Ask Joey

 

Not actually on fire, but burned myself or clothes before? Yeah. Set stuff around me on fire? Yeah. Melted things I didn't intend to, definitely!

My best was when I was learning to weld stick and I had a brand new pair of welding gloves. I got a little too close to my work and the gloves shriveled down to the point I nearly couldn't get them off! Dumb and 17 at the time....

 

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!

 

i've set my jacket on fire welding, i stopped and "thought what's that smell" then continued to weld, a couple seconds later i new what that smell was......

 

Been there done that

If you smoke do not carry a butane lighter in your pockets when welding/ Grinding/ torching or anything making sparks. When I worked at the ship yard they had warnings about that posted on the bulletin boards at work with pics off people missing arms/ legs ect. because they are supposed to be equal to a quarter stick of dynamite. So if you smoke please make sure that you leave your butane lighter as far away from sparks as possible.

 

yeah i've set myself alight,oh and my jeep and even my shed[only minor fires though],good stuff that welding and those dam cutting wheels.But what about all the other stuff-like grinding the top your toe off or flogging your nuckles when the drill bit bites not to mention the wrench slipping off,or my personal favorite-going for a quick drive to find that darn rattle,parking it ,then climbing underneath and grabbing the hot exhaust pipe[or maybee I'm just accident prone]

 

h8monday and I were both discussing the proper (ape) technique 9of really laying into a grinder.. you know your doing it right when you burn all the hairs off your beer gut... it hurts pretty good too..

 

Yep, over the years I have done all that except gringing my toe. I did grind a couple chuncks out of a finger though.

 

everyone has to have done the last one. i know i have grabed onto a hot exhaust pipe many of times. i wish i would have learned my lesson the first time.

 

Speaking of hurting yourself with tools, the most painful one I know of was my brother in law, he nailed his foot to the floor with a nail gun (yes, the safety was tied back). A coworker had to go down to the first floor and pound the nail back up thru his foot to detach him from the floor. He was laid up for quite a while.

 

Working in my Step fathers garage I had to improvise with work space. I used a sheet of wood on a trash can for my welding table/work table a lot of times.

Once I was welding my buddy a bumper (mudman99tj) and noticed that the trash in the can caught fire... Luckily it was winter time and we were in front of the garage so we filled it will snow... (the second time)

and..

If you didn't already think about it.. The table catches fire once in a while too. But no big deal.

I always melt gloves. I can't hold the gun steady with out using my opposite hand as a guide. So my left hand gloves are hard as a rock from the heat.

 

I'v done most of the above ... but the worst for me is those engine fans with the flexable fan blades... I lost a good chunk of my thumb with a small wrench slip (engine off ... those blades are sharp).

 

I'll add another injury.

I was using a breaker bar and socket to remove some lug nuts from my buddies jeep which he had gotten stuck in a swamp in his back yard and left it there.

I was holding the socket in my hand while quickly removing the lugs. I slipped and the joint of the breaker bar caught my finger.. Took a nice chunck of my finger. We finished my SOA that night

Funny thing is, He actually had a clean rag in that jeep for me.. I was amazed that he didn't hand me a oiled up rag

 

Just the other day I caught my pants leg on fire weldin. Caught a shop towell on fire last week grinding. About a month ago I had cleaned off the bellhousing and what not, was carryin back to the shop and dropped it somehow and it sliced my finger pretty good. I've cut some knuckles with a grinder as well. Nothing major. We got a big [censored] fire extinguisher in the shop.

 

Okay, had to add another. While upgrading to a T18 I was lowering my CJ7 back down onto jack stands with my hilift. I push the handle down to the point where you hear the click and the full weight of the jeep is now on the jack. I apparently didn't think about the fact that my hands were covered with grease. Well, my hands slipped off the handle and it cam flying back up and smacked me in the face. i woke up on the driveway about 15 or 20 minutes later. Now I am very careful never to lean forward over the handle. Dumb, huh?

 

working on the racecar....

i was installing some rear bracing under the trunk of our 1979 Chevy malibu racecar. unknown to me, my buddy had just finished changing the fuel filter (its in the trunk) earlier that afternoon. so, i was welding away, laying on my back on a creeper under the car...when i notice some orange flashing light around my midsection. i then noticed a little heat....i was on fire! burned a nice little (5" dia) hole in my sweatshirt. we decided that i had rubbed against a fuel drip on the bottom side of the car and then ignited it.

worn-out and frayed blue-jeans catch on fire easily too...

 

I caught my jeep, my jeans and boots and garage on fire in january.Luckily I got the fire off of me pretty quickly, and I have a new garage

 

cant let u guys get all the glory....how about trying to cut a piece of steel tube while using your other hand and your foot to hold it,then having the hacksaw jump out of the grove and across your finger,cutting it to the bone...27 stitches and some micro surgury on the nerves and WALLA one perminently numb finger

 

Add hot slag in ear to the list.

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Re: Add hot slag in ear to the list.

We nearly had a Cj-7 blow through a garage door once.
Thank god nobody was in front of it.
Jesse

 

I will admit to having a few minor boo-boos in the garage. I try to learn from them. Seriously, every time you have something happen to you you should think about the situation. Try and decide what happened, what caused it to happen, and how you can avoid the situation in the future.

Now, just don't ask me about the big brush fire in Pomona yesterday.

When the helicopters start dumping water, it has gone well beyond the minor boo-boo stage.

 

The reason that the Jeep almost went through the garage was that there was three guys standing around the jeep (nobody in it) it was in gear and 4x4. and we twisted the key.

we dont do that anymore.

Jesse

 

You guys will get a kick out of this one. When I did my t-18 swap, i have the jeep in the drive way. My dad comes over and starts looking the jeep over. He asks me if it runs, and I was just so damn proud of the work I did, I jumped at the opportunity to show him. Well lets just say that you CAN start a car when it's in gear. I reached my hand in to crank it, and the puppy fired right up and proceded to knock me to the ground and run over my leg (thank god for aired down bias swampers) The truck then proceded up my driveway, over a huge pile of fill for the back yard, then into the garage piller. Despite my leg hurting like a biatch, it didn't do any other damage. It was the funniest damn things i've ever seen. My family still busts out in tears everytime my dad tells the story.

 

AND WE HAVE A WINNER[i think thats what he is]

 

Back in high school, my buddy had a cherry '70 Mustang. While cleaning it in his folks garage, it "mysteriously" won't start. Needless to say, the reason it won't start to begin with, is the tranny got bumped into reverse during the vaccuuming. He decided to "test" everything (after I warned him to check things out first) by jumping the solinoid with a pair of pliers. Sucker fired right up (ignition left on

) & smoked the tires for several feet. Since the doors were both open, they were caught and promptly ripped from the hinges by the garage wall. Luckily, his folks vehicles (mid '70 F150 & '78 LTD) were parked close by to stop it, caving in the rear, and both quarters.
I'm sure our friendship suffered that fine day. He appreciated me puking in the garage even less than 15 minutes of intense laughter that caused it.