Injuries thread. What is your worst injury while DIY'ing? Mine just happened a few minutes ago. A capacitor blew up in my face and hit my lip. If it stuck me in the eye I would be blind for sure.
Have been hit in the forehead by a few brad nails, every time that shit happens I shit just a little. Worst had to be a sprained ankle from falling downstairs with a miter saw. Bruise ran most of the length of my foot on both sides, I think it was only as bad as it was because I was trying to save the saw, but either way it hurt for probably half a year.
I once seen a guy slap a chunk 2x6 on his lap, then he ran circ saw saw into it...
His face was priceless when he realized what he had done
Never seen him again.
Same job I watched a guy set his pants on fire from sparks off the qui kcut.
When I was 16 and a mouthy little shit the concreters I was working with told me not to start the quick cut I didn't listen it went up it went down through my boot just in-between my big toe and the toe next to it doc said a cm either way and I would of lost a toe
Cutting insulation with my utility knife.
Using a 2x for straight edge.
I'm so safe.
Stop paying attention for split second
Stab myself right in the back of my hand.
3 days later I need meds for the infection.
>>978006
Humm, burned all my fingers from soldering, cut through my knuckle skin, it was freaky seeing the white tendon underneath, inhaled oak vapors and burned my airways, made me sick for weeks.
-drilled into hand while holding bottle cap
-burnt knuckle with soldering iron
>>978008
Always dump the tool mate
Cutting a piece of plastic with a stanley knife, slipped on the plastic and sliced my index finger in half from the underside of my last knuckle towards the end through to the tip. Didnt hurt cause it was a new blade, fkn heaps of blood though! 2yrs on only a small scar to report and still got full feeling, didnt cut the nerve.
>>978006
Something tells me you're going to check the polarity and plug it in the right way next time.
Those aluminum caps are a classic. I've known many people who worked in electronics manufacturing who have launched those things in to the ceiling two stories up when they were testing boards, all because a human populated the part instead of a machine.
>>978047
What are oak vaprs?
I'm sure I hurt myself worse long ago, but I can't recall. Recently I somehow got a molten steel drop inside my glove while 4F stick welding.
I now know what people around here call the "bacon dance" is.
>>978138
Well we called it bacon because welding sounds like sizzling bacon when doing it right.
The dance is because you got some of the bacon grease into your overalls you dumb cunt.
>>978156
I'm talking about a regionalism nigga.
I know what properly adjusted MIG is supposed to sound like.
Nothing too bad.
Lots of sizzling in my ears while welding and having a spray spark make it's way into the ear.
Sliced my index finger while cutting insulation.
Cut off the tip of a finger while using a sheer.
Blew a pneumatic brad (small nail) through my finger while I was chatting with someone and mindlessly fidgeting with the brad gun I had in my hand.
Oh, got myself caught in sheet metal rolls a few times. Hurt like hell and scared the crap out of me as I thought I was going to be pulled into the rolls. I literally cried afterwards out of emotion and not pain.
>>978163
This is me.
The only DIY injuries were the welding ones and the brad gun. Others were OTJ.
a wall fell on me once and I got 3 fine thread screws in my leg, caught my hair on fire while I was soldering .5 copper pipe and got shit fever from getting covered in shit while unclogging sewers
>>978133
Wood contains alcohols and various other solvent like liquids, the light from a wood fire is actually these things turning to gas and burning. If you heat up wood without a direct flame, these liquids gassify and come out of the wood.
I was sanding oak with a flap disk on an angle grinder, I held it in one place for too long and burned the wood. I think I inhaled a mix of vapors and burning dust, the effect was immediate and fucked me up.
>>978006
hit my left thumb with a huge rubber mallet, hit my fingernail and thereby had my nail cut off a piece of my finger, wasn't big, everything grew back with time, but it hurt so bad couldn't see and lost any and all sense of direction.
I still have the shriveled, tiny little bit of my flesh lying around somewhere
>>978006
metal fume fever - thought i was gonna die.
dont cut a car up with a plasma torch in a small garage anon
>>978006
Not an actual injury, but an almost injury.
When I was a kid, I was snooping in my Dad's shed and found what looked like a ratchet screwdriver (I didn't really know what a ratchet screwdriver was then but it looked "different", so I picked it up). I was trying to see why it was different to all his other screwdrivers when I twisted the knurled ring at the base if the shaft. The shaft shot out at unbelievable speed and stopped with the flat blade less than an inch to the side of my head. Two inches over and I would have lost my eye, or life.
It was a spiral ratchet screwdriver >pic related
Scared me shitless, stopped me snooping in his shed for a few years.
Besides sprains, id say the worst has been having brads blow out the side of a jam and sticking into my finger.
I've had a couple of explosive kickbacks on a table saw. But I came out of those unscathed just frazzled.
Electrocuted, 230v one phase on each hand. Was working as an apprentice on some stuff and my co-worker flipped the switch without asking. Boss gave me 5000 euros as compensation.
My brain just stopped working for a few second until I somehow managed to get myself loose.
>>978556
>Boss gave me 5000
should have given you a thick ear for not LOTO
>>978572
Are you retarded? Stop imagining you know how the work day of an electrician is, NO ONE locks fuses on small service tasks. My co-worker who flipped a fuse without asking is the one who got a thick ear.
>>978556
Lol, I got shocked with 230V while standing on a ladder. Didn't cause a blackout or anything, if anything it got rid of my sleepiness. I was shaking a bit after that.
No one even noticed, I told the guy I was working with and he just laughed.
Got zapped a few times by high frequency while TIG welding aluminum because of shitty gloves.
Not an injury per se but still absolutely fucking unpleasant.
>>978575
That's because you didn't get electrocuted from arm to arm, probably just from finger to finger on right/left arm.
From arm to arm makes the current go through your heart and brain, also if you are American it was ~120V
>>978574
I second this, we don't have time. Customers bitch too much as it is
>>978583
>Single phase never killed anyone
U wot m8?
>>978006
I almost cut off my left hand index finger with a grinder. The scar was tiny and did not even bleed but it scared me for life. I will never misuse a tool again.
>>978581
>>978583
Not arguing with you guys, but why do so many americans on here get so confused with their own split phase mains system.
I was talking to some geezer a while back and he was adamant that the US didn't use a 220/230/240 split phase system and claimed it was 110 only in residential areas.
All houses in america are wired up for both 110 and 220, using centre return tapped substations. Hence 'dryer' outlets.
Some people in freedom land even wire up their houses using a phase on either side to spread load.
Also just another thing, is every socket protected with a rcd/gfi or are sockets ganged in looms which are fed by a rcd/gfi?
>>978969
Wall outlets in American homes are 120v, or at least they should be.
Every normal outlet you find will be 120v, unless the power station is shit and lets it drop below or above that mark.
There are special outlets in homes for stuff like dryers that are 240 or whatever.
>rcd/gfi
I'm not an electrician but google tells me that those are outlets with switches on them and act like a circuit breaker or something.
Some homes have though, but no one I know does. We usually just have plan ass outlets with two or three holes depending of if the home was built in the 1800s or not. If something shorts out, the breaker in the breaker box will trip. breaker boxes replaced fuse boxes like 20 years ago.
>>978969
Some circuits are gfi by code: bathrooms, garages, not sure about kitchens. Since they cost more most are not. We tend to use a gfi outlet at the start of the run protecting everything downstream of it because, once again, gfi breakers are more expensive.
Not /diy/ related, but:
>Be young (Grade school age)
>Take shower
>Shower handles are porcelain, identical to pic related
>Turn off shower with said handle using the palm of my hand, apply too much force
"Huh, my hand is stuck to the handle. Wtf?"
>Handle shattered, jagged edge of porcelain went in just above my wrist, over half way through my hand
Blood fucking everywhere. Poorfag family so my dad wrapped it in gauze, told me to keep my hand above my head and the bleeding stopped after awhile.
I'm one lucky bastard. That had to have narrowly avoided some arteries.
Took for-fucking-ever to heal.
Somewhere I have pictures of it, after it stopped bleeding it was just kind of "open", I could look into the wound (It was about an inch wide).
The insides looked like a pepperoni hotpocket. I stopped eating them because of this.
>>978969
>Also just another thing, is every socket protected with a rcd/gfi or are sockets ganged in looms which are fed by a rcd/gfi?
Every socket downstream of a GFCI outlet is protected, assuming you hook it up correctly.
Guy I worked with was filling up a work Truck and spilled gas on his clothes and hands. Got in the truck with me and lit a cigarette and he went up in flames. Whole left side of my left arm is covered in burns because truck was locked. He ended up dying from injuries even though we were quick to drag him out and smother the flames. Fucking mondays.
Seriously though, my arm still hurts 4 years later and it looks nasty af. Skin graphs are fucking painful.
>>978989
>>978996
>>979005
>>979007
Thanks you lot. Clears things up.
I was wondering how appliances and people were protected without fuses in the appliance.
Other here in britbongistan older homes will have a fuse box with fuse cartridge RCDs or plain fuse cartridges, which intern will feed seperate lighting circuit and socket rings.
Protection is implemented with the rcd or fuses in the panel and a house fuse on the meter. Plus each appliance has a fuse.
When I do up my place I like the idea of giving each ring main and loom a rcd, similar to the us minus the ring main.
Because if a breaker trips we basically lose all the lights or sockets, as a old panel will have an average of 5slots. 2 slots for lighting and sockets. Then spare slots for a boiler, oven or washing machine or any other high current appliance.
However looking at an american breaker panel they have a cartridge count in the 10s to an excess of 20. I don't see why a compromise or a best of both worlds hasn't been implemented yet as standard required by law, as newer houses use the american breaker and wiring layout.
Then again I could be talking out my arse.
>>979007
Because I'm interested in the US electrical protection methods employed in their electrical systems.
Here it is a combination of house mains fuse, breakerbox/fusepanels and more fuses in the appliance.
I want to know more of how american house wiring is done from a safety standpoint.
Because from my eyes without fuses in the appliance that means every single socket has to be protected. So if someone trips a breaker do you lose power to the whole house or just to a select few sockets. I know I should be able to google this but there is so much bollocks out there being spewed in pub speak. Eg the socket is protected by a gfi innit.
Because I don't mind changing a fuse if that means I don't have to flip a breaker every time a appliance shits itself.
>>979028
How many amps per circuit from your initial fusebox? In my little corner of the US lights and outlets are generally 15 amp, with the occasional 20 amp circuit for power tools in the garage, etc. Furnace, dryer, A/C might be 30 or more.
>>979034
One main switch on the outside with the meter. One main breaker feeding the panel. Breakers to every circuit. Some circuits further protected with GFCI outlets. Most appliances also have internal fuses.
>>979028
US also has fuses inside of appliances, and some power strips will reset if shorted (I think)
I like our breakers because they are resettable, if you trip one you just shove the switch all the way to one side to reset it and the switch it back to the other side and its good to go again. Fuses you have to keep buying new ones every time.
>>979034
>So if someone trips a breaker do you lose power to the whole house or just to a select few sockets
Usually you'll just lose power to that room or whatever.
Basically if you're pulling more than 15-20 amps shits gonna trip
It depends though, say you had a shit ton of lights in a room you might loose power to sockets. But with like bedrooms you'll lose power to the lights and the sockets in that room
How often do your appliances shit themselves?
I thought house fuses were done away with because our needs for power consumption have increased beyond what older systems could tolerate.
i busted through a vinyl floor tile, it broke, it was 9x9, and dust flew in my face. almost positive it was asbestos
>>979063
>>979065
http://www.asbestos.com/products/general/vinyl-products.php
nah, i found out about it afterwards, a buddy of mine does asbestos surveys / contractor oversight. felt pretty shitty that i didnt know before.
I pushed the bar down to lock the ladder open
but the webbing between my thumb and finger was right in the pinch point
>>979082
Snip? Or what?
>>979083
yeah about a quarter inch worth of webbing. it doesn't heal fast
I was flipping my axe in mid air, but then my face got invthe way and it cut thriugh my bottom lip. Ha i could have scapled myself
>>979082
damn, im still scared of that. i put on gloves most of the time when i have to handle a ladder
>>978006
I do refrigeration and appliance repair so kind of /diy/ related.. worst injury was taking an oxy/acetylene torch flame to the hand
>>979139
What were you doing with a oxy acetylene setup in the first place..?
>>979149
Condensor install when I did heating and cooling. Dumb fuck customer came walking over to "see how it was going" and kicked the hoses and jerked the torch.
>>978006
I burned the crap out of my thumb two days ago while soldering leds for my aquarium. Had a bead of molten solder drip onto it, then solidified so it wouldn't come off...
>>979207
You shouldn't use too much solder bro
>>979209
I know that now.
I think I was adding solder to the tip to clean it when it dripped off.
>>978046
I was cutting out the fins for one of those little model rocket kits when I was like 10, and slipped with the xacto knife. Was at my grandma's at the time...she didn't take it as well as I did.
20 years later, still got the little crescent shaped scar.
Probably the worst that happened to me was while removing carpet, I accidentally stepped barefoot onto either a long staple or a tack facing straight up. I recovered within a few days.
Other than that, not much more than small cuts, soldering iron burns, a nasty shock from old tube equipment, etc.
Nothing too serious has happened to me while working. All worse injuries were from being unobservant as a kid, the worst of which was jumping off a swing onto a rake barefoot. Took me out of school for weeks.
Sewing machines try to kill me.
When I was 2 I tried to cut the power cord to the machine while my mom was using it. Melted the scissor handles.
When I was 8, sewed my hand because my younger brother was dicking around by my feet and held down on the foot. It went all the way through my finger and barely missed the bone.
And last year a needle hit a zipper and exploded. The shards went around my glasses and into my eyeball. I panicked a little, ran I to the bathroom, and pulled the shards out.
Tons of cuts to my hand. Worst was a hand saw to a finger. Don't chuck a hole saw using the trigger.
Also had a wire from a brush hit me right under the eye. That put the fear of God in me and I wear eye protection for even the most mundane tasks.
Smashed the base of my thumb with a hammer, damaged a lot of nerves in my right hand, my thumb moves slowly now
>>980181
Fuck me
I got AIDs from my vacuum
>>980190
i got gonorrhea from a tractor
>>979034
>>979045
Here in hobbitland. The average domestic house will have a 60 amp main circut breaker feeding lights that are usually on a 10a mcb.
power circuts are fed through a residual current circut breaker to individual mcb's usually 16 or 20a. Neutrals from the socket circuts go to a common bar then back into the rcbo and back to the neutral bar.
The systen of supply is a centertapped transformer with 3phases of 230 and a multiple earthed neutral along the entire system of supply including the consumers premises. This allows a high fault current causing fast opperation of protective devices.
Common cabe sizes in domesric ibstallations are 1.5mm for lights 2.5 sometimes 4 for gpo's. 4mm for aircon and sone larger appliances (spa's pumps 'n shit.) 6mm for ovens and cooktops.
>>978006
Electrocuted at a festival while working security, medics took the time to train a volunteer in how to deal with someone who has been electrocuted for about 45 minutes and I got a bit of paid time off and a seat.
Chainsaw to the leg while topping trees. Was working up an aluminium scaffolding tower a few years ago. Workmate with the chainsaw started to slip after cutting a tree with the saw still running, I grabbed him, he flicked the chainsaw off and put it down..right onto my leg. It skipped down my leg taking a few chunks, all healed up now, back to work within a week.
Sledgehammer/felling axe ricochet back up and hitting my head/on to steel toe caps.
Most recent injury that's still healing is a handsaw slicing into my left index finger.
>>980193
I keked
>Cutting 2x4
>Piece breaks offf and takes a chunk out of my neck
>Blood everywhere but pain is not bad
>Try to call for help but only gurgling sounds come out
>Run inside
>Sister sees me
>Passes out and hits her head on the kitchen counter
>Pool of blood forming around her head
>Run outside and flag down my neighbor
Kind of amazing how much blood we can lose and still live.
>be stupid kid.
>pick related in our front yard
>some kind of metal bar melting through the plastic side.
>touch it
>feels like 2 waves crisscrossing through my finger
I tell that story to tell this one:
>be stupid teen.
>use screw driver to remove burned fuse from a stereo amp.
>melt the screw driver at the 2 contact points
>shock causes me fling my arm back.
Still don't know why I got such a large shock. The handle was wooden and pretty thick.
The shock felt nothing like the metal bar, which I find interesting.
Electrical company fixed the green dome a while later.
>>978006
I was repairing the shower head holder in my parent's house, the cheap plastic was all broken and I had to drill new holes and whatsoever.
Then I had to drill the last hole into this chromed-plastic cap that covers the main holding screw.
And because it was plastic, I knew that I couldnt put it into a vise to secure it - it would have broken if I tried that.
So I held the cap with one hand and the Makita with a brand new 8mm wood drill in the other.
For general amusement my middle finger of the right hand holding the cap was in the way of the drill after the hole was complete.
Well, the rest was pic related. Lots of blood, a shocked mom (OH LAWD) and four stitches at the hospital.
>>979055
nope, it's entirely because people were tired of fiddling with fuses in the dark. fuses are actually safer than breakers (like 5% in certain applications) because they can't arc across the gap when the burn out.
but yeah, power stations still use fuses for big amp loads. you can make a fuse that will hold for hundreds or thousands of amps, it's basically just a thinner piece of wire than the rest, so the failure point is there and can easily be replaced, instead of burning out the wiring in the wall.
houses that have fuses TEND to be older WIRING systems, which is the issue.
correlation, not causation.
um, not sure if it counts, but I cut of the end of my finger messing around with an exercise bicycle when I was 4.
I sliced open my finger on my tablesaw. while it was off and I was moving it, apparently the table is sharp somewhere. about >>980907 deep, but only a slice, not a chunk taken out. I just disinfected and superglued it shut instead of the stiches I should probably have gotten.
Went to sharpen a knife real quick for my grandmother on worksharp grinder, wear glasses so shrugged already have saftey glasses no need for bigger ones, leaned in real close to see if nick had been ground out, did the librarian peer out from under glasses, metal shard in eyeball. didn't go through, just got stuck like a dart, rinsed it out, still hurting after a day opthalmologist said not there, just tiny puncture hurting, wear safety goggles.
bruised bicep on a kickback because I was too lazy to use a push stick and just grabbed a 2' 2x4, and it twisted on saw while pushing through workpiece. workpiece was fine.
Nothing actually happend to me except i cut myself.. BUT my cousin worked with an anglegrinder and cut open his belly cuz he tried to stop it... (stupid man).... then he went to his wife and told her to fix his belly cuz he didnt wanted to go to the hospital so she did it..... stupid man xD
Wasn't me but my old contractors kid almoat severed that vein in his leg using a circular saw. Luckily he had his cell phone in his pocket and he only had a burn from his battery exploding. Kid would of bled to death before he reached a hospital desu.
I was moving stacks of sheet metal around and had one come loose, skid down the nail on my ring finger, and skin it all the way to the knuckle.
It didn't heal well at all. When it's dry the scar just splits right open and I bleed on everything because I don't even feel it anymore. That got me fired from several customer service jobs because I bled on the customer's shit repeatedly.
Rigged up a long-wire antenna for a shortwave radio. Grabbed wire at far end in order to hook it to a ceramic insulator, jeez! felt like I picked up a red hot poker! Why is there current present on receive only antenna..? My face when I looked around and realized I was about 500 metres from a 150,000 watt LORAN station.
RF burns suck. Couldn't wank off with that hand for a month.
>>981973
Enjoy your cancer
>>981997
RF won't cause cancer... Even if it could, a short exposure like that won't.
Almost blew boiling radiator-fluid in my face twice on the same day while trying to fix a leak, which proved to be the hoses themselves being rotted.
I changed the goddamn radiator because I thought that was the way forward, only to have the hose blow up in my face again.
Changed the hose, traded the car and some money for a better car.
>>979013
What a shitty and sad situation, could've been prevented.
>>982266
My dads friend did this, and it got all over him. I don't think it hit his face thankfully. They had to literally brush his burned skin off a bunch of times, he was put on a bunch of painkillers. It was unbearable pain, I heard.
Funny because I was just telling someone this story earlier today.
I was building a pic related in the woods and pic related right the fuck off of it, nearly impaling myself on all the little cut sapling stumps i'd left. landed deadweight right on my pelvis. puked and dragged myself back to the house. i hurt for weeks after that and the doc said despite some blunt trauma and bruising i was lucky af to not have broken my legs out there. i was like 12 kek.
>>978006
I don't /diy/ often but,
>get some concrete molds for a cobblestone-style walkway
>be mixing concrete without any safety gear
>pour concrete into molds
>packing it into and texturing the surface of the molds with bare hands
>washing it off with water in 5-gallon bucket after every one or two molds
>get halfway through project
>"fuck the rough texture of this shit is really digging into my hands"
>figure it's just the pebbles and shit grinding/scratching my hands as I work it into the mold
>stings like a bitch
>wash hands
>mfw minor chemical burns all over my palms and fingertips
As far as I can remember that's probably the worst I've had. Never even thought concrete could do chemical burns. Like I said, I don't /diy/ often.
>>979544
jesus fucking christ how horrifying.
and i wanted to learn to use a sewing machine. only hand stitching for me
