[fox46]

Over the course of the build period, some of the metal on the robot will end up in you, and some of your skin will end up on the robot!

Two years ago, (zone zeal competition) our robot had a 50lb hopper that it would fill with balls, and then the hopper would get raised to the top of a goal, and then the balls would get dumped in. The hopper was lifted via scissor lift. SCISSOR lift! We were nearing the shipping deadline, and things were getting pretty crazy. I was installing some lock collars on the leadscrew mechanism that actuated the scissor lift. At the same time, another member was removing the pins that joined the scissors to the leadscrew so he could work on the hopper (which was 6ft up in the air at the time). I had told him to make sure to block up the hopper before he removed the pins, but unfortunately for me, he forgot. All of a sudden, I hear "holy %&*#" the robot jerks, and I realise that the hopper is decending VERY quickly, so I attempted to pull my arm out from between the lower pair of scissors, but I wasn't fast enough, and my pinky finger got caught between two scissor sections. I don't really remeber much except for white hot pain, and I think I said a few things made up mostly of four letter words! After I finished screaming, I looked at my finger, and it was like one of those bugs bunny cartoons- the tip was almost completely flat and bleeding alot! I ended up at the hospital, but amazingly, I didn't need stitches or anything, the finger was just really crushed, and after a few days, it "re-inflated" back to normal, minus a pair of deep gashes. I still have the scars, and the nail still looks a little wierd.