Wear protective gear with wire wheels!

[e9999]

I know, you've seen it mentioned a gazillion times, wear good gear with wirewheels. I've seen it too. So I always wear both safety glasses and a face shield when I use the wire wheel on my grinders. Yesterday I'm doing a quick spur of the moment fix on a portable bandsaw and I derusted some washers in a vise. Coarse wire cup on a 4.5". Didn't wear my shop coat, just grabbed the grinder (and eye protection) and went at it. Trying to angle the grinder away from me but still feeling some hits of paint flecks on my bare arms and then a prick. Look down and there is a wire sticking out from my arm. Almost a 1/2" long. Standing upright, like a tiny flag pole. A bit surrealistic actually. Ok, odd enough but not completely a surprise either. So I pull on it a bit and it comes out a bit . I pull some more and it comes out some more. Finally, it came out all the way, it was buried in there about a 1/4"... Damn glad it wasn't my eye!

 

[Patineto]

In sudamerica they are known as "Ruedas de Puercoespin" "Porcupine" wheels for that very reason..

When cheppo one fell apart right in front of me and took hours of dragging my biggest heaviest speaker magnet to find all the strands, No joke..

 

[Rigger]

Good thread. Good reminder. In general, begin every job with safety in mind.

 

[Patineto]

Another one

I was cutting a 45 deggres in a 1
1/8" tube when precisely the
Nana Of My kiddos Come Into My shop
Asking for more laundry soap.


The Grinding well changes angle By one
Deggre And The Grinder
Jump into my clothes grabbing them
And Making a incrediblE buck "strip act"
With Two very Deep rashes (miracle no
DeepCuts) in my lower stomach And Right under the Belt.

My Mistake Having the
Trigger on lock not like I don't know that cutting wheels are Crazy Dangerous

 

[mrsleeve]

A while back I was buffing some paint off an old horse trailer to make a weld repair on a tack door. Safety glasses and all, I was using a heavy knot wheel on a 4 1/2, and it the door flexes a little bit and the wheel bites in on the edge of the latch. That bounce got the wheel to grab a hold of my shirt............................... I did not have the trigger locked, and by the time I let go and it spun down it had run its way up my chest and into my neck on the left side with a few cuts and scrapes on my chest and decent wire wheel burn on top of my Jugular vein in my neck, and nearly new FR shirt ruined......... I was more pissed about the shirt until my wife came out and asked why I was bleeding from my neck..........

Moral of the story be careful s*** can happen FAST really really FAST I nearly cut my own throat with a knot wheel and I have a lot of hours running a grinder. I hate knot wheels as much as love them because when they bite in they can be very hard to control sometimes

 

[e9999]

those are amazing stories. Who would have thought a grinder could cut one's own jugular....? Or do a grinding job on one's nuts...? Glad you guys were OK!

 

[mrsleeve]

to be clear, there was little damage to my neck, it was most just red and had few little scratches that were no worse than a cat scratch. But the point was how quick it got away from me and how fast it got so someplace really vital and sensitive. I was lucky I was not using my 7" grinder that I was going to use because I didnt want to have to walk all the way back to the shop to get the little one.....

 

[Patineto]

those are amazing stories. Who would have thought a grinder could cut one's own jugular....? Or do a grinding job on one's nuts...? Glad you guys were OK!

If you want to find Gory ask about Skill Saws, specially when the operator is holding the wood with his feet elevated, no bueno..

 

[Blue77FJ40]

A safer approach to wire wheeling are the Scotch-Brite™ Radial Bristle Brushes. They come in many sizes and grits. I like the 3/4" (maybe it's 1") size for the dremel. I also use the 3" on the die grinder, and the 6" on the bench grinder. The grit is imbedded into the plastic and gets exposed as it wears. No pieces of wire sticking out of me anymore.

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

I did the El Patineto...caught the grinder with my thigh, right above my knee- 7 staples. that one really woke me up- I mean, I almost cut off my TIP. I also caught a burr of my bumper thru the face shield and safety glasses when grinding it clean. the eye doctor named Fog used a grinder of his own to peel back my eyeball skin to get the chunk with a magnet. I never grind or wire wheel without goggles (and shield) and leathers now

 

[e9999]

that metal went through both a faceshield and glasses...? damn...

 

[mrsleeve]

have had small chunks of crap bounce off my chest, off the back side of a full face guard, back off my chest and then sneak around the corner or under my safety glasses, and get into the corner of my eye before

 

[Rigger]

I hillbilly-rigged a small saw blade into a drill chuck once. Tried to cut flooring in a toe space. That thing got away from me so fast. Just about laid my leg open. A real eye opener for me.