Tools That Have Hurt you

[Roberts210]

I was using a Milwaukee Magnum 1/2 drill with a side handle to drill a 4" hole through a floor... using a Milwaukee hole saw, and the teeth caught and the hole saw came to a stop and smashed my hand into the 2X6 framing next to where I was drilling the hole. Took 6*@#$months to heal. Learned my lesson tho. Got a Milwaukee 1/2 Inch D-handle drill now which runs at a considerably lower RPM.

 

[Roberts210]

I got out of the Army in 1971 in Wash. D.C. and went to work for a company that cleaned the outside of limestone buildings in D.C. with nasty chemicals and high-pressure hoses. We worked on scaffolding that hung down from the top of the building and each side of the scaffolding had a motor with a hand switch to control the direction--either up or down.

My first clue this place didn't give a damm about us was when I walked through their warehouse and there was a big puddle coming from a 50 gallon drum that was leaking. It smelled bad, and I hesitated to walk through it but the owner was there and said, "Go ahead and walk across that stuff... it won't hurt you." I did and that very afternoon the soles of both my boots FELL OFF. Whatever had been leaking ate the stitching out of my boots.

So anyway, one day I'm up about 5 stories, on my side of the scaffolding, and another guy is on the other side of the scaffolding and we are coming down slowly, spraying noxious chemicals onto the stone surface when my hand control for the electric motor started shorting out and burning up. The owner was on the ground watching and yelled for me to just grab the thing and unplug it to save the motor. But after my boot soles falling off I had no desire to also get electrocuted. I didn't do anything and my motor and switch both burned to a crisp. We lowered ourselves with the emergency hand cranks but I lived to tell about it.

 

[Heavy Metal Doctor]

My only personal experience: Back when I was a newbie mechanic. HF jumbo wrenches failed while being used on large hydraulic hoses / fittings of a machine I was working on. Nothing but my own body weight. I broke wrenches 3 times within one single job over the course of 2 days. 2 of them nearly sent me off the side of the machine from 6 or 8 feet up to the concrete shop floor, but I managed to catch myself...... I never bought any more **** tools.

 

[ovrrdrive]

I've been damaged plenty of times by my tools but in the spirit of the thread I can't recall one time that was due to a tool failure. Of course I think everyone that has ever used a cutoff wheel has had one come apart on them but I don't even count scratches and little cuts anymore. Sometimes they are even purposeful depending on what I'm doing and how much time it will save...

 

[bczygan]

I don't need a tool to hurt myself.

And power tools aren't a necessity either.

I can damage myself with a simple screwdriver!!!

Bill

 

[Zewnten]

Great posts. Very few of your stories have what I might call tool abuse and they still failed you. As for the others about tools hurting you because of being in a hurry or not thinking things through, my story involves a wobble impact and a 24" breaker bar and the missing chunk of my pinky that was pinched in the wobble socket.

 

[bradleykd]

19mm Crescent brand combination wrench. One of the jaws broke off of the open end while I was putting considerable torque on it. When it let go by elbow smashed into the edge of the machine I was working one. I got stitches and a swollen elbow out of that one.

That wrench hangs with my Snap-On ones now for when people give me **** about buying such expensive wrenches I can just point at the not-so-cheap-not-so-expensive wrench that made me work left handed for a while.

I've broken quite a few other tools, but none that resulted in injuy. Mostly ratchets, even Snap-On ones, when I probably should have been using a breaker bar.

 

[Swingpress]

 

[SgtHawkUSMC]

I keep reading about cheap tools ending up with the user being hurt. Out of curiosity does anyone have a first hand account of a tool failing and you ended up hurt, serious or not.

I'm not looking for my friend used such and such or I heard of a guy, but your story. Nor am I looking for tool brand bashing or worship, just your stories. In fact if tool brand was left out that'd be fine too. Personally I haven't had an injury resulting from a tool failure so I'm curious.

And if I've posted this in the wrong area please feel free to move it to the correct one thanks.

Yes, surely have. My cutoff wheel. Three weeks ago I was using my cutoff wheel to cut an exhaust manifold to y-pipe bolt off my our Expedition. The 4 1/2" wheel exploded (probably cracked?) and took out my wrist. Went right into the bone. The thing was wide open throttle when it let go...

 

[kTHREE]

Any hole hog ever made.

 

[twertsy]

Table saw without splitter or kickback pawls ( I know now Stupid move)
Was ripping a short 2x4 and the rip fence must have moved a 1/32 inch
The 2x4 shot back at my left wrist breaking and gashing it Have 12 stitches
For a reminder to always stand to the side of the blade!!!

I was ripping the plastic tile for my garage floor the same way. I lost focus for a split second an the tile came flying back and hit me in the gut. Had a huge bump / bruise on my stomach for a week. But, thank you Duluth Firehose Shirt!!

 

[tonyciambrone]

Hammer, 10 months later I had a brand new nail!

They make nails every day in factories, surprised it took you that long

 

[yamaha0343]

Lots of busted knuckles from those cheap round head ratchets that HF and everyone else were selling back in the day.

 

[redvalkyrie]

I think every tool has got me at some point--not just cheap tools or my own stupidity. Ratchets on frozen bolts where the bolt suddenly snaps. Cut off wheels. Drills that catch and decide to keep spinning. I've become smarter though and avoid most issues now.

Interestingly enough, I use a pocket knife day in and out but have never cut myself with one.

 

[dr_clyde]

I've had the standard hammer + thumb routine, the angle grinder has bit me a few times, the occasional spark in my eye, that kind of stuff.

The only one that I had to go to the hospital for was when I got my finger caught between the wheel and the blade on my horizontal bandsaw. I learned to unplug that **** when changing blades so I can't accidentally turn it on... Crushed the end of my finger like stepping on a hot dog.

 

[Maui]

I was working on an old Ariens snowblower a few years back. It was covered with so much rust that I felt like I needed a tetanus shot every time that I used it. It was running rough and I figured that I needed to make some adjustments to the carburetor. In the process of doing this I had to disconnect the fuel line. I thought that I had shut off the gas before I pulled the line, but apparently I neglected to do that. When gas came spilling out it startled me so much that my hand just automatically jerked upwards and banged into the machine. After I shut off the gas and cleaned up I noticed that my thumb looked odd. Closer inspection revealed that a thick shard of rusted metal had impaled itself into my thumbnail. It was imbedded through the nail but didn't touch the surrounding skin, which is probably why I didn't feel too much pain. I knew that going to the doctor or the emergency room would be a royal waste of time because they wouldn't do anything for it anyway. But they would charge a ridiculous amount of money that would come directly out of my pocket. And my high deductible plan wouldn't reimburse me for it. So screw it. I pulled the chunk out with a pair of pliers which removed the vast majority of it. But there was still a significant amount of debris imbedded in the nail and the flesh underneath it. So out came my old Black and Decker dremel with the flexible cord. I have a Stereoscope at home that I looked through as I used a sterilized grinding arbor in the dremel to very carefully grind through the thumbnail. No painkiller for this either. It wasn't pleasant. Then a sterilized sewing needle was used to get the little pieces of rust out of the remaining nail and underlying flesh. It was a nice bit of dremel surgery. I even took some photos of it afterwards. I'll see if I can find one and post it. The end result was that it never became infected, healed completely, and since the nail has grown out you would never know that I was ever injured.

 

[Firebrick43]

Craftsman pear head ratchets. Dad had them and every so often (on large high torque fasteners) they would slip busting your knuckles. Take them apart and nothing was broken, worn, or not lubed, just occasionaly the pawl didn't engage fully

Got out on my own and bought a large craftsman set. After busting my knuckles several times with those I finally throwed them in the trash. Bought snap on and SK ratchets and haven't looked back.

Last year I was working on a friends car (using his tools); busted my knuckles with his craft an ratchet. After the swear words subsided I only the trash it went. As he went to retrieve it I warned that if he did I wouldn't work on his cars any more (for free). Her bought some nice used snap ons to replace it.

 

[rlitman]

I was using a tool-truck brand 1/2 ratchet, with a piece of pipe as a cheater to undo a bolt on a tractor. I was standing on it, sort of bouncing on it, when something in the ratchet mechanism let go, and the ratchet turned a lot. I slipped off, and cut my head on the side of a slow moving vehicle triangle. The other people present found this hilariously funny. I did not share their opinion.

I'm sorry for your pain, but you have admit to seeing the irony in this!

Oh yea... almost forgot the finish nailer... 2+" nails... too long but what the hell... doing baseboards... finish nail went in... hit a framing nail... vectored back at my thumb that was holding the board... went right thru and came out the fingernail...

To this day ... that fingernail doesn't look like the others.

Odd part... didn't really bleed that bad.

I've seen too many nails do a 180 inside the wood.

...When I was younger, I was setting up a dado blade cut on a table saw. Checking to make sure the blades would clear the insert edge, i was rotating the blade by hand. Got a finger between a table edge and a blad tooth, drove the tooth in to the end of my finger. Probably should have gone for stitches, but I was young and stupid, so kept pressure on it for a few hours until it stopped bleeding, bandaged it with a piece of shop towel and masking tape, and dealt with it. Took weeks before it finally stopped bleeding. Still have a scar there to remind me that new carbide saw blades are sharp...

They sure are. Not too long ago, I had the tablesaw insert out, and the dust collector turned on, to use my tablesaw top as a sort of makeshift downdraft table to do some sanding. When I was done, I used the back of my hand to swipe (another no-no) the dust on the table into the hole, and was rewarded with a few parallel cuts where my hand's path intersected with each tooth.

 

[CobraRed]

Pretty much every mid to high power air ratchet I've ever used

 

[dutchgray]

Got a knuckle with 5" grinder and a sanding disc, couple finger nails from a hammer and one from a electric demo hammer, minor cuts from knives and chisels, not much really for a dozen years in construction.

 

[M6erfan]

I constantly pinch my fingers in my collapsable saw horses. Does that count?

 

[Roberts210]

OK, this is kinda, sorta tool related. I was driving through a Home Depot parking lot 10 years ago and saw a small yellow kitten in the bushes that some ******* had dumped. I had half a sandwich with me, and got out with a chunk of turkey and went up to the bushes, held out the turkey and called him. He was scared but came a little bit closer. I held the turkey out to him and finally, after much "here kitty kitty kitty", I got him to smell it and then take a bite. And I grabbed him. My plan was to take him home with me. He couldn't have been more than about 8-9 weeks old. He bit ALL THE WAY THROUGH MY THUMBNAIL AND MY THUMB. He ran off and wouldn't let me catch him. Don't know what ever happened to him, but I tried. My thumb didn't get infected.

 

[-OSIS-]

Non impacting air ratchets... they’re the devil. Also floppy flex head ratchets that pinch lol.

 

[jonesg]

Cut my hand off but luckily the second hand store was open.

 

[pcmeiners]

One of my best, not to bright moves.... Using a Milwaukee router, I loosened the base for a plunge cut, miss tightened it afterwards. I turn on the router, lifted it, base came off and the router bit ran over my palm as it kick my hand back over my shoulder. As the hand goes back I am wondering how deep the carbide bit went. Yes it produced a nice clean cut across the hand, plenty of blood but not as bad as I envisioned. I was lucky.

 

[lakeroadster]

Skidding Tongs.

When I was a youngster my Dad had a sawmill. Dad always drove the front end loader, I was the gopher.

I was putting a skidding tong on a 2 foot diameter log, slipped and the tong slipped out of my hand.

Stuck into the log on one side, and into my calf on the other.

By the end of the day my sock was covered in blood.

Still have the scar.

Good Times

 

[stercorarius]

Funny: slipping off the 5 foot cheater pipe, attached to the 2 foot Crescent Wrench

Dangerous: Getting hit with the handle of a Jackall (farm jack) after a couple of times you figure out the right way to use them

Stupid: using a 9" angle grinder without the side handle and guard. Shut it off and turned away, in a split second I had a hole in my knuckle.

They call those jacks widow makers for a reason. Heard my share of stories of people getting killed or turned into vegetables by those handles.

 

[BonzoHansen]

Does a trip to the ER to get the rust out of my eye that fell behind the damn safety glasses i was wearing?

There was one time I was drilling a hole in something metal that was in my bench vise, and my head was kind of close to the object so i could see. The bit caught something and stopped spinning, so the drill body turned instead and left a big bump on my head. Again, safety glasses were not much help lol. I now have a drill press for such shenanigans.

 

[Cahark]

Ran my thumb through a table saw. Had a few factors against me.
-should have stopped working when I noticed myself getting tired.
-saw was underpowered, and the blade had seen better days
-I got too “comfortable” with the saw.

Always respect your tools, and don’t forget what they can do to you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Yesmar]

being an auto tech my most common injuries
about every other month i sport a nice blood blister from pinching myself with mostly needle nose
another common injury is again with some sort of pliers getting coolant hoses and having the tool slip but its the clamp that actually cuts me.
ive also gouged myself with a screw driver quite a few times.
my hands are always pretty nicely nicked up from clawing into tight spaces

uncommon but it hurt, couple years ago i stabbed my thumb through my thumb nail with a gasket scraper. it hurt worse pulling it out..

 

[WhiffySpark]

You mean besides not using yer brain ? Worse I suffered without it kinda sorta being my fault was breaking a nut loose while pushing towards an object. When the bolt broke loosd my finger was between the breaker bar and a cotter pin. Head of the pin want through the nail and bent over when it hit bone. I litterally had to pry my finger off. The scar under my nail finally disappeared 40 years later.

I listened to my auto teacher when he told me always pull never push thankfully.

I’ve had a bunch of cheap cut off wheels explode.

Now that I no longer wrench I buy 3m wheels

 

[928'er]

Kind of a tool...
Had a potato baking gizmo like one of these https://www.ebay.com/i/381750386270?chn=ps with a center lifting ring and four spikes for the potatoes.
After baking the potatoes, I'd pick it up with a pot holder, place it on the counter then take the pot holder protected hand to pull the hot potatos off while I grabbed the center ring with my other (bare) hand. SIZZZZZZZ!
After I'd burned myself for about the fourth time, I finally threw the damned thing away (I'm a slow learner).

 

[PCustoms]

Was using a 5" craftsman DA sander years ago to make a slingshot, I think I was 10. Touched the sander to the wood in my left hand, before I knew what happened the wood was across the shop and I had sanded through the back of my thumb where it meets the hand with 80 grit.

Couple years back i used a 12" miter saw to cut a pice of material down for the scrap pile. Bench was cluttered, didn't care about the cut so put the stick down and cut. Blade caught and slammed the crooked material against the fnce, trapping 2 fingers. Next day my middle finger was so purple and swollen I thought it would pop, turns out I smashed the end of the bone off. More or less healed back in place, but every now and then I'll wack the tip on something and it almost brings me to my knees.

Renovating in the house last summer, balanced the recip saw with long demo blade on the stepladder. Turned around, bumped the ladder and the saw fell raking the blade down my leg. Nice roadrash, and all I had to clean it was a bottle of hand sanitizer. The hair is starting to grow back now.

 

[M_George]

Back in the 70's. I worked as a TV tech. You could always tell a TV tech by the scars they received pulling their hand out of the TV Chase after being shocked by a discharging capacitor.

 

[crewchief888]

My favorite short handled 8 lb sledge, and the trigger finger on my left hand had an unexpected meeting.
Hammer 1
Finger zero

I still don't have full range of motion after 25 years of so
Had to train myself to pull the trigger with my middle finger

 

[Ji m]

I was pressing out a Jeep ball joint,
didn't realize the top of the press was starting to lean back away from me.....

and it spit out a thick hardened fender washer like a watermelon seed right to the center of my forehead.

My entire skull rang like a bell for what felt like a whole minute.

Face was ****** as soon as I lifted my hand up,
took 3 steri-strips to close the hole, but it healed good.

The washer was to protect the socket I was using as a ball joint cup,
totally my own fault.

 

[MacMcMacmac]

Guy at work got smashed in the face with a 24" adjustable wrench when he tried to open a stuck 12" ball valve with an air actuator trying its damndest to open the valve. It didn't have enough torque to open the valve itself, so the wrench was applied to the square valve shaft and it snapped open very violently. Had to litter him down from the roof. Doctor said it looked like he had a mouth full of corn flakes. Very close call.

As for me, I had to politely ask a fellow next to me to unplug a Fein angle grinder that had wrapped itself up in my coveralls and was now in a battle of wits with me to keep on going. Quite the arm wrestling match.

I almost lost an arm in a Monarch 10EE when I grabbed a slowly turning pipe stud with a gloved hand. Luckily, it had plenty of antiseize on it and I had enough slippage to prevent being twisted up into a pretzel, but it was wrapping my arm around. Still shudder over that one.

Managed to put a pair of scissors through my left calf last summer after losing patience with a bubble pack...

 

[ChrisLS8]

These stories are making me cringe.

Had a Del Sol on the lift and none of the impacts were budging the crank bolt.

So we grabbed the big bar with a pipe and gave it a good crank, the socket slipped and the bar busted me right in the nose...which in turn made me drop the pipe end on right on my right big toenail as I was wearing sneakers.

It was purple and black for a good week or so

 

[patrickg20]

Since I've grown up working on cars, I have had lots of scrapes and cuts. Luckily, nothing serious. The funniest thing I have done was while using a large pop rivet gun. I was 16, and putting pop rivets in a window regulator. I was squeezing "left to right" and wasn't quite stout enough to "pop" the rivets while standing "behind" the pop rivet gun. So, I stepped up closer to get a little better "squeeze" on the handles. It worked. When it "popped" both handles came in, and I hit myself in the ribs on both sides and knocked the wind out of myself. I gasped for air, and laughed at my own stupidity for several minutes. I haven't done it since.

 

[ovilla]

$180 Microtech X85 OTF (Out The Front AND illegal in Illinois) switchblade

Awesome crazy overpriced little pocket knife that I love to play with. The metal is somewhat weak though and loses its edge so I sharpened it and, of course, I had to test it. Split my thumb wide open and couldn’t get it to stop bleeding. I finally ended up using a combo of gorilla and crazy glue to make it stop. Now I test the sharpness of my blade by slicing post it notes with it.