Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?

[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.

[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?

[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.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Cory

Until the springs fall out or get removed.

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

Don't machine tired or otherwise incapacitated.

[tsaksa]

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.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Don't machine tired or otherwise incapacitated.

^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.

[midway78224]

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.

[nitneylion452]

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.

[mariokartnation]

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.

[lcoreyl]

Originally Posted by tsaksa

... because I try to always stay as much as I can out of the plane of rotation.

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)...

[PAR_WIG1350]

Originally Posted by lcoreyl

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)...

It is also the first problem.

[pyroslev]

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.