[louieatienza]

I never liked installing the bump-nailing trigger on a large framing gun, though it does make framing go so much faster, I learned to develop a quick trigger. There was a lawsuit that was won by an individual versus Stanley Tools and The Home Depot, where the man (who was an experienced carpenter) was bump-nailing a door header. Supposedly the framing gun double-shot, and in the course of the recoil the man shot his head, causing brain damage. I believe he was awarded $4 million...

[louieatienza]

The worst pictures I've seen on the net are of a guy who was polishing a 3" or so shaft in a big 18-24" lathe. His flannel shirt sleeve got wrapped up on the shaft and it pulled his upper half between the bed and the shaft. There was not enough room between them for an intact human head to fit. The chuck did a number on his shoulder area, woodchipper style. Needless to say he did not make it. The pictures are quite gruesome.

The most common serious injury on a lathe is getting something caught and getting sucked in. Gloves, shirts, pony tails, etc. The lucky ones only loose a finger/hand/arm. Grabbing hold of some sharp swarf and it getting pulled through your hand will also do some damage. I think those are the biggies. Also have to look out for a part that comes loose due to a crash or too aggressive cut.

Those are the pics I thought about. It still makes me sad evertime I think about it. Horrifying...

[keebler303]

I never liked installing the bump-nailing trigger on a large framing gun, though it does make framing go so much faster, I learned to develop a quick trigger. There was a lawsuit that was won by an individual versus Stanley Tools and The Home Depot, where the man (who was an experienced carpenter) was bump-nailing a door header. Supposedly the framing gun double-shot, and in the course of the recoil the man shot his head, causing brain damage. I believe he was awarded $4 million...

I know stranger things have happened, but you have to wonder if a lot of this stuff isn't intentional just to get a paycheck.

[louieatienza]

I know stranger things have happened, but you have to wonder if a lot of this stuff isn't intentional just to get a paycheck.

He definitely has some debilitating brain damage; I wouldn't trade my brain for $4 million! There was anothe case in Boston where a man successfully sued Ryobi and Home Depot for improper safety features on a tablesaw after lopping his fingers off doing flooring. The guy who invented the Saw Stop, Steve Gass, used this as propaganda to make his device mandatory on all tablesaws, after he unsuccessfully tried to sell licensing of his patent to every tool maker.

The real question in these cases are whether there was truly a safety hazard, or where these people being negligent. In the case of the framing gun, the bump trigger does NOT come attached with the gun, it must be installed by the user, and there are warnings on the package (I threw mine out. Tablesaws all come with blade guards and riving knives, though I can't think of one contractor that installs it. One could make an argument that there should be an interlock that releases when the guard is installed, but even then there's still a risk of cut.

There are a handful of deaths every year from workers geting pulled into commercial wood chippers.

[keebler303]

I'm not making an accusation in this case, it's just some of those things you think how the hell could you do that?

In the litigious society we live in, you have to protect idiots from themselves or you will pay.

[Doug Kramer]

I set up displays for a major auto show every year, takes about 2 months of hard work and 1,000's of tradesmen to get them up in time. All kinds of action going on all over, the place is one huge construction zone and the hazards are many. Forklifts are flying around all over the place and there are huge crates all over, the forks are bringing in new crates, talking empty ones out and other things, and crude aisles are established by these crates. I saw a guy starting to walk between crates in the aisle and I saw a lift heading right to the same spot, I calculated that if they both kept going like they were there was going to be a collision. I yelled out loud as I could but I couldn't be heard over the din of construction racket, the guy walked out and was nailed hard by the lift, pretty much rag dolled him back into the crates.
He survived but suffered permanent leg damage.
Another guy the same year walked off lift about 25 ft in the air, his crew was getting loads of material from ground guys and going up and passing it to guys building something ,,, The lift gate was inconveniencing them in their loading so they tied it open, a definite violation of OSHA and common sense. They had a long piece and he was backing up trying to get a better position off center to pass it, he just walked right off and dropped to the floor.
He survived too but is severely disabled and will never work again.

I work in boilers sometimes building scaffolds, I mean huge boilers in electricity plants. They got these things everyone calls "boogers" that collect towards the top during normal operation of the boilers, they are basically just heavy chunks of material and they have got to go before we enter the boiler, so some guys are tasked with blowing them off, to do this they use 1/4 sticks of dynamite, maybe 1/2. Anyways one guy had one go off right in front of him, he didn't survive. Saw him carried out and his face was pretty much not there.
Another guy on the same job a few weeks later had a chain fall fall right on his shoulder from about 25 ft up, must have weighed a couple hundred pounds at least.
I suppose he can consider himself lucky it didn't get him on the head but his shoulder was mangled beyond belief, saw him carried out too but never heard any followup to his condition.

1 more, at the auto show, as I said there are 1,000's of guys, all supposedly skilled journeymen but many aren't qualified to swing a hammer, they get their jobs by being someones son or having their nose stuck up the right butt ,,, They basically buy their cards that say they are skilled trades, but are nothing of the sort.
Pretty easy to pick these guys out, almost like a cripple at a dance party. I was watching this one guy on a 12" Makita table saw, he had a stack of corian strips he was going to cut, all he had to do was figure out how the adjust the height of the blade and change the angle to 0. So he was fumbling around and trying every knob, switch or lever he could find ... We usually avoid these guys like the plague, we view them as suck ups and scabs, but I felt sorry for this guy and ambled over and asked if he needed any help.
"Nope, got it" he said, too embarrassed to admit he didn't know what he was doing, so I dropped back and continued what I was doing but kept my eye on him.

He was starting to bend over looking for new and hidden knobs he hadn't tried yet - One of those darn thing ma bobs must make this blade go down !
He was balancing his bend with 1 hand on the table, the other fumbling around, low and behold he found the power switch ! The saw suddenly powering up and roaring in his face made him lose his balance and he grabbed at the table ... Would have been far, far better to just fall, but once again, he was too proud to let that happen, so he grabs the saw blade and before he knew what happened he was missing 3 fingers and the blade ran half way up his hand, terribly messy - And he ended up on his ass nonetheless.
I still feel slightly guilty for not insisting that I help him, but theres not much a guy can do in a situation like that. I blame not me or him but whoever it was who let unqualified guys like that on job like this in the first place, we got plenty of skilled, talented and hungry guys out of work, and they go and hire numb nuts like this.

[acannell]

I work in boilers sometimes building scaffolds, I mean huge boilers in electricity plants. They got these things everyone calls "boogers" that collect towards the top during normal operation of the boilers, they are basically just heavy chunks of material and they have got to go before we enter the boiler, so some guys are tasked with blowing them off, to do this they use 1/4 sticks of dynamite, maybe 1/2.

wtfffff..can you tell us more about these? is this the boiler that gas/nuclear heats up to generator the steam for a turbine or something? whats the booger made of? what does it look like inside one of those boilers? crazzyyy

is it just me or does it seem like table saws are the most common injury story reported? im never buying one

[Trotline]

Boilers in large electrical plants look like modernist cathedrals. They can be ten stories tall, if not taller, with vertical ribs that are the heat exchangers. The "boogers" are the equivalent of soot in the the chimneys of lanterns, just writ large. They're the "slag" of the combustion process.

Table saws are no different from any other power tools. If you make a mistake when using them, they're unforgiving, with a capital "U", same as any other tool. The reason you hear of so many table saw accidents is that there are so many table saws. It's a really basic tool, and incredibly useful in many circumstances. The same applies to lathes. There are probably 2X as many injurious accidents on lathes simply because there are that many lathes, in comparison to other machine tools. It's just that basic a tool.

Saying that you'll never buy a particular tool is basically giving up on tools. They're all dangerous. There's no tool that somebody can't use in a dangerous fashion. Rather than disavow tools, just try really hard not to be that person. Really, really hard. Approach any and all power tools as if today is the day that you'll screw up and get hurt, and you probably never will.

Luke

[louieatienza]

wtfffff..can you tell us more about these? is this the boiler that gas/nuclear heats up to generator the steam for a turbine or something? whats the booger made of? what does it look like inside one of those boilers? crazzyyy

is it just me or does it seem like table saws are the most common injury story reported? im never buying one

They're the most used tool in the wood shop, which likely explains the amount of injuries.

[LeeWay]

They're the most used tool in the wood shop, which likely explains the amount of injuries.

And table saws are probably the most misused tool in the workshop.
More often than not, it is used for small material and/or very odd type cuts that are better done on other machines.
I am guilty of it as well, but have been fortunate. Many thousands aren't so lucky every year.

[tatinc2000]

wtfffff..can you tell us more about these? is this the boiler that gas/nuclear heats up to generator the steam for a turbine or something? whats the booger made of? what does it look like inside one of those boilers? crazzyyy

is it just me or does it seem like table saws are the most common injury story reported? im never buying one

I work in a coal fire plant doing mechanical maintenance. Like the guy above said the stuff hanging on the pipes is a mix of soot and ash and other crap that doesn't go out the bottom. Our big boiler is 23 stories and the two small ones are 13 stories tall. The dynamite crew comes in and uses 1/4 and 1/2 to blow up the clinkers so they don't fall whole. They can be the size of cars sometimes. After the dyno we would go through with 8 gauges shotguns and clear the little stuff hung up in the pipes. The most amazing part of the boilers to me is the fact that they hang from the ceiling and actually rest in a trough of water to create a seal on the mid-first floor. It is pretty cool if you ever get a chance to tour one of these plants. I mainly work with scrubbers (emissions) now. I do get put on a lot of specialty stuff because I actually pay attention and don't mind getting dirty. Where I work it is not uncommon to spend a day working with a 10,000 pound torque wrench. I also get to run the gantry cranes lifting turbines and such. Sorry for there rambling.

[louieatienza]

And table saws are probably the most misused tool in the workshop.
More often than not, it is used for small material and/or very odd type cuts that are better done on other machines.
I am guilty of it as well, but have been fortunate. Many thousands aren't so lucky every year.

You COULD cut small parts on a tablesaw, the key is jigging up for the particular cut. It's using a crosscut sled instead of the stock miter gauge, or making and installing zero-clearance inserts for thin or easily splintered parts... Sometimes it making a fixture with cam clams or such to hold the parts down. The worst thing one can do is cut freehand; not many people realize the rim of the blade can reach over 100mph, and that ends up being the initial velocity of whatever kicks back.

I had a very old set of Popular Mechanics' encyclopedia. One project was making a tablesaw using a lathe! And a picture of someone freehand cutting a sheet of plywood. Another article was on how to make a portable electric stove - using a piece of asbestos board!

I always feared Delta saws, since they were one of the few manufacturers where the trunnion tilts to the RIGHT. If anyone knows doing narrow rips with this particular saw and the fence is not dead straight, that rip can and will pinch against the fence! I've seen rips sent flying back like a cannon.

Our shop was in a semi-abandoned industrial facility and the wiring was never up-to-par. I was free form cutting some shapes on the bandsaw, and it was 100 degrees in the shade, so I took my shirt off. As I maneuvered the wood, I spun to the left and my wet back went against a standpipe. I couldn't move because I was shaking so much it felt like I was stuck to the pipe. Luckily my partner was around and pried me off with a 2X4, otherwise I might not be typing now!

Another incident - usually we drain the air compressor tank at the end of the day to get all the moisture out of the tank. I went to unscrew the valve, then BANG like a shotgun, the valve just slipped off my hand and shot away. When I looked down there was a 3 inch deep crater in the cement floor! If my hand was directly under that valve (which I'd never do anyway) I fear what I could have lost!

[acannell]

I work in a coal fire plant doing mechanical maintenance. Like the guy above said the stuff hanging on the pipes is a mix of soot and ash and other crap that doesn't go out the bottom. Our big boiler is 23 stories and the two small ones are 13 stories tall. The dynamite crew comes in and uses 1/4 and 1/2 to blow up the clinkers so they don't fall whole. They can be the size of cars sometimes. After the dyno we would go through with 8 gauges shotguns and clear the little stuff hung up in the pipes. The most amazing part of the boilers to me is the fact that they hang from the ceiling and actually rest in a trough of water to create a seal on the mid-first floor. It is pretty cool if you ever get a chance to tour one of these plants. I mainly work with scrubbers (emissions) now. I do get put on a lot of specialty stuff because I actually pay attention and don't mind getting dirty. Where I work it is not uncommon to spend a day working with a 10,000 pound torque wrench. I also get to run the gantry cranes lifting turbines and such. Sorry for there rambling.

literally fascinating...i dont like objects that big i think id freak out standing next to a 230 foot tall boiler...i wonder what the total energy stored in that would be at operating pressure

how does a 5 ton torque wrench work? is it just longer and bigger?

now i understand who mcmaster carr is for and why they can be so overpriced..i guess when you are working equipment of this magnitude the MRO supply costs become pretty much irrelevant..its more about getting sh** there as fast as possible amiright

[acannell]

I had a very old set of Popular Mechanics' encyclopedia. One project was making a tablesaw using a lathe! And a picture of someone freehand cutting a sheet of plywood. Another article was on how to make a portable electric stove - using a piece of asbestos board!

makes me wonder what todays "asbestos" is...we cant have figured out _everything_ yet..there must be some deadly crap we are inhaling or being exposed to daily that will be outlawed in 2040 right?

Another incident - usually we drain the air compressor tank at the end of the day to get all the moisture out of the tank. I went to unscrew the valve, then BANG like a shotgun, the valve just slipped off my hand and shot away. When I looked down there was a 3 inch deep crater in the cement floor! If my hand was directly under that valve (which I'd never do anyway) I fear what I could have lost!

??? how big was the compressor tank and at what pressure

[tatinc2000]

literally fascinating...i dont like objects that big i think id freak out standing next to a 230 foot tall boiler...i wonder what the total energy stored in that would be at operating pressure

how does a 5 ton torque wrench work? is it just longer and bigger?

now i understand who mcmaster carr is for and why they can be so overpriced..i guess when you are working equipment of this magnitude the MRO supply costs become pretty much irrelevant..its more about getting sh** there as fast as possible amiright

Not sure on our pressures but i have had to cut pipe with an O.D. of 8 inches and an I.D. of 2 inches. The big torque wrenches are hydraulic. They are HyTorq brand. I think they go up to 37,000 foot pounds. We do have hand torque wrenches that you can pull 800 foot pounds, or more with multipliers. That pressure on a 96 bolt pattern can make for a long day, especially at a percentage torque. By that i mean the first round is 50%, then 70%, then90% then 100% until there is no more movement in the fasteners. That could be many rounds on a wrench. They are 3/4" drive, 4' long. Here is some images of our plant I found on the web. I am not allowed to take photos at work. Your right about the parts. We have a main contract for small stuff like nuts and bolts, gaskets, that type of crap with fastenal. We have more parts in stock than their own stores. Lots of specialty stuff from lots of places, with lots of overnight shipping. Its definitely a need the right part at the right time type of environment. This is the plant- and a some what close plant diagram. Note the red circle in the bottom right corner, it represents a person.

[Doug Kramer]

wtfffff..can you tell us more about these? is this the boiler that gas/nuclear heats up to generator the steam for a turbine or something? whats the booger made of? what does it look like inside one of those boilers? crazzyyy

is it just me or does it seem like table saws are the most common injury story reported? im never buying one

I work mostly in coal fired boilers, they are genuinely huge. Hard to quantify that statement, I know ... We have built scaffolds probably 25 levels up maybe more, each level being 8 ft or so. Stupendous amount of labor involved and very dangerous, I like it and routinely do things most people would not dream of doing, I know guys that are cowboys and actually get off living on the edge and doing nutty dangerous things building these, I'm not one of those.

Far as I know of their operation, coal is pulverized to dust and injected into the fired boiler, thereby creating the vast amount of heat needed to create the steam which drives the house sized turbines, which produces the electricity we all use.
These boilers have 1,000's of pipes and each one is important, in the course of normal operation these pipes need to be maintained [by pipefitters] on a regular basis, and sometimes on an unplanned basis ... Thats where us carpenters come in, to access, inspect and work on all of these pipes, they have to have secure footing from top to bottom, so a scaffold must be built to accommodate them.
I've worked in nuclear plants as well but not boilers, in the cooling towers you have probably seen before, known for being huge and having a distinctive shape. A nuclear power plant needs mind boggling amounts of water for operation, this is why they are almost always built by water.
These things are nothing but giant radiators with, you guessed it, 100,000's of plastic pipes from the bottom to about 100+ft up, all the way around. About every other year, every single one is torn out by laborers, and new ones are put in by us carpenters.
Also very dangerous, I could write a book on my experiences in the towers. We usually have guys that quit after 1 day, sometimes 1 hour, even though they are making $35 an hour straight time, with lots of overtime. Easily pull in over $2K a week take home.
Mandatory, 100% tie off policy, we have 2 lanyards on our harnesses for mobility, when one is untied to move the other must be tied to something ,,, Guys get fired with no warning if they are caught untied ,, With one exception - Before the crews can go in and do their jobs, some brave, adventurous guys who like to monkey around and who are not afraid of heights have to go around and bolt heavy gauge wire around the entire circumference of the tower on all levels, this wire is often the only thing guys can tie off to, by design there are not a whole lot of obstructions in these structures, so I'm the guy who usually runs that crew, which is great because it takes about 3 weeks, and thats extra time no one else gets, we take it off too when the jobs done, of course. I have seen more than 1 guy dangling from these wires so they do work, never dangled myself, I heard it is very rough on the crotch area when you fall with a harness but much better than splattering on the ground.
Worse thing that happened to me there is a guy dropped a 15 ft steel pick on my head, guy was a real idiot. Our boss started offering incentives, if you get so many bays done in a day, 15, then you can go home and get paid 12 hours no matter if you got done in 10 or even 8. So guys were hustling like beavers on crack, I didn't like it and could tell something bad would happen, so the guy on the level above my kept moving heavy **** right over my head which of course is very unnerving, when I move something if there is someone below, I give them a heads up "hey bro, heads up, I'm moving something here" he'd say "yep" and stand clear, this guy kept doing it with no regards to me and finally I had enough, I said hey man, stop doing that ****. Give me a heads up before you move something, hell, I could even make it easier for you and help you from down here instead of you monkeying around on the beam.
He saw the logic, apologized and whenever he moved something, he told me first. Great, I thought, much better. This lasted about 4 hours, the guy in his rush couldn't wait for his partner to help him move the pick and tried it himself, he lost the other end and it came crashing down right on my head.
Lucky for me I was kneeling down at the time and the pick hit the picks I was kneeling on and my head just about the same time, it sent my hardhat crashing to the bottom and knocked me sideways, almost over a ledge to the next level.
I said you stupid son of a *****, I fu-in told you dammit ,, I wanted to go up and just wale on the guy and started to but I wasn't sure if I was knocked out on my feet, ready to go out. I saw a guy get knocked out working up there and it took them hours to get him down, so I yelled for the lift to get me down, I told my boss what happened and that I wanted to take an hour or so to make sure I'm Ok ,,, He said no prob, you need to go to a hospital ? I said no I don't think so, just let me hang in the trailer a while until I'm sure I'm not going to pass out.

I was fine, I got a hard head so I went back up after an hour, in the mean time this idiot had fallen, my partner told me he was swinging and it took that hour to haul him back up, now he was the one rattled and had to take a break ,, Plus I'm pretty sure he didn't want to be there when I came back, I as much as told him I was going to knock his teeth out, I viewed what he did as completely reckless and unnecessary, and as a deadly assault.
I thought about kicking his ass but I thought no, I'd get kicked off the job even if I was justified. The guy was likable, he helped me out with a toasted radiator hose in my truck just days before, stayed about an hour after work and we got it working, he didn't even know me, not many guys would do that. So I thought about it and cooled down as I did, this incentive policy is to blame, and more sloppy accidents like this will happen so long as it is in effect. I talked to the boss, he agreed and next morning we had a big safety meeting and he canceled the incentive program.
[I was getting out at 10 hours every other day, 12 next ect but some guys were getting out after 8 or 9 every day, I thought WTF, I'm pretty fast here and more experienced than most of the guys, how are they doing that ? I couldn't see any way how a 2 man crew could work that much more efficiently than mine .. So I started looking around at some of these speed demons and sure enough, they was doing things half assed, there are these clips on these plastic pipes we put in, sometimes they are both in but more often than not 1 or both were not, so we had pouches full of these clips to put them in, probably took 15 seconds a clip. Well, these guys were just laying the pipes on the rack with no clips, probably saved close to an hour every day by blowing them off ,, And of course, when the water comes crashing through, these pipes will wash away with it. Also, they weren't tying off their picks like we were 100% supposed to do, it was a PITA, each end of each pick, 4 in each bay which had to be moved 3 times in each bay, we had to loop heavy wires around the beams they rested on and lock them in, probably took about 5 minutes per side per pick. Reason they needed to be tied is obvious, if they came off the beam they and you would come crashing down, so skimping out on the tie off saved them easily more than another hour each day, probably more like 2 - At the expense of their safety and mine.
That really pissed me off, I'm normally not a snitch but I can not stand half assed cheats or sloppy unprofessional workmanship, so I told the boss that too, and that was another factor in him eliminating the stupid incentive plan].

You know, I have taken pics inside boilers but they are unimpressive, with the huge space and low light the cam cannot replicate what the eye sees.
I was standing at the bottom of a nuclear cooling tower looking up, it looked absolutely awesome and not a view many will see, so next day I brought in a cam, even tho you are not supposed to bring cameras to these power plants.
Took the pic, and I'll be damned if it just doesn't look like a circle of light, walls cannot be seen ,, So I don't know, you'd need a better cam/and or lighting to get a decent shot, I'll see if I can dig that pic up, but be prepared to be underwhelmed.

Anyhow about the boogers, didn't read all the replies yet but I think Luke has it right, they can be classified as slag, they build up towards the top and get heavy and are very unstable, which is why they must be blown off before we can get in there and start building - Else you'd have guys getting clocked on the head with them and probably killed.

Table saws, I love em, couldn't live without them.
Gotta be respectful and careful at all times, highly unforgiving by nature ... I know genuine accidents can happen, my feeling is you got to be stupid to get hurt by one.

edit: Couldn't find the cooling tower pic ,,, Here is one job I was working some years back, this boiler house powered the humungous Ford Rouge plant .... One of the boilers blew up, I think 3 guy were killed outright and more injured, Ford employees. They immediately decided to tear it to the ground and build a new one, in the mean time they rush shipped in equipment to power the plant until the new one was up, which would obviously take some time.
These "temporary" power areas had to have cover, thats where we came in - We built half a dozen or so huge pole barns over this equipment ,,, Good gig, must have been there over 8 months or so.
Pics were taken pretty early in the project, not supposed to have cams there either. They were eventually sided, roofed with trusses and even insulated.

[acannell]

wow..amazing pics guys and the stories are really fun to read..i really look forward to this thread when i see a new post!

sometimes i wish i had a job that kept me moving around oot and aboot....i like what i do but if i spend 12 hours on the computer doing cam or cad like today , i dont feel very healthy

[Doug Kramer]

I'd be surprised if anyone read my essays !
I tend to ramble, I really should write a book about some of my experiences in the construction trade, got lots of them.
I couldn't hack sitting around all day, no way. I don't think I could even take going to the same place day in day out, same people, same thing. My dad tried to get me a factory job out of high school, he was a lifer at GM and could have easily got me in. I looked at those guys taking a part out of a machine, stamping it, putting it in a bin, getting another part, stamping it, putting it in the bin ,, And I thought no way in hell could I take that no matter how much they paid.
I go to alot of factories both doing my union carpenter work and doing side jobs [I do epoxy cement floors on the side, among other things] ... And the trash bins in the parking lots are always overflowing with wine and liquor bottles, guys go on break and try to numb their minds to their robotic tasks they do every day, every week, every year. Granted, not all positions are like that, but if you are talking entry level, they are ,,, And a majority never advance to anything else.

So I like my trade, I am a free spirit and I go to many different places, do different things and meet different people. Downside to that is it can be feast or famine, I'm not tied to any particular company. Sometimes I literally work months on ends 7 days a week 12 hours a day, other times I don't work [union] for months on end, so I do what I got to do to keep the loot flowing.
I try to time my slow time out for the summer, more time to goof around at the beach and do what I like to do, but it can be rough making ends meet without a steady check coming in, and thats one of the reasons I got into CNC, to do something productive in my down time, and maybe find something to get into once my body can't hack the heavy work that I love to do.

[VickyG]

I have been working in the scaffolding sector for 10 years and fortunately and I have not seen accidents (there are large safety measures during the assembly and disassembly of the scaffolding). The only time was in my previous job, when I saw a worker who had a brick in his head from a certain height. Fortunately, he was wearing his helmet.