OT: Battle Scars

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On a US Navy ship, a ?Quick Acting Watertight Door? is operated by swinging a long handle through about 120 degrees of arc. This handle is linked to six metal clamps, called ?dogs,? that press against metal plates, to hold the door closed. The act is called ?dogging down the door.? Very early in the training portion of my career, I made the (very obvious, in retrospect) error of holding the door closed with one hand, and operating the handle with the other. This act is called ?dogging down your hand.? While reminiscing about this incident, now 36 years in my past, I am looking at the one inch scar on my left palm, just below the little finger. Boy, a Navy career can give a person such great memories! :smile: ;)

By the way, for all you landlubbers, yes it is called a ?door.? The word ?hatch? only applies to a door-look-alike that separates one floor from the floor above or below it.
 
I was on a job where an electrician pu a hydraulic punch together the wrong way. He took a piece of steel to his mouth. Poor kid never had so much as 1 cavity in his life & in 1 instant, lost 4 teeth.
 
:) Cheer up George and try to remember. If you hadn't been trying to get any work done you wouldn't have had the accident. Working can be hazardous to your health. It is better left to someone else.

I was working on an automated piece of equipment that was overhead. It just unloaded heavy parts from a machine and placed them on a conveyor. Between the machine and conveyor was a working area. A piece of steel grating had been installed over the working area in case something happened and the unloader dropped a part. They didn't want anyone getting injured by part falling on them. Well, I digress too much. I stepped on that grating and fell about 18'. The fall was rather uneventful but the sudden stop broke 3 ribs. Employer was nice about it though. They let me have the rest of the day off. BTW I had 10 hours in at that point. If a part had fallen, I'm betting the steel grating would have done more damage to anyone than that part would have. The grating was very close to falling before I stepped on it.
 
electricmanscott said:
It's ok to admit that you thought it was funny. ;)

I think Allen missed the jab.
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I ain't admittin nothin. ;)

Roger
 
I was doing a job at a small airport and was trying to pull wires between some new light pole bases when we couldn't get through on of the conduits.
This one was about 150' of 1-1/2" PVC.
We borrowed the trailer compressor from the GC to blow it clear.

We took the end off the hose and I stuffed it inside the conduit down about 10' and had the other guy start the compressor. It was a good snug fit.

It wasn't long before I realized that the pipe would not blow clear.
Because of the snug fit of the hose with the conduit, the conduit became pressurized.

As I tried to pull the hose out, I knew I was in trouble since it wanted to come out by itself.
When I got it to the end very carefully it blew out and sand blasted both of my arms raw between my gloves and my t-shirt sleeves.
Had to go to the emergency room for that one.

What a dope.:rolleyes:
Won't do that again.
 
I ran my thumb over with a cordless skillsaw.... actually it kicked back and ran it over backwords... but none the less 8 weeks out of work, but it was a pretty good vacation...
 
This one wasn't me, nor did anyone get hurt, but it has always been one of my favorite stories. When I was in high school taking electrical a friend came home from a job site telling of one of the carpenters that was sheeting a house on a windy day. He was on the 2nd or 3rd floor when he picked up a
4x8 plywood sheet and the wind caught him and tool him off the side. He held on and rode it to the ground like a hang glider, got in the truck and went home. I never did find out if he came back the next day.
 
I'm stupid too!

I'm stupid too!

I had always been told,whatch out for the whole saw in a whole hog.But did I listen,"after for and a half years,never". so I new of the danger and still had to learn the hard way. Insert brand new 6" whole saw,check. clime to almost the top of the ladder,check. Line up pilot bit with mark for center,check.Tist wrist to other side so it wiil come at my face insted of going awayfrom and snapping my wrist,check. Push hard on the trigger,and back of drill as to get thu the 1/2"osb,check. I punched myself so hard in the eye, I nocked my self clean off the ladder almost 6' up. I forgot the most important rule,"new teeth on a large whole saw grabs,realy well. YEP I'M DUMB!!!! I think I still have the black eye.
 
I lifted a small electric motor (100lb's) one time and felt a pull in my lower back. By the end of the day I could not walk. I called my boss and told him what happened and that I was going home. I also told him that I was going to see how I felt in the morning. I ended up in the hospital ER that night and an appointment with a neurosurgeon the following day. The doctor took me out of work for one month to rest and have some testing performed.

My boss (President) encouraged me to not use WC, as it would cause their Ins. rates to climb. But to use my regular health Ins. That he would cover my out of pocket expenses. He did not offer to pay me, but to use my personal disability policy instead.

I considered his proposal, but thought about the "What If's". Like, what if this is more serious than thought. I then requested that this be filed as a workers comp claim.

Well, that accident happened in May of 2005, and I am still out of work with one surgery under my belt and another one scheduled soon. I may never be able to work again?

Just imagine what would would have happened to me if I had accepted his proposal? By now I would have lost everything I have, I mean EVERYTHING. I had to battle them in court for two years before I was finaly compensated.

Note: He fired me two weeks after they filed the workers comp claim in 2005.

My advice to all workers. If you are hurt seriously on the job, report it immediately and have your employer file a WC claim for you.
 
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SurfSide EC said:
This one wasn't me, nor did anyone get hurt, but it has always been one of my favorite stories. When I was in high school taking electrical a friend came home from a job site telling of one of the carpenters that was sheeting a house on a windy day. He was on the 2nd or 3rd floor when he picked up a
4x8 plywood sheet and the wind caught him and tool him off the side. He held on and rode it to the ground like a hang glider, got in the truck and went home. I never did find out if he came back the next day.
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Mythbusters did an episode on testing this out once. Result = BUSTED
 
One of my most non favorite things about working residential jobs is the type of carpenter crew that leaves lots of boards laying around with nails sticking up thru. Once I stepped on one and it went up thru my boots and got me real good. At home right after that I was limping my way around a corner and managed to break my little toe on the other foot. At the time I was really backed up with work, and had to complete an Olan Mills photo studio contract while in supreme pain in each foot. Ouch, step. Ouch, step. etc, etc.
 
rcarroll said:
I was on a job where an electrician pu a hydraulic punch together the wrong way. He took a piece of steel to his mouth. Poor kid never had so much as 1 cavity in his life & in 1 instant, lost 4 teeth.
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When I was working as a locomotive electrician, a similar thing happened at my place of employment. A guy was operating a punch which he had also improperly assembled. The shrapnel from that blunder hit a passer by 30 ft away and lodged in his chest. Fortunately for the victim, it hit his rib and went straight down (still under the flesh though) and didn't hit anything vital.
 
When I was in the Air Force and deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia we were tasked with upkeep of the 2.4/4.16 kv electrical grid, powered by mobile generator power plants, that ran throughout the tent city. For some reason my supervisor grabbed a load break elbow that was still energized (I don't remember why or how it happened) and got a 2400 volt jolt! Fortunately there was no load on the circuit and he somehow escaped without anything but some slightly burned fingers. It really was energized and not just giving a shock from the capacitance that builds up on underground lines. Whew! That was a close one!
 
georgestolz said:
So, anybody got any good stories, while I recover? :D
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'Bout ten years ago, I was working on a five story building where they were using lightwieght concrete on all of the floors. Because of the steel grid, and 'crete was yet to be poored, the floor was kind of springy. (Wider spanned joists, wire grid, and plywood.) So we did all of the wiring prior to the grid, and right before they poored, they rocked the room - one of our sconce boxes was missing a ring so I rushed in to put it on for the rockers, who were holding up the concrete guys. The only thing available to stand on was a 2' rocker scafold. I put the ring on, and then someone walked by on the springy floor - I lost my balance and started to fall backwards. I fell flat on my back on to the springy floor, and bounced on to the window sill, then rolled out the window and fell ten feet to the forth floor scafold below - out side... I was face down hanging upsidedown at roughly my waist, my bags emptied out and my hammer nearly hit a woman on the sidewalk below, just raining staples and wirenuts etc... I was just about to slide off of that and go for the tumble of death for the next four stories, when a stucco guy grabbed my belt and pulled me back up. So yes, I fell off a 2' scaffold, and nearly fell five stories... Didn't even get hurt! :rolleyes: Right back to work! Well except for possibly contributing to the back pain that keeps me up at night when I post here... :grin: But then again it might be some of the other dumb things I done...
 
Uh oh.

Uh oh.

Oakey said:
I've seen a few deaths on the job site but I'll leave that for another day.
A few years back my old boss decided to save money so he bought the green cheap 6 Ft. step ladder from the warehouse instead of the sturdy yellow.. I always stand on top of the ladder so the first day I fell off that wobbly piece of crap and landed on the side of the ladder breaking several ribs. I'll never forget what he said to me as I lay there.."walk it off". He refused me workman's comp and made me pay for the doctor's visit myself saying it was my own fault. Good times...good times....
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Where I live, if I or anyone else at a coalmine get caught standing above the last step on a ladder, a MSHA official always seems to see me (or them) and starts handing out citations. Hope you are feeling better.
 
Just yesterday an HVAC guy was working at the same house as us and he poked the back of his hand with a nail. He went to med check for three hours, I mean the guy barely broke the skin what is wrong with this guy. when I was in the USAF I broke my ankle, they put a half cast with wrap on it and issued me crutches, next day I was told I couldn't work on the flight-line and had to stay in the shop (I hated the shop). I convinced my supervisor to let me go to the dorm early to do laundry. I did my laundry took 1600 mg of motrin took off the cast/wrap went out on the town drinking (Taegu Korea) woke up the next day. put my boots on and got busy working on my favorite aircraft of all time the RF4-C.
 
dumb a%$.....

dumb a%$.....

I was a 3nd yr apprentice and was busy making a kindorf rack to hang a trannie overhead in an electrical equipment room. I was trying to 'hurry' and get this thing in the air so I could get it wired in. Well I started to cut the 1/2' allthread rod and knelt down on the floor to make the first cut.

With one end of the porta-band on the floor I held the trigger end at an angle and was about to make the first cut. The piece of rod was already short so I just used my left hand to hold it up against the saw blade. Well the allthread rod rolled and my left index finger was pulled up into the porta-band. I was very lucky, it only 'shaved' a 'sliver' of meat off of the left side of my finger. It is barely noticeable.

I could have very easily lost the whole first knuckle if the angle had been right. If I would have just took the time to find a good table, and get the channel locks....:rolleyes:

Lesson learned....
 
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