Grady personal injury avoidance tip #2

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Posted by Andy Grady at 2/2/2001 8:52 PM EST


Other on team #126, Gael Force, from Clinton High School and Nypro Inc..



Hi all,
Many of you probably don't remember Grady's personal injury avoidance tip #1 which stated that you shouldn't grip the rotating part of the fisher price gear box to try to stop it while its running, because the grooves act like a saw almost, which I learned from personal experience last year...
Well eventhough this isn't directly related to FIRST, I once again have goofed, which resulted in personal injury today. While in a lab for digital computer circuits today, I was inserting a chip into a bread board. Now i didn't have the pins on the chip lined up directly with the holes and I wasn't really paying attention so I put more pressure on the chip to try to get it in. Well as luck would have it, the chip flipped over, and insert 2 pins directly into my right index finger...ouch! Very similar feeling to getting a staple in your finger (yes ive done that too, i know im just a clumsy mofo)...anyway moral of the story is, be careful, pay attention, and always carry (or have someone carry for you) a first aid kit if you are injury prone.
Have a good one, be safe,
Andy Grady =)
(p.s. I appologize for any spelling mistakes as my injured right index finger hurts when i type)

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Posted by colleen - T190 at 2/2/2001 10:31 PM EST


Engineer on team #190, Gompei, from Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science and WPI.


In Reply to: Grady personal injury avoidance tip #2
Posted by Andy Grady on 2/2/2001 8:52 PM EST:



sorry i wasn't around andy!!!

i still do carry my mini-first aid kit just for you though :):):)

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Posted by Anton Abaya at 2/3/2001 1:02 AM EST


Coach on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / BC High and NONE AT THE MOMENT! :(.


In Reply to: Grady personal injury avoidance tip #2
Posted by Andy Grady on 2/2/2001 8:52 PM EST:



he has inspired me...

1. last year, i stuck my finger in the speed controllers by accident. although that did not hurt, i jerked my hand back so fast that i hit my elbow on the frame and scratched my wrist on a screw .....as well as bumping my head. the chain reaction was rather interesting. i was confused as to what hurt most.

2. 10AWG wires suck. twisting those suckers with my calous free fingers have poked holes into my fingers.

3. do not sit on scrap wood. a nail might be sticking out. (/me cringes at the memory)

4. when hammering a pin out, look at the pin itself and not the kid making noise in fron of you. it's dangerous to your thumb's health.

-anton

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Posted by Ken Leung at 2/3/2001 5:30 AM EST


Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M. Gunn Senior High School.


In Reply to: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by Anton Abaya on 2/3/2001 1:02 AM EST:



Although I don't remember much injuries, I remember a lot about accidents happened while I was in the shop...

One of the biggest one: I was using a small vice gripping onto a piece of metal, and was trying to drill a large hole in the metal piece. What happened was I didn't clamp the vice, and the drill bit end up catching into the metal, the whole vice start spinning on the drill bit, and after 10 revolution or so the vice when air-born, and landed like 15 feet away. It could've kill someone.

Well, another real dangerous thing I did was trying to make 8" dia. AL (1/4") circles out of 9" x 9" AL (1/4")... and I put the squares on the lathe and tried to lathe the squares down using rough files... really dangerous.

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Posted by Jessica Boucher at 2/3/2001 10:17 AM EST


Student on team #237, Sie-H2O-Bots, from Watertown High School and Eastern Awning Systems & The Siemon Company.


In Reply to: how about shop accidents...
Posted by Ken Leung on 2/3/2001 5:30 AM EST:



Our first year, our first promo. It was at Judson Elementary, and it was really the first time we were using the 99 bot after the competition.

Now, if anyone remembers our last match at 99...we were on an angle on the puck, our scissor mechanism went up, up, up, and then toppled over, dumping the floppies on the human player.

Thus, they fixed it at nats, but still, we hadn't really used it since.

So, at the promo...it went up, up, up...and got stuck. So, thats how the promo ended, with the scissors in the air and my co-captain Rich running around for tools. The kids left, and we spent an hour and a half fixing it. (By the way, in this hour and a half the kids left, and then returned to the gym to get in their bus lines to go home, with the robot still in the center of the gym, trying to be fixed.)

So, Rich is fiddling with the threading of the scissors, and our conversation went like this:
"Rich, you're bleeding"
"No I'm not"
"Yes you are. Stop working and look at yourself"
"Ok.....gah!"

The wire had sliced his hands and there was now blood all over where he was working on the bot and on his FIRST Nationals shirt. It wasnt a deep cut, but it was one of those that bled all over.

So, thats my team's war story of 99....next time, I'll tell the 00 war story, where John cut his finger open. ;)

-Jessica B, #237

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Posted by Erin at 2/3/2001 3:45 PM EST


Other on team #65, Huskie Brigade, from Pontiac Northern High School and GM Powertrain.


In Reply to: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by Anton Abaya on 2/3/2001 1:02 AM EST:



yeah, nationals 1999...

the juggernauts took their lanyards, stopwatches and killer yo-yos and tied me up and drew #1's all over my face with permanent marker...

i was a prisoner or war, really!!!

erin

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Posted by mike oleary at 2/3/2001 8:06 PM EST


Student on team #419, rambots, from bc high.


In Reply to: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by Anton Abaya on 2/3/2001 1:02 AM EST:



: he has inspired me...

: 1. last year, i stuck my finger in the speed controllers by accident. although that did not hurt, i jerked my hand back so fast that i hit my elbow on the frame and scratched my wrist on a screw .....as well as bumping my head. the chain reaction was rather interesting. i was confused as to what hurt most.

: 2. 10AWG wires suck. twisting those suckers with my calous free fingers have poked holes into my fingers.

: 3. do not sit on scrap wood. a nail might be sticking out. (/me cringes at the memory)

: 4. when hammering a pin out, look at the pin itself and not the kid making noise in fron of you. it's dangerous to your thumb's health.

: -anton


one word: treadmaster (didnt happen to me, but someone on our team got his foot stuck in a treadmaster while running on it at 3am at the nationals.)

also, this didnt have anything to do with first, but one time i was being my usual ninny-like self and for some reason that ive never quite figured out was juggling knives. needless to say, since im not exactly the most coordinated person around, i cut my finger wide open. by wide, i mean more then 1/2 way through. i chipped the bone, and for a while afterwards was able to bend the tip of my finger back so that the nail was against the back of my finger. i put a bandaid on it and pretty much forgot it, but then a couple days later my mom noticed it and asked about it then went ballistic when i told her the story. she thought that i shouldve told her and gotten stiches, but i thought it was fine and couldntve been bothered going to the hospital. she called the doc and found out it was too late to get stiches anyways.

the scary thing is, ive got other similar stories. skiing accidents, sledding accidents, golf cart-flipping-over-while-driving-fast-and-cutting-the-wheel-180-degrees stories...
mike, more scar tissue then regular tissue

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Posted by Stephen Riley at 2/5/2001 6:17 PM EST


Engineer on team #419, RAMBOTS, from Wentworth Institute of Technology and Umass/BCHigh and Mathsoft, Solidworks, and NASA.


In Reply to: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by Anton Abaya on 2/3/2001 1:02 AM EST:



yea i have one : for everyone that saw our transformer last year lets just say it weighed a lot and it had some edges that weren't filed down far enough i still say, and i found everyone of those edges picking it up and putting it on the field and taking it off at Regionals and at the WPI comp. i was known as TapeBoy as well as BallBoy for the amount of medical tape surronding my hands , kate you probably remember how many times i came up to you for more tape at the WPI one, that still hurt taking it off i didn't have hair on the back of my hands for monthes afterwards

Steve

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Posted by Matt Ryan at 2/9/2001 7:59 PM EST


Student on team #69, HYPER, from Quincy Public Schools and Gillette.


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by Stephen Riley on 2/5/2001 6:17 PM EST:



Multiple incidents involving Freeze-It. I couldn't feel my fingertips for the next few days. There was that incident with the gear (last year). The pneumatics system (someone activated it while I was standing over it...not painful but definitely startling).

The worst "wound" I have received was two years ago..."Double Trouble". If anyone remembers Team 69's floppy picker upper, the lid to the basket had very sharp points (we painted it red to hide the bloodstains...j/k). While I was retrieving some "floppies", someone got the bright idea to play a joke on me. He slammed the lid down on me. Result? No puncture wounds, but 3 indents in the skin of my back, with bruises to match. Luckily, it was one of my friends, and he apologized, so there were no grudges.

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Posted by Joe Johnson at 2/9/2001 10:38 PM EST


Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by Matt Ryan on 2/9/2001 7:59 PM EST:



Late one night last year we were keeping our welder
busy with tons of last minute tabs and brackets to weld
on to our machine.

We had been welding on "the clam" for a hour our so
(not continuously) when without thinking much about it
we repositioned our arm to let Woody (our master
welder) get a better angle on some gusset or other.

Before we knew what was happening, smoke started coming
out of our van door motors and out of our boom chain.

Again, without thinking, I felt them motors. They were
not hot. Then I put my hand across the chain. I was
instantly branded! That chain was HOT.

Here is what happened:

The ground path for the weld was a good one when the
robot was upright because the boom was touching the
chassis (where Woody had clamped his ground lead).
When we tipped the robot arm down, we broke that
electical connection. As it turns out, our pivot was
not electically conductive. So the only path to ground
from the clam on the arm was through the motor shafts
and through the chain.

The smoke from the motor was from the oil in the
bushing that supports the output shaft.

The smoke from the chain was from teh oil in the roller
chain joints.

The smell was from the skin that was vaporized on
contact ;-)

Now I know what not to do when I see something smoking!

Joe J.

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Posted by Thomas A. Frank at 2/13/2001 4:18 PM EST


Engineer on team #121, The Islanders/Rhode Warrior, from Middletown (RI) High School and Naval Undersea Warfare Center.


In Reply to: Welding with chain as the ground path...
Posted by Joe Johnson on 2/9/2001 10:38 PM EST:



: smoke started coming
: out of our van door motors and out of our boom chain.


Gee, I didn't know that you could get the magic smoke out of mechanical thing too!


Observation...if an engineer puts his hand under something being drilled, and then tells the student on the drill to go ahead, it is not appropriate to be mad at the student should the drill go through a finger held below the piece being worked on.

T.

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Posted by Rick Berube at 2/14/2001 9:04 PM EST


Engineer on team #121, Rhode Warriors, from Middletown H.S..


In Reply to: Re: Welding with chain as the ground path...
Posted by Thomas A. Frank on 2/13/2001 4:18 PM EST:



Zen Response:

That is of course, unless the student has BECOME the master, and both parties involve are one in the same.

;)

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Posted by mike oleary at 2/16/2001 11:58 PM EST


Student on team #419, rambots, from bc high.


In Reply to: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by Anton Abaya on 2/3/2001 1:02 AM EST:



at the quincy scrimage today i made an insanely stupid mistake...major lapse of judgement...i went to pick up the robot, and when i let go of it in pain and looked at my finger it was covered in blood...i had somehow gotten my finger caught in a gear or a wheel or something...all i know is that now theres a massive hole in my fingernail and a couple of smaller ones on the side of my finger and that it hurts
note to self: in future, DONT pick up robot by sharp, moving parts.......
of course, now i can honestly say that ive put my sweat and blood into the robot, but then again, thats probably not something i should be proud of......
mike, whose finger is now a part of the drive train

: he has inspired me...

: 1. last year, i stuck my finger in the speed controllers by accident. although that did not hurt, i jerked my hand back so fast that i hit my elbow on the frame and scratched my wrist on a screw .....as well as bumping my head. the chain reaction was rather interesting. i was confused as to what hurt most.

: 2. 10AWG wires suck. twisting those suckers with my calous free fingers have poked holes into my fingers.

: 3. do not sit on scrap wood. a nail might be sticking out. (/me cringes at the memory)

: 4. when hammering a pin out, look at the pin itself and not the kid making noise in fron of you. it's dangerous to your thumb's health.

: -anton

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Posted by erik lundoy at 2/18/2001 11:21 AM EST


Student on team #263, aftershock, from sachem and symbol, retlif, apogee, citi, ca, etc..


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by mike oleary on 2/16/2001 11:58 PM EST:



hey man, mistakes happen, hope your finger is ok, that sounds really painful!

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Posted by Doug Fischer at 2/18/2001 11:47 AM EST


Student on team #41, Warriors, from Watchung Hills and Cordis.


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by erik lundoy on 2/18/2001 11:21 AM EST:



I think that we've all experienced FIRST related wounds, but I'd have to say the worst I've seen was a team member last year who severed his entire thumb while cutting out a piece of our cart on a table saw. The paramedics came and his mother had to go down to the saw and pick up his thumb to give to them. Luckily though, it was reattached and he has almost a full range of motion. In fact, with his $70,000 bionic thumb, hes going to be one of our drivers this year. Ahh, the wonders of micro-surgery.

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Posted by mike oleary at 2/19/2001 11:16 PM EST


Student on team #419, rambots, from bc high.


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by erik lundoy on 2/18/2001 11:21 AM EST:



yup mistakes happen...im living proof of that...also my fingerll be ok...i thought the whole incident was rather amusing

: hey man, mistakes happen, hope your finger is ok, that sounds really painful!

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Posted by Andy Alvarenga at 2/20/2001 2:45 AM EST


Student on team #95, UVR-(LRT), from Hanover High.


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by erik lundoy on 2/18/2001 11:21 AM EST:



My first year on a FIRST team and I hurt my self.

I burned my self twice on the same soldering iron, on the same day, 10 minutes apart. It was just a fluke, not like it could have been my fault I grabbed it, twice...
interestingly, the burns took the shape of hawaii and a square. Could that mean something?

Moral of my little plight? don't mess with soldering irons, and don't grab them by the tip, even if you know they are off.
-Andy

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Posted by Adrienne at 2/18/2001 8:04 PM EST


Student on team #191, X-Cats, from Wilson and Xerox.


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by mike oleary on 2/16/2001 11:58 PM EST:



In October we had demo of all the rochester teams. The night before i was fixing the robot and I went to step into the playing field and I tripped over the bar. I ended up chipping a bone in my ankle and tearing all my ligaments. It landed me on crutches and in a cast for almost six weeks! LOL

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Posted by Kevin Sevcik at 2/19/2001 12:10 AM EST


Other on team #57, Leopards, from BT Washington and the High School for Engineering Professions and Exxon, Kellog Brown & Root, Powell Electrical.


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by mike oleary on 2/16/2001 11:58 PM EST:



This is only slightly first related, and involves my brother, not me, so I'll keep it short.
Basically, the entire FIRST team made an entiry into Houston's "Anything That Floats" competition. The raft involved a lot of cable ties and PVC. My bro was cutting some with a friend's knife, when the knife slipped and slit his had pretty deep. He's fine now after an emergency room trip and some surgery to restore feeling to his thumb, though. The moral of this stry is two-fold. First, always cut cable ties by pressing a knife down on them. Second, never, ever, ever use a Boy Scout's knife for anything.

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Posted by Pat Bogard at 2/19/2001 9:15 PM EST


Student on team #103, Cybersonics, from Palisades High School and Lutron, Amplifier Research, Lucent Technologies.


In Reply to: Not me, but....
Posted by Kevin Sevcik on 2/19/2001 12:10 AM EST:



:Second, never, ever, ever use a Boy Scout's knife for anything.

Whats wrong with a boy scouts knife? We just keep them sharp.

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Posted by Kevin Sevcik at 2/19/2001 9:37 PM EST


Other on team #57, Leopards, from BT Washington and the High School for Engineering Professions and Exxon, Kellog Brown & Root, Powell Electrical.


In Reply to: Re: Not me, but....
Posted by Pat Bogard on 2/19/2001 9:15 PM EST:



Exactly my point. I'm scared to use my friend's knife on just about anything now. I mean... it's got a taste for blood, and my gloves aren't that thick.... :^)

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Posted by Nate Smith at 2/20/2001 12:38 PM EST


Other on team #66, Frostbite, from Willow Run High School and GM Powertrain.


In Reply to: Re: POST YOU WAR WOUNDS HERE
Posted by mike oleary on 2/16/2001 11:58 PM EST:



It's not just the robot that can cause pain...we were working on putting our shipping box together, and were using some pieces of threaded rod as studs to line everything up...and I just happened to run my arm across the top of one of them(we'd only taken the time to clean one end)....can we say OUCH...

Nate

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Posted by Em Youngberg at 02/21/2001 7:10 PM EST


Student on team #86, Resistance, from Stanton College Prep and Vistakon/JEA.


In Reply to: Just last night...
Posted by Nate Smith on 2/20/2001 12:38 PM EST:



I've got war wounds - three years ago I was the first casulty for our team- I had stitches during Nationals. Now, after an incident with last year's bot, I'm in a cast. The stupid thing is, I did it in December and they waited two months to operate. I even learned to weld lefty. I've still got a freakin cast! (And yes, I'm driving this year. Watch Out. Did I mention I drove into a reporter yesterday?)
See you at the comps

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Posted by David Kelly at 2/3/2001 8:58 AM EST


Student on team #234, Cyber Blue, from Perry Meridian High School [IUPUI] and NASA KSC/ Rolls-Royce/ Trilithic/ Peregrine.


In Reply to: Grady personal injury avoidance tip #2
Posted by Andy Grady on 2/2/2001 8:52 PM EST:



My worst injury happened last year. It was shipping day and we were in weight reduction time. We were down to the last hour. As you could imagine, it was getting a little crazy. I was using a hacksaw to cut off a piece of angle and it slipped. Unforturnately my thumb was right in it's path. The saw managed to work it's way 1/4" into the top part of my thumb and nail and prob. close to the bone. I prob. should have gotten stiches but I didn't. I have never seen a robot with that much blood on it.


David Kelly
Student Captain/ Webmaster
Team 234

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Posted by Matt Ryan at 2/3/2001 9:17 PM EST


Student on team #69, HYPER, from Quincy Public Schools and Gillette.


In Reply to: Grady personal injury avoidance tip #2
Posted by Andy Grady on 2/2/2001 8:52 PM EST:



We have had only ONE, count 'em, ONE casualty all last year and all this year (so far, that is). The casualty resulted from jumping over the playing field border and smashing one's elbow on the ground (broke the joint).

Oh yes, I've had personal experience with staples suddenly stabbing into fingers too...you're not alone (thats what I get for not paying attention).

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Posted by Chris Orimoto at 2/5/2001 3:07 AM EST


Student on team #368, Kika Mana, from McKinley High School and Nasa Ames/Hawaiian Electric/Weinberg Foundation.


In Reply to: Grady personal injury avoidance tip #2
Posted by Andy Grady on 2/2/2001 8:52 PM EST:



Well we were fortunate NOT to have any injuries last year. HOWEVER, I had a little "accident" with a cordless drill yesterday. I was screwing two wooden pieces together, when the screw split the wood horizontally and I stabbed my thumb with the screw bit. PAIN, SCREAMING, AGONY, BLOOD, etc etc etc. Well, it wasn't ALL that bad. Although I only have 9 fingers now (JOKING, I still have 'em all).

Moral of the story: Respect your power tools and they shall respect you.

Chris, #368

PS: Nevermind about respecting the power tools, be AFRAID..."When power tools go wrong..."

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Posted by Matt Leese at 2/5/2001 10:08 AM EST


Other on team #73, Tigerbolt, from Edison Technical HS and Alstom & Rochester Institute of Technology.


In Reply to: Re: Casualties
Posted by Chris Orimoto on 2/5/2001 3:07 AM EST:



That just reminds me more so of my reasoning behind saying that we know it's a bad sign when they start letting me use power tools.......

Matt who's much better with the control system than that silly mechanical stuff

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Posted by Robby at 2/5/2001 9:32 PM EST


Other on team #108, The SigmaC@Ts, from AIFL and Motorola.


In Reply to: Grady personal injury avoidance tip #2
Posted by Andy Grady on 2/2/2001 8:52 PM EST:



The worst I've ever had was looking over last years robot, when the tensed up arms sprung loose and smacked me right in the face, and hard. If it werent for my safety glasses I coulda lost an eye or two. And a little bit more coulda left me with a broken nose or a burst lip. Other than that, I have had a robot go outta control on me and take out part of a ceiling (one dumb senior messed with the joystick settings)

-Robby O