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Building Injuries....

Running my thumb knuckle into a bandsaw while carving on a chunk of Delrin stock to make a spacer for an RV-8 baggage door holder.
 
So far? A couple of scraped/dinged knuckles, and a few "OUCH!! Found that rivet... with my knee" instances. So far no blood. The worst looking was from riveting bottom wing skins. Looked like I got in a fight with a weed whacker.

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So far? A couple of scraped/dinged knuckles, and a few "OUCH!! Found that rivet... with my knee" instances. So far no blood. The worst looking was from riveting bottom wing skins. Looked like I got in a fight with a weed whacker.

When I was at this stage, my son came up with a good idea to prevent this rash. Cut the toes out of a tube sock and wear it on your arm. It works great!

Bob
 
I had never held a rivet gun before and I hooked it up to my air compressor which was set up way to high and set it against my left hand and yes I pulled the trigger..... My thumb immediately closed as it tore up a tendon at the base of my thumb requiring surgery to correct and 6 weeks of healing.
Can someone say Stupid
All I said was $!/@


Smilin Jack
 
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See that gnarly-looking scar on my left thumb's knuckle? Wanna know how that happened? Let's just say that scotchbrite wheels are meant for metal, NOT SKIN! They will take your skin off in a hurry, and healing takes a long time for some reason.

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I had a few of these, too, by the way.

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All I can say in conclusion is, at least I never drilled a hole in my finger, like a lot of other builders have done.
 
A fix

An old logger once told me to ask your pharmacist to make up some "Ghost of iodine" and put a drop or two on a deep scratch or small cut and it will seriously expedite healing.

I took his advice 20 years ago and still use it occasionally...stings like H@#$ for a minute but it's well worth it.

Best,
 
Good idea

When I was at this stage, my son came up with a good idea to prevent this rash. Cut the toes out of a tube sock and wear it on your arm. It works great!

Bob

That is a good idea. Wish I knew that one when I was doing the wing skins.
 
Fly cutter

Got a deep cut from the fly cutter. Finger works fine but I may never get the feeling back on about half of a finger tip. In my opinion it's the most dangerous tool in the shop. Be cautious.
 
Pneumatic squeezer, wiping proseal of the rivet sets whilst doing the tanks. Had the squeezer trigger down on the bench. Right index finger, the one I write with. Took 6 months for the nail to grow back. Couldn't stop as the proseal would have gone off without the tank being sealed. Wrapped masking tape and electrical tape around my finger and finished off the tank baffle.
 
I had finished cutting some large holes using the fly cutter. Can't remember what for, but was left with some 5-6" circles with razor-sharp edges. Before I put them in my reusable-scrap bin I thought it would be a good idea to debur the edge so I wouldn't cut myself later.

That disk of death caught on the scotchbrite wheel and was flung across the shop like a frizbee from h#ll. Passed through my left idex finger on the way cutting to the bone. Luckily, it caught the side of my finger and missed any tendons. I super-glued it closed and it healed ok. Went to the doc a week later just to make sure there was no issues. He laughed when I told him about the glue.

The most painful one was when I was building the wings. My wing assembly fixture had angle-iron horizontal members. Work space in the shop was tight. One time I was too close to the fixture and stood up under the angle (not deburred of course). It caught me across the back leaving two deep scrapes (from the corners) all the way down my back.

After I cussed about that for a while I went back to work on the same bit. Next time I stood up I caught the angle again.....@#$%^$##%%
 
Severely Lacerated Thumb

While deburring the edges of one of my fuel tanks, I was dragging the v-edge deburring tool along when it slipped off. The momentum of my downward and lateral pressure dragged my right thumb across the ragged edge of the aluminum. It was one of those things where I stood there looking at the open wound thinking, "now this is going to hurt!" :eek: After two or three seconds of staring at clean white flesh, the blood began to flow and it took me the better part of a half-hour to get the hemorrhaging under control. Now I always wear gloves when I debur with that tool.

Ah, scars.... Each has its own story. :rolleyes:
 
I don't remember that I hurt myself when building RV-9A. Of course it was 7 years ago and at my age I am not supposed to remember those events:(.

I did drill into my finger toward the end of building RV10. Fortunately a ban-aid was suffice for the injury.

Why didn't I think of wearing a long sock on my arm as Bob Leffler's son suggested. It would solve the arm itch problem from working on fiberglass parts.
 
Two that stand out in memory ...

First, drilling a #12 hole in the palm of my left hand (aka primary parts holder). But only about halfway thru. ;)
Second, how about a herniated disc? After I got my engine hung, I decided to reuse the crate/pallet lumber to build some short benches to go on each side of the fuse to ease access to the interior (especially during wiring). The pallet nails are w-a-y hard to remove. I was holding part of the pallet down with one foot, and then reefed way hard on a crowbar while I was bent over and twisted far to one side. Yep, that did it. Herniated the disc at L4/L5, which caused excruciating sciatic pain. Took 3 1/2 mo before I could walk normally, and seven months of PT and chiropractor before the back was close to normal. And all that to salvage maybe $10 of lumber. Yikes.
P.S. Have never had a serious back injury before or since.
 
me too

So far? A couple of scraped/dinged knuckles, and a few "OUCH!! Found that rivet... with my knee" instances. So far no blood. The worst looking was from riveting bottom wing skins. Looked like I got in a fight with a weed whacker.

DSCF0380-1024x768.jpg

Not quite an injury but painful after a while.... decided that when I take break from the next row or wing ribs, i will put on a long sleeved sweater.... but yeah I had exactly the same whipper snipper marks earlier today.... disappeared after a good hot shower
 
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When I was at this stage, my son came up with a good idea to prevent this rash. Cut the toes out of a tube sock and wear it on your arm. It works great!

Bob

Bob, if there were room for a layer or two of fabric I'd do that!

Not to change the subject, but ss a gravitationally-challenged individual building an RV, I have to say that getting my pilot certificate and to a much greater degree starting an RV has made me much, much more conscious of my health and weight. Between realizing that even a single minor heart attack with a full recovery would still put me on the lifetime no-fly list... and the realities of W&B and gross weight calculations... my perspective and priorities are changing.

I look at the wing walk area and all the effort that I'm putting into the wing, and I don't want to dent or bend anything. I don't want to have to leave baggage or fuel behind. I want to be able to give my 300# (body bu8ilder, strong as two oxen) son a ride. And most of all, I want to fly until I'm just too old to get into the cockpit any more.

I'm back at the gym and eating healthy again. I'll probably live 20 years longer just from finally learning to fly.
 
Just cleaning the shop

Dropped a large bench vise on my toe while wearing flip flops, crushing the toenail which eventually fell off. See thread on shop safety from least summer :-(
 
Tennis (Cleco) elbow

I got tennis elbow, supposedly from poor technique with my cleco pliers (holding it too close to the pivot so less leverage) while working on wing skins. I had to quit building for 3 months and when I insisted on going back, the pain was still noticeable for about another 3-6 months.

There is a thread on it here - "Builders' Elbow"
 
Most drilled fingers I've seen are through the skin side from drilling through a part while holding it. Mine went through the nail side when a 1/16" bit broke while trying to center up the hole while drilling out a rivet. Actually I'm kind of glad my finger was there to keep the drill from making a new hole in the part; cheaper and easier to fix...
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I've also had the beginning of carpal tunnel caused in part by cleco pliers. Wearing a brace at night for a month or two got things straightened out, and to prevent a recurrence I use a pneumatic cleco pistol when working with large numbers of clecos in a short time, like installing wing skins.
 
I don't remember anything really serious (maybe I have a selective memory), but my riveting mentor Jim Cone once advised me never to try out a rivet gun on the palm of your hand and not to test the holding strength of a Cleco side clamp on your finger. I'm guessing he found out the hard way. Needless to say, I followed his advice.

I did make two trips to the emergency room while rebuilding my front porch, but that was not RV related.

Jim Bower
St. Louis, MO
RV-6A N143DJ
Flying since 2011
 
Drill through the finger.

Drill through the hand (learning had not occured yet).

Scotchbrite to the knuckles.

Bucking bar on the foot wearing flops.

There are more, those are just the most recent ones that come to mind.
 
We are fortunate that the human body is mostly able to heal itself.
  • Side-grip clekos are strong!
  • Scotchbrite blending wheels don't know the difference between metal and flesh (nor do most tools).
  • Yes, your finger IS behind that spot you're drilling.
  • When you feel something wet and slippery inside the part, yeah, it's your blood.
  • Molten lead and flip-flops are a bad combination (close, but learned a lesson)
  • Any rivet left on the floor will be located with your knee or heel.
  • If you think it will take too long to clamp the part down, you will probably spend more time re-making it, not counting time for healing, or the time spent frantically trying to turn off the machine while the sythe of death flails about. (a momentary foot-switch is great on a drill press...just sayin')

the trick is to have all the accidents during the BUILD phase....
 
I drilled through my thumb nail while building wings. Typical scenario, it was late, I was tired, and the task was to final drill/match drill rows of holes. Drilling became so routine that I didn't even think about where I should or should not put my fingers. Luckily, the drill stopped right drilling through the nail, not too deep into the thumb. Took me almost two months to fully recover. Since then, I always check my hand position while holding something for drilling. I count that as experience. :D
 
Nothing major on my build but I read where on builder suffered a heart attack caused by the vapors while applying the finish on the interior of his cabin top. I beleive all ended up OK but short of dying this has to be the worst thing I ever heard.
 
Here's a few I have experienced

-Daughter gave me a hard hat for Christmas one year. Nuff said.
-Sliced fingers and hands on most SS parts I drilled, cut, or sanded.
-Scotchbrite wheel scuffs, abrasions from kickbacks and lack of attention.
-Only one drilled finger.
-Ever been hit with a cleco you didn't compress correctly and it slipped past the end of the cleco pliers? Don't.
-Found how efficiently MEK or Acetone locates the smallest cut in my hands.
-Learned not to just stick my hand in the scrap aluminum container rummaging for that right piece unless I decide to debur all those cut edges.
-Oh, and my personal best.... Tendonitis of both elbows and shoulder from isometric squeezing on the manual rivet squeezer over time. I should have bought a pneumatic squeezer. That one only took 1 year to feel almost normal after several cortisone injections.
I am so much smarter now. I don't need no frikkin respirator. I'll just hold my breath.;)
 
After building two RV9A planes, we left plenty of DNA samples for any CSI team to follow.
Buddy about cut his thumb off when he hurriedly walked too close to the wing stand and the skin caught his thumb.
Walked into step on both sides of the plane (repeatedly).
Scotchbright wheel defolinated my finger.
Cutoff wheel and scotchbright make aluminum parts 1200* in a hurry.
Buddy tells me to put pressure over hole #4 while he drills #3. He can't count.
Dropped verticle stabilizer on my flip flop protected foot.
Buddy drilled his finger (instead of mine over #4).

We finally came up with a shop rule. If it does not bleed then it can't hurt.

Can't tell you how many times one of us would smash something, hold a hot piece of aluminum or run into that darn step and hop on one foot while holding the hurt body part while the other person would run over and ask to see if it was bleeding. If no blood then we would scold the seemingly hurt person and tell them to get back to work.
Hard to hurt when one is laughing.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
RV9A N942PT
 
Adjusting the jaws on the pneumatic squeezer. Managed to operate the trigger with my arm and squeezed the flesh of my fingertip with 90psi. Split the skin in 2 places and crushed what was in between. "Ouch" somehow doesn't quite cover it.......
 
While waiting for my -10 tail kit to arrive, I started cleaning out the garage to get it ready for building again. Was lifting some stuff into the rafters and managed to rupture my right distal biceps tendon - basically it tore loose from where it attaches to the radius.

The tail kit arrived four hours after I got home from surgery, where it sat in the garage for the next four months before I could even handle the lightest parts or tools.

Technically it happened before I started building again, but I'm counting it.
 
I was drilling holes in the panel back for the switch retainer rings, so actually not completely through the panel.
On one hole I wanted to go just a little deeper and broke through the panel and drilled completely through the index finger and the nail. The finger was kind of dumb for half a year. Stupid to support the panel with fingers instead with a wood block !
 
It never fails, I always break the chips off with my finger after drilling, but I have not learned yet to DO NOT TOUCH THE SS BURR. those cuts seam to bleed for a long time?
 
Safety Tips

Although I have been extremely careful while building my RV-7 mainly due to the safety culture instilled in me in my 30+ years experience working in aircraft maintenance, I've also been lucky with a few close calls, exclusively due to unsafe acts on my part.

Many studies have been done by commercial aviation entities and the FAA to improve safety, and also apply directly to building a homebuilt aircraft. The following "Dirty Dozen" factors lead to most errors/injuries:

  • Fatigue
  • Stress
  • Complacency
  • Communication
  • Awareness
  • Distraction
  • Lack of knowledge
  • Teamwork
  • Lack of resources
  • Pressure
  • Lack of assertiveness
  • Norms

I highly recommend taking the following FAASafety training course if you are intending to build or maintain an aircraft. The course is free but you must register:

https://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/course_content.aspx?pf=1&preview=true&cID=107
 
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Nose Out of Joint

My RV-6 was still upside down in it's jig. I was kneeling down in front of one of the 2x6 firewall jig uprights. As I stood up, I twisted quickly to the right. Unfortunately, my nose made direct contact with the upright and made a distinct cracking noise. My nose was pushed noticeably to the left side of my face. The end result was nasal reconstruction surgery. Thank goodness my new project doesn't require a jig.
 
Building injury...

My worst injury during the build was near the end of the build. While unloading the plane parts from the truck used to move it to the airport. I fell off of the ramp at the back of the truck and tried to catch myself and broke my thumb. I was in a cast for six weeks, the worst part was having all that time off work and not being able to much work on the plane with just one hand!!
 
If my 9a were ever a location for a CSI investigation my blood (DNA) would be everywhere. Nothing like cutting the tip of my finger off during my wood working days. If there's no blood residue in an RV at final inspection the DAR should run. The builder isn't human.

Let's keep it to as few and inconsequential as possible. :)
 
Some gutsy stories out there...so its not just me, and my thought that RV building & modifying is sometimes a tough sport is true after all! ;)

We've had drilling through the fingerprint and drilling through the nail; I'll meet ya in the middle. Drilling the holes in the baffle left inlet ramp lower-outer corner. Clecos in, but holding the material together for security and line-up, fingers on top pointed down, drill bit going up...right between the nail and the finger, parallel to the nail bed. Three laps of the hangar, speaking jibberish because my sons were there, and couldn't scream what I wanted to! Shop towel and masking tape bandaid, and press on! Made a cool tunnel that took a while to heal.

I've also discovered that timing is everything when removing side-grip clecos. Keep the free hand clear until the cleco is off the material and fully closed! Don't go for the grab early! That one may have hurt more than the drill, but didn't bleed.

I think it was Paul Dye that told me to try not to bleed on the plane, but that the plane isn't truly yours till you bleed on it. By that metric, though I bought mine, its truly mine! :rolleyes:

Cheers,
Bob
(Trying not to bleed on it, one day at a time!)
 
...I've also discovered that timing is everything when removing side-grip clecos. Keep the free hand clear until the cleco is off the material and fully closed! Don't go for the grab early! That one may have hurt more than the drill, but didn't bleed....

I'd laugh if that weren't one of the first lessons I learned when I started building...
 
The most painful one was when I was building the wings. My wing assembly fixture had angle-iron horizontal members. Work space in the shop was tight. One time I was too close to the fixture and stood up under the angle (not deburred of course). It caught me across the back leaving two deep scrapes (from the corners) all the way down my back.

After I cussed about that for a while I went back to work on the same bit. Next time I stood up I caught the angle again.....@#$%^$##%%


I did that, but I stood up and caught it with the top of my head. Flapped my scalp open, and blood sheeted down my face. Not a good day :)
 
Iodine

[
My country bumpkin Grandmother (who was wonderful) used full strength Iodine on our cuts when we were kids, watched my brother pass out one time. LOL!! She said that if medicine didn't taste bad or hurt It couldn't be workIng.

OUCH!




An old logger once told me to ask your pharmacist to make up some "Ghost of iodine" and put a drop or two on a deep scratch or small cut and it will seriously expedite healing.

I took his advice 20 years ago and still use it occasionally...stings like H@#$ for a minute but it's well worth it.

Best,
 
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drilled in finger for me too

I too have drilled so deeply into my finger I had to reverse the drill to get the bit out of my finger. My knees buckled a bit when it happened. I cant believe the bit didn't come out through my fingernail on the other side. I still have big drops of blood on my workshop (garage) floor from the incident. Needless to say, I have learned my lesson.
 
This is so cool, if your bald like me, no explanation is necessary you've already be diced and sliced. I think some Indian spirit has tried to scalp me
Smilin' Jack
 
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