Re: Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?
 

My freshman year I was milling holes for one of our parts, after I turned off the mill i grabbed the brush to move the filings ( I saw someone else do the same thing) I didn't know how to fully stop the mill, it caught the brush pulled my hand in, I let go and the brush spun and hit me in the face. Thank God I had eye protection!

Re: Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?
 

Yesterday I'd welded a decent-sized piece of aluminum and needed to sharpen the electrode. I took off my gloves and removed the electrode, but when I turned on the sharpening wheel the breaker tripped.

So I unplugged it, got a stool to reach the overhead rail (where the breaker is located), and then, in an aborted attempt to heft myself up, put my hand on the table--and my fingertips right on the piece.

Certainly not a near-death experience, but a gentle reminder (of the melted skin variety) that when you weld aluminum it gets rather toasty.

Re: Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?
 

In the days of the USB E-stop button, the team hot-glued the button down to the control panel.

Then came a day when it was needed. Robot ran away, button was mashed, and it did NOTHING. We e-stopped it with the keyboard. A later investigation showed that when the button was glued to the control panel, so much hot glue was used that it infiltrated the bottom case of the button and locked in it place.

Re: Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?
 

We have a First Aid component of our safety training... One of the biggest points is that we don't want to call 911 each time a student arrives a little early and decides to take a nap on the shop floor... Then again, somebody, at some point is going to spill a large amount of Mountain Dew on some active electrical equipment and...... we don't want to mistake him/her for a student napping on the floor.

Re: Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?
 

I feel like the problem here isn't in recognizing whether the person is napping or not, but restricting where you allow people to take naps. Taking naps at Robotics is fine (I guess) but really there are plenty of better spots to nap than on the floor in the shop.

Re: Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?
 

Well, as anyone who has taken any first-aid, CPR, or similar type of course can tell you: verify that the person is non-responsive before calling 911. It takes 10-15 seconds and saves a lot of grief.

Not that sleeping on the shop floor is a good idea though...