Pickup Making Injuries

[Spence]

How many of our customers have any idea of the injuries we suffer when making pickups or developing new models. None I suspect. Is it worth it? Dunno really.
Tonight I forgot to heat a mould before pouring an alloy in. the alloy just literally exploded everywhere and a lot of it burned into my left hand. Fortunately the wife was around at the time otherwise I may have had a hard time explaining the blisters!

So, what about you guys?

[jonson]

Sorry you did that Bro, not like you but, I hope she kissed it better. You know about me chopping the occasional bit off Bro but at least all 10 are still there allthough some scarred up a bit. Dunno if anybody else suffer this one, but I hate felt or any other tensioners and stick with my fingers which I now and again lick then dry on my jeans to get a bit more tension. 44. 45 and 48 gauge has put a permanent burnt groove in my right index finger. But I'll suffer for me passion.

[jworrellbass]

I had a pickup fly off the winder, if I wasn't wearing glasses.... well I don't know what it would have done to my eye. I'm sure it would have hurt.

[JGundry]

I have had a few scary experiences with the Leesona 102. Each station has a mechanical clutch lever to start the wind. The electric motor runs all the time but the bobbin rotation does not start until you engage the mechanical clutch for one of the 3 winding stations. If a spool runs out, wire breaks or misses the bobbin the instinct is to shut the power off to stop the electrical motor. But that would be the wrong thing to do because when you go to switch the electric motor back on the clutch will still be engaged and if your hand is in the wrong place, bad news. The right thing to do is to manually disengage the clutch by pushing the solenoid push rod. The manual does not explain this but it is the only "safe" way to run the machine.

This is not a wining story but I did a photo shoot for a large foundry that did vary large lost foam sand castings. I was being shown what to shoot by the owner and he wanted me to shoot a very large part being cast. There were maybe 5 guys guiding a bucket of molten metal and one guy in a full fire suit with what I think was a temperature probe. All of a sudden the the casting starts spitting large amounts of motel metal and everyone runs including the owner. I figured I should run to when I noticed sparking molten metal landing at my feet. Everything calmed down and the owner looked disgusted. Apparently there was too much moisture in the sand that was packed around the part. The casting seemed pretty large. Maybe 10'X10' by 5" tall.

[Folkcafe]

Probably not enough winding experience to matter but thus far the only injuries have been to my ego from winding a few crappy sounding pickups.

Seriously though, one needs to think safety when working around machinery. I've seen people loose digits, mash, hammer, pinch, cut, burn and what not in various industrial settings.

It is always in the back of my mind that my bobbin is only being held on by double sided tape. So far no issues but I always have my glasses (safety) on.

[RedHouse]

I killed a couple beers last time I was "experimenting/developing" new winds.

All kidding aside, I had a very "close call" a few months ago when I was cutting some short (5") pieces of aluminum angle-stock (1x1") to make brackets for the CNC Router I'm building, in retrospect it turns out some of the carbide inserts came off the cutoff saw blade.

All this happened in the blink of an eye; ...more teeth came off, it grabbed the aluminum stock and literally started throwing chunks around the shop. One hit my chest the other went I don't know where (and havent found it yet) lastly the remaining piece of stock which was like about a foot long piece which I was holding up against the back rail/fence, it got grabbed by the now wildly vibrating (and running off-balance/center) blade and flipped ...in-place... up against the rail/fence.

Well when it did that, it pinched/slapped/smacked the tip of my left hand index finger and gave me an immidiate and huge blood blister way down under all the layers of skin.

I'm thinking had I not had some very well developed callouses from playing, it would have been much worse, perhaps even severing the tip. It took two weeks for it to rise to the surface, another week before I could play guitar again...whew! but there is still a lump under the meat, I suspect the tendon was damaged somehow.

I was very glad I had my shop apron on (a HF welding style apron) and of course had my eye protection on. Just to think about how fast it all happened, had that chunk that hit me in the chest hit me in the eye and had I not been wearing eye protection, I'm sure it would have taken an eye out of service.

[SkinnyWire]

Standard lacerations, burns, blunt force trauma from rotating power tools, etc. Once I was "flexing" the sides of a bare nickel cover to remove the bow and it flipped, putting deep lacerations in both of my thumbs (edges on bare nickel covers are like razors). Had to wipe the blood off of everything I worked on for a few days until they healed up a bit. Pouring molten metal is scary business though. Never done that myself.

[belwar]

I hve my share of scars, but my best is not from pickup winding.... It's a half in scar from Child Safety scissors.

[nhall]

Not quite shure how that one works Belwar .. me thinks you should have worn a condom instead!

[Spence]

Not quite shure how that one works Belwar .. me thinks you should have worn a condom instead!

He's not saying where that 1/2" scar is Nigel. Sounds like a budget vasectomy to me.............

[David Schwab]

Besides burns, cuts and gluing my fingers together with CA, the worst was when the wire got tangled on something and I wanted to stop the winder in a hurry. Back when my winder had the original motor and belt drive, I could grab the platen with my hand and it would stop instantly, since the original motor had very little torque. So here I was powering it with a DeWalt hand drill, which is of course gear driven... I wasn't thinking and went to grab the platen! Needless to say it didn't stop, but did rip some flesh from my knuckle.

[Spence]

I wasn't thinking and went to grab the platen! Needless to say it didn't stop, but did rip some flesh from my knuckle.

So without even parting with the cash you got yourself a set of Bare Knuckles.

[jason lollar]

I got some good stories about me and poeple that worked next to me but as far as pickup making?? not a whole lot of danger in that- a pickup maker told me about cutting something on his lazer that had a reflective surface and it burned his cornea so he seess a certain pickup part all the time- i heard another pickup maker had an employee brioke a drill bit and it put her eye out- me I hjave had a couple small incedents cutting and shaping metal parts but nothing big however here one time while I was working in a cabinet shop I was cutting sheets of plywood on a table saw well I let a piece jam and it was a 10 horse saw with a 16 inch blade so it grabbed the plywood and almost stalled the saw before it got the best of me and threw the plywood right into my balls which was like getting beat in the crotch with a baseball bat- I immediatley went down on the floor holding my crotch while screaming and writhing in pain. Of course everyone stood around and laughed right???
OK 4 weeks later I have a rockwell 4- 24 beltsander= probably the most powerful hand held belt sander in the insustry- it spind slower than others but it has the torque right?
I am sanding drawer tops and I have long underwear tops and bottoms on because its winter well you know at the power weel side of ther sander there is about a 1/8" gap between the belt and the sander housing and the cord on the sander had been replaced and it was 20 feet long- well I accidentally grabbed by long underwear top and the sander sucked it into that 1/8" gap and kept going. We had a defective on and off switch on the sander- it sucked my skin into the sander and it wouldnt turn off- the sanders going GGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH and the switch wont work so I have to run 20 feet to unplug it from the wall. OK last time I was in distress everyone laughed at me right? So I am going to take care of it- my side of my chest hurts like hell- the sander sucked my shirt in that 1/8" gap between the belt and housing and then it grabbed the skin right under my ribs and pulled it into the same hole and my shirt and skin were stuck in the belt sander- it was stretched past the idler wheel so it was stretched a foot or more. I had to grab the back wheel and rotate it a centimeter at a time to get my shirt and skin out- took like 15 minutes of intense struggle all the time not saying anything.
I finally got it out and lifted my shirt and took a look- there was a big white thing sticking out that looked like a sausage! i thought it was my guts so I jump on my motorcycle and ride to the emergency room- by the time I get there the doctor looks and there is no big white thing- turns out if was a big air bubble under the skin that went away in 20 minutes
OK I could tell some grizzly stuff that happened to other people but thats the worst I have had happen- if you are really screwing yourself up by making pickups even from scratch maybe you should be doing something else

[Possum]

I had some near brushes with death, just shop stories mostly. Was casting some silver the first time I think, in a spin caster. Well, I did something wrong and after letting the spin caster spin to force the metal into the flask it sprayed the room with 1600 degree flying molten metal. Miraculously, none of it hit ME. I had a couple run ins with the Harbor Freight mini table saw. There is NO guard underneath the thing, its a tiny machine, so grabbed under there to hold the machine and I get my finger right into a spinning toothed wood saw blade, took a nice chunk out of my finger. Another time cutting polycarbonate P90 cores on it, it spit a piece of plastic past me and shot through the side of my Fender amp cover like it wasn't there! That little saw is a mo-f*kr, scares me just to look at it now....

[jonson]

You an I would just get on fine Jason. Broke a 1/8th drill bit off in the knuckle joint of the little finger of my right hand, but it was better to leave it there than remove it and loose the bone. Still see the tip of the drill when I look at the palm of my hand. Not a 16 inch but a 14 inch 1 tpi blade slung a 6 foot length of 3/4x3/4 american black walnut into my groin, and yes 10 to 15 mins writhing on the floor and black and blue for six weeks. Same bloody saw spat the ball of my thumb and some bits of bone at me a few months ago which slowed me down a few mins while I taped it up and six weeks healing as hospitals bore me and ain't got time to go anyway "so" a harbour freight mini saw would be a joy Possum just don't put your fingers where you can't see em. We all have accidents and mine are a daily habit but as long as all fingers and and toes and eye's are still there it's just being what boy's should be. F*******G Dangerous.