War Stories about Scrapping Injuries & Close Calls

I wanted to start a new thread to discuss scrapping injuries and close calls. This can be about you or a friend. Did you ever cut yourself badly, step on a rusty nail in a dumpster, have a close call with a wood chipper, etc.? Did you come close to getting crushed to death or electrocuted? Also, did you have any confrontations with wildlife while scrapping? This can include skunks if you'd like.

I figure that with all the people on this site there are bound to be some very interesting stories...

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Originally Posted by recyclersteve

I wanted to start a new thread to discuss scrapping injuries and close calls. This can be about you or a friend. Did you ever cut yourself badly, step on a rusty nail in a dumpster, have a close call with a wood chipper, etc.? Did you come close to getting crushed to death or electrocuted? Also, did you have any confrontations with wildlife while scrapping? This can include skunks if you'd like.

I figure that with all the people on this site there are bound to be some very interesting stories...

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I'll be there are some stories to be told but we'll never hear em. As far as I'm concerned there's no merit to reliving a bad event so you'll have to find something else to entertain yourself with.


...

There were a couple of threads about this back in 2014. I'm sure a lot has happened since then.

No pictures this time. Please, no pictures.

i have close calls almost every time im working with scrap- i would have been seriously injured if any of those had to strike home

There was that chisel incident.

That time I found tv plastic is really sharp.

Another incident that required stitches. One that required glue.

Then there is the shattering glass that sits in the metal frame of a patio table. Not really dangerous but it was painful to clean up. Who knew glass could shatter so...I was still picking it up several months later.

The most painful injury I ever had though...

Doing a lot of hard work in the hot sun. Reaching over to my faithful sidekick and companion to find...


THE COOLER WAS EMPTY!


I can't speak more on this, I'm still having nightmares.

Sirscrapalot - Priorities. Mine just happens to always include having a cold beverage on hand. - Me.

Best story is standing on the water tanks cutting with a torch and melting the soles of my work boots.

Pictures say a thousand words, though...

It's been a few years and I still feel this moment of carelessness every step I take. Never try to dolly a full server rack!!!!!!!

https://s33.postimg.cc/xl3izk81b/day2lateral.jpg

My foot bent the metal:

https://s33.postimg.cc/fiag8e9mn/zbentmetal.jpg


I still finished loading before I went to the hospital. :))

Exif data says 5 years ago next week.


You can clearly see how the server UPSs that were mounted up high in this rack for some reason bent the frame as well.

This is one of those times I miss Mech.

He would've posted 15 links by now to the story of Hoss almost frying his tots. >:)

You still need a tan Auminer.

;)

Sirscrapalot - Alive and well despite being a mosquito/fly chew toy the last couple of weeks.

I stabbed myself in the gut with a chisel prying off a heatsink.
The End

I don't remember and I don't know if I want to.

I've probably lost at least a unit of blood over the years.

Just got out of the hospital with Murine Typhus, contracted from fleas probably in my yard while tearing down computers in the garage. NOT FUN!

Thanks to those who replied. I need to seriously consider updating my tetanus shot.

Just remembered I got a tetnaus shot some years ago haha maybe that's saved my butt during scrapping and cleanouts etc and I haven't known it.

Not an injury that occurred to me but happened while I was working last month. We were dispatched for a laceration and upon arriving found a 56 year old male with a nice large cut to his leg. The guy was cutting up pipe with a sawzall and according to him "sneezed and the blade went into my leg". For being in obvious pain and losing some blood he was good nature about it, even joking the scrap load would not even cover the cost of the ER visit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

This is one of those times I miss Mech.

He would've posted 15 links by now to the story of Hoss almost frying his tots. >:)

You still need a tan Auminer.

;)

Sirscrapalot - Alive and well despite being a mosquito/fly chew toy the last couple of weeks.

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I've only heard bits and pieces of this story. I would very much like to see the original post.

I was taking down an shed that had been way overbuilt. 2X4's with 16 penny nails, aluminum siding. Steel conduit. Just a basic hazard that I needed to tear down and get rid of. I asked a friend (someone who had no experience at this type of thing) to help me. Help me tear it apart and load it on my trailer and tie it down. So I'm chopping this thing apart with my Sawzall and tearing the metal apart and he and I are walking it around and throwing it on my trailer. A huge pile of would and sheet metal and nails sticking out all over. I want back to cut more up and Frank came around and grabbed a freshly loosened piece and took it as I freed another. I drag my piece around the corner and Frank is up on top of the pile jumping up and down trying to compress the load! I screamed to STOP! STOP RIGHT NOW! and slowly get off the pile. He got off and was not injured. I have no idea how one of his jumps did not wind up with him handing on a piece of sheet metal and slipping flat on his back on the pile of landing on a nail that went through his shoe. I still shudder thinking about the moment I cleared the corner and saw him jumping up and down on that pile of debris.

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Originally Posted by t00nces2

I drag my piece around the corner and Frank is up on top of the pile jumping up and down trying to compress the load! I screamed to STOP! STOP RIGHT NOW! and slowly get off the pile. He got off and was not injured.

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This sounds like something a 7-year-old would do. How old was this guy and how do you think his IQ compares to normal?

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Originally Posted by jimicrk

I've only heard bits and pieces of this story. I would very much like to see the original post.

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https://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scra...-possible.html

I'm fine but my truck isn't.

I broke my back right window. (sliding window truck so 3 pieces) Not happy with myself.
:-l

If you wear you steel toe boots, Carharts, chaps, leather gloves, eye protection, ear protection, safety helmet and have your tetanus shot
you should be Ok ? Did I miss anything ? Oh yea , got bit in the ankle by a brown recluse spider- then my skin started to die and melt off,
got on the antibiotics the Dr. gave me and still have the scar where the tissue died and healed . It's always the little things that seem to get me.
Got lymes disease from tick bites 3 times

Moved a piece of plywood in a field and a Mississauga rattler showed me the inside of her bright red mouth. I backed away slowly and left her in peace.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kalvlin

If you wear you steel toe boots, Carharts, chaps, leather gloves, eye protection, ear protection, safety helmet and have your tetanus shot
you should be Ok ? Did I miss anything ? Oh yea , got bit in the ankle by a brown recluse spider- then my skin started to die and melt off,
got on the antibiotics the Dr. gave me and still have the scar where the tissue died and healed . It's always the little things that seem to get me.
Got lymes disease from tick bites 3 times

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Yikes!

One Friday night a few months back I was in my garage scrapping out my “I’ll get to it when I have time” pile. There was a strange little box with a shaft sticking out, looked at it closer and it was an automatic louvre control for an industrial exhaust fan. Being the idiot I am, I started taking it apart. Got all the screws out, stuck the screwdriver under the cover to pry it off. Suddenly the thing basically exploded in my hand. I didn’t realize that there was a coiled spring inside, since all of the screws were out, when I released the pressure on the spring, it spun the metal cover around and across my thumb. It was pretty much like sticking my thumb in front of an edger blade, it wasn’t all that sharp, but it was hard and thin and spinning pretty fast. It didn’t actually hurt all that bad, but I could see that I had cut my thumb. I tried to move it, but I couldn’t. Then came the arterial spray. It was shooting a good three feet and made a huge mess. I wrapped a rag around it and went inside. My wife was asleep on the couch, she was 8 months pregnant with our second, our first was only around 18 months old. I decided it wasn’t worth it waking up our toddler and having them all stuck at the ER with me. So I woke her up gently and told her that I cut my thumb and was going to go get a tetanus shot and see if they could glue it, and I’d be back in a couple of hours. Got to the ER, by then it was starting to hurt, man was it throbbing, and I still couldn’t move it. Not only had I severed the artery, I had severed the tendon. The surgeon got me fixed up and I went home. I’ve got decent health insurance but it still cost me over $500 out of pocket. And my thumb isn’t what it used to be. I have very little feeling in it, and the range of motion is limited. If I would have been wearing gloves wouldn’t have been nearly as bad. I’m also **** lucky that thing didn’t fly up and hit me in the face or neck. Be careful out there guys.

My really good friend hasn't really done any real collecting (besides a few light fixtures in the trunk of his car) or even driven his truck since Sunday. Something slipped in his lower back while re-arranging a load to the point where he could hardly stand up - just slightly lifting the heaviest file cabinet he ever had besides the two fireproof ones he got a few weeks ago. His son helped him finish and unloaded for him at the yard.

Got up after searching for something in my bin once, had head rush then after a second or two when I opened my eyes, I was on the floor with, and metal rods were in front of me. If I dropped a foot to more to my front I can't imagine what those rods might have damaged on my body. I now always make sure none of my cut metal rods are taller than the bins they are in.