DIY Injuries

mudcow007

so come on....who has hurt them self whilst engaging in a spot of DIY?

i spent 4 hours in a drop in clinic last night after crushing my finger cutting a tree down. i was told i need to get it x-rayed as they think i might have broken the tip of my finger off, which is nice

there was a 4 hour wait at A+E so i gave it a miss

anyone else?

SimonAH

I think my most stupid moment was pressure testing a radiator from a mini filled with boiling water from the kettle by blowing into the filler cap hole hard. On releasing my lips the rad 'gooshed' back and burnt my lips off.

straas

Knocking down an extension whilst having a chat, swung with the hammer and knocked the top bricks clean off so easily that my hand carried on with the momentum and was crushed against the corner of a sharp brick.

All the way to the bone.

t4tomo

I managed not to injure anyone building a rabbit run with the kids despite use of cordless drill and my favourite new toy - a staple gun.

Did have visions of my 10 yr old stapling his fingers to the run.

My uncle managed to cut most of his calf muscle off his leg with a rotovator once. that was a bit nasty

Kieran_Burns

Changing an internal fuse on an amp.

I forgot it was plugged in. No damage to my fingers but I had one hell of a cut on my head from where I bounced off the wall.

CiB

Trying to separate two halves of a clip-together bike light with a terminal screwdriver (sharp, thin) and it slipped, went into my thumb somewhere near the thumbnail and just failed to burst through at the end, although the stretched skin did show very clearly for a moment or two the clear silhouette of the screwdriver blade.

I did know a chap who was routing the floorboards to fit CAT5 cable around the house and managed to take most of his fingertips off with it when it jumped up at him. That wasn't pretty to look at.

UndercoverElephant

Where to start?!

In my illustrious DIY career I have:

1) Hit myself hard on the head with a sledgehammer whilst "straightening" a fence post. Actually, I was whacking it in a bit of a radge.
2) Knocked the end of my finger to bits with a large hammer.
3) Burned myself quite badly on a stump-grinder. There's a bit on it that has the word "Hot" embossed upon it. It is. Who knew?
4) My favourite: I dropped a 30m ladder on my head as I was clearing away. Suffered concussion for several days after.

That's just a taster. Strangely, my wife thinks cycling is dangerous.

Kieran_Burns

Well - if we're going to mention ladders...

Not strictly DIY, but when I were lad, I used to do window cleaning as a Saturday job (the stories I could tell.... )

We had this trick of bouncing the ladder a couple of degrees off straight to reach the last top corners of the windows. You're only one floor up so there's not much of an angle.

Well, I overdid it one time and the house owner (who was in the bedroom at the time) described vividly how I gently, but with increasing speed toppled sideways out of view while hanging onto the top of the ladder for grim death.

I ended up in next doors front garden groaning gently to myself.

bails87

From a similar thread:

bails87 wrote:

Removing grips from MTB bars.

-Hold end of grip with left hand
-Hold long, narrow screwdriver with right hand
-Push screwdriver between grip and bar with right hand
-Start bleeding from left hand
:oops:

optimisticbiker

oh the stories are myriad...

- groping for the soldering iron just out of peripheral vision while focusing on holding something still... and finding the hot end... - opening a tin of something with a thin sharp screwdriver... I still have the scars where it went in one side of my finger and out the other... - melting white-metal bearing material in a iron pan to repour a bearing and forgetting the handle gets hot... (hmmm, is there a theme here?) - cutting through a floor board with a circular saw and finding a hidden nail..which flew out and embedded itself in my leg... - failing to restrain the bonnet of a car in a wind and having it drop on my head, the catch taking a good chunk of scalp off just above the ear...

those are the ones I have physical reminders of.... there have been many more (and I'm the careful one, but accidents will always happen)

secretsam

Hammer, thumb, 4 year old child present, didn't swear but was in absolute agony

Also with child present, sliced open my hand when cutting bread

For a year or so after, whenever I went to cut anything, my daughter would say "Don't cut yourself, Daddy!" :oops:

sketchley

Not DIY, But as a Kid I broken my Collar Bone playing batman, and arm playing darts.

Clever Pun

you broke a bone playing darts? were you the dart?

cut myself numerous times with knives etc but nothing real serious...yet

rjsterry

+1 Just cuts and grazes so far.

The house was a bit of a wreck when we bought it, so there have been plenty of opportunities. My hands seem to have had one scab or another for most of the least 2 years. One in particular that I keep doing is gouging my arm on the (surprisingly sharp) corner of a newly assembled kitchen cabinet.

tonyscp

I was installing some new pipwerk in the bathroom when I managed to pick up the hot end (and I mean hot) of the blowtorch thinking it was a piece of pipe.

After unsticking my fingers, the problem, as you've all guessed, was that the water was turned off, so no cold relief. Thank god for the frozen veg in the freezer!

sketchley

Clever Pun wrote:

you broke a bone playing darts? were you the dart?

cut myself numerous times with knives etc but nothing real serious...yet

I was about 10, and couldn't reach double top. Having hit it, the arm breaking came from standing on a chair and pulling out said dart, I then fell off chair and landed on arm.......

I also knocked myself out serveral times as a kid, the most memorable one being whilst playing Cowboys and Indians and getting shot at the stop of the stairs. I backwards star jump as I was shot sent me backwards down the stairs... next thing I was waking up in hospital. According to my cousin who shot me it looked awesome.

Drysuitdiver

as a 15 yr old i dropped a soldering iron onto my leg from the workbench in the garage.


not strictly DIY but have a lovely scar on my left palm where a knife slipped as i was de-stoning an avocado ( how middle class an injury ).

generally been lucky on the DIY front, but as a tradesman ( time served sparks) you get taught how to work safely and most of the principles have been taken home with me. most of my injuries are now from non DIY rekated things. like bloodblisters/devils pinches from the hoover cable holder or the clip on the hose restraint . oh and i cut my finger on the door key once when i was a wee bit drunk.

mudcow007

not diy but ran into a window when i was 15, slashed open my cheek, neck, lip and thumb surprising still got the scars too. Barnstable hospital is not nice at 4am when the doc is asleep!!!

ive had loads of soldering irons "sticking" to me when its fell out of the holder an i have made a grab for it

burnt my self on the iron god knows how many times too, so i tend to get "her in doors" to do my ironing

veronese68

When we were moving into our house I opened the garage door to put some stuff in there and it was hanging down on one side (up and over door) I looked to see what was going on. Realised that the arm was not attached to the door and was stuck in the down position. I realised this just as it came loose and clouted me on the head with some force. Have you seen the size of the springs on those things? It knocked me onto my back. I sat up and said "Ouch, I think I should probably go to the hospital" Fortunately only a 2 minute drive away. We walked into A&E at about 10.30 on a Friday night when the place was full of drunks. A nurse took one look at me, sat me in a wheelchair and wheeled me straight in. A couple of stitches on an artery that got damaged and 8 stitches across my forehead. The blood had soaked through 3 layers of clothing. As we walked in the blood had soaked through the cloth my wife was holding to my head and was pouring off her elbow. That was a spectacular one. If you want to be seen quickly in A&E a major head wound helps.

graham.

Managed to to put a 3mm masonry drill bit clean through my first finger, trying to drill a hole on a grannit pebble! (Don't ask.) The tip of the bit was so hot, it caurterised as it went in and out again, and so no blood.
When I got back from A&E, I found that I had put the drill away before seeking some help!
Graham.

dcurzon

did a silly last night... put a new canister of MAPP gas on the burner, and there was a slight hissing. These canisters arent brimmed to allow the exchange of air (im guessing) so figured it was air coming in, as no gas smells etc. Clicked the starter, and turned out it was gas exiting, from round the sides of the burner head/canister, and it kept going... had to run out of the garage, clutching a burning blow torch, out the house, into the patio and set it down, then back into garage, grab heat proof gloves, pick canister up and remove it from burner, all whilst silently shitting meself.

thank feck the missus was out...

welkman

Just after Christmas I had a couple of days off work due to stress (doctors orders), having a dislike for the drugs she was trying to get me to take I decided the best bet was to split the entrire transit van full of logs we had had delivered just before christmas. It was going well, I was really working out that stress, until the axe missed the log I was aiming at and went straight into my shin. Thank god the axe was a bit blunt and the jeans I was wearing were strong, the axe split the skin despite not cutting through the jeans and my leg went purple and black for about 2 weeks!

shouldbeinbed

Sliced the tip of one finger open and carried on to embed the knife into the bone of the next one. That was cutting a cable tie off my bike.

Sawed the top of the same finger & part through the nail using one of the kitchen chairs as a saw horse. That one really hurt.

Grabbed the hot end of a soldering iron

Electrocuted myself fixing a photographic safelight in near total darkness.

Initialised

I figured out how the wiring in the kitchen ceiling worked with a little electric shock.

rjsterry

welkman wrote:

Just after Christmas I had a couple of days off work due to stress (doctors orders), having a dislike for the drugs she was trying to get me to take I decided the best bet was to split the entrire transit van full of logs we had had delivered just before christmas. It was going well, I was really working out that stress, until the axe missed the log I was aiming at and went straight into my shin. Thank god the axe was a bit blunt and the jeans I was wearing were strong, the axe split the skin despite not cutting through the jeans and my leg went purple and black for about 2 weeks!

That reminds me of being taught to use an axe in the Scouts. We were furnished with various grizzly anecdotes to emphasise the point about always standing with feet apart.

Flyingbogey

You lot are like a load of Reg Prescotts. Was that Kenny Everitt? Don't Involve Yourself is a mantra that has served me well.

redvee

When I had my first MTB and bar ends were starting to come into vogue. I made my own with some 3/4" alu bar. Done an OK job apart from the sharp edge thet could dent the top tube so trimmed it off in situ on the bike, when the saw cut through the alu it was only stopped from going further by the skin of my wrist to a depth of 1/4". Still have the scar some 20+ years later.

oscar-j

Ooooooh Betty!

Drysuitdiver

mudcow007 wrote:

not diy but ran into a window when i was 15, slashed open my cheek, neck, lip and thumb surprising still got the scars too. Barnstable hospital is not nice at 4am when the doc is asleep!!!

ive had loads of soldering irons "sticking" to me when its fell out of the holder an i have made a grab for it

burnt my self on the iron god knows how many times too, so i tend to get "her in doors" to do my ironing

reminds me of the old joke
How do you burn an idiots eaer?


Phone em up while they iron