Injuries: Nasty, Mundane, Funny & Dumb
We all get banged, bumped, cut and bruised daily on the jobsite. Sometimes serious, usually not. There’s always a story behind the dramatic ones – and like fish stories, they morph the more they are told.
How did you damage yourself (or someone on your crew).
I told Phil not to hold his left hand so close to the end of the stud when shooting on the bottom plate. 10 minutes later I was driving him to the hospital to have a 12d pulled out.
Steve was the old man on the crew at 30. Bounce nailing off 3/4 T&G with 8d ring shanks he planted the nailer nose smack in the middle of his foot. Luckily he didn’t drive it through and into a joist. We couldn’t grab the head, it buried itself through the top of his shoe. So two of us held Steve from squirming while a third went into the basement to pound up the nail. Wish I had my earplugs in when he started screaming. One guy clawed the nail head and gave one final yank. The nail split a bone and he was out of work for months.
I was filling in the roof sheathing on the dormer cheak of a Cape. My hammer hook caught one of the Cape rafters I was standing between and threw mm off balance. I tried hooking my leg and foot around a rafter as I tipped to one side in an effort to keep from falling. It kind of worked but I kept tipping all the way over. When my head slammed the side of the building I couldn’t quite hold on with the foot. Now I’m pointed downwards – head first – and the momentum is building. On the way, I didn’t see my life flash before my eyes so I knew it wasn’t my time but I thought – “This is going to hurt.”
Charlie had been working with us for 3 weeks. When he saw me zip past the first floor window RO, he was amazed how quiet I was. I did manage to roll a little so I landed on my shoulder and neck. I wish the excavator had finished rough grading – but the string of rock piles along the walk-out basement wall was still there.
By the time the guys reached me I was already up on my feet (dumb move)- looking up at the 28 feet I’d just dropped (it used to be 23’and will probably be 32′ before I see my life-flash). Not much blood and the body parts still seemed to work. I put my tool belt back on and went back to work (very dumb). Within 10 minutes my legs started to swell up, and my head, and my shoulder. I hopped in my truck and headed to the hospital (extremely dumb).
The X-ray of my back showed a vertebra had broken – several years ago (Hmm, don’t recollect that one) but otherwise I was just in for 2 weeks of pain (thank goodness for codine), elevated legs, and an iced head and shoulder.
MG
Replies
I actually shot my foot down with a hilti powder gun blowing sill down to the concrete, ya know the nail with the big washer attached. I tried to CALMLY borrow a wonder bar, the guy who brought it over just kinda nodded and said "bet that stings". Caught my pantleg with a ship auger bit in a holehawg & went right through my calf, we just took the bit out of the chuck and drove over to the e-room, well my partner did, I wasn't actually awake. And just last week I was crawling through the attic of a motel, stepping from truss to truss, when a truss let go. Rode the broken truss through the rock on my jewel case till I was standing in front of the check-in counter with blown-in insulation a raining down. Fortunately it had been a couple of weeks since my vasectomy. Upon further inspection it was discovered the truss was not sitting on the plate, no nails/ no blocking just the rock between two good trusses holding it up....for 20 yrs. waiting for me.
Edited 11/28/2004 10:17 pm ET by pye
Distracted by gf, I was sliding the blade back on a utility knife while sticking it into my toolbelt. Somehow instead of thumbing the slide.. I thumbed the blade. Then did my best to conceal from her that I'd just sliced my thumb open.
jt8
That only has one answer.
In god we truss!!!"Sir, if you were my husband I would poison your tea"
"Madam, if I were your husband I would drink it." Sir Winston Churchhill
Nasty and dumb -- Just about to the 30th aniversary of spending 2 weeks inthe hospital with 37 separate broken skull fragments after getting between a 'dozer and a falling tree - too long a story, but did survive with not too much permanent damage. Moral of story was that had tken ROPS off dozer for some maintenance and was 'going to do just one quick job' befor I put it back on - have not gotten back an a machine in the woods without FOPS since.
Mundane, plan old age? -- Have never had a broken bone or torn muscle in entire life till 3 weeks ago, really has put a crimp in working style Got from very simple 'slip'. Taking dump truck tire off rim with hand operated machine and slipped while pulling on de-mount bar, really tore rotator cuff. Moral of story here is that after 3 score years the old bod looks like it may be more susceptible to injury.
37 separate broken skull fragments
You win. I suspect anyone with more damage is dead...or a pro hockey player.
Regards,
Tim Ruttan
Nothing compared to some of these, but just had to chime in:
Years ago, doing some hack body work on a 69 VW squareback, using a pretty big aluminum pop rivet tool...had to really bear down to get the rivet to pop...using both hands and one thigh and squeezing for all I've got. Rivet finally pops, tool handles come together right on left middle finger tip over the nail. Jumped up and down with the pain, finger nail still has a white streak.
And, just the other week, lying on my back in 30" crawl space, sweating copper pipe, close to a joist, delecate act to keep torch pointed at joint while avoiding joist and holding solder in other hand, big glob of molten solder gets down my left wrist sleeve, cools off while raising a nice run-shaped blister on tender inside forearm, but could feel it skip all the way down to arm pit. Couldn't drop the torch on plastic vapor barrier. Scar still gets sore sometimes. Just kept soldering.
I hate it when that happens.
Rich.
There's a difference?
<shades of Monty Python>
That pro hockey player isn't dead...he's just resting.
Regards,
Tim Ruttan
Years ago my best friend and I were helpers on a crew. One side of the roof was close to the ground on this house. In fact we could stand on this mound and trim the tails off the trusses.
He was a short guy but refused to let me help cut. He was stretching overhead to cut these tails. He gets to the last one, tired, and this one he's really, really pushing to get the skil saw blade through the wood (he didn't realize he was standing on the cord). Finally he gets through, his arm/shoulder burning from fatigue he lets the saw fall to his side. Unfortunately, the blade was still spinning and went trhough his thigh, almost to the bone.
Later, after the ER visit, he realized the saw also cut a whole in his shorts pocket, and he lost like $23. We went back to look for the money. We found it jammed up inside between the saw blade and the guard.http://members.fishingworks.com/bo444444/index.cfm
My most bizarre accident... Was hand paring some joinery when the chisel rolled off my workbench and came straight down like a guillotine onto the joint of my big toe. I look down and see this perfect slit cut in a brand new sneaker so I'm really p*ssed off as I go back to carving away. Then I think...hmmm, I wonder? I take off my sneaker and see the sock pushed down in this tiny thin red line on the knuckle. Oh oh... I take off the sock and squirtttttttt...
Six stitches worth, the nurses were calling folks in to show em and have me describe how it happened...
Do not mention big toe please..Had a custome who owned a real cool LAB type sink..black stone DBL bowl..real deep, elbow paddles for the handles..way cool. I told him how I coveted it..and said.."take it, it's yours..but here is the steel cabinet that it goes on..it has to go too"DW and I show up the next day with an empty van..I am wearing sandles and shorts..being 98 degrees and all...as we scoot the 6' base cabinet across the guys deck..she let go..some how when it hit the deck..so did I. The cab. somehow got my toe..a lot of blood..a ton of ouch..I limped to the van for someting to stop the blood (or aleast contain it) and saw the toenail was GONE..I got a blue paper towel like from the filling station, and some masking tape ..and tied it up, moved the cab into the van by myself..adrenaline is a good thing..Got home, and remembered reading some where cayanne pepper was good as a clotting agent..so I dumped a half jar of some of my favorite 40,000 scovill unit stuff on my toe...I almost died, a red line ran up my leg..into the blood stream so fast, the rush almost made me pass out..eventually...6 mos or longer, it grew back..alll is fine..but what a summer I spent.I never, never wear sandals anymore...ever.Oh, i cleaned his deck with peroxide, his DW came home and found the nail..LOL
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Cayenne pepper??? holyyyyyyyy craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap! Had a friend slam his finger in a car door badly once, after he got home from the ER, we found the nail stuck in the weatherstripping... ugh.
My most clever screwup was in trimming a tree limb. This particular limb was very long and about 3" in diameter. I figured it was too big to drop all at once, so I set my ladder against the limb about 1/3 of the way out from the trunk. Nope, to all you who are anticipating this: I did NOT cut between the ladder and thr trunk. But I did only have the ladder about a foot taller than the limb. So once I cut it, standing up there on the ladder with the chainsaw screaming, and the weight on the limb was released, it bounced up higher than the top of the ladder.
The ladder fell through, I threw the chainsaw with all my might to get it away from me. The torque of dooing that put one of my legs through the ladder between the rungs. When the foot of the ladder and I hit the ground, with me still standing upright, that ladder rung ran down my shin from knee to ankle. Boy does that hurt!
In my lengthy career as a framing contractor I have seen my fair share of blood spilled and body parts removed from their original owners, but the accident that really stands out as number one is the story of one of my earliest employees, Art. Art had been with us a while and seemed to be doing well despite the fact that he was older than everyone including me by about 10 years. One fine day Art was assigned to finished the joisting and hang the rim board on a deck we were doing that was an easy 30 feet above ground zero. The joists were to be cantilevered past the beam 24 inches and so Art snapped a chalk line along the tops and then used his square to mark his cut line. The marks were all on the same side except for the last one, don't ask me why. So the cutting began, he was going along cutting and the pieces fell off and down right on schedule. He got to the last joist and because the line was on the opposite side he stepped out onto the piece that was going to be cut off and started his cut. My laborer and I caught this maneuver about halfway through and started yelling his name but it was half past too late at this point. The look on his face as that piece snapped off to this day reminds me of Wil E. Coyote during a cliff dive. The whole crew ran out on the deck and looked down to see Art laying in a big pile of sand the stucco guys had delivered that morning. Not a mark on him and he stayed with us for a couple of years more. In construction that is known as "dodging a bullet."
Edited 11/30/2004 8:25 pm ET by FRAMERBOY
I’ve been a long time Habitat volunteer with my local affiliate. Because of this work I’ve been asked to give presentations on worksite management and construction safety. Yeah they think I may be a expert or sumthang. So three days before I have to give a presentation on safety I’m in my shop working with my table saw. I’ve got my safety glasses on, hearing protection and am using a push stick. Once the piece is through the blade the small waste piece is sitting near the blade. I’m thinking…man that could be flung by the blade I better move it. With a flip of my hand I grab the scrap piece. In the process my thumb touches the blade.
Shut the saw down, grab a rag, lock up the shop. On the way to the ER call the girlfriend and calmly tell her to get my medical card from my desk and meet me at the hospital. Nurse and Doctor have a laugh as they sew a flap of skin back to the end of my thumb. A few days later I’m giving my presentation wrapped up thumb and all. That’s when someone finally asks if my table saw has a guard. Hmmm gotta get me one of those.
Check out the link “my big mistake” http://geocities.com/martink98/ careful its ugly.
Edited 11/30/2004 8:38 pm ET by MARTINK98
Dang, I've got way too many to tell all at once, so I'll start the installments with the one that pizzes me off the most...the one I have to remember every single day...Late 70's I had a framing crew and I was trying to get new work doing some condos. I figured I'd go down there & work a day with the contractor's crew & suss out the situation. 5 min til quitting time...I'm cutting some 16' 2x6s and the long drop is being caught by a helper...I'm cutting, out of the corner of my eye see someone scooting under the drop...also notice the helper's not there to catch it. I thought hey, I can grab the drop, reached under the board right into the saw blade...thunk...bout whacked my right thumb off above the second knuckle. Only good thing I have to say about Duke is that they kept it from totally falling off<G>Still have to get Mrs 'Snort to button stuff for me... Don't worry, we can fix that later!
Just remembered this one. Without a doubt the dumbest-a$$ thing I've probably every done (except for the other D-A screw-ups I forgot about so far...).
Years 'n' years ago, before I had many tools; no table saw but had an old $19.95 Skil and a B&D Workmate. Yep, you guessed it; had the circ turned upside down and clamped in the Workmate to make like a table saw. Turned it on by jamming a screwdriver through the trigger underneath the table top. Trying to mitre-rip an 8' pine 2x4 into cornice moulding for the top of an armoire I'd just about finished out there in the front yard (didn't have a shop, either LOL). Just about as I got to the last foot of that 8 footer, she sagged, the kerf closed up and the whole thing kicked back so hard I never even saw it go. But it brought my left hand back with it, dragging the back of the middle finger right across the top of the blade (guard pinned back, of course!). Cut to the bone from the second knuckle right out through the fingernail to the tip. But the blade never touched the bone. Stone cold lucky....
Admitting nurse at the ER said, 'What happened to you?' I said 'Circular saw.' She said, 'Have a seat; you're the third one today....'
When I got home, I found that 2x4 twenty feet away from my 'table saw'. Quite a kick for a cheap ol' Skilsaw....
Left the next day to ship out as Chief Mate on a sea-going tug for two months. Had to pull my own stitches 10 days later, sitting in the galley in 20-foot seas, hollering at a puking deckhand to hold the goddamned sutures tight with the pliers so's I could cut 'em with my rigging knife. Never was sure if he was puking because he was seasick or because of the fresh scar and the stitches weeping blood. He didn't speak more'n about 3 words of English, being a refugee second mate from a Russian oil tanker....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
I did almost that exact same thing about 15 years ago except I was using a bow saw and was able to somehow avoid getting hung up in he ladder.
I knew the limb was going to raise up some after the weight was removed but I thought I had allowed enough room.
Landed on my arse and was just thankful that my leg had not been caught in the ladder.
"I will never surrender or retreat. " Col. Wm. B. Travis, The Alamo, Feb. 1835
Bob,
I like that one.
Well, I am not sure this qualifies, but it was definitely funny and dumb.
While hanging crown, I was concentrating so hard (saying to myself 57 and 7/8...57 and 7/8...), I forgot what step of the ladder I was on, so the floor was not there when I thought it would be (it was one step lower).
Landed smack on my derierre. Luckily, I was the only one on the jobsite. After the "ouch" part I had a good laugh at myself.
Oh, I've missed the last step more than once. Doesn't get any better the second time.
Got in a hurry once, rushed into my 5x8 trailer to get something, and rushed out again. The ceiling height is only about 5'-8" so the door is down around 5'-4" or so. I forgot that part as I was rushing out. I have to duck a little inside the trailer, so I was already looking down on the way out and didn't see the low header.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Actually, can't tell you how delighted I was to land on one cheek, instead of my tailbone!
(Mental note: Always turn one cheek. <g>)
I know exactly what you mean. I do dumb that I do that at least once a month.
"I was concentrating so hard (saying to myself 57 and 7/8...57 and 7/8...), "
Ya know, there's a lil thing called "pencil and paper" that'd avoid that situation, silly.....
It could be written on the hand that's seen as more important, too. Or on the piece that's going to be cut with a mark to indicate where the waste is, maybe?
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
You need to remember measurment numbers? I take one of those formica samples (white), and epoxy it onto my tape measure and write all the #'s on that. You would be surprised at how a little thing like that saves the amount of time that it does.
Jer, thats a very excellent tip!
I need a chip and some epoxy now....
that'll never happen.
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
A few years back, I was part of a crew tearing down a deck that was about 10 feet above a concrete drive. I was stomping the cut pieces down and I guess one gave way before I hit it so my foot kept going with the rest of my body behind it. I landed on my shoulder on the concrete. The other guys there said I screamed so loud after I hit that they thought I had impaled myself on a piece of wood and that I was a goner.
Shoulder socket was broken in two places and I spent a few hours in the E-room. Morphine is a crazy drug. I could feel it numbing my body as it rode through my veins.
After I was picked up from the E-room, I bought a bag of White Castle and ate it on the way home. My ride wanted to stop at Best Buy to buy some movies and while inside, I puked every bit of food that I had just eaten.
Amazingly, my arm is in perfect condition. It's in such good condition that I actually don't even recall which shoulder I broke. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
I'll bet when you hit 50 or 60 you'll remember which shoulder it was. Isn't the morphine traveling through your arteries the weirdest feeling. You can actually feel it branching throughout your body. It feels like a warmness.
Alright, promise not to repeat this? I was working Grinding rail down in Texas one time and couldn't get the operator to get his head out of his arse and run the patterns I was calling on the radio. To emphasize how mad I was I ripped off my hard hat and threw it about twenty feet away. I walked over to it scooped it up, forgetting to shake the sand out of it. Fate kicked me in the gonads that day. It was full of ants. I played it cool and took it like a man though. Just gave a sinister little grin as they ate my back raw. No one has ever been the wiser until now.
Who Dares Wins.
Fire ants?
No. I've been hit with them twice. Thses guys were biters but not that brutal.Who Dares Wins.
Once while screwing off rock on the top of a wall about 15' tall,I was holding a piece of backing and put the screw through my finger and out the fingernail,in the panic I dropped the screwgun.My partner was nowhere to found so I ended up ripping my finger off the screw,the result was ugly at best.I was new to the company and didn't want to jepardise my job,so I just wrapped it with duct tape.Soaked it in peroxcide that night for a few hours and it healed slowly but surely,cyaMike
Christ Mike, you aint safe to work around!
I'm not even going to bore you with any of my tales.
Doug
I didn't scratch the surface of tales - long and short. Many guys on the crew refused to work near me; claimed I was bad luck.
I did hardi-panel soffit on a 7500' house about 8 yrs ago that had can lights in the oveerhang everywhere. We had a 4 1/4" diamond tipped hole saw that only fit in our 1/2" drill. There were holes in the top of the hole saw to clean out the plugs that were just large enough to get a finger in to push out the plugs. One finger from each hand pushing the plug, the drill tucked firmly under my arm... Oh @$#^! I hit the trigger with my armpit and immediately let the drill go from my armpit which in turn came around and smashed me in the cheek. A totally twisted finger, bruised cheek and totally damaged psyche later... The finger still has a goofy hook to it.
"let the drill go from my armpit which in turn came around and smashed me in the cheek. "I am STILL trying to figure out how you got your armpit to swing around and smash you in the cheek....
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
Quote: "I am STILL trying to figure out how you got your armpit to swing around and smash you in the cheek...."
Luka, if we wait awhile, Mike Guertin is sure to bring his vast expertise to bear on this particular accident. ;)
Good thing Dustin let go of the drill, otherwise his arms would have been wound up in a tight knot, just prior to his fingers tearing off. Yeah, unplugging tools can be such a pain in the #### - what with productivity losses and all.
I'm still trying to figure out how Dustin's armpit turned on the drill. My 1/2" drill trigger has a guard around it. I think I'll try an experiment....
That is the whackiest stituation I can imagine. I don't think the best cartoon writer could have come up with it.
I remember when I learned why it's a good idea to keep some 3" air-nails around if you're gonna be nailing up doubled 2x beams...cause those 3½'s come right through and getcha in the hand you're holding the pieces together with, duh! (This is otherwise known as 'First Day With a Nailgun' or 'Steep Learning Curve'.)
I also remember when I learned it's not a good idea to skip putting the guard back on an angle grinder when you're gonna be using it with a chain-saw wheel to grind down a twisted sub-fascia so it comes flush with the rake...not unless you've got cast-iron thumbs, anyway.... (Was lucky not to have fallen off the roof on that one, too!)
And I will never forget the first time I learned the essential difference between a 16oz. smooth-faced claw hammer and a full-sized 24oz. waffle-faced ripping hammer with an oversized head. The essential difference being ouch! sh!t for the former and KEEERYST WHERE DA EFF DID MY THUMB GO???? for the latter....
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
While in the process of falling/tripping on a cord off the roof and "aiming" for a landing between the rolloff dumpster and the house I caught the edge of the dumpster with my armpit which felt like it ripped my arm clear off. It was actually dislocated and and was somewhat worse for the wear. It ached for 3 months. Now if I take a dirt dive ( and I try hard NOT TO! ) I avoid all inmovable steel objects if at all possible.
Miami
Um, I can't think of anything REALLY interesting and construction related, outside of hammering my thumb or falling off of the last steps of a ladder and right onto the edge of a metal wastebin. Those all happened years ago. (Knock wood)
Most interesting injury happened when I was wrestling with my sister (yes, we are adults!) and broke my arm going in for HER! Four weeks later, SHE broke HER arm doing the same thing to me.
We are delicate flowers. In hiking boots.
Tearing a 2" patch of hair clean of'n my head when it caught in a 1/2" drill chuck, while drilling up into a wall cavity, taking a 'closer look' at where I was at while still augering. I actually felt the first couple of hairs go - ting - ting - so I let go the trigger. But the chuck kept on keeping on, which I knew it would.
It happened real slow like, then sped right up. Thought the scalp had gone, but that was from the chuck being drawn in and burnishing the skin real good. Chuck all covered in hair, no skin though. First time I'd not worn my bandana and got nailed for it good.
That hair story might be a good reason to let the mullet go.
A few weeks ago, I was doing a remodeling job on a severely run down rental house (got to stop doing those). I had a friend of mine helping me tear out a rotted section of roof so we could build it back newer, better.
He was about 15 feet away taking up shingles on one section of the roof, while I was nailing in the new sections of roof joist with my framing nailer.
Usually, I pride myself on being a careful individual, but all it took was one careless moment, trying to toenail one in and then realizing there was no nail in the piece of wood I just shot at. Instead, out of my peripheral is my buddy, 15 feet away, hunched over grabbing his leg, with 1'' of a 3 1/2'' framing nail sticking out of his thigh.
He took it like a man though, excepting all of my apologies, and pulling the nail out with his bare hands right on the spot. After his brief dizzy spell, and the color started coming back to his face, we went on to the nearest urgent care place to get him checked out, and his tetnus vaccine status updated.
At my friends expense, it was a big reminder about nail gun safety. He hasn't seemed to harbor much of a grudge about the incident, but it definitely got my attention when he showed up a few days later to help me again, - but this time with a newly purchased air compressor and framing nail gun of his own.
st
A buddy of mine has a few less teeth these days as a result of a joist hanger that just happened to be right in front of him on the ladder.
> and pulling the nail out with his bare hands right on the spot.
Actually the ER doctors prefer that you not pull things out yourself. They want to be able to x-ray the impailing object in place to determine exactly where it went and what it did.
-- J.S.
well JS you better read my #22, we knew exactly where it was.
It went in at a shallow angle across the side of his thigh. pretty sure there's nothin but meat there. but you are right, it's preferable to let the doc pull it out.
but he did what he did...
That's very unusual for a nail to fly 15' and penetrate. I've been hit plenty of times by flying nails but since they spin end-for-end as they go through the air it's rare to stick. And so deep too.
This one did. lucky day, I guess.
My first week as a laborer we had to go up and dry-in the roof. I was new and there was a veteran on the roof with us. He told us that if you start slippin off the roof grab your Estwing and start banging the claws into the roof til it grabs. We're like ya ok.
No fooling, later that day he somehow slips, and starts falling off this two-story roof. Well he casually (I mean his face was sooo calm, cool and collected I was amazed) reaches for his Estwing, pulls it out, and with all the confidence (almost cockily) of a pro bangs it into the plywood roof. And nothing happened. Again, and he's still sliding, then the face of all faces comes across his, the "Oh, Farglesnot" face. He starts banging that hammer like a singer sewing machine.
He was still banging that hammer as he went over the edge. In fact I actually think that he was banging that hammer on the sides of the house as he fell.
Fortunately for him, he too landed on high pile of dirt/sand. Got up, looked at his hammer, went back to work.
Man I hate to say how funny that was, but it was.http://members.fishingworks.com/bo444444/index.cfm
I wounder if OSHA reads this stuf?
Seen that guy about a year ago at the store, still wearing a knee brace.
Working with another guy few years ago.Was in front yard prepping trusses and saw one guy carrying another down the ladder,out of the house.When they turned after reaching bottom,I saw why.One guy had run a circular saw above his knee[damned if I know how] and the white Tshirt wrapped around it was soaked.First to arrive was a fire pumper-truck,they couldn't do nothing for him.He was crying like a baby.Then the ambulance arrived and we shut down before OSHA came.
Get this,next day we set the trusses.It was a 3hr truss set by any other crew and I was just on loan to these guys so I was'nt boss.It took 7hours, we worked til 7:00pm. Its dark at 5:00 okay,and we're using 2 flashlights climbing around on 2x4 walls etc.And the day before,we'd just had an accident.I never came back after that one. God, I miss working in tracts!I DIDN'T DO IT...THE BUCK DOES NOT STOP HERE.
One job I pulled two good boners...I've got a Bostich stapler that has to be held just right to shoot. I had a bunch of colonial casing to run and the safety on the nosepiece kept slipping into the groove along the bead. No shoot! Well, I figured I could hot glue that safety, and bang away. Well first I thought I'd test it, weird that my pointer finger was on the nosepiece when the test went down, but dang the thing worked like a charm. Shot that 1 1/2" staple fom my finger tip out past the other side of the knuckle, even countersunk it nicely. I was up on some scaffolding, climbed down, told the helper to grab his side cutters and get ready. I whanged the staple points down on my miter saw bench and just enough of the staple's crown stuck up for the help to grab. I told him that whatever else he did, just pull straight. He did great and then passed out.Amazingly, no bone was touched, no infection, totally healed in three days, just in time to reel in some dolphin.Last day on the same job. I was ripping something on the table saw. Had just gotten a Forrest blade. Instructions said to keep the blade high so it dissapated the heat. Okaaaay...reached to get the bobbling offcut, felt a little sting...That red stuff was clue, stuck my thumb in my mouth...hey if you drink your own blood, you're not losing it, right? My tongue felt a pretty fair gap on the tip...told the crew I'd be right back.Went home, man I could see the ATB of the blade on my thumb...danged lucky it was new! Butterflied it up, back to work...it's amazing how stuff fills back in<G> Don't worry, we can fix that later!
Yeow, your stapler trick sounds similar to my dumbest ever move. 3 years ago I tested Metal Connector Nailers for FHB. I was trying to figure out how far of an angle you could hold the Hitachi nailer and still have it fire and hit a hole. I was pressing my thumb on the nose and then for some stupid reason I pulled the trigger. 2 1/2" .162 dia hot dipped galvanized straight in the end. Lucky like you I didn't hit bone. But the head was buried and I had no point to push on. I was in my basement so I went over to the vise, carved a slit in my thumb to get a pinch on the head. Gritted my teeth and yanked. They always feel worse coming out than going in, don't they?MG
Holy **** Mike, you win hands down.
Yeah, I win 'moron of the century'. Please keep it quiet or the editors may find out- Thanks in advance.MG
Mike,
My BIL just told me to watch out for the area of ice on the roof, where the bundle of shingles hed just been, two minutes later i stepped right on it. Thankfully he was there to grab my tool belt.
A guy at work was out with the cub scouts. This guy has hair down to his ars. Well this one kid decided to give it a real good yank. He was out of work for 3 months and will be getting his back operated on.
This other clown at work was using a 4" angle grinder with the paddle. He got it caught it his shirt and it took a while before he figured he should let go of the switch.
Turtle boy
PS, I happend to see a near miss when the truss got away from the guy in the walking the center and nearly hit the guy on the floor right in the head. (He was lifting them up to the guys on the wall.)
I did almost the xact same thing with my bos. stapler..installing cardboard cieling tiles in a basement, dropped the stapler on the concrete, broke the safty doo-dad..i cut a leg off a loose staple and kinda wedged it in where the safty broke off..I though 'Hmmm..I wonder if this will work?" Pulled the trigger, and shot my finger..good thing the finger was there tho'...it was aimed at my face..DUH.Was installing a T&G cieling many yrs. later with same gun, HO was helping..I told him to be REAL careful..no safty..not 2 seconds later...I hear PFFTUNK OOOOWWWW...!!!!! he shot himself in the finger..
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
The physics of the situation is really simple. The rise divided by the run gives you the minimum coefficient of friction you need to be able to stay in place on the roof.
-- J.S.
thanks for the visual! I'm still laughing!!
Miami
LOL!!!!!!!
You get my vote for the funniest one posted so far
How long did it take for the hair to regrow? Did you shave your head in the meantime?
It took awhile to grow back...if it ever did...what with the receding hairline and all. ;) I had no idea whether I'd been scalped so I called the painter over to take a look. I watched his eyes while removing my cupped hand from the injured area. His pupils did not dilate, so I knew it was just the hair. Phew.
Mike, you've got some good stories there. I like the tarpaper over the hole trick. Gets them everytime. Wonder what went through the poor bugger's mind as the paper tore under him...
I find it's a long way down whenever I step down from one overlapping scaffold plank to the other. It seems to take forever to reach the lower one.
A friend was roofing his own steepish 2.5 story house. I dropped by to see how he was doing. He was using a code-legal harness, belaying device and rope, so he felt really safe. Only thing is there was so much rope paid out that he'd have hit the ground before the rope caught. I explained the consequences and shortened the length paid out. I left to go to my own job, and within 15 minutes he took a flyer off the far corner. The rope caught him 2 feet before hitting the ground. His son pulled up a sawhorse so he could stand and release the belay device. Apparently he jumped right back up there and got her done. Gutsy dude.
I'll bet your friend with the body harness was wondering when the slack would be taken up. 2' from the ground is pretty close.We call those steps from one scaffold plank to the next "1 1/2" heart attacks". I get them all the time.
Any injury is a horror story I feel bad for all you people, even the missing the ladder step which I have done many times, but my balance is too good, and I land on my foot and drive the pressure up through the body. Days later I still cant remember why my leg, back, or neck (depending on which muscles are so tired they dont work any more) hurts so bad.
Just a few weeks ago I was lifting what I thought was the top plywood tread covered in linoleum of a stair case to replace them, come to find out the last contractor had laid the subfloor straight through under the wall and door threshold over the top tread. My wonder bar hookside up pushed back and cuffed me up under the chin. It ended up sinking in. I was working by myself and the client had gone to run errands. When I collected my thoughts I went outside to my van to see if I still had any teeth and as luck might have my tongue wasnt hanging out. With my left hand pinching my face together I drove across town to meet a tetanus and four shots of local in the face... but thats nothing
I usually stay away from the framing crews just for these reasons. One of the guys on crew was working inside somewhere high on first floor wall. The sometimes working owner of the framing group was climbing a ladder to the second floor because there werent any stairs yet. The nose on the framer's air nailer must have caught the edge of the stud. The 16 soared through the air and sunk through the ascending owners scrotum and into his thigh. He buckled over, then went down the ladder and proceeded to pull the nail out. The Dumbazz didnt go down to the e-room. Two days latter he finally did when his scrotum was the size of a grapefruit and he was having trouble walking.
It doesnt matter how embarrassing dont mess with injuries.
My only fight with a ladder was so tame, it hardly counts. Single storey ranch style, I went up to look at the chimney. We were in the process of selling, and HI had pointed out that the top section of liner didn't line up with the rest. Of course, the house was 30 years old, no one had noticed that before! Anway, I had the 10 ft step ladder on the front concrete sidewalk, so the top step of the ladder was just at eave level.
On my way down, in fact on the second from the top step, the ladder decided to go for a spin. I dove for the front lawn, figuring it was softer than the concrete, and my only thought was: "If I hurt myself, DW is going to KILL me!"....luckily, no injuries, except to my pride.
Darcy missed the bottom step of the ladder. I once missed the almost top rung of mine and it cured me of a bad habit. from old days of carrying hot asphalt up the ladder in twin five gallon buckets, I was fairly used to going up with tools or whatever in bioth hands and using shins to balanceagainst next rung, whether going up or down.
One day, I had a pain can in my left hand and the brush in another and started of a flat roof and down the ladder. So I was a good ten or twelve feet off the ground when I missed, facing down since I was walking it down like a normal flight of stairs. My butt cheeks hit every rung the rest of the way down and the paint can hit right beside me, and splatterd, increasing my sense of embarassment
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Mike:
Alright, here's an embarrassing one. Few years back I needed to enlarge an opening for a new square vent on a second story gable end. It was just two quick cuts. :-)
So, instead of building a little staging on the first story roof below the gable end, I just straddled a 6 foot ladder over the first story peak and climbed up to the very top with my circular saw. The vertical cut went fine. The horizontal cut was trickier yet because I had to extend my arms just to reach. The last inch of the cut, my saw hit an unseen nail and bounced backwards.
I'm 125 pounds soaking wet, so the force of the bounce pushed me and the ladder over, with the saw going up in the air. When I came to a stop, my head was six inches from the edge of the first story roof, the ladder had gouged a mark in the redwood siding, and the saw had come to rest a couple feet away. Believe it or not, I was fine. I looked around for eyewitnesses, took a gulp of air, and lowered myself down to the ground to fetch a hand saw!
J Painter
We were building a bank when I a got twofer, or more like a threefer.
I was headed to the trailer. Had to step down off the edge of the slab and duck under the scaffold boards. Of course some yells "hey Dave". I turn to look but did not stop walking. Made the step down as my head was turning back and caught the scaffold board right accross the bridge of the nose. Knocked me cold. I went backwards as if clothslined. Hard hat got knocked off and of course I smack the back of my head on the concrete. Came too almost immediately and couldn't figure which one of those sobs standing around me, had hit me with what? Two shinners, a full 2x knot across both eyebrows, and a egg size knot on the back of my head. ER says a minor concussion, and sent me home. The next morning I found out I had landed on my azz b/f my head hit.
That was one dumb azz step to take.
Dave
Slow learner here. Yesterday I was explaining to my six year old..
I was building a catamaran hull and was chiseling out a seat for the forward the cross beam. Hand just so - chisel just so - when the chisel slipped and scored a fine, clean, and deep gouge across my index finger. Lots of blood, no tendons or ligaments cut. Kicked myself for being so stupid and not being careful, could have lost the use of a finger.
I mentioned this was a catamaran - two hulls.
I now have two lovely white scars about an inch apart on that index finger. I remember thinking just before the chisel slipped the second time, Wait a minute - this isn't right, didn't this maneuver cause me grief the last time? Too late.
Years ago, when I was just starting out, my dad had me and my brother chop a hole thru a concrete floor for a sump pump. My brother held the bull point chisel while I swung the sledge hammer.
At one point, with no warning, my brother moves his hand to the top of the chisel to give it a wiggle. I had already started swinging, but immediately tried to stop a heavy sledge hammer in motion.
I managed to slow it enough to just tap my brother's hand, which still ended up splitting the skin on his finger. My dad drove him to the ER, where he got stitched back together.
I stiil think of how close I was to really smashing my brother's finger.
And I'm not going to tell any of my recent adventures. I've got to keep up some kind of reputation.
Only jobsite injury I ever got was a squished finger.
I was inspecting some ductile iron water pipe on a big subdivision job and had my hand on one of the pieces (it was 8" Class 52 ductile) when the backhoe with the forks came over to get another piece. I shoulda taken my hand off, and the pieces shifted, and my left index finger got nailed like a 200 pound sledgehammer hitting an anvil. Turned the fingertip to strawberry jam, I wrapped it in gauze from the first aid kit in my truck and went straight to the ER. Backhoe guy didn't even know I'd been hurt.
Boss wanted to know where I'd been when I got back in the office four hours later. All the doc could do for me was a single stitch and a splint (and a lot of painkillers and bandages). I couldn't tap that finger on anything for a couple years, and the nail's still weird lookin'.
All my other injuries and ER visits have been from "fun" stuff - motorcycling, snowmobiling, rugby.
Getting ready to shingle a roof and rolling out tar paper fast. Papered over a skyllight hole. Called out to everyone "Careful of the skylight hole - Marked it in yellow". One guy walking nearby said "OK" just before dropping out of sight.
MG
Mike-
I saw the line about rolling out tarpaper fast and remembered the time I stapled my thumb to the wall .
We were trying to paper in an addition before going home, so I was really trying to get the paper on so I could go home.
Pushing the paper with my left hand, and stapling with my right, my right hand caught up with my left, and I put a staple thru the edge of my thumb, stapling it to the wall.
Then, reacting to the pain, I yanked my hand away, ripping off the side of my thumb. Some duct tape and paper towels took care of the blood, and my thumb healed fine.
Thanks for the memories.
The 20 years off and on being the head labourer of a two man floor laying team, I never had an injury, but the 7 years i spent cooking was another story,, batteriesnotincludedsomeassemblyrequiredmaynotbeexcatlyasillistrated
Never would think it physically possible til I saw it.Some 10 years[?]ago,we lent another crew framing down the road one of our helpers to help raise a 'heavy wall'.Thought nothing of it til we heard sirens and noticed our helper was still gone.
We got down there and our helper was 'pushed' through the 3/4in sub-floor with the exception of one leg.It was a 18ft, 2x6 balloon wall that kicked out about 3/4 way up and it literally pushed him into the floor.We had to get the wall up on sawhorses so the EMS guys could cut him out of the floor.OSHA put that guy out of business after that one. Our guy,one dis-abled leg for life.I DIDN'T DO IT...THE BUCK DOES NOT STOP HERE.
Did you have any liability problems since he was your guy? (Aside from feeling partly responsible)
Setting up wall lifting jacks (Qualcraft type that run up a 2x4) while my brother lined some walls downstairs. Set one up beneath the top plate and moved over to place the second one. Forgot to diagonally brace the first one temporarly. 16' 2x can develop a lot of momentum before it reaches a squating idiot. Good thing it hit me square on the head otherwise it may have done some damage more than 9 stitches.
Overloading an old Willys 4WD pickup with logs from the deep woods. Ride was rough because there was nothing between axel and frame. Stopped to cut up the sidewall of an old tire for a little cushion. Knife slipped and stuck my knee. At the hospital the Dr asked how I managed to do the damage. Said "I was cutting a tire", he looked stern at me and said "Serves you right!"
Was working with my old craftsman table saw with exposed motor and belt assembly.Back in my hippie days and had long hair.Went to pick up a scrap next to the saw and before i knew it I was kissin a 1hpmotor(which somehow Sears says develops 3hp)Lucikly the switch was rite there and I was able to shut it down but my hair was all round around the pulley and my forehead tatooed with the motor spec plate.I remember my partner coming over and saying "man its pulling ur scalp I gotta cut ur hair". I actually gave him the allen wrench out of my belt pleading with him to take the pulley off to unwind my hair.Fat chance! They called me "Patches " for a couple of months.
A guy that used to work for me attempted to shot a 2x4 brace to a bolder with a hilti gun. It richocheted off and got him right in the old jewel bag....I heard this loud scream and looked over to see him ripping his pants off to see if he still had balls. Fortunately it just slapped one and didn't penetrate, he said it swelled up really huge for a couple days.
I feel his pain.
knocked myself out once ...
ok ... maybe twice.
I was about 20 yrs old ... working on a concrete crew ...
we were busting out an old swimming pool patio ....
tons of flat work to go away before the new stuff could come in ....
guy running the jackhammer got the bit stuck ... again ...
I got the big prybar ..... it was about 6ft long ... maybe an inch and a half fat around ... hex shaped deal .... with a slight crook bend and a flat prying end ....
so ... I get under the already broken up concrete ... and pull ...
and pull ....
it moves ... barely.
I'm young and dumb ..... and determined.
So I pull some more ....
to get better leverage ... I spread my legs ....
and stand with arms fully extended .... pulling back ....
straight into my chest.
Which .... unfortunately is right below my head ....
I get set .. and pull ....
bend my head down .... looking at the ground ... pulling with all my might ....
then ... snap!
The bar breaks ....
and ..... I pull it as hard as I can straight into the top of my head!
I was out for a minute or two ... didn't remember even falling or hitting thye ground ...
and had a huge egg on the very top of my skull.
The one saving grace ... was I had really long ... thick ... and curly hair.
and ... I was wearing ove of my good baseball hats!
I'm sure with less hair piled up there ...
I'd have some lasting effects ...
huh?
what??
Three ......
Jeff
Buck Construction
Artistry in Carpentry
Pgh, PA
That reminds me - I may have told this one before - For a long time, the only broken bone I'd had was my nose, which i did myself, without any help .I had an S-15 with low cap over the bed and a ladder rack. I threw the line over the load and was pulling it to me with both hands to tighten up. the alignment was perfect so that when the line broke, I punched myself inthe face with both fists, one backing up the other.Nose is still a bit crooked.
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Your S10 story made me think of what was just about the stupidest thing I've done involving a stationary car. If you can believe this one. My car is a Subaru wagon; DW has a Corolla. If you've ever driven a Subie, you'll remember that the side windows don't have any frames. So when the window is down, there's nothing else there.
When you get used to a car, you do things automatically. I went out to take DW's car somewhere, and I knew the driver's window was down. I whipped the door open, and went to hop in the car, same as I do for mine. I didn't realize that I was so used to my car not having window frames, I guess I bend my upper body down as I hop in. Anyway, as I try to get into DW's car, I smash (and I mean SMASH) the window frame into my face. It knocked my glasses off (actually chipped the lens), and bruised the side of my face.
The worst part was, my eyesight is so bad, I had to go back into the house, and get DW to come out to find my glasses. And to do that, I had to explain what I did. She had a hard time understanding how someone could hit themselves that hard with a car door.
Yeah, When I was about 15 YO, I was mowing and ducked under a tree limb fast once. I hit my forhead on the handle of the deck lever, which had about a 9/16" hex head on it. The scar that stayerd all summer looked like some sort of cult symbol.
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An accident saved. Had a young college kid helping us, he was supposed to be making a walk-board to span an open foyer. Checking in on him, I couldn't help but roar laughing. Instead of a nice 2x10 or something he was nailing two planks together to make one plank,something you'd see on a Bugs Bunny cartoon. And he was dead serious too.I DIDN'T DO IT...THE BUCK DOES NOT STOP HERE.
Speaking of college kids....when I was in college, I worked summers in a mine. One year, they automated the hoist.
Up until then, if you were, say, underground, you walked up to the hoist and rang a bell. The operator up on surface would hear the bell ring, and he'd know what to do. 2-5 (two rings, a short pause, then 5 rings) meant you were underground (2500 ft down) and wanted to come to surface. As you got in the cage, you'd ring the bell some number of rings, and close the door.
When they automated the hoist, we, as summer students, were told "it works just the same as it did before."
So there we were, two college kids, down below. We rang for the cage. It arrived. We loaded our stuff in, and rang the bell. A really ugly buzzer sounded. We looked at each other, and thought, "that doesn't sound good..." Then we jumped into the cage and slammed the door. The cage took off at that moment.
Turns out there was now a button INSIDE the cage that you rang. The chief engineer heard our tale, and said, "Oh, sh#t......I'm glad you guys are okay. I think I we need to improve our training...."
Each of these stories ought to be compiled in some sort of 'this is what can (will?) happen to you if..." handbook. We'd be the contributors. Editing by Mike Guertin, because of his vast subject matter expertise. Taunton would buy the manuscript. The handbook would quickly become standard material on OSHA courses. Just kidding of course.
So folks, what's in your job-site first-aid kit?
job-site first aid kit?
duct tape and paper towels!
Excellent kit Shep: Loss of blood is No. 1 in frequency. Loss of dignity is a close 2nd. ;) Humour (ridicule?) is the usual cure.
Think ABC: Airway, Breathing, Circulation.
Paper towels? we always use fast food napkins!
:)
Didn't you know this whole thread was a Taunton conspiracy? They already own everything you post here so that way they don't have to pay royalties. Had they asked me to officially solicite responses privately - then they'd have to pay....I'll bet we could write a book using a lot of these posts actually. What do you think a good title would be? MG
'101 uses for ductape'
'Snakes and Ladders'
'Gravity for dummies'
...
Book titles=
"Carpentry for Idiots"
or, better yet, "Idiots doing Carpentry"
or, " How to hurt yourself in 1 easy lesson, no skill required"
I like the "Idiots doing Carpentry"Or maybe do a 'rip-off' tongue in cheek of one of those "Dummies" books :Carpentry for Dummies" Put it in a yellow cover.
piffin, I've been reading all of these....some made me queezzy, some made me ill, but punching your self in the face with both hands just cracks me up!
I've smacked myself around a few times too...but never with both hands.
Thanks for the laff!
blue Warning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
Glad to help with the laugh, BED.I was on a job once where the framer was standing right next to me, cutting off rafter tails with his gaurd pinned back... Wanna hear the end of this story?........He laid the saw across his thigh while looking at the cut to see how prety it was..........Lucky for him, the pocket of his jeans was ful of loose change, a Buck knife, and God only knows what else. All that small change hitting the wall sounded like a tommygun going off and the threads snarled the blade before it could do more than scare him.........But he had to change his pants.
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Piffin, I want you to know that I think that anyone that pins back their guard is foolish and dangerous. I highly don't recommend it and I'm fairly confident that a lot of injuries occur to people that pin their guard back. Personally, I would never do that....and I have a very good reason.
I am curious though....how come no one jumps all over the guy(s) that remove their table saw guards? Is their a double standard for safety? Are trimmers less susceptible than roughers?
Am I uncovering a secret layer of hypocrasy?
Where's that Canadien when we need him?
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
I was working late last night, Blue. Did you call me?Quality repairs for your home.
Aaron the HandymanVancouver, Canada
No Aaron...your the nice Canadien. I shoulda said..."where's that mean Canadien when we need him?". He blew a gasket when he found out I don't use a guard on my saw, but everyone remains silent when the guard is taken off table saws...which I think is a double standard.
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
Huh?
I have a single standard. The safety gaurd should be on the saw
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And no doubt his underpants as well. PU
My Davis T66 trencher hasa removable hand crank to start the Wisconsin motor . But it does not start very easy. To get it to start I had to pull up on the crankfrom the 5:30 possition to about 11:00 ,if done right it will start. if not you do it over again and again.
One time I had my head right over the motor ,and as I pulld up the crank removed itself from the shaft and stopped right in my mouth. I never lean over the motor any more to start it.
One other time I was sandblasting a forklift carrage for someone .I was almost done and wanted to clean some sand out of the groove that the forks slide in to see if it nneeded more sandblasting . I ran my fingers across the groove and painfully stoped with a metal splinter about the size of a 16d holding my hand in place . Had to break it off the carrage finnish my job . went home and got my pliers and pulled out the splinter , Took my glove off to inspect my finger , only two holes ,no doc needed.
LOL
This one comes in second for the funniest injury
A little entyertainment along with the education makes the world a better place
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I had guy who was scared to death of disappearing stairs...the kind that fold up and the close into the ceiling via great big springs. Seems in a previous job he'd been "snapped up." Blamed his lousy guitar playing on that incident. I'd heard him play before, and knew, if anything, those stairs made him play better<G>Anyway, we used to goof on each other all the time. I'd especially razz him whenever we had disappearing stairs, which was quite often. I used to case 'em & hang 'em, so we had just hung one and I was giving him the required notice run like hell 'cause I was going to open it up. I pulled the rope and the thing wouldn't budge...I told him to quit messing with me, and gave a little extra tug. Next thing I know, those stairs are coming down. I felt a little grazing on my hand, and didn't think much about it til the dust had cleared. Boxer's break and I didn't even punch anything out!Looked at the stairs later and one staple leg fastening the frame had gone awry and was holding the ladder...sucker still hurts when the weather changes<G> & I pay a whole lot more attention when I'm opening up a set LOL Don't worry, we can fix that later!
I'm in the bed of my truck tying down lumber with those black rubber bungee cords. (No, it didn't break and hit me in the face--this is much embarrassing.)
I finish securing the load. I grab the back bar of the lumber rack and do a little swing out over the tailgate as I hop to the ground. Well, as I am in mid-swing, one of those little hooks on the end of the bungee inserts itself in, and I kid you not, my right nostril.
I'm hanging in the air from my nose like a fish on a hook thinking very clearly to myself, "this is gonna hurt!"
Fortunately, while one end of the bungee is up my nose, the other end is held between my hand and the lumber rack. As I complete my swing and let go of the bar, the bungee releases it's grip. I end up with only a ton of blood, a tetanus shot and a story.
My dryer was making a clunking sound each time it made a revolution, so I opened up the bottom to have a look. Turned it on and watched it move. Everything looked to be in order so I turned if off and studied it while lying on the floor. Couldn't figure it out but did notice a lot of dust in the bottom (behind the access door). Started to wipe it out with my hand, lots of link came off. Got the front half nice and clean then started on the back half. Well, my wrist touched the live wire coming in and I jerked my hand out fast. Ended up with 4 stitches on my elbow. I didn't know how bad it was until I showed my wife (try looking at your elbow one day).
Installed suspended ceiling in the basement and put in some floros in for lighting. The tiles below were to be transparent so I picked up some diffuser and realized I had to trim it. Used a nice sharp blade and a thick straight edge. Of course all was fine until the last cut on the last diffuser. Blade jumped over the straight edge and into my finger. Nowadays I am really careful when using blade (hands at far end of straight edge). That one gave me 5 stitches, one though the fingernail. I never know how many nerve endings there are in fingers until they started to stitch me up.
Was replacing a small shed style roof. Put down some 4x8 plywood then trimmed it to length after nailing it down. Didn't realize that I was standing on part of the plywood that was 2 feet off the roof at the time. Thankfully I was able to step back onto the roof to complete the cut.
Had some roots on the side of the house to remove and the stump grinder that I rented died after 45minutes. So I started to use my axe and crow bar. Got a piece very loose then grabbed on with my ungloved hand and got a large spliter between my finger and fingernail. It was deep inside and I had to trim off most of the nail to get it out. Now I try to remember to wear gloves before doing this stuff.
Thank you for everyones story here. It makes me cringe to read them, but it reminds me to take my time and be careful. Especially to take a break and make sure I am focused. It is always when I relax or am tired that these things happen.
My last ER trip (aside from a kidney stone this summer) was two years ago Thanksgiving morning, when I sliced the tip of my finger halfway off. I was using a knife to open that stupid plastic bag with the turkey cooking instructions, and the knife slipped.
When I got in the trades one of my first jobs was putting up verticle cedar shiplap siding on a four story condo. We normally had four or five ladders of different heights next to each other, and kept working the siding sideways, and moving the ladders. Me, being the new guy, I got the tallest ladder, and the most climbing practice.The first couple a weeks I had some tired legs.A french siding crew can really put out the work.
Being 18, and a little nervous to begin with at that height, I dropped my sheetrock knife. It ended up sticking out of the top of the foremans head.He was good about it, and ended up with a couple a stiches. After that we took turns on each of the ladders.
Greg in Connecticut
One of my favorite past injuries:
I used to constantly get beaned by forgetting hand tools on top of the ladder, closing it up to move it, so I started making a conscious effort to always climb up the ladder before closing it to check for hand tools and put them back in my belt. I was proud of myself after keeping it up for a few days, and went up the ladder to check. No hand tools missing, bags full. A second later I was watching blood flow down my face from the falling electric drill (corded, metal chuck, of course) which I totally ignored in search of hand tools. Missed my eye by a half inch, but split open the skin just above my eyebrow in an ugly mess.
I spent the next half hour or so debating whether to go to the ER. The owner offered me a lift to the hospital or a drink from his private stash. Since I was in Manhattan and would probably spend the next 5 or 6 hours unpaid waiting for treatment amid all the usual city emergencies, I got a big bandaid and pulled the gash closed like a giant butterfly suture. It healed up fine, but I can still see it if I look hard.
Electric drill, eh?I was in a small closet so I could be behind a dril to see the right spot to drill. When I finished the hole and pulled out, th ecord huing on something and made the drill jump out of my hands. I caught it, automatically pulling it close to my chest.Immediately, I was feeling liquid roll down my chest and belly while I felt a searing, tearing pain right at the base of my throat. I unplugged the tool with one hand, using the other to stabilize the tool and keepit from wiggling and hurting me more. From there, I headed to the bathroom to use the big wall mirror to inspect the damage. Turns out that the bit had twisted the top hem of my T-shirt and the hair on my chest into a big old knot the size of a baseball. The pain was hairs being pulled out and the liquid was probably nervous sweat.I got the chuck key and managed to unwind
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The auger drill bit reminds me of a couple other stories...
I and another laborer were working with a company that set and buttoned up modulars many years ago. The other guy was about to drill holes through 2 tripled up beams. He had to squeeze his torso up into the two foot void in the ceiling with a very long drill and bit. I told him to be careful and started to walk away. I got ten steps out of the room and heard a blood curdling scream. I ran back in the room to find this guy's head tight to the beams with his hair (long and scraggly) wrapped around the bit. I couldn't help but laugh as I unwound him away from the beam. He had an egg shaped void in the middle of his head. You could actually see all the little dots of blood where the folicles had been ripped out. He wore a hat for the next couple of months.
Another drill bit story... I was drilling a hole in the kick space of two old metal cabinets, holding the drill in my left hand while holding the cabinets together with my right. This was backwards for me since I am right handed. I was pushing hard trying to get through the steel. Next thing I knew the bit broke in half and I plunged the broken bit right into the palm of my hand. It stopped when it hit the bone in my pointer finger just below the knuckle. My finger 'clicks' when I make a fist now.
Then there's the time I first used a right angle drill. Bearing hard on it between joists, I didn't have a good grip on it and when it caught up, I got smacked inthe cheekbone with the handle. Couldn't smile or chew for a week.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Mine wasn't as bad as yours, but I had a R-A drill get me, too.
Drilling between joists for a bathrom vent, the drill caught and slammed my arm up against the joist.
I had a big bruise on both sides of my arm for a couple of weeks.
>>>>"I was in a small closet so I could be behind a dril to see the right spot to drill. When I finished the hole and pulled out, th ecord huing on something and made the drill jump out of my hands. I caught it, automatically pulling it close to my chest...I got the chuck key and managed to unwind"Why didn't you just use reverse? <g>
Jon Blakemore
I was convinced that I had performed a tracheotomy or tracheectomy opr whatever. Didn't want to complicate matters.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
6 weeks ago I was cleaning the gutters on the back of my two-story house. I had my 28' aluminum ladder with the spreader bar at the top, so I could rest it against the shingles.
Tall ladders always scare me, so I was careful going up. Came down, and decided to move the ladder vertically. It started coming down, hit one side of the spreader, and torqued up and hit me on the ear, slitting it open.
Bled like a stuck pig, and took 6 stitches and a couple of hours in the emergency room to get it fixed.
An outfit I used to work for had an apprentice. He was setting out a line through the middle of a new concrete slab. He had banged a concrete nail in at each end and strung the line between the two, nice and tight. He went to the centre to see how it lined up when one end pulled out.
The force of the contracting line drove the nail that was attached to it into his leg.
I was cutting the top off a small roll of carpet once with a stanley knife. It slipped and buried the blade just below my kneecap. Was 3 days before I could straighten my leg properly.
Once of the simplest things I have done twice is, stood up suddenly while partly under a wall hung sink top. Caught the edge in the low back. Hurt like hell for a while and felt it for days.
The other was a door handle right where the tail bone starts. Felt that one for a couple of weeks.
Everything, 100% of it, depends on how you look at it.
DW
This one was years ago, before children.
DW worked every Monday evening (She is a GP) in a semi-rural practice, so emergency type drop ins to her office were not uncommon. After she went to work for the evening, I decided to work on a model in the basement; using one of those chisel type Xacto knives, I managed to drive it into my left index finger, just by where it joins the hand.
I looked at the knife, and realized it had gone in a fair distance, so I figured I'd need stiches. Off I went to DWs office. Her nurse, who I knew well, of course, laughed at me. After all, it was only a little cut, about 1/2" long. I sat on the table while DW came in, indulged me with some freezing and a couple of stiches, and sent me on my way.
When she got home that night, I showed her the life with the blood line showing how far in it went. Next time I saw the nurse, she apologized for laughing. It's only a little scar, but it's still there. And I'm more careful with Xacto knives now.
Out framing in -15c 3 1/2" nail split the frozen plate and went into my hand, had those fuzzy green gloves on so could not really see the damage, drove to hospital, Doc cut glove off, nail right through thumb like Steve Martin and his head arrow. Doc starts to laugh leaves room brings another Doctor back, "you have to see this," he says, "just like Monty Python, other Doc laughs to. I was so happy to bring joy and laughter to the emergency room.
Papering a roof. Roll slipped out of my hand. Chased it down the roof. grabbed it just before the eave edge. Roof was frosty. Off I went holding the roll. Trash container below. Landed inside it on top of the insulation we tore out of the first floor. Nail embedded wood all around. Second life down.
Dozer popped a track digging a streambed. Jacking up rear end with 2 ton jack (dozer weighs about 9 ton). Just blocked and ready to drop and reset jack when it exploded. Never found the body or piston of the jack. Life #5
Backhoe stuck in mud. Cabled it to tree with hand winch. Tensioned winch, cable snapped. Snagged my coat on the way by. Shreaded the front of the coat and ripped a good patch of bark off the tree.
Life #6
Riding my motorcycle in mid December. Rounded a corner - patch of ice with sand on top. Bike dropped at 35 mph. Slid about 75' on the pavement. Good thing it was December - I was wearing my old Korean war vintage full length sheepskin lined overcoat and double insulated pants with long underware. Still had one layer before flesh.
Remind me to skip your demonstrations at the JLC show in March...
Thought those bandaids on your fingers were to protect your fingers instead of gloves, turns out they were probably holding you together.
Be careful out there...
I never met a tool I didn't like!
We were demoing a 2nd floor bathroom and deck. The deck is already gone, so to get out you open the door and climb down the ladder. After tearing out a corner post I figure I'll throw it out in the yard. A nail sticking out grabbed my shirt and pulled me out headfirst. Nothing to land on except a yard full of mud. And the 2x4 I was throwing. I landed square on it. Broken jaw and several broken teeth from that one. That was 4 years ago and I still get called Superman.
It must be nice to be able to throw YOURSELF out of a joint.....
My brothers favorite joke is that I told myself, "All right, that's enough. Out you go!"
You should have seen what happened to someone who sat too close in the Portland show..... Wasn't my fault.
I'll contribute a story I read about in the news while on a nuke plant construction site close to 20 years ago. A carpenter needed to cut off a piece of wood and didn't have any place to set it down. So the guy squats down and places the board across his knees, takes his circ saw and starts cutting. Half way through the saw binds and kicks back. You know where it landed. Blade buried in the guys groin.
That article as kept me searching for a safe place to cut on more than one occaission.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Nick,
I coulda gone all next century without that visual.
SamT
Gives me the shivvers everytime I think about it, along with a certain amount of instantaneous 'shinkage'.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Mike-
No offence, but I think I'll stay a LONG way away from you.
How many lives do you have left?
I guess this would be in the NASTY column. I was working in the city last week when packing up my tools I had some tools stacked in a little patch of grass next to my truck. Everybody should know whats in little patches of grass in the city right? Anyway I get my tools loaded and I get an unmistakable aroma of dog feces. I quickly looked things over and found nothing, in a hurry, hop in truck and go.
Monday morning go to new job and set up tools, grab trusty LS1211 and haul it in and set it on my bench only to discover a nice little pile of sh!t in the middle of my saw!!! The pile was on the bottom of my tool pouch which I hang over my saw, nice!!! Had no water on the job! It was a bad start to a monday.
OK, I can do nasty and funnuy both in one incident,
but if you publish this, don't for get me in the royalties, just in the credits...
It was the time I sat down in a stream of Liquid nails and glued my jockeys to my crack hair. Didn't kniow 'till I'd got home that night and tried to undress. Had to shave BEFORE I showered that night.
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
You do recollect reading the Taunton press agreement you checked off on when you became a registered user don't you? They now officially own your crack hair.... No royalties involved. I think that will print nicely in the BT column of the magazine ~)MG
Renovating at McDonald's restaurant downtown Whitehorse. Owner wanted the 20' light standards out front given a coat of paint. Helper held ladder, painter goes up to top, base of pole rusted out, s l o w l y bends then breaks off, crashes down, painter smashes ankle on concrete retaining wall. off 3 months, says later real proudly, "didn't spill one drop of paint."
Late on the post but I find that if you just tack tarpaper with one or two staples(temporary of course) it makes for a good surfboard off a second story roof. It doesn't mattet though because I already broke it all playing rugby back in college. If your friends with a doctor they can get you these HUGE bottles of ibuprofen for free.
I was looking on Google for a story I read a few years ago about what HAS to be the worst job site accident I've ever heard of (I wont give it away unless I can find corroborative evidence) but I found a site with stupid warning labels.
Supposedly from a "Swedish Chainsaw Guide" "Do not attempt to stop chain with hands". Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeouchhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Chainsaw stories...
I'm working at a ski resort clearing trees to make wider trails. I'm with one other guy who, after cutting down a tree, sets the saw across his thigh to rest. Only problem, the chain is still running.
He yells to me. I foolishly go over to look deep in the recess of his leg and see the white squishy stuff twitching around. Yuk!!
I about faint. HE takes off his shirt and wraps it around his leg.
Together we work our way down the steep hill and to the truck. Then we travel 45 minutes (at about 5 miles an hour) down the dirt track that is the ski run. Then we travel another half hour down a winding canyon road to the hospital.
Same chainsaw story, different characters...I was helping my father clear brush on the ranch. He was running a bobcat and pushing stuff up into a pile. I was working the saw because he thought the bobcat was too dangerous. ( I was 13 or 14). Anyway, I finished a cut and let the bar drop, still running, right onto my leg just above the knee. I didn't feel a thing and no blood. The blade was hot so I guess in cauterized everything. I looked at the hole in my pant leg and congratulated myself on being so lucky that I only cut the pants. Then I looked inside and saw the white twitchy stuff and I turned white. I didn't know the old man could move so fast when he saw what happened. The worst part was the E.R. nurse who used a wire brush to clean the sawdust and chips out. That hurt much more than the cut.
Sounds like you shoulda beeen a doctor, LOL. Book title: "Stand Back, I Know What I'm Doing"I was renting an old farm house and the cloth covered 12 g line running from the meter base to the 60 amp glass fused panel started arcing under the house. A GC friend an I decided we could replace that wimpy wire with some number 4g I had scrounged somewhere...we were messing in the main panel when my landlord came by. "You boys know what you're doing?" My buddy Bob says, "Sure, done this a hundred timezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" It took him a while to get up, and the linesman's pliers would never cut another piece of wire...amazingly, the landlord just left shaking his head...we figured he went to bump up his fire insurance.Or, how bout "Don't Laugh, I Could Be Working For You." I was looking at a trim job with the GC. Brand new house with some hack work he wanted fixed. We worked out a deal and start walking down the freshly laid brick walk in front of the house. The sand had been broomed in so tightly that there was no place for the rest to go, so there was still some on top of the bricks. My foot rolled about halfway to the truck, went down, jumped up, whoa, hey, I'm okay!Got the crew and started fixing, my foot started swelling so much I had to take off my boot, but I kept on working & we got it done.Next morning a very unhappy Mrs 'Snort had to drive me to find out how easily the 5th metatarsual breaks<G>
Don't worry, we can fix that later!
Thought I was above it all , mr.safe and sane, reading your stories till I remembered this one time at the material yard. Loading a bunch of 20 ga. steel studs and channel onto my truck rack and strapping them down with the bungees. They hung past the end of my truck and I stood on the bumper reaching over to hook that bungee onto the far end (and as always that damn bungee is just an inch too short, requiring heretofore unknown strength to make the connection), and with that done I jump down to rush back to jobsite when the hand that was not stretching bungee remains caught by the tip of the glove. Arm is pulled across the jagged and rusty edge of the channel at the inside of the elbow, cutting a vein and sending a plume of red stuff skyward. Worked my hand out of the glove and walked over to the burly yard helper who screamed as though I was asking him to put my head back on with some tie wire. MMM, brings back that salty taste in the mouth every time I think about it.
Did the burly guy faint?
I had a laborer this spring who was pounding on the end of a block to drive a piece of trim into place. He was swinging with all his might, probably trying to relieve some frustration on the slowly moving trim. All of a sudden...WHAM. The hammer grazed the block and he wailed the back of his hand. His hand swelled up HUGE. It was really nasty looking. I drove him to the ER and he was out for a couple of weeks. A week after coming back, he put a 12d framer in the same hand. Another "I know what I'm doin" type. Yeah right...
Hope you gave him his final check....
In the years BC (before carpentry) I fixed cars and trucks. Mounting a hitch rig to a van. Small guy (5'2", 100'lb soaking) was elected to crawl under to drill out the frame. Using a 1930's 1/2" chuck B&D cast aluminum drill with long bars. Sucker weighed 60 lbs and spun at 300 rpm. Bit grabbed an edge as it penetrated frame. Trigger stuck on. Little guy spinning under the van. Even though I found the plug end fast - it took 2 minutes for the drill to wind down. He just kept spinning.
Too funny MIke!
Stop it...your killing me.
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
I was bit by a bat while building a large barn. About half a dozen were under the tar paper and one got me. The shots were not a real treat. However, I was 30 feet up and didn't fall.
Every time I got a shot, I would get a 2 day headache. The first day I got 11 or 12 shots. Then 4 or 5 after that during the next 30+ days.
*** WARNING! The attached pictures are graphic in nature. Please do not open if you have heart problems, a child on your lap, or are preparing to eat/have recently eaten. ***
Okay, these recent injuries pale in comparison to some of the truly nasty zingers posted earlier, but the topic included “dumb”, right? Well, let me just say if stupidity were an event being held in the Olympics, I’d be takin’ home the gold, baby!
The first pic, so cleverly entitled “Ipe Toes”, shows what can happen when you’re sanding a 14-foot, 5/4X6” piece of the devil-wood, and it decides to take a hopper on ya from the workbench. Yes, they’re probably broken. And YES, I own a pair of nail clippers – just haven’t seen ‘em around lately.
The second pic, “Ipe Left Foot” (yes, thank you, I know, I know, I AM quite the wordsmith, aren’t I?), shows what can happen when you’re sanding a 14-foot, 5/4X6” piece of the devil-wood, and it decides to take a hopper on ya from the workbench. Yes, a foot’s not supposed to look like that. And YES, thank you for asking, I did indeed find the nail clippers (they were in the top-LEFT desk drawer not the top-RIGHT desk drawer where they’re supposed to be).
Alas, I’ve also been awarded the silver and bronze: “Ipe Toes” happened last Friday, “Ipe Left Foot” a week later to the day, as in “today”… My only consolation? I’m still not as stupid as the sales guy who sold me my steel-toed Birkenstock work sandals for HALF-PRICE. What an idiot!
Gotta go hit the Vicadin… again.
Flashy
PS: Quick clamps? I don’t need no stinkin’ quick clamps!
Edited 12/3/2004 11:25 pm ET by Flashy2000
Good gracious....you gotta wash between those toes!
Don't ever post anything like that again!
Anyone else voting for a delete?
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
Don't ever post anything like that again!
oh gawd that is just so funny.
delete is a good idea tho.
ugly man.
don't be ugly
Edited 12/4/2004 12:20 am ET by rez
Blue, sorry to offend ---by mistake I posted the original pictures rather than the ones I touched up on the computer (clean toes, fresh toenail polish, you know, that "fresh from the pedicurist" look).
Guess the Breaktime board is fortunate I wasn't that guy who took the nail-gun hit to the scrotal area. Ouch!
Edited 12/4/2004 11:33 am ET by Flashy2000
That sounds a lot better Flashy! Post those manicured pics...before my fetish dies!
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
Your the only guy I would recommend to paint you toenails to make them look better. But really I feel for you, very painful looking get better soon and wear steel toed boots next time.
I was cutting a huge 16 inch diameter branch while standing on the top of a 3 legged "tree trimmers" ladder. I knew there was about a 5% chance of the branch coming down towards me, and so I, having learned from Wiley E, Coyote, knew I could just grab onto the remaing part of the branch and shimmy on down if the improbable happened. So the improbable happened, but like all tool owners, my brain siezed up for a milli-second when it was time to grab the branch because I didn't want to drop my chainsaw 22 '.....
On the way down, I was forced to make another split decision- knock the twirling chainsaw out of the way as it followed me to the ground or try and break my fall. I chose the former and broke my neck and a few lumbar vertebre.
And to think that each time I pressed that little morphine dispenser near my hospital bed I would be charged the same amount as a new step ladder!
They gave you a self-operated despensing morphine unit????? Man, I always had to call a nurse.
I remember that nurse.She was always ten minutes late
She came in ugly with a five inch long needle.When she left, she was beautiful
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Here's one I did recently. It had me convinced that I must be stupid beyond compare, so it's nice to read there are others out there who have had a similar feeling.
The customer asks me to take a look at the garage door while I'm there working on something else. The rollers were rusted and turned with difficulty so I decided to remove them one at a time to narrow down the culprits. When I got to the bottom roller, I completely forgot that the bracket that held it also held the cable which was connected to the assist spring. Sure enough, just as the last bolt is almost out... whack! Here comes the bracket and roller pulled by the spring. It smacks me in the face. My nose took the brunt of it. Both nostrils bleeding freely and I might have broken it. My face swells up pretty good. Also, a small cut just below my eye. Whew, I got really lucky. No stitches, no eye damage and complete healing.
The impact dazed me for a few minutes and all of the blood had me thinking it must be really, really bad. I fought the urge to call 911 until my head was clear enough to look in a mirror and asses the damage. It was one of the those times that it felt worse than it looked.
After cleaning myself up, I put the door back together and told the customer what I should have told her in the first place: The rollers are rusted and need to be replaced, but the door and rollers are a proprietary system so you'll need to contact the manufacturer or an authorized installer.
Now, I try to remind myself to do a better job of thinking each task all the way through.
-Don
Granted I'm generally safety minded to the point of frozen paranoia which is why I'm usually working solo and injuries pale in comparison to those recited here.
So one day the mundane became stupid.
Old house reno adding bridging to the first floor from the basement. (See, blue is right)
Gotta be tight tight tight. Overcut those bridging pieces and hammer them suckers in there with no mercy.
So coffeed up, late at night getting tired wanting to finish. You know the drill. I'm walloping away. Don't know how it can happen.
How the thumb can get involved in that I'll never figure it out.
Full intense rhythmic swings, you know, the kind you kind of get the whole body motion involved in? Ya.
I guess it was lucky I missed the bulk of the thumb nail but could certainly define the term bruise and blood blisters after that episode.
And the following dance steps were interesting in hindsight.
Rez, back in the days of hand pounding and bridging, one of the tasks the rookies always got was starting the nails in the bridging.
One day Billy was installing the bridging and he like to show off his hammering skills...so he typically smacked every nail with the full intent of setting it with each swing. Well....he was leaning a little too much trying to get one more piece on and he managed to get his pinky behind the bridging. Whap! "Oh mthr fer....get me off here!" he cried. He had nailed his pinky between the joist and the bridging and he was stretched out full length and couldn't move without tearing the end of his finger off.
I calmly asked him "Hey...where's your wallet?".
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
Oh yeah...one more story about Billy. Billy like to brag....well..actually he flat out lied alot. Anyways, one day he was bragging that he could drive a roofing nail in one whack.....WITHOUT SETTING IT FIRST!
Well, as you could imagine, everyone said..."Show us"!
Brilliant Billy grabbed his long handled framing hammer (it was a 20oz Rocket), walked over the the window sill, grabbed a 1 3/4" roofing nail, and proceeded to smash the living squat out of his thumb!
No...he can't set a roofing nail in one sway without setting it!
blue
ps...hey...we were willing to give him another chance!Warning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
Had a young bragger like that years ago,he bragged how strong he was hence the nick-name we gave him.... "Brawny". In just 1 house Brawny stepped on a nail,fell through the floor joists twice[once with glue on them] and stacked a whole pile of 3/4 ply on saw horses to push up only to have the horses give way and under the pile he went.
My 'worst' accidents were from my ATV 3 wheeler racing days.Too many visits to the clinic to mention here. Playing around the local riding place one Sunday,when I woke up I was on my couch at home with my buddies looking down at me."What happened?" Found me laying next to my still running trike, loaded me and bike in my truck and took me home.Scary?I DIDN'T DO IT...THE BUCK DOES NOT STOP HERE.
No blue,... you stop,
your killing me
LOL!!!!!!!!
Speaking of hammering...
Had this guy, first day on the job, given the task of demoing a deck. Used a three pound hand sledge to pound deck boards off. He's standing up, swinging the sledge full-force up and missed the deck--hit himself in the mouth instead. OUCH!!
Being the first day on the job, he took it like a man. Pulled his teeth back into position and drove himself to the dentist.
CC, I cant laff too hard at that story.....because...I've been trying to forget this incident...
I was demoing a deck once myself. Luckily I wasn't using a 3# sledge though. I had just started and was taking down the rails. I was pounding them up off the post.....you know the rest of the story....I swung the hammer and missed the board and thunked myself squarely in the center of my forehead. I didn't knock myself out but there was a nice knot.
I felt so stupid telling the lady that I think I better take the rest of the day off...
As far as I can remember, that is my most dangerous injury. I've had my share of pinches, pokes and scrapes.
Oh yeah...one more stupid thing. An electrician was using a hole hawg and talking about how much torgue it had. It was laying there while I was having coffee and I thought about it and decided to see how much torgue it had. I pulled the trigger, then grabbed the AUGER BIT WITH MY HANDS to see if I could stop it!
I meant to grab the chuck....
I looked like JC for a few days.
blueWarning! Be cautious when taking any framing advice from me. Although I have a lifetime of framing experience, all of it is considered bottom of the barrel by Gabe. I am not to be counted amongst the worst of the worst. If you want real framing information...don't listen to me..just ask Gabe!
Quote: "Now, I try to remind myself to do a better job of thinking each task all the way through."
Word, as the young 'uns say nowadays. Thanks for the valuable reminder.
Years ago, I was working on a cabling crew with the bosses son, you know, the one who could not be fired for any reason. He had just gotten his first cordless drill, a nice shinny new dewalt 14v, - the ones with the big battery packs on them.
We were installing cabling in a commercial buiding where the ceiling pannels had not been laid in yet, so I got a pretty good visual of him standing on the very top of the 6 foot ladder, trying to drill a 2" holesaw bit into the steel top plate of a wall.
With the drill turning full speed, the holesaw bit caught and spun the drill around 180, battery pack squarely impacting him in his jaw. Knocked him right out of his coke bottle glasses and off the ladder, bringing him and a large section of drop ceiling grid down to the floor.
He went off to go get stitches, and spend a few days at home with his momma. The rest of us got to work late that night fixing a drop ceiling.
I just remembered a couple more stupid job injuries from my first years as a carpenter:
I was prying a 14' 2x8 off the rake of a the gable end of the house. Whoever nailed this thing off really liked their nail gun. I started at the bottom and slowly worked my way up. going up the ladder as I went. I got about two thirds of the way up when I was prying really hard on it with a crow bar. All of a sudden...POP! The board came flying off the building wobbling all over like a guitar sting. I can still see this thing wobbling over my head, like it was all happening in way slow mode.With nowher to go I leaned in tight to the building, and hoped for the a miracle. A nail sticking out of the board caught my shoulder and tore a big gash in it as it fell to the ground. I tell people I got into a knife fight when they ask what happened. Its pretty funny to see look on their faces.
Another dumb self inflicted injury was during that same year. I was cutting the seat belt material that holds down the roof sections on modulars with a dull utility knife. I was really hacking away, trying to get through it. All of a sudden I lose my footing a little and hit my arm. I just stood there and looked at my arm in disbelief. I couldn't believe I just put the huge gash in my own arm. I wrapped it up with some paper towels and duct tape, changed the blade in my knife, and got back to work.