Morris Minor Owners Club

TomLS wrote:I can see more and more that I should fit in well here. Been to hospital and had a lump of steel picked out of my eye with a hypodermic whilst awake.
I have also accumulated 24 permanent scars on my hands from over-zealous spanner, grinder, and MIG use, and a couple of burn scars on my torso from welding. I have also set my own crotch on fire whilst grinding without an apron...
And I'm 23, so I've got a few years of tom-foolery to go... I'm probably going to lose a finger at this rate!

are you the new frank spencer

It's when you're not thinking that it can happen.
Noticed a bit of weld I'd missed grinding,in boot . Thought it'd only take a second, picked up grinder, didnt pick up goggles, first spark straight in eye, eye closed up solid, few hours in casualty but lucky escape.
It IS sometimes a pain to put on mask,goggles,ear defenders, especially combinations of them, bit definitely not worth risk of omitting 'em.
Also never use a grinder within sight of any white UPVC windowframes/doors otherwise several weeks later your parents/loved ones will not understand why their pristine frames and doors are rapidly going rusty.

TomLS wrote:I can see more and more that I should fit in well here. Been to hospital and had a lump of steel picked out of my eye with a hypodermic whilst awake.
I have also accumulated 24 permanent scars on my hands from over-zealous spanner, grinder, and MIG use, and a couple of burn scars on my torso from welding. I have also set my own crotch on fire whilst grinding without an apron...
And I'm 23, so I've got a few years of tom-foolery to go... I'm probably going to lose a finger at this rate!

'Tell the kids that today and they wouldn't believe you'---please, enough of this one-upmanship.

I remember a lad at work doing some grinding at work and getting something in his eye, didnt think nothing of it and finished grinding. He though he then had got dust/eyelash etc and started to rub it to get it out and after about 10min of profuse eye watering decided to go to the nurse and get her to wash it out. Ended up he had got a tiny piece fo grinding dust in his eye and all his rubbing scratched his lense and had to spend the next three weeks with an eye patch on. Taught him to wear goggles

Also never use a grinder within sight of any white UPVC windowframes/doors otherwise several weeks later your parents/loved ones will not understand why their pristine frames and doors are rapidly going rusty

Mmm.. that takes me back 20 years! Fortunately my mum's front window looked a bit better after treating the plastic frame and sill with T-Cut

Grinding the completely rusted up nuts and bolts off my moggy's front bumper (from the back of the valance) heated up the underseal I'd painted it with 3 days previous. The hot underseal was then splashed up my arm. Now got cig' size burns up my right forearm that are as itchy as hell. Hind sight is fantastic at seeing idiocy, isn't it.

The only time (luckily) that I landed up in hospital with eye trouble was about 30 years ago - I'd been using a grinder and got a bit of swarf about 2mm long embedded in my eye - it was not the fact that it hurt like hell, or the fact that they dug it out with local anesthetic so I could see the scalpel, no, what absolutely convinced me to ALWAYS use eye protection was the fact that the ward was snided out with customers as usual and the bloke in the next bed (and there were no curtains or dividers or anything) had had his eye taken out of the socket cos his bit of whatever had got BEHIND the eye and the eye was dangling about on his cheek. And he could still see out of it. And I didn't fancy that at all at all. And I still don't!

beware of sneezes when using a 9" grinder.. I cut through my top lip resulting in over 30 stitches. According to a friend I looked like an extra from a horror movie coming out of the garage with blood leaking from my mouth and the angle grinder tangled up in the fleece I was wearing under my overalls

People at A&E thought I was crazy as I was sitting there cracking jokes about it.

Also on the subject of angle grinders, never remove the guard-I was cutting the exhaust off a Honda Accord a good few years back,and the exhaust had a clamp where the nuts had rounded off so I removed the guard ( with goggles on) donned a pair of heavy duty leather work gloves,got a good grip on the grinder and started cutting-the grinder cut through too quickly and promptly flicked back on my hand-I dropped it and thought "By Jove, that was darned close" or words to that effect,close inspection of the glove revealed a neat 1/4" grove about an inch long-then it started to hurt.......whipped the glove off to see a neat angle grinder blade width cut right down to the knuckle so I quickly washed it (argh.)and used some masking tape and bog roll to effect a field dressing ( the blood ALWAYS makes it look worse in my books) put the tools away and drove down to A&E where a nice man washed the wound out (that hurt more than the cutting,oh and bone is grey in colour!) and patched me up with a few stitches.
As a result,I always leave the guard inplace at all times,lesson learnt-but you do see bods on car restoration programmes using grinders without the guard on...........

bjbrownie wrote:.
As a result,I always leave the guard inplace at all times,lesson learnt-but you do see bods on car restoration programmes using grinders without the guard on...........

So is the moral to this bit of the story "Leave it to the 'experts'" ?

Cor blimey,right bunch of stuntmen in here haha!!Worst thing i did was my grinder caught in my padded work shirt at my chest and pulled right into me,luckily the shirt jammed the motor!! Im one of those that wears a huge auto-tint welding mask that goes right around the side of my head,yet,welding splatter will 'still' go right down my lug hole without touching the sides!!
Ditto for goggles.things still seem to get in my eyes!I think what happens is there is a lovely little row of dust,rust and general poop along your eye brows,goggles off,muck falls in your eye,brilliant!!
Arc eye from a welder is a nightmare though,you're ok all evening then all of a sudden at 2 in the morning you're in intense,unbearable pain!!

These days i wear goggles, over head ear defenders, safety boots, gloves and a decent mask to stop all the dust entering my lungs, they can all be a pain putting on or getting use to wearing but after seeing a friend who has used power tools for years slip and cut into his forearm that has required operations and physiotherapy, I decided five minutes extra eaxh time i do a job is worth it.

I hate to admit but I'm one of those annoying geezers that swings chainsaws about wearing shorts , t shirt & bare feet
Having said that I've had grinding bits in my eye on a couple of occasions, needing a&e, one went for a number of days feeling like grit in the corner of the eye, it continued to annoy so I went in, finally, to be told it was beginning to be absorbed into the tissue of the eye.
Luckily the eye expert was excellent, a Greek bloke who said he used to do loads of these every week back home on construction sites, good as his word he hoiked the bit of metal out painlessly.
The white bit still years hence has a slight rusty stain tho..I'm a bit more careful with grinders and protective glasses now.

To use a thought from Zen and the art,-------you need to be a lot older to appreciate protective clothing!

Yikes, if I get much older my ppe will have a nice oak effect with brass handles!

Although this is an old topic, it carries a very important message that I would like to reinforce with this picture:
I have lost count of the number of grinding discs that I have used over the years, and I have never had one explode until now. This 4.5 inch disc was in a pacl of ten, all labelled as for metal use. It came from a well-known national supplier that I have used before and was fitted in exactly the same way as any other. After a few seconds grinding it exploded leaving just what you see here on the grinder; the rest of it flew around and some hit my goggles - thank goodness I was wearing them. The message is simple: don't take chances, do as the topic title says.

Was it in date?
A common mistake made by home users and workplace users alike, is for discs to be out of date. Beyond that, the glue that binds them together is breaking down.
How many people think to check the dates on that bargain you find on a market stall or at an auto-jumble?

...and then check it sometime later when you're using it? Surprising how quick time flies between grinding jobs. I know I had to chuck a few recently as they had gone over-date.

The manufacturing date and Expiry date should on the centre metal.
They typically only have a 3 year life.

Thanks, have to have a look at my disc's - didn't realise they had a date on them.
No date on double ended grinder wheel's is there?

Alan

alanworland wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 12:16 pm Thanks, have to have a look at my disc's - didn't realise they had a date on them.
No date on double ended grinder wheel's is there?

Alan

Depends on their construction.
If they are Organic/Resin Bonded, they should have a manufacture date and the expiry is 3 years after that.
If it's Inorganic Bonded, which I think Bench Wheels are, then they don't.

As both a Traveller owner and putting my other hat on as a Senior Nurse in a large A&E Department, I see a fair amount of Car/DIY related eye injuries. As regards eye grinds, Large lumps are usually straightforward to sort. The problem comes with the little niggles that people ignore for a few days before presentation. Problem then is not so much removing a tiny grind, but removing the rust that has stained the Cornea. If you think about it, metal left in a pool of salty water (tears) for days will rust! Good first aid, with plenty of irrigation and early presentation is the key. That said, don't let it happen in the first place!