Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tool & Die Makers Don't Wear Rings.

Dmn near ripped my finger out by the root when my ring got hooked on the floor grate latch on a KC-135 crew entry door. I was in kind of a hurry to get out of the airplane, good thing I had a firm grip on the ladder with my right hand. Haven't worn a ring since.

Maybe the first ones there were doing an "end zone celebration"???

Either the others were dead or they swam the other way.

It seems you fellows found my initial response too gentle.

Not really, we just wanted to get a couple of good kicks in as well.

Google "de-gloving" if you want some pictures to go with this thread.

Local fellow that comes in to where I work managed to do that with his right forearm...it really, really looks like it hurt a lot.

I've had to write a few to many reports about this kinda' thing, having provided first aid and transport to WAY too many industrial accidents, this "I always where my rings" stunt amongst.

voluntarily view more ?

...no thanks.

GTC

i worked on a metal cutting line in a factory not long after i got out of high school. we got rolls of galvanized metal that weight 30-40,000 lbs each.we cut them into narrow strips to make car mufflers out of. the cutting line had a roller that was 10ft wide and about 8in in diameter. my boss had told me a number of times to stop wearing my class ring while working because i could hang it on something and break or even lose my finger. we had to pick that heavy roller up every day a few times to change the blades that went on it to cut the metal. one day we were removing it from the arm it sat on the guy on the other end slipped and it pinned my hand directly under one of those blades.the only thing that kept it from cutting my hand half off was my ring. the blade landed perfectly on top of the set in my ring .it flattened the ring slightly around my finger and crushed the stone in it.after getting the roller off i was barely able to get the ring off my finger.

my boss was pretty happy that i was wearing my ring that day.

Several years back a local older farmer around here made an extremely painful mistake that came very close to ending his life while working too close to the power takeoff of his tractor with it still running and PTO engaged.

The loose fitting, baggy crotch coveralls he was wearing at the time got snagged by the PTO and commenced to twisting and twisting his coveralls, along with his privates. He lost a lot of blood, had a long, slow recover, but lived.

Nipple rings are O.K.

Show'em if ya got'em!

Happened to a young boy a couple of years older than me. Mom was death on PTOs as I was growing up - even when I got to high school.

My dad was a volunteer FF and responded to a call and the farmer had gotten his loose jeans caught in the PTO and it separated his leg at the knee joint. Dad packed the leg in snow and it rode in the ambulance to the hospital but there was to much damage to be used.

I can't imagine the pain having your leg torn off at the knee joint.

Exactly ^^^^^

I've managed to become nearly trapped in some complex machinery without a ring. For sure I would have lost a digit by now if I'd had that band on.

Dad used to always take off his watches when he started welding, or had to deal with a confined space, but it was more to keep his watch from getting damaged. I don't recall him ever taking off his wedding band.

When I was working in Dad's shop everybody worked barehanded, unless it was hot or sharp. Now seems like all mechanics have gloves to protect their hands, from dirt. I'm not sure I could start a damn bolt while wearing gloves.

Never have seen anyone get jewelry hung in a machine. I did see the aftermath of a young guy running a drill press while wearing gloves. The workpiece was too close to the spinning bit, and the bit grabbed his glove & tore off his thumb.

I possibly saved a customer's life one day, when I looked out of my office window and saw a salesman walking him through the fourslide department. If you're not familiar with them, fourslides usually have exposed shafts which turn as the machine runs. Yes the customer is getting an up-close look at the machine, with his tie dangling in the shafts. I ran out of the office yelling at them. The salesman was greatly embarrassed about it and never was very friendly to me thereafter. Oh well.

When I was running a shop - guys wore the gloves all the time, not due to dirt but sharp edges and the like.

Also brake clean is used so much, a lot of guys really wanted to limit their skin contact to it if they could.

Didn't bother me none that they wore them, tho we weren't running PTO's and the like.

I'm a journeyman tool and die maker. I first went to work in a machine shop in 1967, before my vacation in SEA. Came back, did my apprenticeship....

First thing I've always done after unlocking my tool chest is take off the wedding ring and put it in a drawer until the end of the shift. Around rotating spindles it's preferable to have a shop apron keeping your clothes flat and clean. Also, nothing below the elbows. Gloves around rotating spindle machinery are strictly a no no.

Most types of tool steels and other engineering materials aren't going to be damaged much by a gold or silver ring.

Just when you've thought you've heard everything....the Campfire never disappoints.

Next up:

The affects of unwaxed silverware on chapped lips...

I was working in a shop full of lathes, some of which had "wobble cutters" on the apron that ran off of the lead screw to manipulate the cutting tool in sync with the revolving part. Lots and lots of moving parts.

One of the operators was the long-haired body builder type. One day the inevitable happened and his hair got caught in a revolving part of the wobble cutter. He couldn't reach the shut-off but he managed to get two hands braced against the machine and kept his skull out of the moving parts. He just held rigid and let it pull his scalp off!