Congratulations! You’ve joined the elite club of people who have, through their own carelessness or inattention, drilled through their own hand while working on their car.
You know this because when you stopped drilling, the hand that was holding the drill dropped neatly to your side where you store it for future use, while the other hand–the hand you were using to support the back of the panel you were drilling through–mysteriously stayed in place. So did the drill itself, stuck as it was through the metal and your hand meat.
Drilling through your own hand can be a confusing and chaotic time. We’ve prepared this handy (Ha! Get it?) guide to assist you in the aftermath.
1. Confirm that you really drilled through your own hand. Upon drilling through your own hand, there will be several signs. The first will be disbelief and denial. “Surely that was someone else’s hand back there,” you will think, and possibly even say aloud, but it will soon become readily apparent that no one else is present. The humiliation is next, but it will only mask the physical pain for a few seconds, so savor it in its purest form while you can.
2. Find a scapegoat. Next to my shop is a donkey. I mean, he lives there, he doesn’t just stand there at random. It’s technically the neighbor’s donkey, but his… pen? Paddock? Donketorium? Whatever you call the area where a donkey lives is right across from the front of my shop.
So when his particular human isn’t around, he’s usually at the fence begging for donkey treats and keeping a watchful eye on my progress. As he is the perfect foil, whenever a mistake is made in my shop, the resulting crash, bang, pop, fizzle or scrape is usually followed by a loud “Dammit, donkey!” clearly indicating where fault actually lies. The overspray got on the windshield not because I am a sloppy masker, but because the donkey was silently judging me.
Upon hearing my cries, the donkey usually responds with a noise that sounds half like mocking laughter and half like derisive deflection. He’s wise to my schemes by now, but quickly shifting the blame from me to him lessens the psychic burden. Side note: For you city folk who have never heard a real donkey before, they sound exactly like your drunk friend doing an impression of a donkey.
3. Now you must act. First, forget about finishing this project tonight. In fact, any upcoming plans not directly related to wound care or gauze replacement are pretty much out the window. No, it’s time to summon help. For most of us, this will mean calling an ambulance. Hopefully your phone is actually on your person and not just slightly out of reach of your free hand. Drilling through your own hand somewhat limits your mobility, what with the drill bit tunneling through so much tissue and bone and pinning it to the back of the panel you were supporting. But no, really, not using a 2×4 was a good idea. Saved a lot of time, didn’t ya?
Anyway, it’s about now that you begin wishing there were two emergency numbers you could call: one for regular emergencies and one for really embarrassing ones. I’d be more than willing to spend a couple extra bucks toward my deductible if I knew I could expect a certain level of discretion from my rescue professionals.
Let’s face it, 911 dispatchers aren’t stupid, and they’ve seen and heard it all. When they say, “911, what is your emergency?” and you say, “I can’t really say,” they can tell just from the timbre of your voice that your genitals are hopelessly trapped in a pool vacuum fitting while the rest of you is casually nursing a poolside drink like nothing has happened. I’d be willing to bet that after 10 years on the job, a good 911 operator can determine the exact object irretrievably inserted in a caller’s butt based on the first 5 seconds of awkward stalling.
But summon help you must, and when the paramedics show up, there’s pretty much one course of action they’re going to take. They’re going to cut that precious panel–the one you so lovingly supported with your own flesh–around the drill so they can free your hand and deliver the whole mess to the hospital for proper separation.
You wanted to drill one simple hole, but because you didn’t take proper safety precautions, you ended up with a whole mess of sloppily chopped sheet metal to replace. Which reminds me to plug next month’s column: “So You’ve Welded Through Your Own Fingertip.”
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I put a deck screw through my finger once. I have it saved in a jar on my desk to remind me never to do it again.
Realize that into and through one’s hand are significantly different things, especially if it’s the later.
DanielCut wrote:
Can’t you just reverse the drill?
I’ll admit that putting the drill in reverse and slowly backing it out would be my first instinct…although it might not be the medically safest thing to do.
SilverFleet wrote:
You had me at Donketorium.
Is a really nice donkey enclosure called an ass palace?
One of my best friend’s dad used to be a contractor and it felt like every week one of his employees would shoot a nail through his hand with a nail gun. That may or may not have had anything to do with the stupendous amount of beer cans we used to find at his job sites.
Fueled by Caffeine wrote:
I put a deck screw through my finger once. I have it saved in a jar on my desk to remind me never to do it again.
The screw or your finger?
GameboyRMH wrote:
DanielCut wrote:
Can’t you just reverse the drill?
I’ll admit that putting the drill in reverse and slowly backing it out would be my first instinct…although it might not be the medically safest thing to do.
I’m not a doctor, but I don’t think an impaled hand carries much risk of bleeding out. Might as well put that shock and adrenaline to use and yank it out before it starts hurting like hell.
A lot depends on the bit type/size. A small pilot bit vs. step bit vs. hole saw will require different decision trees. And curses.
Thank you for making today suck less.
And I have done this.
And welded through a finger.
And screwed my hand to a wall.
And gotten second degree burns on my nuts.
My father had a saying: do as I say, not as I do.
This thread delivers in spades. Large quantities of plus 1 content. +1 
I have never had the pleasure of drilling, screwing, or nailing through my hand. It is a experience I expend a fair amount of energy avoiding. Successfully, so far.
That damn 4″ grinder on the other hand…
DanielCut wrote:
Can’t you just reverse the drill?
So, for the record, this did not actually happen to me. to this point in my life, I have avoided any major shop injuries. I have apparently traded that, however, for an endless string of minor shop injuries, suffered every single time I do darn near anything. I can’t wipe off a greasy wrench without drawing at least a little blood, apparently.
Anyway, the original idea for the story comes from Elliott Harvey, and it regards a guy he used to work at a Nissan dealership with. Apparently the dude drilled through his own hand and pinned it to the inside of a fender. As true friends are wont to do, the rest of the techs stood around giving the guy crap while they waited for the ambulance. When someone finally suggested that they just reverse the drill and back it out, I guess the guy finally passed out. Luckily they caught him before he just hung there on his hand.
You just back it out enough to clear the fender. Leave it in the hand hole to keep from bleeding out so much. Although you could unchuck the bit to make transport easier.
Toyman01 wrote:
That damn 4″ grinder on the other hand…
I wrassled with a machine that has a 24×10″ grinding wheel. It won, but I still have most of the tip of my finger. 
Detach the bit from the drill, then pull off your hand. Easy peasy.
Never drilled through my hand. I always manage to get it stopped at just a puncture.
I was twelve and had an interest in woodworking. Retired cabinet maker across the street had an old old old table saw. It had a jointer on the other side of the table, that shared a motor with the saw.
Jointers have a smooth barrel with a sharp blade that isn’t always visible at top dead center. As I stared at the smooth barrel and wondered how the heck it planes the edge of a board, I decided to touch it.
At the same time, neighbor fired up the table saw.
A hunk of my finger was soon dangling, and I bled a lot. I learned how a jointer works, and to stay away from it when the table saw is in use, and to respect power tools.
It scared the E36 M3 out of me, but I’m sure he felt worse than I did.
A buddy of mine was working on a house he bought to flip. He was the only one in the house. He was pushing 2 2X4s together that were holding up a temporary staircase. One was twisted. Somehow he shot a large spike thru the back of his hand and into the 2 boards. Couldn’t remove the nail or get his hand free. Stayed that way for several hours until the mailman heard him screaming. Worst I have ever done is a roofing nail in my inner thigh as I played the gun in my lap to grab another shingle. That wasn’t too bad.
I build custom hot wheels for people, while drilling the rivets out my son asked me a question….I looked up at the same time the bit went through the rivet and post AND body AND finger. Ouch
I once was holding a panel in a trade show booth while we made on site repairs and the guy on the other side used a 4″ drywall screw instead of the 2″ that would have sufficed, needless to say the oriental owners of the booth were more unintelligible than normal as they screamed at the screw out my hand and the copious amounts of blood. I was unhappy; I had to relaminate the panel on the show floor and that thing was throbbing pretty good after twenty minutes of so!
I just had to explain to my beautiful wife why I was crying so hard from laughing at “donketorium”.
Best. Word. Ever.
I have nailed my hand to a truss while standing on an eight foot ladder. Had to ask a helper to get me a claw hammer so I could free it. It went through the meat resting on the bone of my index finger. I then used my razor knife to slice the meat along the nail and pulled it out the side. At that point my helper fainted. I didn’t really bleed much, wrapped it in duct tape and continued working. I would much rather that than drill into my hand.
I let my wife read this. It made her day. And she added a few more to my list of interesting injuries….
DanielCut wrote:
Can’t you just reverse the drill?
Back in the days of long hair, a young mechanic was removing transmission bell housing bolts with a long extension and 1/2 inch impact gun. The air from the gun blew his hair into the rotating extension and had it wrapped tight with his head pulled close to the extension. Foreman heard him yelling, approached, surveyed the situation and suggested he reverse the gun. He did, pulled the trigger and ripped out hair and scalp about the size of 50 cent coin. Dumb and dumber!!
Love that first post/article.
Toyman01 wrote:
That damn 4″ grinder on the other hand…
Dropped a 9″ one spinning full tilt right into the meat of my thigh. Thank god my finger was off the trigger and my pants/flesh slowed it down before it got bone-deep.
Everytime I read the title of this thread I cringe. It I making me remember some very painful things.
dean1484 wrote:
Everytime I read the title of this thread I cringe. It I making me remember some very painful things.
If the title makes you cringe don’t read any of the posts.
Jee-zus. Some of you people…
And I thought I was a fool for welding in Crocs.
Many years ago, I was drilling something with a small, cordless Dremel tool. I dropped it. My first instinct was to grab it.
With lightning quick reflexes, I grabbed the falling Dremel. By the spinning drill bit.
Explaining what happened next takes longer than the actual process did. After a few revolutions, the drill bit had chewed into my hand enough to stop its rotation. Equal and opposite reactions and whatnot meant now the body of the dremel started spinning. I had to grab that with the other hand, and stopping it caused the drill bit to start spinning again.
That was a bad day.
dean1484 wrote:
Everytime I read the title of this thread I cringe. It I making me remember some very painful things.
Every time I read it, I hear Troy McLure’s voice in my head.
JG Pasterjak wrote:
dean1484 wrote:
Everytime I read the title of this thread I cringe. It I making me remember some very painful things.
If the title makes you cringe don’t read any of the posts.
Jee-zus. Some of you people…
And I thought I was a fool for welding in Crocs.
Read some skimmed others. You work on stuff long enough and you get scars.
The funny part is some of the most painful ones are the least damaging while some of the more serious ones really did not hurt. Well they did not hurt immediately. Later on they hurt and did so for months or even years.
My hands are solid scar material, my scars have scars.
45+ years of abuse – stupidity.
My latest was a close encounter with a nail gun, the nail turned and nicked my thumb that was holding the piece in place. I was very lucky, the selector switch was on rock and roll and the next two nails were unintentionally delivered when the gun bucked, missed my hand. Nee Ner Nee Ner
Building my new yard shed provided additional entertainment when the 2′ x 8′ plywood I was ripping fell on my boot on edge, yes my foot was inside and the top of my foot is still black.
I always say “If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself!”
Scars in my eyes, I even have a scar inside my ear, overhead welding a snolly when into my ear and sizzled away.
I once was teasing death when I assumed that the spring brakes applied when I dumped the air out of the air tank on a loaded dump truck I just towed, I realized there was another air tank holding the brakes released when the truck rolled off the blocks I had set it on and crushed me between it and the tow truck. Not my best day….. Rib damage and my foot turned black when blood from a minor leg hemorrhage settled there.
JG Pasterjak wrote:
dean1484 wrote:
Everytime I read the title of this thread I cringe. It I making me remember some very painful things.
If the title makes you cringe don’t read any of the posts.
Jee-zus. Some of you people…
And I thought I was a fool for welding in Crocs.
I can’t imagine welding in crocks. That’s just dangerous. Those things burn.
Always wear leather when welding.
In reply to Furious_E
:
I was helping a contractor build our fence and when he went to pull the hose off his nail gun it shot him in the hip. He very calmly set down the gun and asked me to get his pliers. I handed them to him and he handed them right back and asked me to pull it out. Wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
The last time I ever operated a chainsaw without at least 1 beer in me, the chain stopped just breaking the skin of my left shin. Twice in the same day. It’s been 11 years now, and I won’t even start a chainsaw sober.
When trying to teach myself to stick weld, I turned the thin sticks into sparklers. That was fun, and my arms were covered in little blisters for what felt like ever.
I’ve come very close to drilling/screwing/nailing myself to things, but that hasn’t happened. Yet. Although I did shatter the top knuckle of my left index finger building a greenhouse. That was fun. Took almost a year for the nail to get normal colored and thickness again, I still can’t bend the joint the whole way.
I’ve fortunately never had the pleasure of getting trapped behind a tool, but have freed several people from such situations. Please ya’ll, do not remove the object. That’ll just piss us medics off and make our reports longer be you’ll be bleeding more and then the cranky ER charge nurse will yell at us and say “why did you remove the object?!!!??” And that’ll make our day worse. Just leave the thing there. Please.
Hey, JG. Sorry to hear about this. Have you found a good hand surgeon? I can send you a few recommendations by PM
(Yes, I’m a surgeon. And, yes, I once chopped off my own finger.)
I haven’t pierced myself or anything. Worst that happened to me is probably when super glue exploded into my eye. I probably did come close to cutting a finger off once when I tried to slot an uncut U-shaped bushing with a bigass knife and the knife slipped.
Oh also came close to stabbing myself in the hand with a bigass knife when cutting a hose from an engine.
Had a brand new dremel wheel explode in my face once, I was wearing safety glasses at least.
Standing under a car, I was tightening a nut with a 1/2″ ratchet rapidly to get past the loose threads when the socket slipped off of the nut. Unfortunately it was on a towards the face swing so I took a self inflicted full speed whack to the for head with a heavy blunt object. When the lights came back on I was half way to the floor. As I stood my friend who was watching just stared and said that I should go look in the mirror. Eventually I did to see what looked like a golf ball shoved under the skin of my forehead. Just a mild concussion and a black eye, no biggie.
LanEvo wrote:
Hey, JG. Sorry to hear about this. Have you found a good hand surgeon? I can send you a few recommendations by PM
(Yes, I’m a surgeon. And, yes, I once chopped off my own finger.)
I hope that didn’t happen in the operating room. Or, maybe that would be better? For you, anyway.
But, no, I’ve never actually drilled through my hand. Although one time I was pulling my socks on and my hand slipped off and I punched myself in the nuts.
JG Pasterjak wrote:
I hope that didn’t happen in the operating room. Or, maybe that would be better? For you, anyway.
Better for me (worker’s comp?) but definitely worse for the patient. I’ve been poked, stabbed, and cut in the OR more than once by young residents I was training. But my finger-chopping happened in the kitchen.
JG Pasterjak wrote:
But, no, I’ve never actually drilled through my hand.
Wow. Looks like my comedy detector needs a rebuild. Glad to hear you’re ok!
JG Pasterjak wrote:
Although one time I was pulling my socks on and my hand slipped off and I punched myself in the nuts.
Thanks… reaching for paper towel to clean up coffee spewed from nose.
Can’t resist a thread which should be titled, “I’m stupider than you.”
When I was a teenager I had a chemistry set and one day I was twisting a glass tube into a rubber cork (to plug into a flask). When I heard it snap I instantly knew it was trouble. Right into my finger at the joint and to this day I can’t feel anything in one area of my middle finger.
Was using a fly cutter to cut a big round hole in a piece of sheet metal. I don’t remember the exact setup but it wasn’t right and that fly cutter came around right across my hand. Yeah there was a lot of blood but I got off really lucky, as that could have been Much worse.
When I was a kid, I figured out how to sharpen knives using the handheld sharpener a lot of kitchens have, the one with intermixed hardened washers. I was going to town sharpening a knife when something happened that taught me to not extend my thumb along the base of the sharpener. Still have the scar from that and no, I didn’t quite remove the upper quarter inch of my thumb.
Anyone feeling a bit faint yet?
I completely flattened my left index finger while driving a stake in the ground with a 20# sledge hammer. Squashed it like a grape. Finger still works fine, no corrective action needed.
Was wearing a full-face mask while cutting metal on the band saw. You know how your brain can see things far faster than you know you can react? I watched a cut-off bit of metal come straight at my eye really fast before going “TICK!” off the mask. It was an awesome safety lesson because I received the education without the high tuition.
JG Pasterjak wrote:
Although one time I was pulling my socks on and my hand slipped off and I punched myself in the nuts.
Would it be fair to call that a Code-Blue to go along with your Code-Brown system?
New years eve 1999. I kicked the foot petal away from the drill press, then apparently took a step exactly in the same direction. I reached to change the belt speed my foot triggered the switch. Hearing the motor start I quickly pulled my finger from the spinning pulleys. At first glance everything appeared normal, then blood started to appear where my fingernail used to be. They told me I did a great job removing it. They fished around under my cuticle with a miniature spoon looking for the rest of it. If I had not pulled the entire nail out they would have had to finish the job.
I don’t feel so good, so I’ll have to top that, one of those “friend of a friend” ones, so who knows.
So this guy works in a two-story building which is mostly open to the area below. One day he decides to impress people by jumping over the railing and landing part way down the stairs. That would have been fine had his wedding ring not caught on the screw on a conduit coupler right at the top of the railing. He landed fine and looked up to see about 2″ of his wedding finger, still attached to about a foot of tendon. Yeah I didn’t feel good after that story either.
The roundabout moral of the story: no rings, watches, or gloves around moving equipment.
kb58 wrote:
I don’t feel so good, so I’ll have to top that, one of those “friend of a friend” ones, so who knows.
So this guy works in a two-story building which mostly open to the area below. One day he decides to impress people by jumping over the railing and landing part way down the stairs. That would have been fine had his wedding ring not caught on the screw on a conduit coupler right at the top of the railing. He landed fine and looked up to see about 2″ of his wedding finger, still attached to about a foot of tendon. Yeah I didn’t feel good after that story either.
The roundabout moral of the story: no rings, watches, or gloves around moving equipment.
Heard a similar one to this from my uncle. Young guy just married, doing some wiring job for IBM involving running wires across a wall with a ladder…can’t remember all the details, but basically he came off the ladder, wedding ring got caught on some mounting hardware on the wall, and off goes the finger.
I used to work as a vendor for a manufacturer that involved building sample displays in Lowes Depot stores and i’ve dropped fence panels on my feet, wacked myself with a mallet, twisted my work gloves in the chuck of my cordless drill. Probably child’s play compared to some of you guys 
As far as berkeley ups go, this one was pretty bad.
I was using a 6X48 belt sander and the belt grabbed the piece I was sanding and pinned my two index finger between it and the moving belt. My right finger recovered almost 100% but my left is about a 1/4 inch shorter
JG Pasterjak wrote:
Although one time I was pulling my socks on and my hand slipped off and I punched myself in the nuts.
Dude, how berking high and tight do you pull up your socks?
Alright, my top 3 self inflicted injuries:
-
Impaled myself with a BarBECUE fork (in the leg, walked into it, just a few stitches as the cuts were deep but narrow)
-
Burnt my hand with an oxyacetylene torch (building a challenge car no less, second degree burns)
-
As most fo the staff is aware as well as many fellow challengers, I cut my face open with a chainsaw (long story, all better now, had a great plastic surgeon)
evildky’s face today:
You can see his plastic surgeon did a wonderful job getting him back to his former likeness.
This whole thread makes me a bit queasy. As an Army Medic and then as an ER CNA, I’ve seen a ton of “stuff”, it’s my imagination that’s better these days. I can much more easily imagine so many of these injuries happening to myself (or my kid). As I get older, each fresh new hurt takes longer to heal and the lingering effects are more noticeable.
Hahaha I was making a pressure bleeder a few month’s ago and drilled deep into my palm with a brand new large drill bit. Fresh out of first aid supplies i wrapped a microfiber towel around my hand, zip tied it and drove to the store. After taking pics of course. It was disgusting there was fat coming out of the hole after i got it cleaned up.
CLNSC3 wrote:
It was disgusting there was fat coming out of the hole after i got it cleaned up.
Still have the scar on my finger from an archery accident ~15 years ago, same thing though, you could see to the bone and had fat cells coming out
akylekoz wrote:
New years eve 1999. I kicked the foot petal away from the drill press, then apparently took a step exactly in the same direction. I reached to change the belt speed my foot triggered the switch. Hearing the motor start I quickly pulled my finger from the spinning pulleys. At first glance everything appeared normal, then blood started to appear where my fingernail used to be. They told me I did a great job removing it. They fished around under my cuticle with a miniature spoon looking for the rest of it. If I had not pulled the entire nail out they would have had to finish the job.
Funny how it doesn’t hurt till you see the blood!
JG Pasterjak said:
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I put a deck screw through my finger once. I have it saved in a jar on my desk to remind me never to do it again.
The screw or your finger?
Both.
Since we are coming back from the dead, I wound a deck screw through a piece of pipe and then well into my finger. Then I dropped the drill which I think is a natural impulse. But I was well and truly stuck so I had to bend down, stretch to reach the drill,pick it up and reverse it, and wind the screw back out to free myself. The whole thing was a kind of an exercise in horror and disbelief. Feeling the screw winding back out will stay with me, as will the scar.
In preparation for the Challenge I needed to remove a section of two exhaust pipes on $h?tbarge. I do not have a working sawzall. I do not have a chain cutter. I do have a badass 4″ angle grinder, and thanks to my former employer, a sh!tton of cutting and grinding discs.
After removing the rear mufflers from their hangars I quickly laid waste to the right side exhaust and pulled it out of the way. Perfect, I little sketchy with the “dropping an exhaust towards my head while on jackstands” but no issues. Off the the driver side. As I laid making the final release cut I realized that my hands were opposite from the left side so I quickly slid my left hand forward out of the way of the heavy exhaust that was coming down. Of course placing it in the direct path of the also-falling angle grinder spinning at “remove all layers of knuckle skin down to the crunchy white part”-RPM was likely the best way to avoid the exhaust bumping my arm.
The response time of me getting out from under the car and into the kitchen was truly Olympic level. I beat the first drop of blood to the sink by an easy seven seconds. Triple antibacterial, gauze and duct tape were applied then I went back to work. Kelly, was rather shocked in the amount of carnage that occurred. I was expecting worse.
Can we talk about JG’s First Aid Kit for a moment? That’s terrible. A properly organized box is what you want when you’re trying to get an injury under control is not the time to try to find stuff in your random box…
Actually – legitimately – let’s talk about First Aid Kits – Everyone should have a substantial first aid kit in their garage. It should be next to your fire extinguisher (I know everyone has those right?).
It should include bandaids for boo-boos, but also massive gauze pads to fill in holes where you once hand meat and bone. In additional every person here should have supplies necessary to treat heavy bleeding. Working around industrial equipment/tools that can puncture you – you do not want to bleed out before 911 gets there. Adventure Medical Kits makes a nice “Trauma Pak” that includes hemostatic gauze and other materials specifically for treating major bleeding. They’re about 25 bucks and last 2-3 years. Cheap insurance if you’re ever severely injured.
The other thing garage first aid kits should have is burn care supplies.
If you do not have a quality first aid kit and fire extinguisher in your garage. STOP and go get both. No working garage should be sans a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, and jack stands.
In reply to RevolverRob :
Not just in your garage, in your car too. Fire extinguisher saved my butt when my RX7 ate an alternator at the big end of the drag strip, by far the best money I’ve ever spent. Never know when you’ll need that first aid kit, either.
I tested the laws of physics one afternoon by attempting to have my left ring finger and my crappy table saw’s dado blade occupy the same spatial coordinates. Physics won.
Good news was that the finger still works, sorta… Bad news was that I can’t wear my wedding ring any more, prompting decades of spousal reminders of my lack of faith in science.
Side story: The attending ER doc had been a ring doctor for big time wrestling back in the day and regaled me with stories of The Sheik, BoBo Brazil, and several other heroes of bygone days while putting my finger back together.
And I eventually did get the shop shelves finished…
Done the drill thing it sucked. However hitting you hand with a 3600 PSI pressure washer is way worse. Kind of like a burn and a deep cut all wrapped in to one. I have a 3+ inch scar above my left thumb that is in the shape of the Nike sneaker brand logo.
Oh forgot about welding three fingers together with molten lead. Did not really hurt until the surgeons took it off. That was the start of about 3-4 weeks of pain. Lots of pain!!!
These are just the car related bits of stupidity.
RevolverRob said:
Can we talk about JG’s First Aid Kit for a moment? That’s terrible. A properly organized box is what you want when you’re trying to get an injury under control is not the time to try to find stuff in your random box…
Actually – legitimately – let’s talk about First Aid Kits – Everyone should have a substantial first aid kit in their garage. It should be next to your fire extinguisher (I know everyone has those right?).
It should include bandaids for boo-boos, but also massive gauze pads to fill in holes where you once hand meat and bone. In additional every person here should have supplies necessary to treat heavy bleeding. Working around industrial equipment/tools that can puncture you – you do not want to bleed out before 911 gets there. Adventure Medical Kits makes a nice “Trauma Pak” that includes hemostatic gauze and other materials specifically for treating major bleeding. They’re about 25 bucks and last 2-3 years. Cheap insurance if you’re ever severely injured.
The other thing garage first aid kits should have is burn care supplies.
If you do not have a quality first aid kit and fire extinguisher in your garage. STOP and go get both. No working garage should be sans a first aid kit, a fire extinguisher, and jack stands.
For the record, that’s mot actually the first aid “kit.” That’s more of the supplemental owie box so you don’t have to actually go into the real first aid kit for minor nicks and scrapes, possibly depleting a vital resource you may need in a true emergency down the road.
But, yeas, every shop where dangerous stuff happens (which is pretty much al of them) needs a REAL first aid kit, clearly marked and located, and periodically checked to make sure the supplies are stocked and up to date. A supplemental owie box with most-used supplies is a nice touch, too. Mostly liquid bandage and tape.
If I’m hurt bad enough to actually need a first aid kit, I’m going in the house because I’m going to need help applying the bandages and warm soapy water to remove the blood stains. Our first aid kit is there. Worse than that is going to require a phone to call 911. Hopefully someone else heard the crash or the scream.
Other wise it’s…
and get back to work.
By far the worst self inflicted one was having a heavy duty bungee cord let go at full stretch across the roof of my car. Hit me square between the eyes. I remember driving half way to the ER. The next memory I have was eight days latter. I had a really good concussion. I had to be carful for about six months and the concussion symptoms finally went away fully about a year latter.
This one scared me. It was the wake up moment for me that made me realize I may not be invincible after all. I was in my late 20s at the time.
Appleseed said:
In reply to dean1484 :
Did you see the sparkles? Because I’ve seen the sparkles.
I saw sparkles just from reading Dean’s post. Pretty sure I have a headache as well.
That makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.
ive luckily have avoided most personal injuries this side of slices, abrasions and one time like 8 years ago the pipe I was cutting jumped in the bandsaw clamp and I sawed halfway thru my thumb.
As I type my fingernail that I accidently smashed when the die grinder hooked is nearly grown out. That one nearly got the $150 Makita electric grinder thrown out the shop
FKemp said:
dean1484 said:
By far the worst self inflicted one was having a heavy duty bungee cord let go at full stretch across the roof of my car. Hit me square between the eyes. I remember driving half way to the ER. The next memory I have was eight days latter. I had a really good concussion. I had to be carful for about six months and the concussion symptoms finally went away fully about a year latter.
This one scared me. It was the wake up moment for me that made me realize I may not be invincible after all. I was in my late 20s at the time.
Had a bit of a similar experience with a cord, only it hit me in the leg. Didn’t give it much attention at first, but in a minute or two the pain came and I figured it damaged something. Turns out it fractured the bone, so that was fun. Heavy-duty cords pack some serious energy when stretched, you don’t want to mess around with them, learn proper safety precautions on [this canoe launch] before you start working with dangerous tools.
An amusingly on topic canoe.
I was once hospitalized by a ceiling fan while working on the roof of a class A pusher.
A lot of stuff went wrong. Fans were too low for L&I regs, the coach was wet from rain, I was young and distracted. I slipped on the wet roof, caught my balance and stood up straight in to the fan.
Stop here if you are squeamish.
This tickled…
Amateurs!
Lessee:
Worst was the time I had the plugs out of an engine and then checked spark.
Spark was fine, the second and third degree burns from cylinders of fuel igniting left lots of scar. Where do I find those chicks who dig scars?
Tripped and impaled my calf on the head studs of an Alfa Romeo block.
Could not free myself so had to wait for help. Healed surprisingly well.
Wrench slipped while working on a 68 El Camino drum front brakes.
Chevy kindly provided a nasty little barb on the backing plate that will cut your wrist to the bone.
Worse is the way ER treats you, asking over and over again how it happened, like they cannot wait to write it up as an attempted suicide.
Moving an industrial cold-saw on a moving dolly. Weight got over-center and I fell, with the crank handle of the saw landing on my thigh. Only a big bruise, but I now have a divot there where the muscle never recovered.
Oh, and foolishly reaching over a moving lathe!
Fortunate that it was low speed and small diameter. Workpiece that looked smooth still grabbed my sleeve (Very cold day, I normally do lathe work in short sleeves), and wound it around the shaft I was profiling.
Reflexes are so slow, I hit the off switch in record time but it seemed about two minutes while I watched the lathe continue to rotate.
Cloth giving way probably saved my arm but I still had a big red welt from the extreme pressure. By the next day the area was swollen to about three times normal. Local clinic refused to drain it for me, said that was “Surgery”.
So I got as big a needle as I could locate and drained it myself. Lots of clear/reddish fluid. Arm healed “Fine” except that I still have odd sensation in that area and I think the skin is only loosely attached.
I am only including car/shop related injuries and am a LOT more cautious now.
As I do whenever I read this thread, I hate all of it. I can visualize every single accident in here and I hate it.
Not car related, but when I was a painter, I worked with a guy who had some strange scars on his palm and the back of his hand.
Guy said he was framing a dormer to the second story of a Victorian and started sliding off the roof. “It was a looooonnnng way to the ground, so I nailed my hand to the roof”, he said.
True? Don’t know but the scars… the scars…
My scariest, strictly automotive, mishap was that fateful time I was cleaning carburetor parts with a stiff bristle detail brush and some solvents (forget which variety).
My dad came into the garage quietly and startled the piss out of me. My jerk reaction flung a loaded brush worth of solvents in both eyes. Immediate blindness, searing pain.
No permanent damage, but Holy crap was that scary.
Not car related…..I was power-washing clear plastic roof panels over a patio from above, me on the roof. The 5HP gas washer was on the ground. I moved over and the hose was too short, it directed the full pressure of the advertised 3500 psi onto inside of my leg. It removed flesh very quickly before I direct it away.. I still have the clean C shaped scar on my leg.
I was hammering out a bearing race from a ATV hub the race shattered and I suddenly had a piece of 7/8 inch long steel hanging half way out of my cheek. Figured out how deep it was in so I called my adult son over to see it before I pulled it out. After looking at it he sends a cell picture to my wife ( nurse practitioner ) who simply replied “ tell him to go get a tetanus shot”.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
this remindes me of this.. how you know you have a good shop teacher..10 fingers… even better 5 on each hand
In reply to JG Pasterjak :
Thanks for sharing that, JG. I just snorted my morning coffee through my nose…. 🙂
I actually drilled into my wrist. That was so painful and bled like a dripping sink. Fortunately it didn’t hit any tendons. Lesson learned!
J.G. Pasterjak, That’s just funny. Let’s see, what’s the dumbest thing I’ve done that caused injury?
- While trying to pull a drum brake spring upward with a pick awl, I thought to myself, “If that thing slips off, I’me going to poke myself right in the forehead”, and that is exactly what happened. I had to jerk it out to get it out.
- While working on my 1800 in the early hours after the bars had closed and while trying to tighten a blind bolt with a socket wrench, I thought to myself, “if that slips, it is going to hurt”, and than it did and I put a 1″ gash in my index finger. I went inside and woke up my brother and told him, “Wake up, you have to take me to the hospital”. He turned on the night light, looked at my finger and immediately fainted. I woke him up again repeating myself and he finally got up. My hand was covered in grease so we tried to clean it up over the kitchen sink with gojo grease cleaner and while the water was turning red, running over my finger I said, “I am going to pass out”, as my vision blackened down to a pin hole. When I woke up, I was laying on the kitchen floor and he was laying next to me passed out as well. I said, ‘Wake up, you have to take me to the hospital”, and he finally revived and I made it to the hospital and received 5 stitches.
- While holding two pieces of aluminum angle together with my left hand while trying to screw one of those crappy self drilling screws through my custom window air conditioner mounting bracket, I thought to my self, “If that slips, I am going to jam that Philips screw tip right through my finger tip”, and that is exactly what happened.
I have another one, but it involves a chainsaw.
jh36 said:
Not car related, but I got stabbed in the eye once coming out of a safety committee meeting.
Like a real safety meeting? Or the kind that makes you giggly and hungry?
worst pain? Tiling a floor and lean my head into a live wire sticking out the outlet….its hard to describe the feeling of plugging you head into the outlet.
Stupidest? Making wheel wells on the fiadillac I picked up the 4.5″ disc grind to cut, it didn’t work. Cradle it in my arm and pull up the cord and see its not plugged it so I plug it in…and it turn on. I’m home alone so I drive to the hospital and explain I’ve installed a rather larger hole in my arm that I think requires pretty immediate attention.
…but at least I haven’t drilled through my hand 🙂
I haven’t driller through my own finger, but I’ve come close. But, I have milled a prefect 1/4″ keyway in my first finger nail, dead center.
My brother managed to catch his pant leg on fire while welding.
He also managed to weld his wedding ring between the battery + and ground, with his finger still in it.
Another time he was cutting wood for a model plane and cut into his thigh with his Xacto knife, and was the only time I ever heard dad say “he looks kinda green.
Regarding all the posts involving the thought “If I slip…” I’m old enough now that as soon as I hear that, I stop. It’s kept me out of a lot of self-injuries.
Of course, one time I had just finished welding on a tube chassis, welded on the other corner, than came back to the first corner and firmly grabbed onto it to flip it over. Yeah…
Back when I was a teen, I had a chemistry set with many chemicals that are no doubt controlled or illegal now. I had an alcohol burner going and managed to tip it over, lighting my entire hand on fire. I found out pretty quick that trying to shake it out didn’t work well, and had a hell of a blistered burn for a long time.
Also chemistry-related: I was creating hydrogen in a flask – don’t ask why – and had it running through a long rubber tube. Curious if air had been purged from the tube yet, I held it to a flame, and watched with rapt attention as a pretty blue flame slowly moved back through the tube, heading toward the flask (full of hydrochloric acid btw), and thought, hey, that’s pretty cool. When the flame got to the flask, the hydrogen exploded, blowing the cork out, which hit the roof pretty good. I still sometimes think about how my life could have been different had that flask exploded…
Speaking of potentially life-changing:
Me and a buddy had built a big solid fuel rocket (35 lbs) and had it out in the desert to launch (back when such things were no big deal). At some point, someone had to get down under it and connect the electric igniter wires. We’d made sure that things were “cold” at the other end, and after connecting the first wire, I brought the second connector right up to the remaining wire, and hesitated. Though only 16 at the time, I realized that if this went badly, it could go very badly, and instead of making the connection, tested it by touching it to the first wire… and it sparked. Our control panel had sand intruding into it, and it had physically pressed down on a relay arm, defeating the safety circuit. Later, after watching the successful launch, and the amount of flame that came out, I realize just how different things could have gone.
If I did something like that, I’d likely faint and die from gradual blood loss.
It amazes me how when such things happen, the person calmly takes out his camera to record the event. I’ve decided that it must not hurt all that much and you’re just looking for attention.
I kid.
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