General Discussion (Model Railroader)

Sir Madog:

 ... if any one from the insurance business reads the posts on this thread, our rates will go up

I've got one word to say......................

 

AFLAC!

JoeinPA:

I feel your pain.  After clipping a nice slice off the end of my left "trigger finger" on the table saw while building bench work I reported to the ER.  THe ER doc asked how I did it and when I told I was building a model railroad he replied "in the future maybe you should just run in traffic".  So much for bedside manner.

Joe

Sounds like my doctor. Years ago when I injured myself severely in a single-vehicle car accident, the first time he came to see me in the hospital he scolded me for my driving and said that if I had been driving the brand of sports car that he drove instead of the brand of sports car that I owned, I wouldn't have been injured so badly. As for the various comments on closing wounds with crazy glue, when she was younger, my eldest granddaughter was rather accident prone. She cut her head twice falling on ice and off her bicycle and both times they glued the edges of the wound in the ER. However, I'm told there is a difference between the glue they use on wounds and the superglue we use. If nothing else, it's not sterile and the medical glue doesn't contain anything that's irritating or toxic to the body.

I never required stitches but I had a fiber sanding disk mounted in a mototool break and the shrapnel strike me about an inch and a half above my left eye. All I was doing was about a fifteen second sanding job on a piece of plastic; who needs eye protection for a short job like that?

I don't even think about my Dremel® anymore without grabbing for my safety glasses.

I have to admit that I've been lucky so far with X-acto blades, teeny drill bits and (mostly) rail joiners, but I have a soldering iron that likes to follow me around the layout and attack me when I'm not expecting it.  How that little devil can leave its mount and when I reach for it, be in a totally different spot TIP FIRST, just waiting for me to grab it is beyond me. 

It's gotten so that the neighbors know when Tom's doing some soldering again, just by the screams from my garage. 

Tom

Nothing will compare to being electrocuted when 160 feet up on a radar tower. Guess I was fortunate in light of the fact two technicians died on that same tower the next day in a unrelated incident caused by violating all safety protocalls and common sense , the military justice system reacted swiftly and without mercy for those responsible

I don't use rail joiners any more, I notch my rail ends, veeeery carefully with a file and solder the two halfs together, one can only tolerate so much shraphnel under the finger nails, not I, but my dad was ripping lath for spline roadbed, before the job was done he was missing two fingers, this inspired me to explore other options for spline roadbed construction. By the grace go I that i've not suffered serious injury, just the usual cuts, scrapes from a hobby enamoured with sharp objects, though I have had the pleasure of spiking a finger to the roadbed when hand laying track, odd thing, spikes never seem long enough when used as intended! ouch that does smart.

Dave 

West Coast S:

Nothing will compare to being electrocuted when 160 feet up on a radar tower. 

I tell people that nothing wakes a person up faster than a cathode to grid short in a CX1000A power pentode in a linear amp.

But one thing---do watch where you place your thumb when detaching a cap from any power tube period. I didst the dumb thing by placing said thumb on the shaft of a screwdriver when I was taking a cap off of a certain power pentode---I flipped it off and did go BAFZZZZZTTT!!! and ended up in the other side of the room rather wide awake----- I now wear a RF burn on said thumb.

West Coast S:

Nothing will compare to being electrocuted when 160 feet up on a radar tower. Guess I was fortunate in light of the fact two technicians died on that same tower the next day in a unrelated incident caused by violating all safety protocalls and common sense , the military justice system reacted swiftly and without mercy for those responsible

I don't use rail joiners any more, I notch my rail ends, veeeery carefully with a file and solder the two halfs together, one can only tolerate so much shraphnel under the finger nails, not I, but my dad was ripping lath for spline roadbed, before the job was done he was missing two fingers, this inspired me to explore other options for spline roadbed construction. By the grace go I that i've not suffered serious injury, just the usual cuts, scrapes from a hobby enamoured with sharp objects, though I have had the pleasure of spiking a finger to the roadbed when hand laying track, odd thing, spikes never seem long enough when used as intended! ouch that does smart.

Dave 

A guy I went through tech training with at Keesler Air Force Patch in Mississippi got himself fried on 1300 volts when he bypassed an interlock in a FRT5 without a safety observer present at the circuit breaker. Pardon me but he really wasn't too bright in tech school and I guess it really isn't too surprising that it happened but it still came as somewhat of a shock when, some years after the event, I encountered his photo in a safety manual.

Heads rolled when a tech failed to discharge to ground the cathode of a power tube and got knocked across the room with 700 volts and second degree burns on both hands. That smarts! A local modeler wears a patch over one eye because he didn't take time to install a featherboard on his table saw and got a kickback for his efforts. That smarts! Take care guys!; this may only be model railroading but there's adequate room to get oneself mauled out there. Of all the crazy things I once managed to get my fingers smashed between two NTrak modules. That smarts!

Every piece of power equipment I own has this warning: KNOW AND UNDERSTAND ALL SAFETY PROCEDURES ASSOCIATED WITH THE OPERATION OF THIS EQUIPMENT.

 

railroadinmedic:

I am curious to see if I am the only one who (Nearly) am in need of stitches?  Seems the last two days working on my RR that I have found out how sharp new razor blades can really be!  Two fingers later, and nearly going to the ER, I have found a new respect for the sharp boogers, while cutting foam, they do slip real fast.

Consider yourself fortunate that you can feel the injury the moment it occurs. I have severe nerve damage due to diabetes and spinal meningitis. Some years ago I was using a short bladed (3 inches) kitchen knife to cut a sheet of plastic. The knife slipped and the blade went into the palm of my hand and went all the way through with 1 inch of the blade emerging from the top of my hand. The blade just missed the artery but did nick a vein. On the plus side I never felt a thing with the exception of a little pressure. Now I wouldn't wish my condition on anyone. It has many severe drawbacks.

Nope, no injuries for me. Oh unless you count the finger tip hanging a bit farther over the edge of the straight edge used for cutting a piece of flat styrene. Luckily the eerie feeling of a sharp blade gently seperating flesh caused me to stop so nothing serious. That's why it doesn't count. And then of course the usual rail joiner incidents. They're to be expected, so they don't count either. Everybody's dropped a soldering gun in their laps, so that doesn't count. Like I said, nope, no injuries here.

Well there was this one time I tried to catch a falling Xacto knife.... nah that doesn't count. 

 ... I can´t recall the proper medical term, but there is an illness causing people to hurt themselves - no, it is not morbus model railrodiana...

TMarsh:

Well there was this one time I tried to catch a falling Xacto knife.... nah that doesn't count. 

Does catching a dry wall panel on the noggin count? I had that happen to me awhile back when I was helping another fellow who had some issues with benchwork---not attached to wall studs---piece of drywall panel came off ceiling----I wonder why----

I've gotten my share of small nicks from xacto knives over the years, but I'm still waiting for the serious one.

Got a good one with a razor saw, though.  I was making a mitered cut on a piece of styrene and holding the miter box with one hand.  Saw got hung up on a metal burr on the miter box and cut a 1/4" deep gash into the web between my thumb and index finger.

And I have a new respect for that most innocuous of tools, the caulk gun.  Apparently, the little cam under the trigger is razor sharp, and at some positions is close enough to the edge of the handle that if you grab it by the "v" where the trigger joins the housing, you will get an ER-caliber slice in the tip of your thumb.

You don't really realize how much pressure gets applied to the tip of your thumb on a nearly constant basis until you have 5 stiches there...

 

Does a my son count?

I promoted a train show in College Station years ago.  As we were cleaning up at the end of the day, my 5 year old son went looking for something to occupy his time.  He found some kids using a portable coat rack as a jungle gym.  He had to play Tarzan, took a flying leap, and the whole thing fell over.  He landed on his chin.  A quick trip to the ER netted him 14 stitches. 

Yes this thread includes everything. Cuts, burns, electrocutions, scrapes, punctures, tears, gouges, apputations, and EVEN post traumatic stress dissorders.  Guys and gals, model railroading is dangerous buisness!  Even as new as I am here, I have already received acrylic paint in my eye! 

 

 

I've been planning some hot glue work on the scenery but have been putting it off due to remembering last time I worked on that section. Hot glue will melt and ooze through lots of stuff, right to my fingertips. 

I used to teach safety practices, and one of the illustrations I used was a guy reaching to catch an anvil he knocked off the bench. Same applies to soldering gun, hot glue gun, etc.

SInce I taught the subject with regularity over many years, it is second nature.   

That's what worries me, that I'll not pay attention just one time...