FIRST Injury Stories

[zakk]

well, its a known fact that injuries happen. so feel free to tell your injury and the story behind it.
personally, last year i had a screw go into my thumb because of lack of common sense at the moment.

[KTorak]

I jammed myself in the finger with a screw driver trying to use it as a prying device. Another person did the same thing with the SAME screw driver. It is not named 'The Evil Screw Driver.'

[zakk]

nice. one of my teammates got knocked between the eyes by our robot's arm. funny but could have been very not funny.

[wolfj]

I have a friend who got stuck in a closet at the hotel room during the Finger Lakes Regional and scratched her leg. Does that count?

[ZeetherKID77]

One of our mentors zapped himself while hooking up the battery.

Ironically, the next year he gave a presentation on electricity safety.

[Winged Wonder]

Originally Posted by zakk

one of my teammates got knocked between the eyes by our robot's arm. funny but could have been very not funny.

Is that not the purpose of SAFETY GLASSES? I know its a pain, but there's a reason why they're stressed so much...

Originally Posted by ZeetherKID77

One of our mentors zapped himself while hooking up the battery.

Ironically, the next year he gave a presentation on electricity safety.

My freshman year on the team I almost zapped a friend who was standing nearby while I was sitting on a table hooking up the battery to our prototype (which was also on the table). scary stuff... and that was NOT the smartest thing I've ever done, thanks to lack of common sense. Needless to say, that ended my carreer on electrical and I moved on to working in the public relations department after that.... perhaps it was for the better.

[George A.]

My senior year I partially amputated my pinky when I was cutting a piece of extruded on a chop saw, and the clamp broke. The piece kicked out and caught me in the hand.

Then later that year on my 18th birthday in Atlanta I was sick in bed after qualification matches for the day...and the picture over my bed in the hotel room fell off the wall and landed on my face....not so fun.

[zakk]

dude, major ouch. no offense but you seemed to have bad karma that day.

[whytheheckme]

One of our mentors got hit by our ramp in the head on Friday at BAE... He needed 8 staples in his head...

Jacob

[Simon Strauss]

Packing up our tools in the bed of NJ this year his hed and mine colided knocking his glasses off as i raised my head to answer a question of his.

I had a little run in with a lose connection in the circuit box in our shop when i tripped a breaker using our mill. Ou shop has two switch boxes, the top of which we do not have the key to, and while reaching my hand up there to flip a breaker back on i grounded my elbow on the metal door and touched a loose connection getting 120V across the forearm.

While filing down aluminum with a bench mounted belt sander this year the rubber finger pad of the tumb on one of my gloves fused to my finger.

Using the same belt sander the year before i took off the corner of one of my knuckles when my hand slipped after a team mate dropped a rack of metal, spurning my usage of gloves.

Got a fat lip using a router when a hot chunk of aluminum got stuck in the face mask i was wearing.

Got a mouth full of spindle oil while using the lathe, Not an injury just funny

All of these and a few fun others that i wont tell you (but im sure my team mates and mentors would be glad to) were sustained while wearing the proper safety equipment, making me the most experienced and motivated safety captian my team has ever had.

I had a burning hot (like blue hot) sliver of aluminum shoot across the shop and bury itself in my cheek. It could have hit my eyes, which made me glad for my safety glasses.

I also was drilling, had the piece of metal grab the bit and shoot out of the clamp, tearing a chunk about 1 cm around out of my left thigh. That one hurt.

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by Simon Strauss

While filing down aluminum with a bench mounted belt sander this year the rubber finger pad of the tumb on one of my gloves fused to my finger.

Using the same belt sander the year before i took off the corner of one of my knuckles when my hand slipped after a team mate dropped a rack of metal, spurning my usage of gloves.

All of these ... were sustained while wearing the proper safety equipment, making me the most experienced and motivated safety captian my team has ever had.

Ummm... I'm not an expert on shop safety, but warning signs I've seen in shops indicate that gloves are NEVER "proper safety equipment" while operating grinders. Also, gloves should not be worn when operating any power equipment (sanders, mills, lathes, drill presses, etc.) that could potentially grab the glove and pull it in along with your fingers, hand, and maybe even your arm.