# Shop Chemicals



## rake60 (Feb 9, 2012)

I have used parts cleaner fluids for over 30 years.
It can irritate your skin but if you wash up well after using it you'll be fine.

Unless you happen to be wearing a hollow back wedding ring.







I'll be going without the ring for a few days until that heals up.

Rick


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## mklotz (Feb 9, 2012)

What are you doing wearing a ring in the shop, anyway? And on your chuck hand as well. Naughty.

Not only are rings bad juju around rotating machinery, they can be really nasty around electrics as well. Accidentally short a power supply to ground with the ring while adjusting wiring and that red circle on your finger will be a nasty burn instead of a skin irritation. DAMHIKT.


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## rake60 (Feb 9, 2012)

That didn't happen in the shop.
It was at work cleaning the dragon grease off of the new lathe.

I know what a ring can do around machinery.
I had posted this picture here in our very early days.

It isn't pretty!






Rings and machinery *DO NOT MIX!*

Rick


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## mu38&Bg# (Feb 9, 2012)

Dammit. I just got a donut and tea too.


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## Ed T (Feb 13, 2012)

A mechanic I used to work with when I was in school said that he had gotten his wedding ring across a car battery and melted it off his finger. His finger looked like it might have been true. We'll never know, but I just don't wear a ring. The downside of not wearing it (wife), is much smaller than the downside of catching it on something or having it get red hot.


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## tattoomike68 (Feb 14, 2012)

Ed T  said:
			
		

> A mechanic I used to work with when I was in school said that he had gotten his wedding ring across a car battery and melted it off his finger. His finger looked like it might have been true. We'll never know, but I just don't wear a ring. The downside of not wearing it (wife), is much smaller than the downside of catching it on something or having it get red hot.



my brother in law did that last year, his wedding ring went red hot and He had to yank it off the batteries on his house boat, it was bad news but his fishing buddies where both E MT's and good help so he was OK but it roasted his finger and the ring was a gunner.

Anyway you wont see me with a ring on.


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## ShopShoe (Feb 14, 2012)

I married later in life. My wife is a Registered Nurse. When we were ring shopping she insisted that mine be loose enough to easily remove whenever working with electricity or machinery. She's seen too much in her job.

I did get my ring hooked one day in an office-cubical installation and did hurt my finger, although not like the photos already posted: Lesson Well Reinforced!

Ring, Watch, etc. stay off in shop. In some cases keys and coins are out of pockets. 

--ShopShoe


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## steamer (Jul 11, 2012)

I recently was moving a heavy object, and being a fairly big guy...well kinda just muscled it to where I needed it....then I realized that my ring felt real tight all of a sudden.....I looked down and realized I had bent the hell out of the ring as a result of the lift...I think it caught on something and twisted as I was moving the load....

Anyway....couldn't get it off until I straightened it a bit with pliers :big:....that and a little soap and it came off....I then straightened it out a bit and put it back on....but it's still a bit FUBAR....my finger appears fine....but I could definitely see it going the other way 

Dave


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## moconnor (Jul 11, 2012)

Hello All,

The shop that I began in as an apprentice machinist was an engine rebuilding shop that took in just about anything from single cylinder engines to a V-8 Detroit Diesel power unit that was used to power the overhead ladle at our local Chevrolet Engine Plant Foundry, which was the largest project that I worked on. In my early days, like the first six months, the apprentices spent the entire day disassembling and degreasing all of the engine components. At this point, we were called 'gunkies'. The room that we worked in had an agitating caustic soda tank and a larger caustic soda spray washer as well as a solvent tank. Of course, we wore rubber gloves, aprons and safety glasses around the chemicals, but as you took the parts out of the tanks you always seemed to get drips of the chemicals on unprotected parts. The next step was to neutralize the caustic soda with a hot water bath and blow it dry with air. By the end of the day you were completely covered with grease, bits of carbon, rust and soaking wet. This cleaning process has changed for the better because the caustic soda tanks are not commonly used anymore due to the expense of disposing the spent chemicals. The tank has to be emptied and the water boiled off to reduce the waste to a solid.

Once your time was served as a 'gunkie' and the next victim was hired, it was a great job and I got to work with some great journeymen and eventually learned a great deal about machining and engine building. After all of the components are re-machined, they have to be impeccably cleaned to remove any traces of glass bead, steel shot from cleaning and chips from machining. This started with a bath in the 'Safety Kleen' tank and then a hot water and soap bath. Back then, no one used gloves for this and I didn't question it. Some days, it seemed like I was using this solvent most of the day when I was preparing to assemble a large engine. One great thing about this shop was that each machinist worked a project through from start to finish, inspecting it, then machining all of the components and finally assembling the engine. On some days, my hands and arms would be as if I had sunburn. Never thought much of it as everyone else did the same.

Two years ago I was diagnosed with bladder cancer and there is a good chance that some of my chemical misadventures from the 1980's played a significant role. Smoking while using these chemicals didn't help either. Good news is that it was caught early enough that it was removed and I have been scanned every three months since and am still fine. Chances are it will return, but they keep an eye on it.

Last Thursday, my wife decides that she wants to refinish the breakfast room maple table. I gently tried to explain exactly how much work would be involved. Undeterred, she decided she wants to do it. I keep my mouth shut and cheerfully help her along each step. After the second coat of polyurethane on one of the leaves, she tried to remove a large drip and sanded through the finish. No worries, I will strip the finish and get her back to the same point. I used a strong stripper with Methylene Chloride to remove the finish. I was wearing Nitrile gloves and using a scraper to remove the stripper and the finish when I felt my hands starting to burn. Apparently, Nitrile gloves were a big mistake as the stripper began melting them on my hands. So I removed the gloves and reached for that universal solvent--mineral spirits, to remove it as it was at hand. Another big mistake as I 'thinned' the stripper and worked it very thoroughly into my hands. Now it is 106 degrees F. outside and I only have a few minutes to finish the job at hand, so I finish removing the stripper and go to wash my hands ten minutes later with soap and water. I will spare you a picture, but my hands, fingers and forearms have hundreds of blisters. Fingers look like cucumbers. It is getting better slowly. I have a set of chemical resistant gloves that I use in my solvent tank, but didn't want to ruin them for this small , quick job as they cost $30.00. Moral of the story: You can't cut corners on safety. Even DIY products can be dangerous. I didn't see anything on the stripper's label to indicate what kind of gloves were 'chemically resistant', but I will double check that in the future.

Work safely always.

Regards,
Mike


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## moconnor (Jul 11, 2012)

With regards to Rick's photo of the crushed wedding ring, I witnessed a similar injury during my first year as an apprentice in the above mentioned shop. The journeyman that I was working with was showing me how to machine a rather large Diesel engine cylinder head for new guides and seats. He had the head on the bench and was turning it 90 degrees at a time to roll it over when it slipped and fell on his hands because it had cutting oil all over it. I immediately lifted it off of him, but his wedding ring was flattened, cutting his finger right to the bone. His right hand was no worse for wear. Probably would have just been a bit embarrassed and bruised if he had taken his ring off while working, instead, he spent the day getting his finger sewn back together. Rick's photo always reminds me of that day. I always told this story to my students during the first days of a new class, hope that it saved some others some preventable pain.

Regards,
Mike


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## bearcar1 (Jul 11, 2012)

Amongst all of this talk and stories of mangled digits due to jewelry having been in the wrong place at the wrong time, I would like to share a similar event that the offending piece of jewelry actually prevented a much more serious injury from occurring. In a much distant past, we're talking HS days here, it was a big deal, a rite of passage if you will, to order up and receive ones class ring. We all wore them proudly as symbols of status. In the small farming community where I grew up it was customary, as a 'city kid' (one that did not actually reside on a farm proper), to assist our friends with chores and the planting and harvesting of crops on their farms. Anyway, the Fall we got our rings, my friend and I were both running corn pickers. Now for those of you that may not be familiar with how a this particular piece of machinery works, let me give you a brief run-down. The head of a corn picker has a series of sheet metal finger-cones that assist in guiding the corn stalks into the front end of the combine. Below and towards the back of these cones are a set of rubber rollers that are driven in opposite directions, that being towards the center of the two rollers and down. These rollers act to draw the corn stalk down into the workings of the machine and on occasion will get jammed up with stalks and need to be cleared manually. The header needs to be shut down and the operator has to climb down out of the cab and clear the jam. For whatever reason, some operators seem to think that they do not have to disengage the header and can merely kick or otherwise dislodge the offending stalks or clods and move on. On this particular afternoon, my friend was one of those stupid enough to do so. He had gotten the header jammed and without disengaging it had attempted to pull the offending stalks out of the rollers. I don't care how fast you think you are, you aren't fast enough to let go of a stalk being yanked by one of these machines. The machine decided to yank the jammed stalks, along with his left hand down into the machine. The only thing that prevented his losing his arm up to the elbow was .... you guessed it, his class ring. It had jammed the rollers and prevented them from pulling his arm further into the machine. Of course he lost two fingers and has limited mobility in that hand now, but at least he still has a hand. The ring was mashed all to Hell and as far as I know, he still owns it as a reminder to himself and others of just how how quickly one can get himself into harms way by not working safe. 

BC1
Jim


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## mcostello (Jul 11, 2012)

I had a boss that smashed one thumb in a corm picker it was flat. Then went out next day and made the other one match. 2X ouch. Person around here was pulled in and arm ripped off and bled to death. Never careful enough.


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## Mosey (Jul 11, 2012)

Back in the late 50's my dad was a millworker in wood. They had a big shaper with built-up moulding heads, made up of multiple ground to shape cutters in a bolt together head. 
It ran at about 10,000 rpm and weighed a couple of pounds. One day there was a loud bang as the shaper head disintegrated and sent shards flying across the shop. Some pieces embedded themselves into the cinder block wall 50' across the shop filled with guys working. My dad went to light a cigarette to relax after that scare and found his thick, steel Ronson lighter in his change pocket (you know the one against your belly right where the carotid artery goes into your groin) was dented almost though the other side, obviously from one of the shaper head pieces. 
I think he sat down to rest for awhile after that.


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