madbeanpedals::forum

So, I guess you all, just like me, have had some kind of injury related to pedal building. To start with the "NO PICTURES PLEASE!!", I've been reading a web page of a guy building Marshall-like amps who endured some pretty horrific injuries while building, and although I could stand looking at the pictures, it wasn't pretty! So: NO PICS!!!!!!!!!

Worst I had so far was my soldering iron dropping to the floor, and catching it before it fell, on the wrong side !!! Burned the palm of my hand really bad, white skin and all.... Second worst case was tonight, trying to strip some wire with my box-cutter: huge gash in my right thumb.....

Let me know how you almost killed your self!

Paul

I burn myself reasonably regularly and occasionally stab myself with things.

Not for fun you understand...

Just making that clear...  ;)

Other than some minor soldering iron burns nothing comes to mind, except for a malfunctioning SMPS that seemed to put out 500V and then fluctuate from nothing to 100V and deciding to 'just see if it is putting out a high voltage' with the ol' finger debugging technique.

Yeah that was a bit of a shock to say the least.

Should have used your tongue  ;D

I racked myself pretty hard with a board once.

Diagonal cutters took a nice chunk of finger-meat once when trying to remove those stupid potentiometer tabs  >:(

Minor burns other than that

Quote from: juansolo on May 20, 2013, 06:43:51 PM
Should have used your tongue  ;D

:D I was thinking the same thing.

The most stupid one I've done is when using a hand cranked drill, I slipped off the crank and caught my other hand's little finger with my picking thumbnail -- giant gash and blood everywhere.

I've done several soldering iron burns. The strangest was when I hit my left hand guitar playing callus on my finger with the soldering iron and didn't realize it until I smelled it. It never hurt but did turn white until it grew out.

I bought one of those Akai "Analog" delay pedals on a Musician's Friend Stupid Deal just so I could take it apart and see what was really in it. They have a sheet metal clam shell kinda case, and they are sharp! I cut one of my fingers really deep when putting it back together. I have an aversion to that style of enclosure now.

This is gathering some nice stories so far! Let's see if anyone else has something 'interesting' to share....

Saw stars one nite when I smacked my head on the underside of my work bench picking up a dropped part. Wife says I haven't been the same lol. So when I make a huge part order I just blame it on the head injury.

I've had a few resistor leads stick me between the fingernail and finger.  >:(

I forgot the most painful one. I stepped full force, barefoot, onto one of the six legged opto-isolator guys with the back of my heel. I had to pry it out with my needle nose pliers. Best way to describe the pain is that it hurt more than a Lego to the kneecap.

I was once holding an enclosure while I was drilling it out. A 1590BB if I remember correctly. I don't have a drill press, so I hold on really tight and drill with my cordless drill. I was just drilling along, probably had drilled 4 holes already. Was drilling away a 1/4in jack hole and the enclosure caught on the drill bit and spun in my hand. It cut up my whole hand good. Multiple lacerations. Good news is that it was my left hand... my fretting hand.

I still drill enclosures like this, I've drilled 40 since this accident, still hasn't happened again. I got a step drill bit shortly after that accident, perhaps that is why.

Quote from: pk1802 on May 20, 2013, 08:56:50 PM
I was once holding an enclosure while I was drilling it out. A 1590BB if I remember correctly. I don't have a drill press, so I hold on really tight and drill with my cordless drill. I was just drilling along, probably had drilled 4 holes already. Was drilling away a 1/4in jack hole and the enclosure caught on the drill bit and spun in my hand. It cut up my whole hand good. Multiple lacerations. Good news is that it was my left hand... my fretting hand.

I still drill enclosures like this, I've drilled 40 since this accident, still hasn't happened again. I got a step drill bit shortly after that accident, perhaps that is why.

I did something close to this on my most recent build. And I have a drill press. Air had no excuse and it was stupid.

For my part: so. many. burns.

Back when I was in college, I used to solder late and night and sleep very little (about 4 hours a night).  I had a rule that I would stop soldering after the third time I applied the iron to my finger holding the part and not the part itself.  I usually had a couple (or more) white spots on my hands.

Good times.

When i was young I debugged a digital logic experiment kit. I had to solder a few things and tested them one after the other. At some point I forgot to disconnect mains power and just turned it over to solder again.
I put my left hand into the wrong place holding the board.
Since then i never again tested 9v batteries with my tongue - which I did before. Its a similar feeling just "stronger" when current flows through your body parts ...

All the best ...

Hand drilling one of my first enclosures. Wasn't paying attention to where I had my hand.  Drill slipped and I drilled a good chunk out of a finger on my middle finger, fretting hand.  Luckily no stitches but I did suffer some nerve damage.

People that know me, know I shouldn't have sharp objects.

I still have more blisters from occasionally playing bass (plectrums suck with bass) than from soldering. Most of the soldering burns happen not during soldering, but during DEsoldering actually. I try to wear gloves (when drilling), goggles (when soldering) and ear plugs (when drilling holes larger than 1 cm) as much as possible. Most severe injury to a finger happened when an exacto knife slipped while trying to cut the plastic wire that was holding a pair of socks together. You can't see it anymore, but the tip of my thumb came right off (pasted it back and over the coarse of a few weeks it healed perfectly).

Multiple burns, a couple of drill incidents, my personal leasy favourite reoccuring one is stepping onto resistor leads which have embedded themselves into the carpet.  Needless to say i always wear glasses and slippers when I build.

My gnarliest pseudo pedal related injury was actually building a guitar, or more accurately building jigs for guitar building.  I was making some acrylic templates and was drilling some countersunk holes with a hand drill, eased up on the speed a bit which cooled the acrylic just enough to seize the bit, snapping it up half the flute.  Broken bit with countersink attachment jumped and went through my left hand index finger, ripping off the nail and driving straight through the tip of my finger.  I have a general rule that if I can't stop the bleeding in six minutes I go to the hospital, and i ducked that by about eight seconds.  Couldn't play for three months.

Quote from: RobA on May 20, 2013, 08:32:21 PM
I forgot the most painful one. I stepped full force, barefoot, onto one of the six legged opto-isolator guys with the back of my heel. I had to pry it out with my needle nose pliers. Best way to describe the pain is that it hurt more than a Lego to the kneecap.

The Lego to the knee cap I can relate to but so far I'm pedal-related injury free. 

I've got a blister from a soldering iron healing right now.

I think my worst electrical incident was when I was replacing a light switch in my old condo.  I turned off all the breakers for the first floor and the switch was on the first floor so...

My wedding ring closed the circuit and my hand clinched up pretty hard.  Quite terrifying, quite painful.

Odd but I swear I could feel the 60hz, probably me just fighting to un clench my hand.

Same thing...dropped the iron and caught it cuz I was wearing shorts and didn't want to burn my leg.  Caught the wrong side.

I've been whacked a few times working on amps but am pretty good at applying the "hand in pocket" rule now.

Man, I hear you guys on lots of these ones. I have stepped on leads, had them poke me, cut myself with knives/exacto, and burned myself with my soldering iron more times than I can list.

One quick tip - if you burn your finger in a minor way, grab your earlobe with the burned part as quick as you can and hold it. The cartilage of your ear will work like a heat sink and pull some of the heat out of your finger. Can save you from getting blisters and stuff.

At least, it seems to work.

Jacob

Quotemy personal leasy favourite reoccuring one is stepping onto resistor leads which have embedded themselves into the carpet

This one has gotten me a couple of times.

Once, without thinking at all, I gripped the tip of my iron (it was on) between my thumb and index finger while looking right at it. I knew it was going to be hot, but it happened anyway. I think my subconscious is out to get me.

I'm pretty sure it's a rite of passage. I've grabbed the hot part before, I really don't remember how since it normally lives in a holder.

Soldering irons are like knives -- do NOT try and grab it if you drop it.

Done the normal 'stand on resistor leads', thankfully that's the worst of it.

Taken a few electric shocks. I don't think you ever get used to those. I have a lead to drain caps that I usually clip onto my amps when I work on them.

I try to be careful when drilling, so far I haven't had an accident.

I was cutting some copper board with a combination square and a box cutter one night. I was going too fast and the cutter slipped onto the combo square and lopped off the tip of my finger.

No insurance means home treatment. Daily iodine baths and fresh bandages. I must have done something right, it mostly grew back and even has some fingerprint.


Also, if you are soldering in your boxers, make sure there is a button on the flap   :o

Quote from: haveyouseenhim on May 21, 2013, 06:08:06 AM

Also, if you are soldering in your boxers, make sure there is a button on the flap   :o

NEVER solder in your boxers.

To the one guy who answered he's never been injured because he's really careful: You need to build more pedals, my friend.


;D

Quote from: selfdestroyer on May 20, 2013, 08:04:22 PM
Saw stars one nite when I smacked my head on the underside of my work bench picking up a dropped part. Wife says I haven't been the same lol. So when I make a huge part order I just blame it on the head injury.

That is so cool having an excuse like that! :)

My wife just asked me how much I was spending on pedals... I think I need to bang my head on something quick.

Quote from: billstein on May 21, 2013, 04:48:33 PM
My wife just asked me how much I was spending on pedals... I think I need to bang my head on something quick.

Just tell her it's your way of expressing yourself artistically (as if playing guitar wasn't enough......)   ;)

Paul

Quote from: billstein on May 21, 2013, 04:48:33 PM

Quote from: selfdestroyer on May 20, 2013, 08:04:22 PM
Saw stars one nite when I smacked my head on the underside of my work bench picking up a dropped part. Wife says I haven't been the same lol. So when I make a huge part order I just blame it on the head injury.

That is so cool having an excuse like that! :)

My wife just asked me how much I was spending on pedals... I think I need to bang my head on something quick.

My girlfriend just asked the same question. I keep a spreadsheet of every guitar related transaction, in and out. I showed her the total once all debits and credits are applied, and she said, "Oh, I've spent more than that on shoes in the last year." Now I am the one who is worried about finances...

I forgot that I once touched the back of my knuckles on my soldering iron. I still have a pretty cool looking scar. When I hold all my fingers together, you can see a line of scars where I touched the iron.

I've only dropped a soldering iron once. Unfortunately it was on a manlift. The weight of my powercord pulled the soldering iron off of my workstation. Destroyed my iron, and melted the carpet a little bit.

QuoteI keep a spreadsheet of every guitar related transaction, in and out. I showed her the total once all debits and credits are applied

I could never do this.. it would be used as evidence against me for sure..The hard thing for me is I usually build 2 of everything so I can sell/trade one and keep one for myself. I become attached to the pedals I build.

Quote from: selfdestroyer on May 21, 2013, 07:21:58 PM

I could never do this.. it would be used as evidence against me for sure..The hard thing for me is I usually build 2 of everything so I can sell/trade one and keep one for myself. I become attached to the pedals I build.

It would probably make me cringe to see what I've spent over the years. 

I've had the spinning enclosure before (pre drill press). But I think the most insulting was driving two of the pins of my mn3005 fake half way into the tip of my pointer finger (the one I grip the iron with). Other than that just minor burns that evoke a few choice words :o

My worst was an exacto knife that I gashed into my arm at full speed/strength. It was late at night, and I was trying to undo the zip ties on an amp I was taking apart. Stupidly I was pulling toward my body and it slipped and the whole blade went right into my arm just missing an artery. I've also stupidly caught a falling soldering iron when I started out.

I've sort of forgotten the chain of events now but somehow I sustained 3 separate burns within a few seconds. As I recall I I had the iron in one hand and did the traditional burn and the way I did was that I was looking through a mag glass but the iron was to the side where things are a bit distorted so I grabbed the iron tip with my index and thumb. My reaction caused the iron to fall towards my lap sp you better save the ole' dog and I grabbed it sort of and had it pressed against my wood work bench and the meat of my palm. As I let go the iron was stuck to the meat for a second or so which seemed like forever so I shook it loose.

Oh I'm not done.

So at that time I had my desoldering iron on and I used to wedge it between my workbench in a certain way as it is one of those Rat Shak all in one irons with no stand. As the pain started to intensify, guess I'm a puss, I was standing on some garage steps and I was just the right height to the desold iron next to me and I thought I was resting my arm on a woodenledge but instead rested the meat of my forearm right on top of that desold iron. FCUK! I turned off both irons and went upstairs to get sympothy from my wife. I was done for the night.

Had blood on the bottom of my sock last night after getting stabbed by a vengeful resistor lead.

I swear, I work so hard to get each one into the can, how do they keep ending up on my floor!

Jacob

Quote from: jkokura on May 22, 2013, 02:53:46 PM
Had blood on the bottom of my sock last night after getting stabbed by a vengeful resistor lead.

I swear, I work so hard to get each one into the can, how do they keep ending up on my floor!

Jacob

I keep a harddrive magnet on my bench. I just clip the leads near it and most of my leads stick to it. It doesn't catch them all, mostly ones from tayda.

Needed to grab a part while I was soldering, so I switched hands with the iron.  But when I switched hands, I grabbed the tip not the handle.  I didn't hold onto it for long, but still got a nice burn on my thumb and fingers.  Callouses protected me a bit, but it looked pretty nasty for a while.  I'm WAY more careful with the iron now, and made a personal rule not to switch hands anymore.  If I need something that's out of reach of my free hand I put the iron down first.

Quote from: TNblueshawk on May 22, 2013, 02:27:29 PM
I've sort of forgotten the chain of events now but somehow I sustained 3 separate burns within a few seconds. As I recall I I had the iron in one hand and did the traditional burn and the way I did was that I was looking through a mag glass but the iron was to the side where things are a bit distorted so I grabbed the iron tip with my index and thumb. My reaction caused the iron to fall towards my lap sp you better save the ole' dog and I grabbed it sort of and had it pressed against my wood work bench and the meat of my palm. As I let go the iron was stuck to the meat for a second or so which seemed like forever so I shook it loose.

Oh I'm not done.

So at that time I had my desoldering iron on and I used to wedge it between my workbench in a certain way as it is one of those Rat Shak all in one irons with no stand. As the pain started to intensify, guess I'm a puss, I was standing on some garage steps and I was just the right height to the desold iron next to me and I thought I was resting my arm on a woodenledge but instead rested the meat of my forearm right on top of that desold iron. FCUK! I turned off both irons and went upstairs to get sympothy from my wife. I was done for the night.

That's hilarious (In a I feel your pain and really care and uhhh are you Ok now bro?) sort of way. To bad you didn't have a video camera going. Would have won America's Funniest Video for sure.

Did you get any sympathy from your wife or did she just give you THAT look?

Generally, I find that I am more inclined to minor injuries if I am trying to rush too much.

About a month back, I was deburring a drilled enclosure and I was going a bit fast in the standard circular motion one uses with that tool.  The deburring tool slipped out of the enclosure and made a very sharp pronounced V in my thumb.  Honestly, I don't think I could've cut a V that nicely if I tried to.  It was kind of like Zorro had a twin brother named Victor.

Bill, she looked at me and said "what is wrong with you" and it was said in a way where she really meant it like I had mental issues. I admitted I was an idiot and I asked her to kiss my boo boo's  ;D She declined...story of my life!