Anybody Like to Carve Metal & Solder & Stuff ?

[wwswimming]

well, these days i don't have the feeling that i can operate a milling machine safely, cause i can't see it clearly.

but i used to like to cut metal, flycut aluminum, you name it.

one of the projects i worked on in college was an oversize music box. about 18 inches across and 3 feet high, with about 20 strings. played the star-spangled banner.

i mounted all the strings myself, and built some kind of tuning mechanism. i had a friend who was a cello major who helped tune the thing.

so one night i was installing some of the strings, and i had a piece of piano wire wound like a spiral. one end was held with needlenose, maybe the other with a vise grip.

damned if the damn thing didn't slip out of the needle-nose.

as it un-wound, it decided that the path of least resistance involved unwinding through my finger.

next thing i know, i'm sitting there with a piece of piano wire through my finger, sticking out maybe 6 inches on one side.

this was before body piercing was commonly practiced by college students.

it took me a few minutes to realize that all i needed to do was grab some cutting plyers, and cut it close to my finger, and then pull it out.

i think i took the rest of the night off.

anybody else have any memorable little shop accidents that occurred while they were building some nifty gadget ?

 

[Moonbeam]

I heard about a guy who jumped on a motorcycle, slid under a milk truck and burned to death. Heard about that when I got a motorcycle.

I like woodworking but whenever I do it I put my mind on the saw blade. I focus on where it is in space and never take my mind off that place.

Used to keep bees even though as a kid I almost died from a sting.

 

[funboy6942]

About two years ago I was working on my neighbors lawnmower which I didnt really want to work on at the moment because my back was really hurting badly and i was all hopped up on vicoden but he pressured me into it because he needed it to go make a few bucks. So I told him fine I will have to sit and tell you what to do because I just couldnt bend over it anymore and work on it right but would kick in at times I could. Well were getting to the point were checking for spark and as a joke (for my enjoyment) I tell him to stick the screw driver in the spark plug wire and see if he gets a small jolt. Well I grab the flywheel and trun it so it will make a spark and I get a laugh as the voltage goes through his finger. Well I turned it, he got shocked and I get my thumb wedged between the flywheel and coil pack magnito slicing my nail in half and somehow didnt break the skin of my thumb.
Needless to say that had to of been one of the worst pains I have ever had because it was like someone had ripped my nail off and wouldnt stop hurting for a good few hours. I also learned never to pull that prank again unless I am tottaly sober and have controll of the situation and body part location on all moving parts 😛