Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?
 

Building a prototype ball elevator out of wood at a build recently, our team captain shot me point blank with a nail gun. It was an accident of course, and it didn't break the skin, it just bounced off. But it got me thinking, what near-death experiences or injuries have you sustained during the course of a season?

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

Well in my Rookie year there was a battery that the cable was missing so i proceeded to see if i could feel a charge from the battery. I tapped my fingers trying to quickly complete the circuit as to not get hurt that badly but felt nothing. So i did the smart thing:rolleyes: and took a wrench and completed the circuit. So there was a REALLY BRIGHT light and i was being shocked and was able to get myself off. But i was burnt on my fingers and very shakey and the wrench was welded::ouch:: ::safety::

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

Not during build season, but during a regional. Last year at FLR, I was working field reset. During a match one of the tubes came out of the field, I bent down to pick it up and toss it back, just as I was standing up, a robot arm came whipping over my head missing by a few inches, think some of it grazed my head. :ahh:

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

In 2008's Overdrive, we had one minor flaw with our robot: when the compressor was on and the battery decided to drop below 8 volts, the solenoid for the extremely big and heavy tilting mechanism would automatically fire. Me, being the sole electrical/programming person, was right up front fixing something with the IR board used for hybrid mode that year when it first happened. All I heard was a small pop and a hiss, and next thing I know, I'm on the ground with half a robot on top of me. Thankfully, I was not hurt that bad, but from that point forward, any time anyone would hear that familiar hiss, someone had to jump for the controls to stop it before it swung forward (it has about a 3 second delay from when it fires to when it moves, that is how heavy it is).

Re: Near-death experiences
 

A couple of us were working on the batteries when my friend took 2 pieces of metal and touched them to eachother, then the battery terminals... (idiot)
Lucky for him, he wasn't shocked, but it made a HUGE spark!

Another time we were machineing on the mill when the bit came loose and flew out. No one was hurt though.

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

Based on my experiences, and of those of others, it should be taught immediately to all curious new students that short circuits on these extremely powerful batteries = ::ouch:: ::ouch:: ::ouch::

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

Last year another one of our mentors had a great "this is what NOT to do" demonstration moment. He was drilling something, and supporting it with his hand... he ended up drilling halfway into his hand too.

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

I've seen a robot, before the programming was fixed (and yes, this was a programming problem), try to decapitate event staff. No, it wasn't my team's robot.

This was back in 2003, when this whole "autonomous" thing first started. This particular robot had a rather long, rather quickly rotating arm that would telescope out autonomously, swing in a half-circle or so, raise to vertical to retract back and lock, and then stow itself for the rest of the match while the robot started driving. There was just one problem...

The code didn't work quite like that at the local preship scrimmage. It had the telescoping out part down pretty well, but the whole "half-circle" part was still being tweaked, along with the timing of starting to drive and the ability to retract. This >10' aluminum arm comes swinging outside the field border, rather wildly, and for whatever reason it's swinging just about right at the head ref and the MC, who have to duck and jump. Even field reset had to jump back a time or two. After two matches of that, that part of the autonomous was disabled until they could prove it worked.

The good news is the team in question didn't do that at the regionals--they'd gotten the code under control by then.

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

Two words: Chuck Keys

Make sure all your new students get into the habit of ALWAYS removing them. people love to leave chuck keys sitting in lathe chucks. When you turn them on, things get really interesting REALLY fast.

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

A belt sander broke sending the belt flying at my face

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

This isn't a near death experience for me, but for one of my teamates. In 2010 we wanted to test the power of a winch we were considering using for the bonus. We wanted to test it under a load, but had no weights. We ended up just bolting it to a piece of wood and having a team member (ironically our safety captain) stand on the wood while the winch hoisted him in the air. No one was hurt, but our lead mentor was none too happy when he saw us.

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

I was driving a demo robot at an outdoor public exhibit, using a wireless controller. I turned my back on the robot without disabling it and then brushed the controller against something. I turned around quickly to see a small child laying under the robot. Completely under it. Just a bruise or two; she didn't even yell or cry. Scared the .... out of me.

It takes less than a second for a 150 lb robot to do serious injury to nearby people. Never operate close to people and never turn your back on a live robot.

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

Seeing this thread makes me think. Is there some sort of waiver for FRC teams, removing teams/schools from liability for any injury sustained during a team function? If there isn't, there really shouldn't be. The last thing FIRST needs is to have a kid lose a finger or something due to his/her own carelessness or some sort of machine malfunction. Is that perhaps part of TIMS?

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

All teams have to have each student sign a waiver when they come to both kickoffs and regionals.

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

Spring loaded chuck keys, they can't stay in the chuck. Completely prevents this issue.

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

One of my teammates found a three-prong AC plug lying around that wasn't attached to a cable; just three exposed screw terminals. Of course, his immediate instinct was to plug it in.

These stories might be somewhat entertaining, but hopefully teams also see them as examples of why safe working practices are so important. "Near-death experience" means exactly what it says: something that can kill you if you aren't lucky.

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

That is a waiver for the event, not for the activities the team members are involved in during build season.

For us, any team member under 16 may only use hand tools. 16+ are allowed to use power tools and larger shop equipment under supervision of an adult mentor and proper training.

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

Not near death, but quite brutal. In 2010, we, like many teams, had a kicker that rotated around a central pivot, powered by a ton of surgical tubing. The top of the kicker had a gate latch to hold t in the ready position. Because there was a lot of tension on the piece, it took a fair amount of force to open the latch. While testing, one of our mentors put a hand on the robot to steady it while he manually pulled the latch. The kicker swung down and slammed his hand against another piece, deeply cutting his hand by his thumb. I think he needed stitches and was wearing a wrist brace thing to demobilize his thumb. With the liability issue, I think he believed it was his own fault and didn't blame the team.

Lessons: Beware of fast and powerful mechanisms, and keep hands away from loaded mechanisms if powered by springs or surgical tubing. Protect sharp/narrow pieces of metal in the bot. (we covered the exposed edge of that piece of sheet metal with pneumatic tubing slit in half. We also made a brace to keep the robot from firing if cocked and not on the field. We have also begun putting warning signs on dangerous parts of the robot.)

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

But what if one of those 16 year olds say leaves a key in a chuck, turns on the lathe and ends up losing an eye because of that mistake? Does your team have some sort of document protecting you and/or the school from legal action?

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

Until the springs fall out or get removed.

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

Two words: krazy glue

And now a few more: Put it on the top ring of the spring, then it won't fall out and will be really difficult to remove.

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

Fair enough. You can't 100% fix mistakes.

Don't machine tired or otherwise incapacitated.

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

Just this week I was using a cut-off wheel when it caught in a groove and broke. I had this happen before, and usually the parts of the wheel fly off harmlessly away from me because I try to always stay as much as I can out of the plane of rotation. This time one of the pieces hit something and bounced right into my face. It scared me, but I was fine. It bounced rather hard off my safety glasses leaving a clear enough mark to suggest the damage it might have caused if I had not been wearing them. I promptly showed them to the students and reinforced the need to be diligent about always wearing them.

Bottom line Always wear your safety glasses, and constantly bug the students to do it as well until it becomes a habit.

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

^Agreed. I once sent a chuck key flying from the lathe to the back wall of the machine room because of that, and boy did tired-Kara get a shock out of that one.


Other than a few flying chuck keys, I haven't seen or experienced anything that could constitute as "near-death." One of our mentors had a bloody incident a few years ago involving his thumb and a grinder, but he was fine after going to the hospital, and that's thankfully the worst of our shop injuries.

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

Just a week ago one of our students was using a cut off wheel on a demel and the blade broke in half and flew across the room almost hitting a kid in the head. It came 6 inches of his head.

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

We've been very lucky to have had no injuries sustained this season. Our incidents are usually robot malfunction related, and those are few and far between. Once when working on our robot, one of the wheels we were working on started to spin with no warning. We had chains. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but it serves as a constant reminder of why we need to be careful at all times.

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

Last year, our Safety Captain was fooling around with our ShopSmith. He set it up to cut a brass pipe, and started to feed it in. However, he had set it wrong, with the blade in backwards (!), and the pipe went flying. It narrowly missed his head, and embedded itself almost a foot into the wall behind him.

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

I teach everyone to refer to this as the plane of death.

So far our worst injury was when a mentor was tricked by the robot to punch himself in the face with threaded rod. He decided to act as the tower (from breakaway) as a quick test whether the robot could do a pull up. The robot let go while suspended... you can imagine the rest.

Anyone else notice how most of these stories are mentors??? People not thinking at all is a problem. People ignorant to risks is another problem. People thinking they have enough experience/smarts to disregard safety is a whole other problem (although it's the same as the second problem)...

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

It is also the first problem.

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

No Near Death experiences but lots of experiences of pain, bleeps and bruises.

Personal Favorite was the 2003 Stack Attack. That humongous stack fell over on me. Bruises lasted a while and I admit I think I saw the Road-Runner running by. Second would have to be a Head meeting Tetra in 2006 when the robot back into a stack I was leaning on.

Odds are you hang around a team long enough, your clock gets checked a few times no matter how safe you are. I think you'd have to wear an EOD suit, the MJOLNIR Halo style, to be 100% safe. Just keep your wits about you at all times.::ouch::

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

Happened to me two days ago... Hazardous metal 'keychain' ring on a drill press chuck key... Piece of the metal ring sticking out and as I go to use the key, the piece sticking out dives into my pointer finger all the way down to the bone. Thankfully it wasn't rusty.

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

This didn't happen to me, but to someone else on my team.
We had assigned one of our sophomores to start cutting wood for the bumpers. Her tool of choice was a handheld jigsaw. She wasn't wearing safety glasses, despite the fact that the safety captain was standing right next to her.

I'm sure you're expecting something to come flying out of somewhere right now... ::ouch::

Thankfully, she didn't have to learn to wear safety glasses the hard way, but her untied hair did get stuck in the jigsaw motor. :ahh: She luckily escaped unscathed (minus some hair). This should serve as a reminder to keep all long/loose items like hair, jewelry, clothes, headphones tied back or out of the way.

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

Definitely doesn't qualify as "near-death," but one time while drilling through an axel for a prototype kicker (during breakaway), the drill bit shattered. If I recall correctly, it was an 1/8" bit, and I must have been applying much more pressure then I realized. 3 different pieces of the bit hacked their way though 3 different fingers before sticking themselves into the palm of my hand. ::ouch::

Ok, probably not as bad as I made it sound, but it really helped remind me to be more careful after that. :o

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

Almost fell out of my chair in the CAD room once.

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

I took a hit to the head from a robot arm section that got loose at a regional.

I happened to be wearing a hard hat, so nothing bad happened to me. (And that section was PVC.)

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

I almost had a pile of heavy C++ code fall on me once. Fortunately, I got out of the way in time. :] ;)

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

Not an event that involved our team directly, but (rumor has it) a shop where we worked for a few years had an employee die when a chuck key got left in one of the high-power lathes.

One of my friends also had a lathe chuck come loose, again on one of the high-powered lathes at the same shop. The part guard kept the 50lb chuck from running him over. A post-mortem by the shop's lead tech found that the chuck was faulty.

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

Ah, the dangers of being a programmer.


My friends laptop is a piece of *$#%, despite the fact that is has an i7 even though it is 1.5 years old. It is electrically unsound, so if we touch him while he uses the trackpad, he will be shocked.

I'm sure it hurts, as the sound was quite audible, but wow was that a hilarious day.

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

Us poor CAD teams :( RIP...

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

In my rookie year we were bending sheet metal with an enormous press and the rookie I was working with drooped the iron handle on my head and gave me a concussion worse then any head injury i got from playing football.

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

Not exactly exciting but I've stapled my fair share of fingers to the back of bumpers. Oh man, I've poured my blood, sweat, and tears into robotics and I'll never regret it!

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

Not quite a Near Death experience, but I've got 2 stories:
Both of them are from 2010: and our mentor was bent sanding a strip of aluminum for our robot. It slipped from his hand, took a round on the belt sander, and shot straight up into the ceiling. I think it's still hanging from there today...
The other one would be that if you're taking video of a robot kicking an object, and said object gets bigger, that object is most likely speeding towards your face. Do yourself a favor and duck.

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

I was milling some lightning holes in a frame piece when the bit broke and flew by my face, and cutting metal on a band saw when the blade broke and whipped me in the neck. :ahh:

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

Cable on winch in breakaway was caught up on a bolt, I tried to wiggle the floating bot while grabbing the cable to get it off the bolt during practice. End result, cable whipped back really fast and took a small chunk out of my thumb.

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

That is most of the stories, however when the team coach lets you ride a robot to test the effect of weight addition and then try to balance on the 2012 ramp, only to see the robot tip and fall on the student.

Sometime the urge to do something stupid like that just overwhelms the best of us, especially when several students are pressing for it.

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

Rust isn't a problem; tetanus is.

Tetanus is caused by a bacterium found in soil. One way to make nails and implements rusty is to stick them in the soil and leave them there for a while. By the time they get rusty, they've frequently been exposed to tetanus.

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

last year as we were prototyping our swerve modules, one of our jags fried into the "On" position, sending the robot chasing our soon to be primary driver across the shop, now looking back on it, it seems that the bot realized it wouldn't have another shot at pay back for high speed collisions.

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

ONLY coding mistake I will ever admit to:

In 2011 (Logomotion) I was working on some line following code. I was having a problem with some latency in the system tripping a watchdog and so *ahem* removed the safety thread that handles timeout functions. (For those interested, it is in the advanced pallet under motors) I told everyone to stand clear, and hit enable. By the time I got over to where the E-Stop had fallen, it had run over one mentor and penned a student against a wall.

Eventually, I discovered that it was a case of a misplaced decimal that was sending the robot into an undefined state. Now, I have learned why most teams put their robot on blocks while testing new code.

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

I was working on a piece for the robot at my work (A machine shop) and not thinking turned the lathe on with the chuck key still in. The machine was set to 1000 sum-odd rpm. thank fully the key just fell out but it could have been a lot worse. I broke my number one rule which is always have a hand on the Key. since then i have payed attention a tremendous amount more.

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

In 2006 we were testing different angles for our shooter. the wheels were pretty much direct drive from a big cim, and the 6 x 8 plate above it was zip tied to a shaft so we could easily try different angles. on one attempt the plate contacted the wheels, sending it straight up right past my head. I don't think anyone even knew what had happened until it hit the 30 foot ceiling and was on it's way down.

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

I was driving a robot at an outdoor event, with little kids running everywhere. I turned my back for a second to grab my water bottle, (liquid near the driver station!?:eek:) and when I turned around, there was a kid mashing arcade buttons, almost chomping other kids' heads with a giant claw.

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

Left a mill handle on top of a mill
Left chuck keys in several times
Accidentally closed a battery circuit with one of the pre-made cables in the KoP
Dropped a robot on myself
Have had various objects graze me flying by into a wall
Fell down the stadium stairs at the Las Vegas regional (Ok, not near death, but it hurt xD)
Among various other dumb things I've done/still do


Yep, Im totally an example of good safety practice :cool:

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

Once our primary mentor was using a belt sander to deburr a decently sized aluminum bracket. It got loose and flew >10 feet and missed his son's head by inches. If I remember correctly, the only reason it didn't hit him is because he had just bent down to look at something in/on the robot.

Sounds like he spilled something (probably hot) on it or otherwise damaged it. I would look into touchscreen screen protectors. either that or something has come loose internally.


:ahh: How fast was that going at the time? I can imagine it made quite a noise when it crashed.

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

Just today I was drilling some polycarb. Although none of it really had "death potential," it still had "break-things-including-yourself potential".

I was using a hand drill to make some holes in some polycarb panels for limit switches. Naturally, I was using a 1/8" drill bit as an end mill to enlarge my holes. This obviously had the potential to snap the tiny bit in half, so I decided to take a step back from the problem and try something safer.

I managed to find the dullest 17/64ths drill bit in the shop to enbiggen the holes, and proceeded to wander it all over the bottom of the sheet like it was ice skating. After getting the hole started, my friend decided that the drilling was going a bit too slow, so he decided to hold the polycarb flat where I was drilling. The whole time our mechanical lead was telling me to "push, push!"

So. Lessons learned. Polycarb is slippery. My friend almost got a rather large diameter piercing in his hand. And don't listen to the mechanical lead.

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

A voltage divider for our LED Ring tried to set our programming team on fire :yikes:

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

He was machining a small piece of aluminum, so I think it was going 1,000-1,200 rpm. This was on a 7-10hp lathe.

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

Yesterday we were working on our bridge lowering device, and I had just plugged it into the jag. As I turned on the robot, I told my mentor to move back because he was in the way of the arms motion. As he moved back(before the robot even connected to the computer) the arm came crashing down right past his face. This is after our robot decided to take a swan dive off of the table when we were only testing sensors :ahh:

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

In 2005 we had a spring loaded plunger as a kind of shock for our arm that flipped out at the start of the match. When setting it for the first time the spring was probably twice as long and twice as stiff as it should have been. A fellow student and I worked together to compress it and pin it so it didn't come out, but something slipped and the inner portion launched 20 feet and hit the shop ceiling with some power, missing both of our heads by inches. I also got numerous cuts and scratches in 2005 due to working too fast without regard to safety... Since then I have been averaging about 1 scratch every 2 years or so.

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

At the risk of being a buzz-kill, this thread is disturbing. It seems to be a glorification of the excitement of poor safety practices.

"May you live in interesting times" is a Chinese curse for a reason.

We on 1551 have never had a near-death experience, nor even one experience where "oh, crap, that should have gone down differently*" has ever occurred. We like it that way, and the rest of you should, too. This thread is an insurance agent**'s nightmare.



*with regards to safety. Fashion is another matter.
**and carrier -- like your school, and FIRST.

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

In 2008, we left our battery holder to a little too late in the design, resulting in a setup that required holding the robot in midair (humans or sawhorses), sliding underneath it, and awkwardly wrenching the 13.5lb battery down on your head. The robot never actually fell, but the sickening sound of a sawhorse slipping beside my head still haunts me on occasion.
[EDIT]How it won't happen again: We're smarter now. Our battery cases are actually rather elegant these days, and if we ever have to get under the robot, we both support it and have people hold the supports/robot. Mostly though, we design better access points and maybe turn it sideways.[/EDIT]


In 2009, that darn Lunatic managed to go crazy on us once. E-Stop/disable failed (I didn't even know this was possible), so I got the lovely task of sprinting up to a haywire robot and sticking my hand inside for the Main Breaker before it ran over someone more important than me.
[EDIT]No one knows how or why this happened. I'm endeavoring to make our switches easier to reach, but I honestly have no clue what this was.[/EDIT]

Other than that, the worst I've done is be the idiot rookie that decides to hold an aluminum plate in a drill press while drilling a 1/4" hole. C-clamps, people, C-clamps!
[EDIT]We now have tons of clamps and are religious about using and teaching students to use them.[/EDIT]

I also got beaned in the head (one too many times, or some my friends tell me) by our very heavy, very unwieldy 2007 arm. Hurt like heck every competition and made me bleed once or twice, but nothing crazy. I figured it was payback for being the not-so-gentle arm driver.
[EDIT]We're definitely safer in the pits, but it also helps that we're more intelligent about arm design. I believe the issue in 2007 was a faulty drive (it would fall down randomly on the field as well). We haven't made this mistake since, but if anyone is ever under something, someone else is holding that something. Our "somethings" are also lighter nowadays, for many reasons.[/EDIT]

[EDIT]Also, I'm posting here, so hopefully someone will see this thread and remember to be safe in their own situations.[/EDIT]

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

You could take it that way, or you could see it as a reminder to follow safe practices and learn from other's mistakes before we make those mistakes for ourselves.

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

I do understand that some people seem to be glorifying it, I actually posted my story as a "never underestimate a cable under tension" warning, I didn't even think about it whipping back and catching my thumb. Some of these are things I wouldn't have thought of.

To this day, I can still feel a slightly different patch in my thumb.

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

I remember my sophomore year when I hooked up the battery to the PD board backwards using alligator clips; the wires from the battery were the wrong color. When I turned my back to grab the laptop and start programming the new cRio, the wires were smoking and the insulation melted onto the frame before I could detach it and prevent a possible fire in a room full of combustible marching band uniforms.

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

during regonials, i was working on our robot in our pit.
one of the drivers actuated the boom on accident and it basically landed on me.
i got a scar ::safety::

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

Not at all near death, but I managed to decimate an endmill and ruin a holder by crashing our CNC mill moving at full rapid. Huge chunks of endmill went flying everywhere, but nobody was hurt.

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

Buzzkill! But you're right. Could the people posting in this thread please post what steps have been taken to ensure that these scenarios cannot happen again?

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

Might want to use clamps next time instead of someones hands.... and put something like wood behind what your drilling (something that you don't mind putting a hole in). Drilling straight is always key to making a hole, if you do that along with the other things I mentioned you shouldn't have a wandering bit.. especially if you had smaller holes to start with, that should have made it easier. If all else fails.. get someone who is more comfortable with drilling the hole(s). ::safety::

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

We have a vice/tool wrench in our shop with three handles that we use on the CNC. We call it the helicopter. There is a very good reason for that name. Once the CNC is at 3000 RPM and the Z-axis goes down, the helicopter pops off the top, goes up into the ceiling tiles, then proceeds to rip its way through the ceiling until it is sitting above the CAD lab.

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

I'm on Scouting so no NDEs for me apart from Mtn Dew OD and walking into the machine shop.

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

In 08, I had to sand down a pretty small piece of plywood (1"x2"x1/4, about). Being a freshman, I jumped on the belt sander. the wood got sucked down the crack between the table and belt, taking my hand with it. Luckily it was an old belt. I was missing 8 fingernails for a few months, and now whenever you press down on them I don't really feel anything.

I've also seen many drill press chucks/keys go flying and smack people in the face

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

Holy crap your team needs to seriously up its safety training and certification.

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

We've got a good system, it was my fault. I was rushing lol

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

...so you learned to not rush through your work, right? :)


I've heard similar stories about people being killed by flying chuck keys. Since I heard about them, I was sure to specifically bring it up at safety training every year.

Also, the easiest ways to prevent flying chuck keys are a) get the spring-loaded ones (which are sometimes a pain to use, but worth it), or b) never have one touching the chuck unless your hand is on it.

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

This happened to my best friend. We where doing field reset at the Duel on the Delaware in 2010 when a robot broke clean through the gate. A chunk of plexi glass almost hit her and scared the crap out of everyone else. Wasn't anyone's fault but it had potential for a really weird ambulance ride.

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

This is easily the scariest one of the thread, congrats?

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

Two things that I try to instill in my students:

With these, most of our accidents are of the form "Wow, I sure am glad that I used (safety measure) while I was testing or else (consequence) could have happened."

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

While setting up a simple test rig for a gyroscope, my mentor set the rig down on the robot and turned away. Unbenounced to him, he set it right on top of exposed battery terminals which the mechanics neglected to cover. The gyroscope proceeded to catch fire and a nasty plume of smoke came from the robot. We had to ventilate the room. From then on, we checked that the battery terminals were covered.

Lesson learned; cover all exposed terminals. And make sure not to use frayed PWM cables.

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

Well this happen over the summer break not thinking about it. I cut toward my self using a knife. Then it slipped and almost cut my rist. I then had to go to the emergency room and get three sticths. But it was a lessen to all the incoming freshmen. Also this happen to me today, I was driving our 2010 not and it decides to go crazy while there are innocent students walk by. My insticts from last year kicked in the I stop the robot and turn it off. Luckly no one got hurt so I am glad. During the summer time our new electrical manager got shocked while wirring a battery 12 volts right in his face and by the computers to luckly not got burn and nobody got injured.:eek:

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

Last year we had a four-foot-long pivoting arm to hold tubes and an about-face button on our controls. The about-face depended on the gyro, which wasn't plugged in properly. To make a long story short, the robot spun around at high speed flinging the arm out in an 8' diameter circle. That day we learned to slow the about-face down, secure the arm from lifting as well as from falling, and never test driving code in a tiny room.

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

I was testing our electronics board layout in a cramped mechanical space. I had the battery with the quick-slot plug-in not on the Power board (yet). So the wires touched the metal and created a giant spark and left a physical mark on the robot. Also, a teammate was holding onto the bot with Kevlar gloves and was completely unaffected. That was very scary and I am more wary about this. Now my wires are secured and electrical taped. Careful with batteries and metal!::ouch::

No one was hurt in the making of this robot and we want to keep it this way!

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

We have a our basketball hoops sitting right in front of a set of double doors in our shop.

I came in after work. Ducked to go under one of the middle backboards. I walked through forgot the rim was there and my forehead got cut on one of the net hooks. The students smiled and said your like the third person to do that and then said I was bleeding. I thought why not put caution tape or something across there.

2 days later.....

Our head mentor ducked to go under, walked through and stood up right into the rim. The top of his head was gauged by one of the hoop hooks. He bleed for about 5 minutes.

I suggested we put caution tape across there.....it sits waiting for the next victim. :(

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

Why not go tape it yourself? By not doing anything about it, you're just as bad as the people you're telling to tape it.

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

I think that's the wrong question to ask.

The REAL question is, why is the backboard set right in front of the double doors such that people have to go under it? If I left a hazard like that in that sort of location, I could reasonably expect to have to move it or take it down immediately.

Only use caution tape if the whole setup cannot be moved. Then use lots of caution tape, to get the point across that you really don't want to be going through there if you don't absolutely have to.

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

I think they're both good questions. Yours goes to error-proofing, and hers goes to human factors (initiative, assumption of responsibility, etc.).

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

Not sure if thats something to be proud of haha

That, and only use the belt sander if absolutely necessarily. I've only used it maybe twice since.

Re: Near-death experiences
 

electrical Shock is not the BIG danger:

Spewing melted metal onto skin or worse the eyes is the primary danger!

18AH batteries with internal resistance of .01 ohm are potentially capable of
Ipk= 12v/.01ohm = 1200 Apk
figure in .005ohm AL short then I=12v/.015 = 800A

more than capable of instantly melting and forcefully ejecting molten metal beads 6061 AL melts at ~580-660°C

It sticks to skin.. won't shake off..

BE SAFE! Sane & available to compete with both eyes and no hurtful scarred skin from a bad burn

Safety First..
Never use battery outside of your robot without a series circuit breaker! Never!
start at lowest needed Ampere rating, for testing the lever type is most useful

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

There was one time during build on a rainy day when I slipped on a diamond plate panel while running between the machine shop and the classroom the team works in. Fortunately I didn't really get hurt despite landing hard on my back.
Unfortunately, the teacher-mentor of our team suffered a similar fate some time after that, and he wasn't as lucky. Can't remember exactly what the injury was, but it was foot/ankle related. Certainly made us realize how important he was to the team.
After that incident, the school added some sort of coating to the panel that made it less slippery.

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

I still have a few days left to be hit by a flying bandsaw blade this season. I'm a senior; It happened every other year, so we know it's bound to happen.

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

once, we put a cow on the roof
we had to build a crane to get it down

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

Last night the deburring tool i was using on a part broke and tried to take two of my fingers with it.

Things I learned:
Don't show students blood. They pass out or puke.
Urgent Care is REALLY fast.
They really can superglue you back together! NEAT!
Tetanus boosters SUCK.

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

Team 3397 is especially lucky in that the worst injuries our team has ever sustained are minor cuts and bruises. Sometimes it's good not to be able to afford incredibly powerful and dangerous machinery! :P

Indeed, the injuries in the robotics lab are less serious than 8th-grade science class, when a girl's finger was caught in a rat trap.

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

Maybe teams should all be educated in first aid, not just the 'slather on some neosporn and slap on a bandage' type either. Teams need to be able to treat nasty injuries, check vital signs and know when to call an ambulance.

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

That description of the hiss reminded me of a creeper.

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

In 2010 we were testing our robot with its arm (used to hook a winch to the top of the tower) out. My friend and I were standing, backed up to a wall, when our test-driver decided to spin the robot, swinging the arm about 3 inches from our faces. Pretty scary since we had nowhere to back up. Plenty of other things have happened, but that one stands out in my mind.

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

No near death experiences here but I have had a lots of nicks and scrapes from trying to put things together or repair in places someone forgot to leave access to, big hands in tight spaces are great for finding all the unfiled edges. I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your stories made me rethink some of the safety things I need to emphasize more like blocking the robot when new code is being tested and reminding the students (and myself) to clamp things properly when going to use the drill press.

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

Scary how long this thread is.
We have had nothing serious in the shop (thank goodness), but I've had my share at home.

My first experience was when I was 8 and visiting a family friend who was remodeling his house. I accidentally kicked a nail gun so that it fired a brad nail into the sole of my shoe, just barely missing my foot. Turns out the trigger was defective.

Two years ago (15 years old), I was ripping some 2*4s on the table saw with my dad. The blade caught and then threw the wood which embedded itself in the neighbor's fence.

My third is when I was using a weed whacker and the line ran out, launching the last scrap of line into my face. It left a gouge in the safety glasses. I still keep them around to show the freshmen.

I'm bookmarking this thread to show people how dangerous robotics can really be. Hopefully it will keep some people from doing stupid things that get them, and the people around them, hurt.

First year as an alumni, and I am finally legally allowed to use the chop saw. I promptly launched a piece of aluminum into the fence (it was wasn't pressed against it all the way, cos I'm an idiot), crushed and ripped open my ring finger, and hit our ninja programmer in the head (he was fine). It's a gross looking scar, but the fun part is that it didn't hurt at all until we put a bandaid on it. This is why NASA doesn't let us let the students use the big tools.

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

I'm a former safety captain, so this thread is pretty scary to me. :ahh:

Our team has had a few flying chuck keys in its history. We keep one bent chuck key as a reminder of what happens when you're careless in the shop. Once a student was using auto feed on a lathe, and wasn't paying attention. The lathe bit ran into the spinning chuck and sent the bit flying across the shop.

LESSON LEARNED: Pay attention while operating machinery. We have a taped off a section of the floor around each machine in our shop, and only two people are allowed inside at a time. That's enough for an operator and a mentor or a freshman in training. We don't want anyone else near our machinists to distract them. Also, all of our current lathers don't use auto feed because we're still scared of it!

This wasn't related to robotics at all, but we once had a mentor have a seizure in the shop.

LESSON LEARNED: Be able to dial emergency numbers FAST. Also always have someone around who knows first aid. The mentor almost fell on the concrete floor and would have been hurt badly.

This was definitely not a near death experience but I brought a new pocket knife to a regional this year, and someone from electrical asked if she could borrow it. As a was opening it to give to her I cut my finger on the new blade, and after a handed it to her, SHE cut HER finger on the blade too!

LESSON LEARNED: Be careful with sharp objects, and never use one of my knifes! :o

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

During Breakaway, we were testing different kicker designs, so we bought a spring loaded skeet shooter to slap a soccerball. while cocking the spring and setting the ball, I got the launch string caught on my shoe and I set it off walking away, right into a teammate's leg, fortunately it didnt break but did leave a nasty bruise. it was not only powerful, but fast and powerful.

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

I've had quite a few 'experiences' during my first 2 years:
- Touched both poles on a AC Plug while plugging it in.

- Nearly had fingers removed by wheel spokes when I bumped into the joystick of an enabled robot.

- Mis-Programmed and Autonomous routine, causing the machine (aimed @ head) to shoot discs and balls at me at full speed (Did this more than once :( )

- Have had electronic components explode in my face while working on them.

- Had a pressured air canister fail in front of me due to worn threads.

- Probably others I'm forgetting.

Not having anyone to teach me electronics or software design, I ran into more than a few 'accidents' along the way. Now a 4 year veteran, I try to use all of these to teach new electrical guys to avoid the pitfalls before they happen.