Tear up hand, get new toy!

Cripes, I gotta quit doing myself in. I went for years without doing much to myself, seems like I'm trying to make up for lost time recently.

The bad news, I'm once again out of commission. This time due to the attack of the grinder and a vicious cut off wheel. Hand looks a little, er, interesting.

The good news, wife say I should go get a portable bandsaw instead of trying that sort of cut again with a wheel. Woho! New tool time. Her fault anyways, I was fixing the kitchen table as per her request.

Did give me a nice opportunity to show my 10 year old boy how you handle pain and do first aid before you get to the hospital and such (flushing out the wound, pulling out chunks of the grenaded wheel, controlling bleeding, etc). Since he's grown up hunting and trapping and such, he wasn't really bothered by the blood and mess. In fact he was quite fascinated to see how the tendons move and how the joint operates. The stitching process intrigued him, particularly the types of knots used. The doctors were quite intrigued by him.

Pics or it didnt happen!

Most dangerous tool I have ever used is an angle grinder. Is that what did you in?

Sorry to hear about your hand. I had a similiar incident/close call this afternoon trying to use a HF cutting wheel on my angle grinder. The dang thing started to come apart on the first cut with a new wheel, and showered my arms with bits of cut off wheel. Lucky for me I stopped before it really got a chance to tear me up. Don't think I will be using the rest of that Jumbo pack of wheels no matter how many I have left. Guess that's another for the don't buy from Harbor Freight list.

Another thing on angle grinders...4.5inch knotted wire brushes can remove a 1/2" x 4" section on skin between thumb and first finger almost instantaneously. I still have the scar tissue 7 years later.

I had a close call with an angle grinder, but the damage was not as great as you experienced. I hadn't buttoned the cuffs on my welding jacket, and the left one got caught in the angle grinder. as it wrapped up the loose fabric, it was pulled into my hand. I lost a little skin, but luckily, the fabric bound wadded up under the guard and stopped it from turning any more.....

LopRacer wrote: Sorry to hear about your hand. I had a similiar incident/close call this afternoon trying to use a HF cutting wheel on my angle grinder. The dang thing started to come apart on the first cut with a new wheel, and showered my arms with bits of cut off wheel. Lucky for me I stopped before it really got a chance to tear me up. Don't think I will be using the rest of that Jumbo pack of wheels no matter how many I have left. Guess that's another for the don't buy from Harbor Freight list.

The Boy and I call those types of items "lose your face" stuff.

LopRacer wrote: Sorry to hear about your hand. I had a similiar incident/close call this afternoon trying to use a HF cutting wheel on my angle grinder. The dang thing started to come apart on the first cut with a new wheel, and showered my arms with bits of cut off wheel. Lucky for me I stopped before it really got a chance to tear me up. Don't think I will be using the rest of that Jumbo pack of wheels no matter how many I have left. Guess that's another for the don't buy from Harbor Freight list.

That is why I get the other people on the Formula team to do the grinding instead. (I bought Harbor Freight disc)

It may sound sadistic, but if you'd keep injuring yourself (on a periodic basis of course) you could end up w/ all new shop equipment within a year or two. That is if you're a good healer and the wife doesn't catch on.

Chuckle, the thought has occurred to me, as I am a good healer. Though since she already supports the buying of tools, I'm well covered on that point. In fact, she was just a little snarky that there was such a tool and that I hadn't already bought it.

I'd love to blame the wheel, but it was me. You know how you always drag the wheel to make the cut, and never work on the pushing side. Well, once again I worked from the push side, only to have it catch and leap, and jump into my hand. At which point the wheel was coming apart, while slicing me nicely. Not the first time I've been nailed by a grinder, but perhaps the worst.

Once again I must thank a guardian angel, for while it sliced deeply and messily, it conveniently skipped just a little as it went across the tendons, managing to only nick them a little.

No pics, sorry. I just generally don't bother with pictures at that point. Now, it's jus a suture line and an oddly puffy hand.

Did Plastics or Ortho sew you up?

Doode, you gotta be more careful here. As we, ahhh... get older, we don't bounce quite as well as we used to, so we gotta be a tad bit more careful not to make boo-boos.

Did the same last summer. Only with knee, resulting in 13 stitches, Could see the acl working. Very lucky. First stitches outside my mouth(wisdom teeth). I have learned some respect. Guess thats what the guards are for.