chuck not even for 1 second....

that's hard wired in my brain like it was just yesterday not 12 years ago - the guy that taught us just had to hold up his hands to remind us why it was important - he did have 2 thumbs but only a total of 4 ½ fingers left - makes it hard to forget...


gloves is a tricky one for things like lathes, I've heard a few stories of them getting caught and pulling you in
but I've also heard stories of folks fingers getting pulled off without gloves (similar to the way folk loose fingers handling heavy steel stock without gloves)
so personally I go with the heavy leather gloves, the kind that aren't that tight a fit so if it gets caught the glove gets pulled off your hand instead of a finger (same as I wear with the angry grinder actually) but I do know the risk of one getting caught...


oh and while were at it rings, never ever wear a ring in the workshop/garage !
if your finger gets squashed without a ring you get a nasty bruise and maybe a broken finger but with a ring on it can cut your finger off


[Edited on 25/11/2014 by mcerd1]

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quote:

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Originally posted by redturner
An old school friend of mine wasnt so lucky. He was using an angle grinder in his shed, something grabbed, disc went through his femoral artery. His wife went down to tell him his dinner was ready and found him dead. The medical crew who arrived later suggested that he would have been dead before he hit the ground...

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another one is watches, especially the ones with metal straps

apart from the obvious ways that it could get caught - someone a while back accidently touched on across the battery terminals which it quickly welded itself to them, as I remember he got some very nasty burns before he managed break the strap and free himself

that lathe link is nasty!!!
It reminds me of a close call I had about 10 years ago getting my teeshirt caught on the freshly greased lead-screw on my colchester student........it pulled me towards the chuck in the blink of an eye but luckily the force of me pulling against it broke a shear-pin on the lead-screw's drive gear and released me....bl00dy close call though.

And also a couple of years ago, I caught my finger on an angle grinder cutting disc......just a light tough on the disc but it went into my finger like a laser-beam....and would of kept going all the way through if luck hadn't of gone my way...

Both my accidents were 100% down to being complacent at the time of them happening...........being a machinist all my life and doing some form of fabrication most days a week makes it too easy to get ahead of myself in terms of safety.

I do sometimes wonder if I really should be using the lathe when I'm at home on my own. That link didn't help :-/

I'm often amazed by people that watch a lathe from level with the chuck.

( If I have to explain that then I'm waisting oxygen. )


And here's a tip; keep your phone in your top pocket.

( Since mobiles store numbers in alphabetical order my home land line is stored as AAAhome. )



Stay safe.
Paul G

I read some statistic somewhere* that said that the biggest cause of accidents in a workshop was the pillar drill - after using all the big, obviously dangerous machines the operator would turn round and use the drill too casually - not enough clamps, no eye protection, etc - and end up being gashed by spinning work, or get swarf in the eye.

* 98.735% of all statistics are made up.

[Edited on 26/11/14 by David Jenkins]

My old metalwork teacher was demonstrating how to use one of those adjustable hole cutters, the type with th drill in the middle and the chisel like blade that slid in and out. He had a piece of 16swg steel plate and it was held in a vice grip but sadly it grabbed and slashed his hand between thumb and finger and went in about an inch. There was blood everywhere and we thought his thumb was gone.....Like he said after, It should have been clamped down.....

I'd get that properly checked/dressed. I had a similar injury from an angle grinder a few years ago that I thought was just a shallow skin removal on my ankle. Two days later it started really hurting and when I woke the next morning the veins in my leg were bright red half way to my knee - visit to hospital for the blood poisining, and after the doctors has a casual conversation on whether it was too far gone for antibiotics or if they should go straight to amputation at the knee (went for the antibiotics I'm glad to say), the doctor explained that infections are quite common on this sort of injury. The problem is : you get loads of grit blasted into the injury from the grinding disk and they can be quite deep and you dont realise because the red hot periphy of the disk cauterizes the wound and the burn makes it swell up. When the inflamation on mine went down it was obviously about 1/4 inch deep.
Regards
Hugh

quote:

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Originally posted by David Jenkins
I read some statistic somewhere* that said that the biggest cause of accidents in a workshop was the pillar drill - after using all the big, obviously dangerous machines the operator would turn round and use the drill too casually - not enough clamps, no eye protection, etc - and end up being gashed by spinning work, or get swarf in the eye.

* 98.735% of all statistics are made up.

[Edited on 26/11/14 by David Jenkins]

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