Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?

[Jon Stratis]

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.

[EricH]

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.

[fox46]

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.

[rhf323]

A belt sander broke sending the belt flying at my face

[Newo95]

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.

[nitneylion452]

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?

[theprgramerdude]

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

[FRC4ME]

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.

[CaptSafety]

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.

[kjohnson]

Originally Posted by theprgramerdude

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

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.

[Alex.q]

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.)

[nitneylion452]

Originally Posted by nukemknight

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.

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?

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by fox46

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.

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

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

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

Until the springs fall out or get removed.

[nitneylion452]

Originally Posted by Cory

Until the springs fall out or get removed.

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.