Morris Minor Owners Club

I know that we all say we do, but when theres no-one around we dont wear safety specs...because we all know that you can never see out the damn things and they scratch up after five minutes etc etc.

My advice is, wear them anyway.....I've just spent 2 days in extreme discomfort after a 2 second mistake with the grinder when cutting out a spring hanger on wednesday. I ended up with a 2mm (thats BIG when it gets in your eye) lump of steel buried in my left eye. It took 2 operations and 2 hours to get it out! My sight will return in the eye, but will take about 2-3 weeks to properly return.

So, wear eye protection!

YG

Been there, done that, same advice

And when MIG welding upside down wear ear plugs !
I didn't, a minute ball of weld jumped into my ear, burnt a hole in the ear drum, I shook my head and it burnt another on the way out.
Hospital knew what had happend straight aways and noted it as "welders ear".
Short story is after 12 months of hospital visits I was left with reduced hearing due to the amount of scar tissue on the ear drum.
I was lucky as often it requires a skin graft onto the drum.


Paul Humphries

And when MIG welding upside down wear ear plugs !
I didn't, a minute ball of weld jumped into my ear

been there, done that, but was lucky enough that the burn didn't damage my hearing.
I now use a screwed up T-shirt to protect my ear when MIG welding under a car (prefferably not if I can use my car roller).
An ear plug will save your hearing but still allows weld spatter to land in your earlobe - which makes you flinch, sometimes enough to get concusion banging your head on the bottom of the car

which makes you flinch, sometimes enough to get concusion banging your head on the bottom of the car

Been in hospital for that too.
Hit my head when crawing under and knocked myself out.
Blurred vision still the next day so work insisted I went to hospital and not return until I was 100% again.
Working with public means looking as if you've been mugged doesn't do the image of a government department any good (especially mine)

Also I've had a brain injury that affect my right hand side and I've lost a lot of strength.
Friends changed the autobox over on an old Audi Avant for me as I couldn't lift it.
I then crawled underneath to tighten bolts.
My arm hasn't the power so I used my weight to pull down on the spanner instead.
Guess what - the spanner slipped and I hit myself in the face.
It HURT with result of two black eyes and broke (third time) nose !


Paul Humphries

Touch wood, I have only removed bits of skin with grinders, skinned a few knuckles etc. But can we make this one a sticky, so it reminds us to "wear the gear" even if it just drilling one hole.

YG hope you are back under your moggie soon (just make sure the axle stands are in place

John

I have a pair of goggles that look like a pair of sunglasses, but not tinted. They are very good, much better than the old clumsy ones, and you forget you are wearing them after a few minutes. I bought some after embedding metal bits in my eye from grinding a cylinder head

and people wonder why we bother with classic cars

well if we're comparing scars....

I ripped my hand open in a scrap yard - trying to get bits off a car 3 cars high. I grabbed some rusty bodywork as I fell - that's what ripped my hand open.
I had been standing with one foor on a half opened drivers door window and my foot slipped into the car. I was left dangling with one leg in the car - if the window had cracked, I may have lost my leg to it

My last real accident during car DIY was fitting a propshaft on the Traveller summer last year. I hadn't put the bolts in, but was reaching for something. The prop came off the diff flange hitting me on the back of the head (briefly knocked out - I think). The car wasn't on the ground so the prop had plenty of distance to fall.

2 months ago I had something blown into my eye at work when a collegue connected the wrong airline... follwed quickly by an allergic reaction and loss of vision


It's amazing how so many of us 'get away with it' !

I was trying to move a very heavy Land Rover front axle assembly (not attached to the vehicle) using a trolley jack. It slipped off the jack, and by reflex I attempted to catch it. Squished my index finger against a brick wall, bursting it open... It just felt numb for the first few seconds, then I noticed the blood trickling out.

Another time I was gripping an unwieldy component in my left hand and trying to drill out a rusty screw using an electric drill held in my right hand. The drill bit snapped and the broken stump of the bit went into the fleshy part at the base of my left thumb.

lol this sounds like an accident book

i'm the master of accidents i'm a carpenter by trade and last count had about 30 scars on my hands from doing the job.

but cars are better any day my right eye is playing up at the mo due to grinding
not sure what i've done but blurred vision and keeps watering and feels like needles are being poked into my eye lol

o well i'm sure it'll get better
the worst one for eyes is plaster i went on holiday round my sisters as she wanted here outhouses converted to a surgery for her choropedy business.

the second day there after i boarded it all out started plastering the ceiling and yep a huge lump of plaster in my eye.
threw loads of water into it to tryh and get it out but it set solid so a run up to kings lynn hospital.
you know you're in trouble when they rush u straight in and ask your missus to book you in.
12 hours later and gallons of salin and hundreds of ph paper stuck into my eye they let me out with instructions to come back the next day to see the specialist.
that was a year ago and i still haven't completely recovered with the vision lol things we do for family hey.

latest apart from my eye was i dropped the crossmember on my forehead while lying under the car trying to fit it a lovely 1" scar on my forehead now lol

Having the object you are grinding securely held, not by hands, and both hands holding the grinder (unlike certain tv shows) can be a good tip.
Picture this - Exhaust manifold on a concrete garage floor, wire cup wheel in grinder, wire cup grabs and grinder leaves hands, bounces off floor, flies directly at face. I now have some saftey goggles with "buff" marks and the memory of a scary trip to the mirror. Fortunately it felt worse than it was.
At least, that is what I think happened. What I remember is wire brushing, bang, very sore face.

[quote="steve4063"]
my right eye is playing up at the mo due to grinding
not sure what i've done but blurred vision and keeps watering and feels like needles are being poked into my eye lol

Thats how my eye started, it gets slowly worse as the cornea grows over the embedded lump.....if i were you, i'd get it checked out!

Thanks for all the kind words guys (and gals), spent a whole day under the mog yesterday, and i now have a nice accurate hole ready to take a front spring hanger, just got to repair a few bits of inner sill step......

Roni, are those mini-lites on the mog in your picture?

YG

blimey what a thread and what an appropriate one for the "Useful Tips" section

Wear gloves as well when you are using a grinder. I didn;t on one occasion two years ago, slipped and took the skin off the top of my finger. Any deeper and the tendons would have been severed- according to the hospital. Funny thing, it didn;t hurt at all, just lots of blood and a few weeks later I was back playing guitar in the band. The soft pad on the grinder must have cut through the nerve as well. Fully recovered with a nice scar. They did not put stiches in as so much skin was removed it would have restricted full movement of the finger. It had to be bandaged for months till the skin grew back and covered the wound. When using grinder these days (or any power tool), I allways wear gloves, good overalls, goggles, dust mask, earplugs steel toe safety boots and a hat.

Worst near miss I've had with a Grinder was have it snag when making a deep cut - flipping round 180 degrees straight out of my 2 handed grip and shooting into my stomach!
Somehow I got away with just a bruised stomach and a sore wrist

People do nasty things to themselves when angle grinding 'goes wrong'. I've had a small piece of grinder disk in my face when a disk had a chip at the edge and I wondered if I could keep using it. Doh!

Other people have lost fingers.... leather gloves should be mandatory when grinding - but also some thought as to what happens (i.e where it will go) if the grinder snatches - and some common sense to ensure that it shouldn't snatch in the first place (i.e. if the grinder digs in a bit, will the inertia free the wheel up /dig it in deeper, based on how it is positioned)

Made sticky as requested, which I think is more than apt as some of the postings are a bit near miss so to speak

yes i did have a bit of metal in mine
that'll teach me again lol
popped up the eye infirmary in wolves sunday well kool thats all they do is eyes
took 50 mins from when i left home to have it picked out with a needle and back home again.

still blurred tho and painful but it'll get better hopefully

must remember to wear glasses

A wise person learns from their mistakes, a wiser person learns from the mistakes of others too.

I blew a battery up in my face when reconnecting the leads once. I had been fast charging it, but when re-connecting it I put the earth on first, then the positive lead. The spanner slipped on the nut and shorted to the battery clamp causing a spark igniting the vapour. It blew the top off the battery and acid into my face. Luckily I was near a tap so rinsed my eyes with loads of water and only burnt my corneas a bit.

**Always put the solenoid lead on first and the earth last**

Equally dont ever use a grinder in the vicinity of one on charge - had one explode like that must have been nearly 20 ft away from where i was using a sthil saw to cut some tube - didnt get near me so luckier than DaveC but good grief it made me jump!