Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?

[nitneylion452]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

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.

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.

[Trent B]

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.

[theprgramerdude]

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.

[thenomnivore]

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

[Gray Adams]

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.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

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.

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?

[Greg Leighton]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

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.

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).

[tipsmiller]

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.

[NullEntity]

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

[Brandon_L]

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

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

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

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

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

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

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

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

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

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

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

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.

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.

[LemmingBot]

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.

[The_Pratt1448]

Originally Posted by Brandon_L

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

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