Machine Shop "Accidents"

[Andrew Y.]

ok, so i cut my thumb off last year on the band saw, and now im known as "Thumbs." Its been reatatched and everything just no feeling. so im like

7 stitches inside
15 outside


i know im not the only one that has done something stupid in the shop so SPEAK UP!!!!!make me feel better please!


i am proud to say i have all fingers this year, just a few cuts

[Alex Cormier]

well one kid did all this:
got finger stuck in sander, minor damage
shirt stuck in sander b/c part was too hot to handle with just his hands, broke belt

then a different kid left the wrench on the mill and it flew off across the room.

i broke a belt on the sander because i was sanding to hard i guess what the freak? and the list goes on...

[Greg Needel]

i was steping up some holes in a 1/2 inch plate and went a little bit to big with my step and the alum grabbed slipped from the vise and tore into my thumb. just a small cut but that is as bad as it got

[Joshua May]

On ship date I was cutting a small peice of metal, and had the bright idea of using the chop saw. Didn't think about how small lengths of metal go nuts with chop saws. So, this 3" long peice of 1" square aluminum stock flew out from the saw, knicked my fingers, flew into a wall, and bounced back at another team member. Thankfully, I only took a small bit out of my left middle finger, nothing big. I kept the peice of metal as a souveneir, its completely warped, I'll post a pic soon.

[Mike Schroeder]

this wasnt in the shop while building the robot, this was while i was at work, but in a weird and crazy series of incidents i cut my arm on my radial arm saw, it was more of a nic, atleast as much of a nic as a radial arm saw could have been, i didn't get the muscle or tendons or anything like that, but with the way the saw is designed if the sawblade hit the bone, i would have most likely lost my arm, but now i have a really interesting scar on my arm now, and one day it will have a way cooler story than i cut it on the saw at work

[Koko Ed]

You work for 17 years on a factory floor you hear some horrible things (The worst I have heard was a woman getting her foot crushed flat by a fork truck and a guy poking his eye out with a screwdriver-when he was wearing safety glasses!). We work very hard to avoid incidents like this with our kids. They are not allowed to work the shop without an adult present and that have to take safety training at the beginning of the season or they cannot be on the team.

[Andrew Y.]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

You work for 17 years on a factory floor you hear some horrible things (The worst I have heard was a woman getting her foot crushed flat by a fork truck and a guy poking his eye out with a screwdriver-when he was wearing safety glasses!). We work very hard to avoid incidents like this with our kids. They are not allowed to work the shop without an adult present and that have to take safety training at the beginning of the season or they cannot be on the team.

agreed, safety first, forgot to mention that this happened in my personal machine shop at home.

as for the scar story, iv cooked up some good ones

[KyleGilbert45]

This always seems to be a popular topic from year to year.

2004
2003
2002
2002

I haven't recieved any injuries this year, as I'm not on a team, but I had my fair share of cuts, scrapes, smashes, splinters, etc when I was on team 45.

[KenWittlief]

Electical engineers usually dont have machine shop or tool related accidents

our accidents usually are more along the lines of what happens the first time you power up a new design: capacitors explode like a confetti bomb, diodes are more like a firecracker

resistors tend to smoke, coils smoke alot.

Digital and analog ICs can arc and burn for a surprizingly long time. The first time I tried to design and use an EPROM programmer I actually said out loud "Hey cool, the little circuit in the window glows orange while its being programmed!" - no its not suppose to :c(

we learn quickly, the first time you plug something in, stand back

just in case.

one of the weirdest things I ever did in a lab: I was working on a video projector design, that had a 500W lamp. I was measureing the voltage on a circuit and the Fluke portable Digital Volt Meter started smoking! Im thinking, what the heck, it only has a 9V battery in it, how can it possibly be smoking?

the light from the projector was hitting the back of the meter, focused like using a magnifying glass in the sun, and it was melting the plastic case.

[Babyhueyhnx]

the most painful accident i have had this year was when i was making our telescopic arm. i was sliding the piece up and down the check it for resistance. i had been clamping it up in place but this time i forgot. so i left go and the shaft came down on my finger which was sitting vertically on the larger shaft. it took a good portion of the side of my finger off. i had to get a tetanus shot but no stitches luckily.

[Rombus]

Here are my stories:
1. Soldering iron, No matter what i do with a soldering iron, if somehow get burned every time i build a circuit, Nothing major, just a common thing for me, I’m getting better at it

2. Ive blown my share of components, funniest one was when I was playing around with an old electronic keyboard, i was powering it off of a variable power supply, and I screwed up the voltage setting, it worked great for about 30 seconds, then it sounded like a gunshot went off, one of the caps blew and left a huge dent where it hit the outside of the case.

3. Most recent with a machine tool: I was using a drill press to drill some plexi, and i had a team member on the side of the press to make sure I had the alignment right before drilling, i chucked up the bit, and wanted to see if it was centered before drilling. I turned on the press, and the chuck key I had forgotten to take out made a full revolution then flew off towards my teammate. It didn’t hurt him or anything since the drill was set nice and slow. Made us both laugh, and reminded me not to be so careless.

[Bemis]

Worst I've had was a small chunk out of a finger due to insane hacksawing.... but my friend got stabbed in the hand with a soldering iron last year. Thats probably it .

[Katy]

I'm rather proud to say we have not had any injuries during my time on the team that could not be fixed with a band-aid. Most of them are just funny like the time a vice flew off the drill press and got me in the stomach.

We did have a pretty good adventure with our practice robot though last Saturday. We ground the positive lead of the battery to C clamp to the frame to the negative lead on a Spike. I've never seen so much smoke come out of a robot and there were enough sparks on it (and I was scared enough) that I thought the whole electronics pannel was on fire at first. Miraculously we only lost the cable that goes from the spike to negative...I still don't know how we got away with that one.

[jagman2882]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

well one kid did all this:
got finger stuck in sander, minor damage
shirt stuck in sander b/c part was too hot to handle with just his hands, broke belt

THAT WAS ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
me and the belt sander are best buds

and to clarify on of the stories, i didnt get my finger stuck. i was sanding a huge gear downa bit cause someone wanted them shinny for our cart(ended up not using them ) so i had them way up on the sander. for some reason it caught and my finger was slammed between the table on the sander and the hub of the gear. i thought that is was broken but it wasnt, and in true FIRST spirit using sheetmetal, foam and double-sided tape, i made my own splint and continue to work. the only trouble was that it was my middle finger and when ever i had to drive the robot i would well... u know

[Dan Petrovic]

You crazy people!

Nothing's happened like that this year.

Last year two people got their finger sliced by the slides on our lift.