Splinters

[Darren]

How do you guys keep metal splinters out of your fingers?

Or is it just an occupational hazard !!!   

[bogstandard]

Darren,

Over the years you tend to get crocodile like skin on your hands and that cuts the risk of high penetration. That is one of the ways you get out of doing the washing up, just tell SWMBO that it is a workshop health risk by having too soft skin.

Always avoid handling swarf, a brass needle under your skin will turn into a puss filled rotting mass in a couple of days, so any skin penetration must be removed as soon as possible. I always wear silicon fingered, fabric backed lightweight ones for moving metal swarf about, in fact for all jobs in the shop where it is advisable and safe to use. The modern day ones are much more preferable and just as penetration resistant as the old hard leather ones. Make yourself a metal scraper and hook for moving swarf about when machining, NEVER touch swarf while the machine is in operation, even with a hook or scraper, even a thin curl can easily slice a finger off or tangle up and pull your extremities into the machine.

More accidents and wounds are caused in the workshop with swarf than anything else.

My father worked most of his life making railway engine wheels and doing large steam hammer forging. Even ten years after he retired, bits of metal embedded under his skin in all sorts of positions around his body, would cause him problems when eventually they started to come to the surface. Put it this way, he didn't need to take iron supplement tablets.

Don't let it get in there in the first place.

John

[Brass_Machine]

Darren,

John has really good points. I will just add one onto it. I keep a small cheapo paint brush near my mill and lathe to dust of pieces or the machine as needed (never when the machine is working tho).

Eric

[sbwhart]

  It was Johns dad that kept me awake at night when I was a baby  I was born in Forge St and that steam hammer use to shake the house, when it started off people made a grab for their clocks before they fell off the shelve.

Back On topic:- Ho to hell with it I can't think af anything sensible to add  Except that splitters can cause big trouble my wife once got a piece of swarf stuck in her foot that I'd carried into the house on my shoes, that caused me no end of griefe 

Have fun

Stew

[bogstandard]

This bit is way 

During WW2, my father was seriously wounded when a piece of shrapnel hit him in his left temple.

It was for that reason he went to work in the forge after his demob, the heavy noise sounds didn't bother him for some reason. There were hundreds of people that must have worked around that shop that were sent permanently deaf, because then there was no health and safety as such.

Nowadays, you only have to have someone fart too loud and everyone has to wear ear protection.

And yes Stewart, I had trouble sleeping when I stayed with my grandmother at the back of Crewe Railway Works in the now gone Lincoln Street.

John

[Rog02]

Callus' and more callus!

The "chip brushes" are a good idea and one of those magnetic "picker upper thingies". 

I am a rather big fan of the "Mechanix Wear" style gloves except when welding or soldering.  Most are made with synthetic leather that melts (however they are machine washable which is nice).  For hot work or when handling especially sharp sheet metal I switch off to a similar style glove with leather palms.

 
The large local bumper replating operation here, hires all their power hammer operators from a program with the local school for the deaf.  The totally deaf have no fear of hearing loss so they make ideal candidates to teach metal straightening to.  They also can communicate amidst the noise easily.  They still wear hearing protection to avoid nerve damage to the sensitive balance mechanism of the inner ear however.

[Stilldrillin]

Nearly 3 years retired, still a few bits of steel surfacing. Still fetch `em out with a sharpened hacksaw blade, as all those years previous.......

One bit on the back of me hand was being difficult. just couldn`t dig it out!

Herself made me see Doc...... It`s only a splinter..... ?

NO!!
Basal cell carcinoma, probably from the grubby cuff of my overalls.......


All ok, now.......




Oh, yes...... I`ve got industrial hearing damage & tinnitus as well.

Lets all be carefull out there.....

[SPiN Racing]

He he he

I was a bit of a dumbass when in late high school and college. And was competing for a short time in car stereo contests in the 1985-1986 range. I had a car stereo in my station wagon that was 148DB.
It was loud enough that with certain music, it would cause a variety of symptoms. Nausea, vision blurring to the music because the fluid in your eyes was getting squished. TO the most horrible feature... foaming bowel movements. That was likely from the 10" subwoofers under each of the front seats.

Needless to say, that combined with around 600 hours in Cessnas with faulty window and door gaskets, I have some pretty healthy hearing issues. Not deaf, but I have completely different hearing in each ear. Certain voice frequencies I can hear in one ear and not the other.

Oh yeah and the rock concerts.. I never missed one. 

Swarf and splinters..

My son had some headaches and nausea kicking in for some unknown resons. They ended wanting to do MRI and CAT scans.
They asked... Do either of you work on a metal lathe or mill?
erm

Me why?

THey walked me around the corner and showed me one of the machines.. a HUGEEEEE Ring around a table. They said.. THAT.. is a giant electro magnet.........

I was impressed.. but thought it wasnt a big deal. Till they told me they have lots of problems with people who have ferrous metal in thier fingers and hands. And they have a lot of problems because the magnet removes them forcably. And they just migrate right out of your skin.. and through whatever is in the way I gather.



Needless to say.. I stayed well away from that room. 

[cedge]

Spin
Had an MRI tech tell me a similar tale. Seems the magnet will remove a splinter through the opposite side of the hand or finger if it happens to be facing the wrong way in reference to the magnetic ring. Can you say "tiny bullet holes through your hand"? His worst stories don't bear writing on an online machinist forum. 

Having a stent quite near my heart, they won't do MRI's on me anymore... need to get me a tattoo....Cat Scan Only....(grin)

Steve

[Bernd]

Having a stent quite near my heart, they won't do MRI's on me anymore... need to get me a tattoo....Cat Scan Only....(grin)

Steve

I have a few of those too. I believe they are made from non magnetic stainless steel. So an MRI shouldn't bother them.

I've never been able to figure out how a cat scans you. What kind of device do they use or do they use there eyes? 

Bernd

[Brass_Machine]

I've never been able to figure out how a cat scans you. What kind of device do they use or do they use there eyes? 

I think it has to do with their eyes. You have seen cats eyes reflect back light in pitch black? Or how they look in a picture when a flash was used? Creepy. Plus I think there is lots of catnip involved.

Eric

[cedge]

Brend
All I know is that my MD warned me to carry the stent card at all times so that I don't wind up in an MRI machine.Seems that he mentioned something about metal heating up within in the magnetic field being a problem. It still bothers me a bit that there is a small metal spring lodged in there....sort of an un-natural thing in my mind..... LOL

The cat scan thing is easy... they hang a small cat toy on a string and swing it over you.... the cat simply has to watch the toy. The tricky part is retrieving the data he collects, with the computer. One connection point and it ain't exactly sterile.

Steve

[Bernd]

Ah ya, the cat nip explains it all. Could be that's why my cat scans me all the time. She wants her "kitty marijana" 


Yep, your right. I forgot about the heat thing. I remember that to now. Don't feel to bad about it. I had three installed back when I was 45. Back when I was 49 they got plugged. I got a triple by pass from that deal. The stents were still a new thing when I got them. They hadn't been coated like the new ones are, I believe. I usally tell everybody I had three Bic Springs installed and the clicker don't work on more.

I think were still on topic here right? Splinters in the veins or something of that nature. 

Bernd