FIRST Injuries

[Justin Montois]

In 2006 I was using vise grips to and raise the deck on a drill press cause the handle was broke, but the track was bent so I pushed really hard and the vise grips slipped off and I bashed the nail on my ring finger on my right hand between the vise grips and the deck of the press. After about two months the nail finally fell off and the new one is still messed up two years later.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Andy L

Last year our programmer decided to have fun with a drill, an allen wrench, and my side. He thought it would just wrap my shirt up but went to close now I have a cool half circle mark on my side,

I think I should not touch drills unless there's real work to be done.

I've put in a round file, a flat file, and a pair of safety glasses. The files were cool (round file + drill = really cool and quick, and the flat file was cool too albiet more dangerous)

the safety glasses stretched out and I thought they were going to break and hit somebody so I stopped that. =p


Although the most dangerous thing I've put in a drill is... a drill bit. Sure, I have all my fingers and the proper amount of holes, but I've had some close shaves.

[pakratt1991]

3 hours into build season I was opening a KoP box and was so excited that I was not paying enough attention to the knife in my hand. It slipped and I cut deep into my right hand pointer finger, when my hand flew out of the way I also cut my First knuckle on my thumb.



Talk about first injuries of build season....
I set records.

[basicxman]

Originally Posted by Kat Kononov

.... i agree with senioritis...but it's not associated with FIRST. i burnt my finger with a solder and it hurt a lot.

ooh, ive done that, it hurts so much!!!! remember, use a soldering iron stand!

to contribute to the thread, one time a mentor drilled her finger, i don't think all the way through but she went to the hospital

[basicxman]

omg, i just remembered, this was not on build season, it was me building a personal robot, i was using an LED with really strong leads, i was forcing it into a jumper wire and it slipped and i stabbed myself in the leg with the lead of an LED

it hurt like words im not allowed to say and i was bleeding for 1/2hour or so

[CzarValvador]

Originally Posted by DarkFlame145

OUCH, that has got to suck. I'm really sorry that this happened to ya.

Don't worry about it. It didn't hurt much, and that part of my hand is practically useless. Coulda been much worse. Like I could've easily injured the people in my sig. Woulda killed myself if that had happened.

[Zyik]

We had a mentor with 9 fingers for a long time. Never wear rings while machining.

[Andy A.]

I've never had, or seen, a serious injury while in FIRST. The worst I've had was a minor cut requiring a butterfly closure and some super glue. Normally I would have just used a band aid, but I wanted to get back to work faster .

Other then that just the usual assortment of scrapes, dings and solder burns. Overall my teams have always stressed and practiced good shop safety, and it's paid off. Team members learn from the start how to be safe, and everyone checks everyone else's work out. Normally a crowded shop isn't safe, but when everyone stays focused the extra eyes really help catch the little errors like chuck keys left in the chuck and so on.

My work experience has also been pretty safe. I did have a grinding wheel break up on me once, and a piece managed to take a good chunk out of a finger. Although it healed quickly it left a sizable scar and dent, and was very painful. Luckily I was wearing eye protection and my welding leathers, so the finger was the only casualty.

I've also worked in the medical field. In doing so you use what are called 'universal precautions'. Things like latex gloves, face masks, safety glasses/shields and lab coats. To my knowledge I never had to handle anything terribly infectious but the risk was still there. So anytime I worked on a piece of lab equipment that had been exposed to possibly infectious or hazardous materials I had to put on all that stuff until I had disinfected/cleaned it. It was a hassle at first, but after a while I felt naked with out it.

I guess the guiding principal to shop safety is to stay alert and focused. Accidents happen most often when people become complacent and rush. If you feel rushed to get something done, stop. Take a moment to breath, check your work, your work area, your tools and your self. Remove distractions (extra tools, prints, radio, even people). Think the next few actions through and then do them. Some accidents are unavoidable, like my grinding wheel spontaneously coming apart, but if you make it a habit to always protect your self you'll minimize the impact.

If I sound preachy, I guess I am. Sorry. I try to keep that to a minimum, but I think safety is one of those things that just can't be brought up enough. I know there is a little bit of bravado in these threads over who has gotten the most scars or burns, and I guess thats okay if it gets people talking about safety. But the real benefit of these threads is to share ways to avoid injuries, and lessons learned from those we haven't.

-Andy A.

[Pavan Dave]

Originally Posted by Andy A.

...I think safety is one of those things that just can't be brought up enough. I know there is a little bit of bravado in these threads over who has gotten the most scars or burns, and I guess thats okay if it gets people talking about safety. But the real benefit of these threads is to share ways to avoid injuries, and lessons learned from those we haven't.

-Andy A.

Very well said. Emphasis mine. I have had my fair share of nicks, bruises and burns, but when it comes down to it, I try not to make the same mistake twice, but it happens and I try my best to keep learning from my mistakes.. I think it is horrible to be proud of being injured, not because of the pain you might go through during some accident, but what if someone had to file a report about your injury and it was due to a disregard towards safety and your team lost its privileges to work at a sponsor's shop, and/or your school said "that's too dangerous for us" and cut your teams program just like that?

I think it is one thing to poke fun of some boneheaded decisions we all make, but to gloat about it in the sense that "my scar is deeper and more permanent than yours" is just plain foolish!

Pavan.

[joesmomh00haha]

PICTURES ONLY PLEASE.

Watch, I'll show an example.

Our gear boxes hurt more than yours.

[Dancin103]

Originally Posted by EricH

I'd have thought you'd have gotten some nasty bruises from the soccer balls in 2002. The bins were 2003. (And the bins took a lot of damage--I think of team 330s 25 or so, half a dozen survived.)

Only a few of ours survied, and the ones that did we now use for storage...lol

[Guido]

Originally Posted by IbleedPink233

It's good that this forum was created because everyone knows that we can't talk about our injuries at competitions - that's when the safety judges are around!
There haven't been major injuries on my team while I've been on it (that I know of). I received a helping of minor cuts from our 2k6 bot whenever I had to load it in a hurry (which was basically before any elimination match) due to some gears and chains that were not placed in an idiot-proof location. I, as the unaware idiot, reaped the consequences. I started wearing gloves to protect myself, but then people started making fun of me. . .

$@#$@#$@# pink

[Woody1458]

two years ago we were working with sheet metal in the pit, (bending edges to make it safe of course) and the whole system came loose and snapped up wards toward on of our members face, thank god for safety glasses because it hit him on the glasses, then slid up his face putting a gash in his eyebrow. How bad would that have been without glasses lol

[Justin M.]

Burns, endless cuts, some requiring stitches. I've also gotten some aluminum shavings in my eye a few times, not fun. I was drilling a hole and forgot safety glasses. That doesn't happen anymore.

Needless to say, injuries are almost unavoidable when building anything. Chances are you will get hurt at least once. You just need to try to counteract that by being real careful and safe all the time.

[joesmomh00haha]

Originally Posted by Justin M.

Burns, endless cuts, some requiring stitches. I've also gotten some aluminum shavings in my eye a few times, not fun. I was drilling a hole and forgot safety glasses. That doesn't happen anymore.

Needless to say, injuries are almost unavoidable when building anything. Chances are you will get hurt at least once. You just need to try to counteract that by being real careful and safe all the time.

Prove it this Forum was meant for hardcore pics.