On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:05:27 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Ted Frater
wrote:

Perhaps we should extend this thread to list the sort of accidents we
have all? had and survived. Im happy to start if youll want me to. Ive
some funny ones as well as ones ive been lucky to get away with.
Lets have a response

This could get to be a long list...

Worst looking jewelers sawblade accident I've seen was the girl in college who
somehow broke a blade in such a way that a section of the broken blade ended up
piercing her thumb, vertically from the middle of the nail (how it penetrated
the nail I'll never know, but it did) right through and out the bottom. She did
this, swore, set down the sawframe, and was halfway through asking the person at
the bench next to her in which direction he thought she should pull out the
piece when she figured it out on her own, and pulled it out. Seconds after
that, both the pain and the bleeding started in. Till then, I'm not sure she
felt it much... Not really a serious injury, but it sure was dramatic looking.
Most torch accidents I've had happened to pieces of jewelry the torch was
pointed at. Kinda normal stuff. Melted rings, burned stones, etc. But one fun
time, with the little torch lit and sitting on it's holder, my boss at that time
reached over my shoulder to pick up something on my bench without asking or
checking if it was OK. It wasn't, as that something was still cooling from
being soldered. He flinched from the burned fingers in such a way that he moved
the sleeve of his suit coat right into the tiny flame of the torch, igniting a
bit of a rather costly suit coat sleeve. He was fine, of course, but the suit
wasn't. He never again was so cavalier about just reaching over to pick up
something on my bench...

Most of the worst actual accidents I've seen in jewelry work, however, have
involved buffing machines. Started right off with my first jewelry class in
high school, when a girl didn't tie back her long hair as instructed. It caught
in the buff one day of course, winding up on the spindle and pulling her head
rapidly into the side of the motor, where she was knocked out for a minute or
two, while also loosing about a three quarter of an inch patch of her scalp
where the hair pulled off. Fortunately, her head had also hit the off switch,
so the action stopped there...

Next buffing accident, not counting the many ouched fingers and destroyed chains
while learning to buff that sort of thing was the girl in grad school who was
buffing up some brass sheet metal triangle shapes, about three inches on a side,
using a large industrial buffing motor (about 24 inch wheels, no guards). The
point of that triangle caught in the stitching of the buff which grabbed it, and
let go about 180 degrees rotation later, flinging it right back at her. The
point stuck neatly into her sternum. As it was, having gone though only a bit
of skin, a little tissue, then sticking in that bone, it was just a painful
experience for her. But a bit up, down or to either side, and the injury could
have been much worse. I don't think I ever saw her attempt to use that machine
again...

But the worst one was while working at a silver jewelry manufacturer in upstate
New York right after grad school. They had a long time professional polisher
there, who knew his stuff pretty well. They'd also just hired a kid right out
of high school as a polisher, who was being trained by the old guy. In that
shop, the silver was handled with cotton gloves, like photo gloves, during final
polishing, to avoid scratching. I'd suggested to them when they hired me that I
thought that was a rather dangerous practice, but they weren't about to change
the procedure an account of me. But a month or two later, the kid was buffing a
solid oval bangle bracelet. Now, he was making all the mistakes. Going across
the bracelet, not with the direction of the wire, using too small a buff,
wearing those damned gloves, and worse, in holding the bracelet, instead of a
"pinch" grip, he'd hooked a finger or two through the loop of the bracelet. When
the bracelet caught on the buff, it didn't slow that 1 horsepower motor down a
bit. Just grabbed the bracelet, wrapped it around the spindle, along with the
glove he'd been wearing which it pulled off his hand. And his index finger was
still in the glove. The surgeons were not able to reattach it.

The same firm also had a tool and die maker who was in charge of the dies used
to stamp many of the parts. Bright guy. So bright in fact, he thought himself
smarter than the machines and their designers. One day, to speed his work up,
while fine tuning the mounting on a die set he was developing, he disabled the
safety switches to the small air press he was working (just a little one ton
press) Those switches normally meant he had to press both of them to trip the
press cycle. Instead, he'd rigged it up so he could trip it with a knee, no
hands needed. And when, in due course, the press double tripped, it cut a
fingertip off of each hand. Just an 8th of an inch or so. He was lucky. Could
have been worse. But I don't call this an accident. I figure he was asking for
it. Unlike another jeweler I knew back in the 70s, who'd previously worked in
the auto industry before entering the jewelry field. A press accident there had
led to him loosing both of his entire thumbs. That one, I'd heard, was a faulty
press, not a stupid operator, and of course, it wasn't in the jewelry field.

Ok. enough. There's plenty more, but that's enough.

'cept for this. Frosty, do you find those seperating disks to be worse than cup
burs into the finger? And, have you ever slipped with one of those "crown saw"
burs? The big size ones? Like a very narrow angle hart bur, but coarser teeth,
about a 15 degree angle like a knife blade, and about10 mm wide? Those puppies
can do real damage... :-)

Peter