Minor accidents.

I've cut myself a couple of times. I've dropped my hobby knife once or twice. I like those triangular things that go on pens to keep them from rolling off the table.

Nothing serious though. A friend of mine once put a nail through his thumb building a display case. From an air nailer at that. I suppose that's more of a construction/wood working accident than a model building one though.

the worst accident i got was when i just learned how to use the X-acto knife. it was my first time, i was cutting sprues off my AMT X-wing against my desk, my thumb was right underneath for some stupid reason... then the sprue suddenly snapped off and sliced a lot of skin off my "front thumb"(sorry guys for the gory details).. sheesh, still gives me goose bumps thinkin about it. i always treated my X-acto with respect after that, and "Safety" was my new bestfriend.

The worst is slicing off some flash and then into the thumb. No I file a lot instead of using an Xacto-knife. One my Xacto-knives, I tape and toothpick to the upper part of the knife so it does not roll.

Scott

Hmmm, seems X-acto knives are the problem. I've never understood why they're round in the first place. They could easily be built either triangular or as a rounded square to prevent accidents. I am deeply fearful of sharp implements, so I drill holes in a scrap piece of 2x4 and make sure that the knives are put back each and every time.

That being said I jabbed my finger changing blades just last night, them blade points is SHARP!

Yes-X-acto knives are nasty-I suggest everyone follow Nathaniel's advice and get those ergonomic grips. I dropped one on my foot and it stuck there like an arrow. Also when I was young-I used dope for a Guillow's model in an unventilated room-got so sick and high I haven't been the same since. ;-)

I have never had any bad accidents (did put a small chisel in my finger once). However after I got a couple of cats one decided that the handle of the exacto knife looked fun to play with. It almost went into my leg point first. Of course, after I recover the cat simply looked at me as to say "What, what's wrong", bad kitty. I now make sure no tools are near the edge and the cats know that they are not allowed on the table (they still do any way but they know that they are not suppose to).

Grizz

I think this is a fun little thread although I'm starting to realize that we work with nasty stuff. I have dental tools, razor blades, razor saws, toluene, solvents, glue, compressed air, cans of lacquer, acetone and a fair dose of arrogance.

Be carefull, folks!

Oddjob007 was removing those "bases" off of the soft plastic figures witha chisel blade.
the blade snapped at the base and he had a long cut on his finger. I was there when it happened. Ewww...

QUOTE: Originally posted by trowlfazz I think this is a fun little thread although I'm starting to realize that we work with nasty stuff. I have dental tools, razor blades, razor saws, toluene, solvents, glue, compressed air, cans of lacquer, acetone and a fair dose of arrogance. Be carefull, folks!

It's the latter that is most dangerous!

BG-sorry! I meant a fair dose of ignorance! ;-)

There's a difference?

Oh, about 11 years ago, (when I was 8) I was building a balsa tyranosaurus kit and broke a peice, since the peice was fairly straight i decided to carve one out of a popsicle stick and accidently ct from about halfway down my thumbnail all the way up it taking out a really decent sized chunk of my thumb.... that sucked....

Was airbrushing a Vulcan and somehow reached around to do the other side and pulled the air compressor off the table with the short air line.

It landed on my foot (thank goodness it didn't hit the floor!) and while I don't think it broke anything, my foot/toe eventually had more colours than a FS595 colour fan!

Bought a very long airline as soon as I could!

Had the usual razor knife cuts here and there but I still have all my digits and no stitches from model building!

QUOTE: Originally posted by Bgrigg Hmmm, seems X-acto knives are the problem....

Yeah, good thing for quick setting Super Glue!

I've had two memorable (to me, at least) X-acto encounters. When I was about eight years old I sliced off about at third of a thumbnail and a considerable amount of the flesh below it - not enough to send me to the emergency room, but pretty awful from the standpoint of an eight-year-old. I asked me father to come play his violin for me, just to remind me that there was something in the world that was worse than the way my thumb felt. (He did - and it was.)

Quite a few years later I got into the bad habit, whenever I felt (but didn't see) an object fall off the workbench in front of me, of snapping my legs together in order to catch it. One night I felt something roll off, snapped my legs together, and immediately felt one leg go numb from the thigh down. When I looked downward I discovered an X-acto knife with its #11 blade buried in my thigh. It didn't actually bleed much, but it was an interesting feeling.

Then there was the time I was learning how to use my brand-new Unimat SL lathe. (This must have been in about 1975.) It came with a three-jaw chuck; anybody who's used one knows that it consists of several rather sharp-edged pieces of steel that spin around. Spin around so fast that you can't see them. I was practicing turning a small piece of wood, leaning down over the lathe with my nose about eight inches from it. I was carefully sliding the turning chisel (held with both hands, in the prescribed manner) along the length of the dowel, and just casually slid it into the chuck. The chisel, at a speed of at least 90 mph, flew up and hit me in the teeth. The next day I went to the local dealer and bought a Unimat Jacobs chuck - which is basically smooth in configuration and relatively harmless. That three-jaw chuck, which is now about thirty years old, still scares me.

JT-power tools scare me-I lost a finger to one. But there is something about a razor blade cut that hurts more than anything-it's like a really nasty paper cut!

Edit: Ooops, sorry! Jane Fonda movies hurt pretty bad too!

When i first started at age 6 they wouldnt give me a knife go figure but when i was old enough i bought my first x-acto those little plastic ones from tester. i sear i cut or sliced
my self about 20 times id figure but the worst or almost worst was a couple months ago working on my revell 1/72 sub in the garage when my parents pulled up hit the garage door opener and yes i had my alumanum x-acto in my had working concentrating so hard when they opened the door it startald me enough to drop the x-acto landed on my chair about an inch away from the family jewels that was a close one. front page news man loses his jewels in model building accedent when parents opend garage door. LOL its funny now but i sweatin bulits.

How about glue injuries? A bunch of years ago I built a 1/144 scale RC ship model of the SMS Moltke. I was sheeting the aft end of the hull with 1/8 inch balsa. This required a bit of force to bend the balsa around the aft end under the prop shafts. So I had my thumb wedged under the prop shaft supports holding the balsa strip in place. I picked up the super glue and I guess squeezed just a little too hard and super glue went everywhere, gluing my thumb in place. I'm not sure if you have experienced a large quantity of superglue curing, but it generates a lot of heat. So I'm running around the house with my thumb burning while firmly glued to a 4 foot long boat hull yelling for my wife to get the fingernail polish remover. Which of course she can't because she's laughing too hard. I finally unglued by thumb with only the loss of a little skin and some minor burns. I was a bit more careful after that.

Phil

Phil_I don't know if you remember the case of of a man having his personal part super glued to his thigh! So things could be worse!

Edit: his enraged wife did it!

Well it could be worse look at the bobit family.

I was cutting something with an x-acto and sliced into the webbing between my pointer finger and thumb. Of course there are a few more of the usual cut the finger stories. Then there was the time I dropped my pin vise and gave an interesting cut to my ankle.

The most recent one: I was pinning some of my pewter warmachine miniatures (you use a pin vise to drill holes into the joints so you can glue little pins in there, it makes the joint stronger) once, figure in my left hand, pin vise in the right. Then the bit snaps, I slip and jam the end of the drill bit into my left hand. No one was home, so I took the opportunity to scream like a little girl.

I also have that habit that someone mentioned about slapping my legs together to try to catch something that's falling. Once I was an xacto, but thank the gods, I missed. I don't do that anymore.

I've had some close ones too. I do this a lot - I'll be trimming flash or something off a piece, knife in right hand, piece in left, the knife will slip and hit my finger or thumb. Then I just sit there and watch my finger to see if it starts gushing. Lately I've been getting lucky, nothin. 'Course now that I say that I'm going to take off a piece of flesh.

QUOTE: Originally posted by pseudodigm The most recent one: I was pinning some of my pewter warmachine miniatures (you use a pin vise to drill holes into the joints so you can glue little pins in there, it makes the joint stronger) once, figure in my left hand, pin vise in the right. Then the bit snaps, I slip and jam the end of the drill bit into my left hand. No one was home, so I took the opportunity to scream like a little girl.

I did that, but with an electric drill, went right into the nail. People were home so I had to suck it up and be brave. The hole in the nail hasn't grown out yet.

QUOTE: I also have that habit that someone mentioned about slapping my legs together to try to catch something that's falling. Once I was an xacto, but thank the gods, I missed. I don't do that anymore.

Tough habit to break, I've done the same and caught the knife. Luckily I caught it the right way, so no harm done.

QUOTE: I've had some close ones too. I do this a lot - I'll be trimming flash or something off a piece, knife in right hand, piece in left, the knife will slip and hit my finger or thumb. Then I just sit there and watch my finger to see if it starts gushing. Lately I've been getting lucky, nothin. 'Course now that I say that I'm going to take off a piece of flesh.

If you're like me, you've built up so much scar tissue on the tip of your thumb it just doesn't matter!

I can honestly say I haven't had any really bad accidents with the exacto knife. After slicing my finger open with my pocket knife when i was a kid, i try to be pretty careful with knives, especially super sharp ones like a scalpel. I think the worst injury I have had is either a piece of plastic taking flight after i cut it and going in my eye or bending down to get something that fell and whacking my head on the desk. I wasn't worried about my head, but i thought i broke the desk!

LOL! This is a great thread! Ever see those "futuristic" movies where someone gains access to some place by scanning in their thumbprints? I think the computer would be able to compile a list of all those who build models! LOL! I've come close to having one drop blade down on my foot a time or two but it never actually came to that. Otherwise I've sliced right down deep into my thumb a time or two. It's funny to see how we all have. Well not really FUNNY but you know what I mean. The other night I was trying to superglue a couple of pieces together. As usual the bottle nozzle was stopped up so I punctured it with a piece of wire. I then held onto the part and tipped the bottle to apply a small drop of said glue. The bottle had stopped up again in the few short seconds to took me to get things set up. Like a dummy I gave the bottle a little (or perhaps not so little) squeeze and PLOOSH! I had about a teaspoonful of superglue shoot over the top my fingers on my left hand. It was really late at night and my wife was asleep which meant I was spared the instant humiliation of having her see my three central fingers of my left hand glued shut from the knuckles to the finger tips. It was then that I knew what the Penguin felt like on Batman. It's amazing how you can't really bend your fingers when they're all glued together! :)

Eric (Wait a minute! Why did I just mention my real name! LOL)

PS. I love making my wife laugh so it made for a great story for her the following morning.

My most recent glue accident was when i was applying CA to Fruils with a toothpick when I picked up a little too much out of the bottle and I accidentally flicked the toothpic and CA goes an my arm in about 1 inch long and really thick. It starts to burn real bad, so I rub it of on MY FINGERS! At this time I realize that my eye needs to be itched, so I itch it. CA + eye = burning and stinging. Not too fun.

I too have the reflex of grabbing stuff between my legs. (wow, never thought I'd say that online)

I also gashed my fingers when I was starting out after trying to "unglue" a drop tank on my F-84 with an X-acto.

I once spilled CA on the workbench without nothicing it, a few minutes later I placed my left hand on table (and exectly where the spilled CA was) resulting in a seculrly glued hand. It took me about two hours to cut my had loose with a razor blade. Only one minor cut to the hand. I learned to keep CA desolver within an arms lengt when working with CA glue.

Related to the X-acto, I use a similar knife but it has a heavier handle and allways falls hadle first :)

Michael

Hi, I'm new here. When I was around 17 or so I had my X-Acto accident, "Uh Mom, I think I need to go to the hospital". Six stitches across my fingertip and a few hours later I was back at work.

Also, trying to melt sprue to make antenna's I've had burning plastic drip onto my leg. It makes a very unique scar!

I've never had any real accidents with the hobby knife (knock on wood!). When I use them, if I want to set it aside for more than a few seconds, I try to remember to slip the blade cover back on so the knife can't roll. Sometimes I'll be lazy and not put the cover on, but then, I'll place the knife so that the tip of the handle faces me (i.e. the knife is perpendicular to the long side of my workbench). I've got a big workbench, so if the knife should roll, the thing won't land point first on my foot; it'll stay on the workbench.