Safety Tips while working on your boat!
 

Hi all,
I thought of many titles for this thread.

"I tried to slash my wrist today"
"School of hard knocks"
'What if ?????"
"Near misses I've experianced or seen"
"Took a whippin' today!"

I thought I'd share a near miss accident I had today.

Todays lesson -

I was polishing the boat with a electic buffer with a tie on wool pad. I have done this lots of times before - no problems.

I tied the pad on with a bow & tucked the cord under the cloth material in the direction it spins. This has always worked in the past.

Today a hole developed in that area, the bow undid, the cord came out the hole & attempted to cut my wrist off at ~ 2800 rpm.

I took a whippin!

But fortunately it did not break the skin and my face & eyes were not near by.

Solution - tie the pad on with a knot, not a bow, then cut the ends short.
Problem solved.

Maybe you too can share any incidences you have been involved in, so we can all learn to be safer while working on our boats.

glad you came out ok

ouch!:eekdrop:

I second that...i was polishing the diamond plate in my bilge with a 7" 10,000rpm grinder/polisher...i caught my forearm with it and took it down to the meat..OUCH! happens before you know it

Better solution - loose the tie on in favor of one of those new fangled Velcro jobbies :D



yep, been bit by grinder/buffers many times :eek:

I didnt even know they still made those! In a pinch I tied an unfastened antenna up with the guys lobster gauge that was tied to a rail as I was just touching up a small spot. Got the polisher ripping at 2200 rpm when I grazed a small metal piece and sucked the antenna cord up. The antenna got sucked into the buffer and smashed me in the face as well as the lobster gauge which unspun off the antenna and slammed into the top of my head. Lots of swearing occured. :helmet:

I'm going to suggets three more safety tips - all have caused me injury over the years.
Most of you will already know these, but some might not.
Just thought I'd share some real word experiances with the newbies.

I have made referances to internet pages for further reading if your interested & have cut & paste for simplicity.

1)

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home...-bolts#slide-1

The Adjustable Wrench

Almost every adjustable wrench design includes three main components: a handle with a fixed jaw, a movable jaw and a knurled thumbscrew. To avoid damaging the tool or fasteners, ( and more impotanatly - yourself ) an adjustable wrench must only be rotated in the direction the movable jaw points to.

Where I work we now need a "Work Permit" to use an adjustable wernch that is over 8" as they have resulted in that many accidents over the years. I suggest you avoid the use of adjustable wrenches where possible.

2)

http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/safet...s/general.html

•Pull on a wrench or pliers. Never push unless you hold the tool with your palm open.

The palm open rule is compulsory where I work.
Why open palm - especially in tight quarters like around an engine bay?

I will guarantee you when that when the wrench slips and if you have a closed fist around the wrench, one day you will bleed as a result of striking something with your closed fist.
Using an open palm to push down on the wrench will reduce this risk as the strike point / pinch point is eliminated, or at least minimized.

3)

When using box cutters / knives.

http://voices.yahoo.com/how-box-cutt...y-8116938.html

Angle It Away From Your Body - There is no reason to cut directly towards you. If you cut at an angle, your hand will move away from your body if it slips.

Very good advice.

I was always told - when using a cutter / knife always cut towards your friend! Lol !
Works for me.

X 2

Search for 3m Hook It pads

1) Always have a friend with a can of WD-40 within yelling distance for the day you get your arm wedged between two sets of Stellings. It can be a long and lonely wait.

2) Never wear socks on deck. Saves falling 8 feet to the driveway after bouncing your head off the bow rail.

3) Wait until the headers cool down before trying to change the fouled spark plug. Saves the skin on your hand being transferred to the exhaust system.

4) Put the plug in before you put the props on. Saves stitches in the head.

I could go on but............................. :)

Experiance speaking ................

I was actually thinking about the sock one this week while polishing the top deck of the boat!
Good advice.

Take your watch off. They can get caught on things making it hard to get your arm back out. I also had one short out on a possitive terminal for about a 1/2 of a second. That was all it took to heat up the watch enough to give me a real bad burn!

If you drop your high speed grinder toss the backing plate in the trash. I did not know my brother dropped the grinder when it was turning max rpm's when I was using it, it blew apart. One piece hit me in the chest so hard I hit the ground and held my chest. It was one of those things that I was afraid to look at because in my mind with how hard it hit me it felt like it went into my chest. I was ok just a HUGE bruise and took me about a helf hour to feel like I could breath ok again.

Always cut away from your boddy parts with a knife...

If you mind tells you this is a bad idea it is and stop. I can think how many times I was like this is a bad idea, two seconds later I am on the way to get stitches.

always wear safety glasses when using anything that moves faster then you doi . had a 4-1/2 inch side cutter, blade snagged and came apart, bounced off something and hit me just above eye. felt like it cut thru, thank god for hard head.

Never walk backwards while power washing the ceiling or your boat dock.

When polishing small stainless parts, secure them to a block of wood... I had a cleat bezel snag the polishing wheel and it disappeared, never heard it hit the ground, the wall, NOTHING, just silence.
It took a few minutes to realize that it had went up thru the skylight (there was a beam of light from the hole) and out into the parking lot. It didn't hit any cars, but the impact on the concrete destroyed it!!!
I always wear safety glass but if it would have hit me I would have had a wicked headache!