Back when I was a welder, I was trying to cut something with an angle grinder in an awkward position.
I guess my brain was turned off that day because I decided to grind with the sparks going directly away from me.
So of course, the disc binded, and sent the angle grinder directly at my face.
Thank god I was wearing a face shield, at least. In about 0.1 seconds, my face shield was cut entirely in half.
The fun didn’t stop there, though, because I had the trigger lock on (again, genius). So it was still spinning at full force after it jumped out of my hands.
Also, I was on a ladder, so here I am, trying to throw the grinder away from my with my arms, on top of a ladder, all the while the cutting disc is going absolutely out of control essentially in full contact with my face, neck, chest, and arms.
Finally I manage to push it off of me, it falls to the floor and the disc breaks. I finally get off the ladder and unplug the grinder.
At this point, I can see that my face shield is cut clean down the middle. I’m thinking 1000% I’m gonna be needing an urgent hospital visit. I take off the face shield, and carefully touch my face… No blood… I take out my phone and use it as a mirror, not a scratch… I meticulously check the rest of my body… nothing.
Turns out, after all that, the only damage was to the disc and the face shield.
I can’t even explain how I felt after that. I spent the rest of the day in an almost out-of-body experience, and was shaken for a few weeks at least. I beat myself up a lot for being so stupid, and I literally couldn’t believe how lucky I was. I still can’t believe it.
I think you should congratulate yourself a bit: You didn’t make it due to dumb luck, but because you were smart enough to have several redundant safety measures in place, so that even though two of them failed (cutting the wrong way, with lock engaged) the last one (face shield) saved you. It wasn’t luck, but routine and skill that made sure you were fine, even though your brain was completely turned off that day :)
Back when I was a welder, I was trying to cut something with an angle grinder in an awkward position.
I guess my brain was turned off that day because I decided to grind with the sparks going directly away from me.
So of course, the disc binded, and sent the angle grinder directly at my face.
Thank god I was wearing a face shield, at least. In about 0.1 seconds, my face shield was cut entirely in half.
The fun didn’t stop there, though, because I had the trigger lock on (again, genius). So it was still spinning at full force after it jumped out of my hands.
Also, I was on a ladder, so here I am, trying to throw the grinder away from my with my arms, on top of a ladder, all the while the cutting disc is going absolutely out of control essentially in full contact with my face, neck, chest, and arms.
Finally I manage to push it off of me, it falls to the floor and the disc breaks. I finally get off the ladder and unplug the grinder.
At this point, I can see that my face shield is cut clean down the middle. I’m thinking 1000% I’m gonna be needing an urgent hospital visit. I take off the face shield, and carefully touch my face… No blood… I take out my phone and use it as a mirror, not a scratch… I meticulously check the rest of my body… nothing.
Turns out, after all that, the only damage was to the disc and the face shield.
I can’t even explain how I felt after that. I spent the rest of the day in an almost out-of-body experience, and was shaken for a few weeks at least. I beat myself up a lot for being so stupid, and I literally couldn’t believe how lucky I was. I still can’t believe it.
I think you should congratulate yourself a bit: You didn’t make it due to dumb luck, but because you were smart enough to have several redundant safety measures in place, so that even though two of them failed (cutting the wrong way, with lock engaged) the last one (face shield) saved you. It wasn’t luck, but routine and skill that made sure you were fine, even though your brain was completely turned off that day :)