So last night I'm at the shop working on some rusty old C clamps I recently picked up. Nice old USA made forged clamps that when clean operate smoothly. To get the rust off I use a wire wheel mounted on a 1 hp motor. The motor sits on top a mobile cart next to other bolted down grinders. The whole cart weighs a couple hundred pounds. I've used this motor/wire wheel combo for years and take the wire wheel seriously because I know it can cause injury. Needle like wires will fly from it and stick into flesh so I always wear eye protection and over the years have developed a feel for operating so that I don't get my hand pulled into the wheel.
So here is how it went down. I was running a 8" coarse wheel while moving the 6" C clamp around. It only took a couple minutes to completely clean each clamp and have the screw operate like new again. What didn't occur to me, and it is plain as day after it happened, was if you held the clamp just right, such that both inside ends of the 6" clamp touched the 8" wheel, the entire clamp would be IMMEDIATELY SUCKED INTO THE SPINNING WIRE WHEEL, jerking it from your hands in a fraction of a second. When that happens you have a large 2-3 lb piece of steel spinning at 1800 rpms WHACKING YOUR HANDS. The force of that unbalanced weight spinning is quite amazing. The lag bolted down motor ripped itself from the cart. The cart was jerking so violently two other grinders lag bolted were pulled from the cart. As fast as I could I jerked the power cord. Lucky for me the C clamp didn't go flying. My thumb and a few fingers are swollen, purple, still throbbing, and a nail is going to fall off, but overall the injuries are minor, especially given the force involved.
I learned something new, you need to take a look at what you are running through a wire wheel and consider if there is there any way it could jam. I always assess how to hold a piece to keep from getting my hands pulled into the wheel, but now I'll look for the possibility of the item locking on and will change the wheel size to eliminate the risk. Well that and maybe I ought to buy a bucket of Evapo-rust.
Eric
So here is how it went down. I was running a 8" coarse wheel while moving the 6" C clamp around. It only took a couple minutes to completely clean each clamp and have the screw operate like new again. What didn't occur to me, and it is plain as day after it happened, was if you held the clamp just right, such that both inside ends of the 6" clamp touched the 8" wheel, the entire clamp would be IMMEDIATELY SUCKED INTO THE SPINNING WIRE WHEEL, jerking it from your hands in a fraction of a second. When that happens you have a large 2-3 lb piece of steel spinning at 1800 rpms WHACKING YOUR HANDS. The force of that unbalanced weight spinning is quite amazing. The lag bolted down motor ripped itself from the cart. The cart was jerking so violently two other grinders lag bolted were pulled from the cart. As fast as I could I jerked the power cord. Lucky for me the C clamp didn't go flying. My thumb and a few fingers are swollen, purple, still throbbing, and a nail is going to fall off, but overall the injuries are minor, especially given the force involved.
I learned something new, you need to take a look at what you are running through a wire wheel and consider if there is there any way it could jam. I always assess how to hold a piece to keep from getting my hands pulled into the wheel, but now I'll look for the possibility of the item locking on and will change the wheel size to eliminate the risk. Well that and maybe I ought to buy a bucket of Evapo-rust.
Eric
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