Thread: He ballsed that up!!!!

Lucky it wasn't a 9 inch grinder with a whole lot more torque...

Tom.

A few weeks ago my next door neighbour had a grinder accident. Because another neighbour had modified his face when a disc broke twenty years ago he had a welding helmet on to ensure something like that did not happen to him (in the other accident the main problem was that the guard was not on the grinder! After that accident ever farmer in the district hastily rummaged in the litter in their shed to find and refit the guard to their angle grinder.)

As a result of the poor vision from the welding helmet it took him a while to realise the sparks had set his shirt on fire. After a trip to Dubbo Base this led to a quick flight and ten days in the burns unit at Concord for skin grafts. He suffered third degree burns to his upper right arm, armpit and side of his chest. I met him a few days ago, he was on his way into town to get the dressings changed, and he said he probably had not done the right thing by spending twelve hours on the tractor the previous day (we had rain a week ago).

John

Do you know if he was wearing a cotton or polyester shirt?

Aaron

This reminds me of a story in the local paper back in pommy land in the early 80's where a bloke had caught part of his Gentleman's area in a ball race (no kidding) on a cycle he was working on. This before the days of the mobile and so he had to lift the bike and walk very carefully to the nearest phone.
cheers,
D

Originally Posted by Aaron IIA

Do you know if he was wearing a cotton or polyester shirt?

Aaron

He definitely told me it was cotton, although one second hand version of events I heard said it was a polyester high visibility shirt.

I'm inclined to believe it was, as he stated, cotton - I have never seen him in anything else, and the photo of the burnt shirt he showed me on his phone looked like one - not that there was much of it left. Looked like a typical long sleeved cotton drill work shirt. He said a major problem was that it was not buttoned all the way, so he had to pull it off over his head, slowing its removal and also inflicting minor burns to his ear and face.

It was a very hot and low humidity day, and he was apparently outdoors working on machinery. It is quite possible the shirt had some oil or diesel soaked into it.

John

Half a million years ago when I got some school holiday work at the boilermaker shop where my dad worked...

Saw this first hand: The apprentice was using a 9" angle grinder on a bit of angle iron only about a metre long. He had his foot on the piece, on the floor, trying to steady it as he bent down to grind off a cleat. Asked me to stand on the furthest end. The grinder kicked back and in a blink had ripped a footy sock clear out of his steel toe capped work boot. Just a slight grazing above his ankle.

He was lucky not to have amputated his foot! The grinder shook the **** out of him as the disk slowed too - so out of balance with the sock wrapped around it.

Bloke at Cadia, the local mine, was killed when he was cutting into a wall for some electrical work and the 9" grinder kicked back and ran across his carotid artery.
Dad very nearly lost an eye when he was a bit younger than me when a grinding disk exploded in his face.
No wonder I'm a bit cautious with them

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I have a pet name for all grinders.. I call them Damien.. because most Damien's on the TV are vicious bastards! Sorry to swear, but it works!