Not really machining related, as such. However, there is a "safety" component to it, and like all my stories, its a a good read.----
Back in the day, when I was about 20 years old, the fellow who owned a garage across the street was a stock car racer. I was a young motor head, and would stop by to "talk hotrod" to Jim, the garage owner. Jim got one of the local school busses in for an engine job. The bus was too high to fit in the garage door, so they unbolted the front sheetmetal out beside the garage and pulled the engine and took the engine inside to work on it. Those old school busses had a pair of 3/8" diameter rods that ran from the firewall out to the top of the rad, just like on a model A Ford. Somehow they got the engine out through the front with a cherrypicker, but those rods were left sticking out into what was now open space, because the front sheetmetal, radiator, and engine were now unbolted and moved away from the front of the bus.
Jim went to smoke a cigarette, but they weren't where they should have been, in his front shirt pocket. He went out to the bus, and there they were, laying on the ground right in front of the bus. Jim bent over to pick up the smokes, and ran the end of one of them damn support rods right though his right eye!!! It ran in so far, and hurt so bad that he was afraid to straighten up. He yelled for help, and one of the apprentices ran out to see what was wrong. Jim knew it would probably kill him if the kid tried to cut the rod off with a hacksaw, so he got the kid to wrap a wet rag around the rod just in front of his eye, and cut the rod off half way back to the bus with an acetylene torch!!! Jim got into his souped up 59 Chev, holding the end of the rod which was still in his eye, and told the kid to get him to the hospital 15 miles away as fast as that old Chev would go. Somebody from the garage phoned into the cop shop in town and told them what was happening, and said watch for a dark blue 59 Chev coming in from the north at about a hundred miles an hour, and give him a police escort to the hospital at the far end of town. The cops met him about halfway to town, and did a burning u-turn and lit up the lights and siren and led them thru town to the hospital in Belleville, Ontario.
They rushed Jim into surgery, and here is the really weird part---The rod hadn't peirced his eyeball----rather, it had rolled the eyeball up and slid into the eye socket between his eyeball and the boney socket that it sets in. They removed the rod, did some minor repairs, and kept Jim at the hospital for about 3 days. The eye surgeon told Jim that he had 3/8-16 threads on the top and front surface of his eyeball, and that after things healed up, they would be able to tell how much permanent damage was done to the eye. Jim wore a patch like a pirate for about 3 months, but the eye did heal up okay, and Jim could see out of it "as good as ever".--but----Jeez, that musta hurt!!!---Brian
Back in the day, when I was about 20 years old, the fellow who owned a garage across the street was a stock car racer. I was a young motor head, and would stop by to "talk hotrod" to Jim, the garage owner. Jim got one of the local school busses in for an engine job. The bus was too high to fit in the garage door, so they unbolted the front sheetmetal out beside the garage and pulled the engine and took the engine inside to work on it. Those old school busses had a pair of 3/8" diameter rods that ran from the firewall out to the top of the rad, just like on a model A Ford. Somehow they got the engine out through the front with a cherrypicker, but those rods were left sticking out into what was now open space, because the front sheetmetal, radiator, and engine were now unbolted and moved away from the front of the bus.
Jim went to smoke a cigarette, but they weren't where they should have been, in his front shirt pocket. He went out to the bus, and there they were, laying on the ground right in front of the bus. Jim bent over to pick up the smokes, and ran the end of one of them damn support rods right though his right eye!!! It ran in so far, and hurt so bad that he was afraid to straighten up. He yelled for help, and one of the apprentices ran out to see what was wrong. Jim knew it would probably kill him if the kid tried to cut the rod off with a hacksaw, so he got the kid to wrap a wet rag around the rod just in front of his eye, and cut the rod off half way back to the bus with an acetylene torch!!! Jim got into his souped up 59 Chev, holding the end of the rod which was still in his eye, and told the kid to get him to the hospital 15 miles away as fast as that old Chev would go. Somebody from the garage phoned into the cop shop in town and told them what was happening, and said watch for a dark blue 59 Chev coming in from the north at about a hundred miles an hour, and give him a police escort to the hospital at the far end of town. The cops met him about halfway to town, and did a burning u-turn and lit up the lights and siren and led them thru town to the hospital in Belleville, Ontario.
They rushed Jim into surgery, and here is the really weird part---The rod hadn't peirced his eyeball----rather, it had rolled the eyeball up and slid into the eye socket between his eyeball and the boney socket that it sets in. They removed the rod, did some minor repairs, and kept Jim at the hospital for about 3 days. The eye surgeon told Jim that he had 3/8-16 threads on the top and front surface of his eyeball, and that after things healed up, they would be able to tell how much permanent damage was done to the eye. Jim wore a patch like a pirate for about 3 months, but the eye did heal up okay, and Jim could see out of it "as good as ever".--but----Jeez, that musta hurt!!!---Brian
