Thread: It pays to be warned

Originally Posted by Geezer

Mot dangerous thing in any shop is INATTENTION!
~Richard

And overconfidence.

The worst one I know was a guy who worked in the same place as a colleague of mine used to work, 20 or 30 years ago.
That was at Ford, where they made body parts for cars. They had gigantic presses for turning sheet metal into car parts, such as a hood or trunk lid. Of course, they don't run the press continuously, they make batches of parts in one go so the machine is dormant for part of the week. And the production schedule is known in advance.

One of the night shift technicians had the habit of finding places to doze off and get some nap time during his shift.
Can you see where this is going?

He took some cardboard, and made himself a nest inside the die for stamping hoods. Because this way he was hidden from view (the thing was hollowed out downwards) and comfortable, because apparently the presses were always warm. And while he was sleeping the maintenance dept fired up the press for maintenance. Think squashing a lemon with an anvil... His blood and other liquified goo squished out so violently it hung on the inner walls of the building, and what was left of him had to be scraped off the dies.

And that is why you don't sleep in a hundred ton press.

To combine the wedding ring thing and the 100 ton press, my first wife got quite heavy, and one night......I guess I'd better stop here.

I used to work in a factory that had large transfer presses making transmission parts. I've seen what happens to very thick solid steel... not pretty.

I saw a video once from china, a large transfer press, except instead of a mechanical transfer of parts inside the press there were 6 gentleman that would hunch down when the press came and then lift up and switch the parts manually... completely absurd... I couldn't believe my eyes.

Originally Posted by Bruno

And overconfidence.

Also safety devices that don't work as they should, some sure makes it safe but if you can't do your job with them on it's of no use and then no one will care about them.
Welding glasses in a goldsmiths shop, I'm not building a ship, I'm welding a venetian chain and I'd like to see what I'm doing!

Sometimes not being scared and getting closer to the machinery is the best way not to get hurt.

As I read the initial post it reminded me of a welding mishap that I had one time. Self darkening helmets were very new and we had one in the shop. I had to weld a rod coupler to the bottom of a machine. I thought that lying on my back it would be a good reason to use the helmet so I didn't have to try to nod my head to get the helmet down. When I got under the machine it was to dark to see even through the undimmed lens so I figured I would just close my eyes as I tacked the piece. It would have worked fine except I had my mouth open! A big piece of slag fell into my mouth and I burnt my tongue and cheek rolling it around and trying to get it out as I scrambled out from under the machine spitting away. As I stood at the drinking fountain after rinsing out my mouth to add insult to injury I smelled something burning. As I looked down I saw the frayed edge of the leg of my blue jeans on fire.

I am glad I was the only one in the room at the time.

Originally Posted by Lemur

Sometimes not being scared and getting closer to the machinery is the best way not to get hurt.

True. But probably not near machinery that would not even slow down as it tore your arm off.

Originally Posted by 32t

As I read the initial post it reminded me of a welding mishap that I had one time. Self darkening helmets were very new and we had one in the shop. I had to weld a rod coupler to the bottom of a machine. I thought that lying on my back it would be a good reason to use the helmet so I didn't have to try to nod my head to get the helmet down. When I got under the machine it was to dark to see even through the undimmed lens so I figured I would just close my eyes as I tacked the piece. It would have worked fine except I had my mouth open! A big piece of slag fell into my mouth and I burnt my tongue and cheek rolling it around and trying to get it out as I scrambled out from under the machine spitting away. As I stood at the drinking fountain after rinsing out my mouth to add insult to injury I smelled something burning. As I looked down I saw the frayed edge of the leg of my blue jeans on fire.

I am glad I was the only one in the room at the time.

Is it on youtube?

Originally Posted by Bruno

True. But probably not near machinery that would not even slow down as it tore your arm off.

Well, I know that too well, but at some work it's a risk involved you have to take to get the work done.
Like driving a car, lots of people get killed every day, but people still drive.

IF you can remove the risk of getting hurt and still do your job then it's fine but sometimes you can't.

Originally Posted by Lemur

Is it on youtube?

I got thinking that it probably was before the founders of youtube were born so I looked it up. I was wrong they were about 15 years old.