First Aid tips for metalworking

[andremajic]

Hey guys,

So you're out in your shop, grinding, polishing, making chips on the lathe or mill, and a stray bit of sharp grit or steel sliver get's in your eye. Unless you're wearing those full chemical goggle style eyepro, eventually you're going to get something in your eye. (Maybe it wasn't a steel shaving, maybe you were looking up at an icicle and it fell off the roof and hit your glasses?)

Here's a great tip to get it out.
1. Stop freaking out, if you can see you're not blinded so slow down.
2. If you have a full service shop with eye wash stations, and OSHA approved everything you probably would just rinse your eye out. (For 15-20 minutes....right...)
3. Go up to a mirror and pull back your eyelid and find the annoying spec, grab a q-tip and while curling/rolling the q-tip towards you, gently touch the spec with it.
If you've ever run a q-tip down the muzzle of the barrel and it catches any rough spots you'll know exactly what I mean and why it works so well. The cotton will snag it and take it away with it.
4. Tell everyone that you ALWAYS wear eyepro and this has NEVER happened to you.
5. Find your eyepro and put it on.





Another tip:
Ever get those annoying slivers of cactus fine steel stuck in your fingers or hand? (You know, the hairy type of cactus that even with fine tweezers you have trouble removing?)
Grab a piece of duct tape or other sticky tape and rub it across your skin. After about 4 or 5 tries it will catch the exposed piece of steel and pull it free.
Works great. (It probably works for cactus too!)

Andy.

[oldred]

Another tip, if an eye injury is serious enough to warrant a trip to the ER cover BOTH eyes (of course if the injury is that bad you are going to need someone else to drive anyway!) because the foreign object will usually cause a lot more damage if the eye is moving around. If only one eye is covered the victim will almost always be looking around during the trip and BOTH eyes will move! (ever try moving just one eye?) If both eyes are covered then usually neither eye will move during the time leading to the ER and professional assistance so damage will be minimized.

[Rojelio]

If the sliver is ferrous metal and not imbedded, a lot of times a small magnet will pluck it right out. Worked for me several times.

[Andrew Mason]

^this^

my fiend got a steel sliver in his eye, going over with a small, rare earth magnet pulled it right out.

[220swiftfn]

For me, milled brass slivers were the worst, you could feel them, but you couldn't SEE them..... I had a jeweler's loupe and a ground down set of fine tip medical tweezers in the toolbox for times like that...... And even then, sometimes I had to dig them out......


Dan

[DCM]

For cuts 33+ electrical tape holds better than any bandage or medical tape especially when wet.

For bad cuts use superglue.

[arjacobson]

I have ALWAYS worn eye protection while machining. I have still had my eye scraped 3 times over the last 30 years. Usually get the shaving in my eye during a shower.... GO TO THE DOCTOR!! BTW I would much rather have metal removed from my eye than wood... Don't ask...

[jonas302]

The fuzzy end of a paper match stick works for eye slivers too

[andremajic]

If you ever get "metal fume fever" from welding zinc and such you need bed rest and tylenol/asprin for headache. The old wives take about drinking a lot of milk doesn't work. It usually resolves in about 4 days.

Drinking milk might work for some people because they are suffering from a headache from lack of food/dehydration. (Thinking it's metal fume fever)
When you drink milk, you get both food and water, which is probably why it gained popularity as a remedy in the past.

[nanuk]

while riding in a boat, my forearm rested on the fiberglass gunwale and I got a Gazzilion glass fibers in the underarm of my forearm.

within 1/2 hour, it has swollen up over 1/2" think... started to get quite painful.

I took some fresh duct tape and laid a piece on, and smoothed it onto the swollen area, then gently lifted it off. I could see the glint of 1/3 Gazzilion glass fibers. I did the same about 5 more times. then left it for while. the swelling went down, and I did it a few more times. The swelling receded completely in a couple hours, so I took a piece of duct tape and wiped my arm with it like a tack-cloth, and pulled most of the rest out.
Duct tape saved me a lot of grief.

a couple years later, I got fibers in my hands from some raw fiberglass rods.... Good old duct tape worked good again. (now, I'd use "Gorilla Tape" as it has better sticky stuff)

[DougGuy]

If you weld or work with hot metal, get a tube or two of Burn Gel and stick them in a first aid kit, toolbox at work, and use them in the first 2mins of getting a burn, they take about 30% of the healing time out of it, hardly have a scar and after about a minute from putting it on, it don't even hurt any more.

If you don't have burn gel, and you burn your arm on a hot piece of pipe, stick brake fluid on it, does the same thing.. I have even popped the hood and dipped my finger in the master cylinder before. Known this trick since the 1970s and it still works today as long as it isn't synthetic brake fluid.. It might even work with synthetic, I just have never tried it. DOT 3 and 4 work good.

Harley owners/riders + drag pipes = every now and then you get a burn on the forearm from the pipes, or take a girl riding and she sticks her ankle on a hot pipe, get the master cylinder opened and put some brake fluid on it asap. Who said there ain't no room on a bike for a first aid kit?

[oldred]

If you ever get "metal fume fever" from welding zinc and such you need bed rest and tylenol/asprin for headache. The old wives take about drinking a lot of milk doesn't work. It usually resolves in about 4 days.

Drinking milk might work for some people because they are suffering from a headache from lack of food/dehydration. (Thinking it's metal fume fever)
When you drink milk, you get both food and water, which is probably why it gained popularity as a remedy in the past.


You're right it definitely does not work and while it doesn't hurt anything either when used as a "cure" it is dangerous when used as a PREVENTIVE for metal fume fever! I have more than once encountered people who said to drink milk before welding galvanized metal and the fumes will not make them sick! This is TOTAL 100% USDA CERTIFIED BS!



Another one is the old, and extremely popular, tale about using potatoes for welding flash burn to the eyes, that one can blind you! In the first place there is nothing in a potato to help the burn and the relief that is felt is from the cooling effect which is much better done with an ice pack. What using potatoes can do is cause a serious infection (raw potatoes are NOT sterile!) that can easily lead to blindness and I personally know a guy that was off work for over three weeks with an eye infection from using this very stupid old "trick". Don't believe me? Just ask a doctor!

[s mac]

For a not so serious cut that is bleeding profusely pour ground black pepper on the wound, it soaks up blood, makes a scab and sops the bleeding. Have done this many times, pepper causes no pain.

[oldred]

For a not so serious cut that is bleeding profusely pour ground black pepper on the wound, it soaks up blood, makes a scab and sops the bleeding. Have done this many times, pepper causes no pain.


Never heard that one before but I will certainly give it a try, seems I am often getting nicked out in the shop!

[andremajic]

Even better product for stopping bleeding. Combat gauze. Get friendly with a medic and ask for some of the expired stuff. They just throw it out. It still works after it's "expired". I got a pretty deep cut on my finger and it was bleeding pretty bad. Once itty bitty piece of expired combat gauze held in place staunched the blood. The stuff works awesome!

One roll can be cut into over 100 "patches" which work great for even deep cuts in the skin. Hold it on the cut for 3 minutes.

Plastic surgeons use it as well to help with the post op bleeding. Check the youtube video where they're peeling the guys face back and putting in combat gauze during the "facelift".

My guess is the companies aren't making enough money, so they put an arbitrary date on the package so they can sell more supplies. Just to get on another tangent - Why is there an expiration date on bottled water? Does it cease being water after 3 years????

On a different note; Expired medications. There are quite a few that become less effective and break down as time goes by. You'll have to research which ones. Some actually get more potent as they age as well. Use some common sense when it comes to expiration dates.

[oldred]

- Why is there an expiration date on bottled water? Does it cease being water after 3 years????

Most likely decomposition of the plastic container and that can happen in days or even hours if left in bright sunlight! Ever taste water from a plastic bottle that had been sitting in the sun for a while? That's some dangerous chemicals that are leaching into the water as that plastic decomposes, scary when you think about it.