Be careful with cup knot wheels on a 4 1/2" grinder!!!

[rdn2blazer]

This is a little embarrassing honestly. I was knocking down the heavy rust with my 4 1/2 grinder with a cup know wheel on it, on a cart I welded up years ago for setting a pickup truck short bed on. I used the cart for the one time need and never have used the cart again. Now that I'm starting to do a little bit of work on my crew cab I'm going to set the cab of my crew cab on it, but before I do I wanted to knock down the rust and paint it with POR-15.

You guys may know there is one side of a wheel that is ok to grind from and one side that is not, it will kick or jump. Well, I went to just touch one area and sure enough I was too quick getting on the steel with the knot wheel and I was using the wrong side of the wheel and it kicked back. Now I didn't think nothing of it as I though I still had control of the grinder, but my T shirt was hanging down cause I was leaning over a bit, it snatched my shirt in a god damn nano second! I actually haulered OUCH! cause it punched me right in the chest it felt like.

My first instinkt once it wrapped my shirt up was to try and pull it away from my skin cause I knew it had got me, how bad I had no idea. I tried to pull it away but I was wrapped up TIGHT! Then my very next thought was, "OH SH*T! It's going to burn up my grinder since it was totally stalled but still on. I grabbed the cord and unplugged it right away, then headed for the house to get help cutting my shirt off.

My son freaked out when I came in the house. He haulered for mom to come quick. She got all worried but I told her I was fine. I said cut my shirt off, then right before she started to cut I said WAIT! Get the camera so I can show the CK5 boys my F up lol! So needless to say I felt like an idiot. I'm always very careful, but you never know when your going to get got. It hit me right on one of my lung surgery scars too. It's not bad but it could have been. And I was pissed I ruined one of my three CK5 T shirts damnit.

 

[Deuling]

Good thing it didnt hurt you too bad.


I dont wanna see a "Rob, kicked cancers ass.... Killed by wire wheel..." headline in the news.

 

[blazinzuk]

That first pic is priceless Rob, totally priceless

Wire wheels are gonna be the death of me.

Had a wire come out on one and actually go through my cheek, didn't realize it till I felt it with my tongue! Went inside and looked in the mirror and there was the other end sticking out of my cheek. One of those didn't really hurt till I saw it kind of deals

 

[ktmoutfront]

That's why I always wear coveralls when working. 2 layers of clothes have save my skin a number of times.

Glad it wasn't any worse.

 

[diesel4me]

Glad you escaped with minor injuries!.......not hard to get into trouble with power tools ,thats for sure...

I have a big Craftsman 9" grinder that I use more as a cut off saw than to grind things,I put one of those 3 dollar steel cutting wheels on it and use it to saw off bolts,sheet metal,etc...that thing wounds me almost every time I use it...since the gaurd is missing on it (and cant be used anyway with a cut off wheel on it) ,using it is risky,but often itsthe only tool that will get the job done...I use heavy gloves when I use it...once the wheel shattered when I was cutting front leaf spring bolts off a 4x4 I was gutting,the blade got pinched when the bolt was sawed thru ,and it flew apart...one good sized chunk stuck in my face near my left cheek..took weeks for it to heal,kept getting infected!...

I've found wire brush bristles stuck in the chest and coveralls after using a wire wheel in my 4.5" grinder more than once,and my bench grinder too...I think they are not rated for the rpms most grinders run at!...now that I dont need glasses unless I'm reading or working up close,I fear more than ever for my eyes,having artificial lenses after cataract surgery that can be damaged pretty easy makes me apprehensive about doing any grinding,drilling and welding...any metal chips,slag,etc,can mean disaster for my eyes ,more so than ever...

 

[wasted wages]

HA !!!!

I have that same exact grinder Rob ....

Last weekend I had a wire come off of mine and pierced my left nostril....2/3's of the wire was inside....glad I had my goggles on...

 

[1BEATK5]

Damn gina! Glad its not worse. Extra points for the pic.

That gets me thinking. I have been doing a lot of grinding and wire wheeling lately too.

 

[max 02]

Love that you had to get a pic for the boys!!

Glad it tuned out as good as it did.

We got to get guns and wire wheels banned!! J/k of course...but those wheels almost always bite back. To bad they work so good.

 

[Greg72]

I know I shouldn't laugh but that first pic is killing me!!!

You've got that sad look on your face like a cat who was forced to take a bath or something..... totally defeated and resigned to humiliation.



Good stuff. Glad that all it cost you was a t-shirt and a few drops of blood.



-G

 

[Russell]

I did something similar once, Rob. Except with a cutoff wheel that kicked back after part of it blew up on a chunk of metal I was cutting. I had a pair of coveralls on with a tshirt on underneith, it wrapped up the same way ruining both the coveralls and the shirt. I wasn't so fortunate to escape injury though, the grinder sliced my belly open and went in about 1/2" deep in one spot and about 1/4" in another.

I cleaned the wound out and super glued it shut. That was the day before I started my job here in Fort McMurray and unfortunately my wound opened back up while I was at work the first day lol! One of my co-workers looked at me horrified and asked if I was ok, winds up I bled through the bandage, my tshirt and my coveralls in epic fashion, lol! I glued myself shut again and changed coveralls. Didn't wanna get sent to the med center on my first day...

I have a pretty wicked scar from that injury!

 

[Fordum]

I've told this story here before. Went to a used car lot to repair a machine. One of the fan motors was burned up, and the compressor was cycling really fast.

As I was inventorying the damage and trying to figure out what was wrong, I saw two guys coming out of a shed in the back.
One was helping the other who was obviously in a lot of pain and holding his arms up in front of himself.
Turned out he had either sprained or broken both wrists. As the ambulance was hauling him off, I asked what had happened.

He had picked up one of those large 9 inch or so power grinders, turned it on, and it slung itself out of his hands and tossed him across the room, hurting his wrists as it did.

I started checking, and found 440 volts on the 240 volt line, 240 volts on the 120 volt line.
A power transformer had gone bad during the night, the power company had replaced it, and the new one was tapped wrong.
The power company replaced my machine, not sure what else they had to do......

When that poor guy turned on that big grinder, it came alive big time....

 

[diesel4me]

I had a surprise last week when I was in the room our furnace is in--was going to put some sheet metal screws in the wood stove's pipes,so they cant slip apart,and when I plugged in my electric drill,something didn't sound quite right....it sounded like it was running MUCH faster than usual,and I heard loud "zoouuught" noises and brighter than usual arcs at the brushes,and could smell them burning!......
I plugged an electric fan into the outlet and it ran twice as fast on low speed,than it did in the next room too!..

Plugged the drill into another outlet in the next room,and it worked normally!..now I guess I must do a voltage check on the outlet in the furnace room,I'm betting someone goofed and hooked 220V to it by mistake 35 years ago when the house was built?..!...it has the normal looking 110V socket with ground,and there is nothing needing 220V in that room,so someone must have goofed something up....

I had installed a 220V outlet right near that one on the opposite side of the wall in the house garage for an air compressor and welder,but I used the 220V cables from our un-needed water heater to power that outlet,so its nothing I did!...weird...

We have always had a strange thing here as far as our electricity...while your reading ,you notice every so often the lamp will brighten up and then dim slightly,like a fluctiation in power occours..not sure if its the power company's generators,or something flukey in the house wiring,but I am pretty sure its the power company,because another house we lived in ,in another town 5 miles away with the same power company,did the same thing...my dad blamed aluminum wiring that house had,but after we noticed the same thing happening here,we assumed its the voltage fluxuating...

I once had an old AM/FM tube type radio litteraly explode in my hands at the Industrial Maintenence shop's tool crib at high school...I brought in the radio to stave off boredom,being stuck on tool crib duty that shop week,and while I was walking around with it trying to find a sweet spot to get the station to come in clearly,the antenna made contact with the steel cage around the tool crib,--it was built of heavy square tube,and there was a big 440 volt air compressor mounted above the tool crib...when the antenna touched the steel,the radio litteraly blew up,and shot sparks across the room,the tubes popped like firecrackers!..

The shop teacher was not pleased,he was sitting 5 feet away at his desk when it blew!..he did some investigating,found out there was 220V somehow flowing thru the steel cage of the tool crib,and the compressor was to blame,I guess it wasn't wired up quite right...another "I almost DIED" incident in my life I didn't need!...good thing I had spare undershorts in my gym locker that day...

Seem like lately,if I dont get wounded or draw blood while fixing something,it was "too easy" and something is WRONG!....when things go too smoothly,usually for me it means an impending disater...

 

[Fordum]

Got an electric stove? If so, watch the lights and turn on a burner or two. If the lights get brighter, you have a bad leg on one side of your power supply.

Good possibility its where the power hooks into the weatherhead. If not, could be at the meterbase or where the main breaker wires hook in.

If you don't have a electric stove, and do have a meter, measure across the main power lugs, and then from each lug to ground.

You should have somewhere around 240 volts across the main, and 120 per leg. If you have one leg lower than the other by more than a couple of volts, you need to get it corrected.

 

[rdn2blazer]

That first pic is priceless Rob, totally priceless

Wire wheels are gonna be the death of me.

Had a wire come out on one and actually go through my cheek, didn't realize it till I felt it with my tongue! Went inside and looked in the mirror and there was the other end sticking out of my cheek. One of those didn't really hurt till I saw it kind of deals

I know I shouldn't laugh but that first pic is killing me!!!

You've got that sad look on your face like a cat who was forced to take a bath or something..... totally defeated and resigned to humiliation.



Good stuff. Glad that all it cost you was a t-shirt and a few drops of blood.



-G

I knew you guys would get a laugh out of this one . After my woman cut my shirt off I just went and put on another CK5 T shirt and went back to work.

 

[Smokinthehippies]

I knew you guys would get a laugh out of this one . After my woman cut my shirt off I just went and put on another CK5 T shirt and went back to work.

hey quit putting your nice collectors edition ck5 shirts on, and just use a shirt that isnt worth as much, like a polo or button down or something!

 

[munepit]

Awesome picture. Glad you didnt get hurt. Oh, And, Been there done that.

 

[ryoken]

yup, did it once a couple yrs ago with a nasty 4" twist knot cup brush on my big 7" Makita buffer/grinder to a T-shirt... plus, I had the lock on so it actually went till it stopped, wrapped tight, than drew so many amps it tripped the breaker before I could click the trigger...


I run 7" carbides on the 4 1/2 grinders in the boats cutting shafts out, scary frickin setup.. but those big nasty cup brushes scare me way more.. they grap sh*t, and it's eating it!

 

[76zimmer]

hey quit putting your nice collectors edition ck5 shirts on, and just use a shirt that isnt worth as much, like a polo or button down or something!

thats what I was thinking....those are my good Tshirts!

great pics Rob, thanks for thinking of us in your moment!

 

[AJs72K5]

Totally agree with Greg on that first pic. Too funny.

But my first thought was, 'Dude, that shirt's got a built in arm rest!'

 

[Greg72]

thats what I was thinking....those are my good Tshirts!

great pics Rob, thanks for thinking of us in your moment!

My wife thinks I'm a lunatic for sorting my t-shirts into "good" ones and "garage" ones....

Some t-shirts are too valuable to risk getting welding burns (or wire wheel damage) in them. Must be a guy thing....


-G