Worst industry safety stories..

By Printwizard on Mar. 08, 2012
Forums: 
General Discussions

Ok, let's hear the shockers. There must be a few out there... Recently discussions about health and safety, bypassing sensors and shortcuts. Let's hear the horror stories.:D

1) Running the sewing machine over your finger and having the needle go right through the nail and all.

2) refilling the spotting gun with tricloroethylene dry clean fluid and it splashing back and burning the eyes.

3) spotting something and shooting yourself in the hand.

4) burn from touching the top of the heat press.

5) degreasing screens, half way through going off for a pee without washing your hands first and the degreaser burning your knob while you're standing their holding it.

:eek:

Location: 
United States
Binkspot's picture
Submitted by Binkspot on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 10:34

Lazy, not so brite welder sitting on an open gas can while cutting with a torch with the open spout between his legs. I'll let you guess what happened next followed by a lot of paper work.

Owner/Operator of Middletownink

srimonogramming's picture
Submitted by srimonogramming on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 10:51

I worked at Sam's Club throughout college and we'd do some dumb stuff. Instead of going through all the trouble on a busy day getting the forklift out and having to dodge people, I'd just climb up the steel racks like a monkey and get what we needed to get if it wasn't too heavy. We treated those racks like a giant playground. That was one of the biggest no-no's for the employees, but we did it all the time when nobody was looking. I knew of guys who would get someone to put a pallet of pillows or something on the ground with the forklift and they would get in the box and then get the pallet put back on the top rack and they would get a few hours of sleep. Most of us that worked there were college students and working Saturday and Sunday mornings were tough for some guys, so they would clock in, get in a pillow bin and get a few hours of sleep to get rid of their hangover. I went to work at 5am after a long night of drinking many times but I never went to sleep while on the clock, I'd just suffer along, still drunk by most accounts. Sometimes the general manager could smell us and knew we'd been out late the night before, but he loved hearing all our stories and he lived vicariously through us.

As far as screen printing stuff, we don't do anything crazy and I've not seen anything really dumb at any shops I've visited. I have seen a few autos that had the safety bars or cables bypassed.

Submitted by inkman996 on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 10:54

Sprayed the under side of a screen with screen opener and it sprayed right back directly into one eye, I ended up in the ER having my eye flushed repeatedly then using medication for a couple of weeks. All I can say is it hurt about as bad as anything I have ever felt with no relief till they put a numbing agent in.

Submitted by inkman996 on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 11:09

Oh yea when i was pipe fitter building large RO systems I seen a fellow fitter have his thumb severed by a 6" butterfly valve because some engineers on the other end ignored lock out rules and started testing all the valves. The guy severed thumb and all still tried to kill the guy and had to be held back, needless to say the engineer was moved out of that facility for his own safety lol.

Binkspot's picture
Submitted by Binkspot on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 11:28

Sprayed the bottom of a screen with what I thought was screen opener, went to wipe it down and realized it was mist adhesive. Doesn't work as well.

We had a mechanic on one of the boats secure the engine and reach inside the clutch assembly (5' dia with windows to reach in) to disconnect the hoses and the engine started to roll. Degloved his arm, shattered his skull and knocked almost all his teeth out. Lived, thank god.

I had a grinder with a 4-1/2" zip wheel jump and cut my right leg pretty good, patched with a few band aids. A year later did the same to the left one, same spot and was real bad. We were a day away from the dock so had to pull it back together with butterfly's and cover it. By the time I got to the Hospital it had closed up and they didn't mess with my handy work. I did find these J&J patches with Neosporin already on them that work great. You can still see some of the grit in the scar.

Owner/Operator of Middletownink

Submitted by Printwizard on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 11:33

Oh, and printing a job on one side and the loader-unloader leant in too far when the screens spun between Colours and lost a tooth.... Managed to hit a few loaders in the past....

And spring breaking on a carousel and flicking back, haven't been hit, but I have felt them whisk past......

Submitted by Printwizard on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 11:41

Oh, we dont use heatguns, instead we use Leister Plastic Welders, more heat, can vary it and dries ink quickly with less burning or scorching or shrinking fabric, also the elements are good for ten years, turn them on in the morning and leave them running all day. Hot enough to light a cigarette easily. We had a Samoan boy who was a bit clumsy, had been printing about a year with us, should have known better, spilt some turps on his shirt, then used the gun to dry his shirt while looking another direction, he didn't light up but he smoked and smouldered his shirt in seconds, worked the rest of the day shirtless.

Screen Printer's picture
Submitted by Screen Printer on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 12:18

I worked in the oil field straight out of high school.

We would build off shore oil rigs.

One day one of the guys on my crew was cutting some 3/4" plate.

He picks up a piece of scrap drop off right after he cut it...wearing thick leather gloves.

He looks at me and says...How long do you think I can keep it on my pocket?

He slides it in his pants pocket...about 2 seconds..he couldn't stand it.

Well...he tries to take it out...but the leather glove was too big to fit in his pocket.

He removed the glove and went after it bare handed.

Ouch!

Robert Young's picture
Submitted by Robert Young on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 12:08

had an embroidery machine operator with "big hair" until she went under the machine and changed a bobbin then turned around under the machine to come out and flipped the Start bar to ON... before her hair was clear of the hook assembly. tore a large chunk of hair right out of her scalp and talk about a serious BIRDS NEST... yuck.

Modern Embroidery Designer
volant-tech.com
volantfineart.com

Submitted by Northland on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 12:36

I worked in the mining industry at one time. In the mining pit , guys would shoot at ravens by loading a piece of pipe with an arc-air rod and connecting it to an oxy cylinder. They'd jack the pressure regulator to max. One time the rubber hose came off the pipe and whipsawed across a guys belly. When they patched him up, about a third of his intestines were gone... he's lucky to be alive.
When I hear guys talking about using PVC for compressed air piping. I get awfull nervious.

Evo's picture
Submitted by Evo on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 14:59

Spraying a cloud of screen opener in the shop and lighting it on fire. On purpose.

Same thing with spray adhesive. Like your own personal can of napalm.

That was a long time ago...

GraphicDisorder's picture
Submitted by GraphicDisorder on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 15:14

Shelly sewed her finger twice now in embroidery machines. Both minor deals thankfully.

Had a storm hit here last year, power went out, sucked all doors shut, and Shelly freaked out tripped and fell on a metal chair, she came screaming to us that she knocked "all" of her teeth out. Turned out to be 1 real good chip.

So thats all so far.

Brandt
Graphic Disorder
http://www.graphicdisorder.com

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Submitted by Printwizard on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 16:41

On ya Jeff! LMAO. Thought you nearly lost a couple teeth putting your foot in your mouth then eating your hat also? Not to mention getting the chip removed from your shoulder.
In the end eating some humble pie and buying MnR, and they all lived happily ever after....

Seriously, has nobody pee'd with degreaser on their hands, nearly every printer I know has burned themselves....???.

srimonogramming's picture
Submitted by srimonogramming on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 18:20

Printwizard wrote:
On ya Jeff! LMAO. Thought you nearly lost a couple teeth putting your foot in your mouth then eating your hat also? Not to mention getting the chip removed from your shoulder.
In the end eating some humble pie and buying MnR, and they all lived happily ever after....

Seriously, has nobody pee'd with degreaser on their hands, nearly every printer I know has burned themselves....???.

Never done that with the degreaser, thank god. A few months ago I cut up a serrano pepper during lunch and I was having a bad allergy day and my eyes were itchy so I rubbed my eye...Holy s h i t balls batman! I ran outside and got the eyewash bottle and broke it open and flushed my eyes for several minutes. It wasn't quite as bad as mace, but it was pretty bad. I could tell the story about the mace incident, but it's long and doesn't fit in here on this thread.

Evo's picture
Submitted by Evo on Fri, 03/09/2012 - 12:31

Printwizard wrote:

Seriously, has nobody pee'd with degreaser on their hands, nearly every printer I know has burned themselves....???.

Not with degreaser.

Remember when de-hazing a screen meant using caustic soda paste?

Yeah.

Ouch.

spotcolorsupply's picture
Submitted by spotcolorsupply on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 19:14

When I was learning how to stretch screens I ended up spilling a fair amount of CA glue (Super Glue) on my hand... The guys suggested I spray it with activator...

Bad Idea...

The reaction creates a $hit load of heat. Burned the crap out of my hand... Plus peeling it off took off a few layers of skin... :mad:

Brannon Mullins
Spot Color Supply
770-329-8243
51 Aiken St
Cartersville, GA 30120
spotcolorsupply.com
sales@spotcolorsupply.com

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