Power Drill Safety Mistakes You Don"t Know You"re Making: Loose Clothing, Jewelry and Piercings
I can remember working on a big construction project back in Lubbock Texas a few years back.
It was in January and our crew was working in a high-rise frame, coring out holes for cables and electrical in the concrete columns.
We worked long hours and were operating a power drill most of the time we were on the work site.
It is exactly this sort of working conditions that lead to mistakes.
If you've ever been to Lubbock, you know it is very windy most of the time.
In January, that constant wind made conditions rather severe for our outside crew.
Most of the crew simply had to wear long sleeves - it was just too cold.
Anyone who has worked with a cordless or electric drill before knows that long sleeves can be hazardous around a rotating tool, especially if that tool is a drill running at about 2000 RPM.
One of our crew named Jim, who had extensive experience working with drills, became very cold in that cutting West Texas winter wind.
So he decided to put on another coat.
Usually this is not a problem but in his case, this coat had straps on the ends of the sleeves.
These straps were intended to cinch up the sleeve and keep the cold out.
In a hurry to finish the core hole in which he was working, Jim forgot about the loose straps dangling from the ends of his sleeves.
Needless to say, the power drill caught the strap and forcefully pulled Jim's hand toward the rapidly rotating drill severely injuring his hand.
On a separate occasion, a crew worker who had a stud-piercing in his lower lip was injured when the drill bit threw a large piece of debris toward his face at high speed.
Sure, he would have probably been injured anyway, but the stud piercing made the injury much worse.
It seems the debris forced the stud through his lip causing it to crack several teeth.
Regarding any jewelry or piercings, it's just safer to remove them before working with power drills or any power tools for that matter.
For some reason, certain people think they do not need to abide by basic safety precautions when operating power tools and power equipment.
Precautions are created to keep you from being injured.
It is always best to follow prescribed safety precautions to the letter - every time.
Why take the chance?
It was in January and our crew was working in a high-rise frame, coring out holes for cables and electrical in the concrete columns.
We worked long hours and were operating a power drill most of the time we were on the work site.
It is exactly this sort of working conditions that lead to mistakes.
If you've ever been to Lubbock, you know it is very windy most of the time.
In January, that constant wind made conditions rather severe for our outside crew.
Most of the crew simply had to wear long sleeves - it was just too cold.
Anyone who has worked with a cordless or electric drill before knows that long sleeves can be hazardous around a rotating tool, especially if that tool is a drill running at about 2000 RPM.
One of our crew named Jim, who had extensive experience working with drills, became very cold in that cutting West Texas winter wind.
So he decided to put on another coat.
Usually this is not a problem but in his case, this coat had straps on the ends of the sleeves.
These straps were intended to cinch up the sleeve and keep the cold out.
In a hurry to finish the core hole in which he was working, Jim forgot about the loose straps dangling from the ends of his sleeves.
Needless to say, the power drill caught the strap and forcefully pulled Jim's hand toward the rapidly rotating drill severely injuring his hand.
On a separate occasion, a crew worker who had a stud-piercing in his lower lip was injured when the drill bit threw a large piece of debris toward his face at high speed.
Sure, he would have probably been injured anyway, but the stud piercing made the injury much worse.
It seems the debris forced the stud through his lip causing it to crack several teeth.
Regarding any jewelry or piercings, it's just safer to remove them before working with power drills or any power tools for that matter.
For some reason, certain people think they do not need to abide by basic safety precautions when operating power tools and power equipment.
Precautions are created to keep you from being injured.
It is always best to follow prescribed safety precautions to the letter - every time.
Why take the chance?
Source...