- Never ever stand next to a loaded chain or a rope when something is being towed or dragged. - If, and eventually when, that thing snaps it will cut you clean in half or cause a very painful injury;
- When messing with wires that might be powered never use both of your hands. - If you get shocked you reduce chances of serious injury significantly;
- Never wear gloves and too long sleeves when working with rotary tools. - If a tool catches your apparel it will pull the rest of the hand into it;
- Don’t enter steel containers that only have top hatch (like boat anchor chambers and similar). - Process of rusting is consuming oxygen. Entering such room which has no ventilation is deadly. There’s no time to even notice something is wrong and you’ll just pass out and die;
- Avoid painted parts on the road when riding anything on two wheels. - During the summer this is not a problem, but making a habit is a useful thing. The very first rain or frost will make painted parts be as slippery as ice;
- Always assume everyone in traffic will kill you. - There are no safe assumptions. If a person has turn signal on, only certainty there is that they have turn signal on. Don’t assume they are turning. Wait for them to start their action, then react. This is especially important if you are cycling or riding a motorcycle;
- Always obey the traffic rules, even if there’s no one close by. - Rules are set in place to make everyone behave in predictable manner. The fact you didn’t see anyone doesn’t mean there’s no one around and doing something unpredictably can kill you. One stupid example is when someone lets you merge but they have right of way. Doing such a thing makes it a very dangerous situation to everyone else who have no idea what to expect.
Wholeheartedly agree with the last point specifically. I once had a dude stop on an intersection to give me the right of way… while I was waiting for a RED STOP SIGN. This dude stopped in the middle of an intersection to allow me to run a red light, like this wasn’t a multi lane thing where he was the only lane giving me a ‘pass’ to run a red. I just looked at him until he decided he’d waited long enough.
Dude. Just go. The light will go green for me, I can wait 20 seconds.
I had that during my exam for motorcycle license, except it wasn’t a stop light, just regular intersection and we were both joining road with right of way. He was so set on letting me pass before him because I was wearing highvis vest with L on it and had a car behind me. Good for me, and him, I knew better not to listen to him and didn’t do anything until the cop from the car said it was okay.
Excellent instinct I’d say!
Thanks, but I think it was mostly common sense and I have heard a lot of stories how someone failed their exam because of silly things like these. I had a friend who failed because he “endangered cyclist” on the road, but he claims he left enough space when overtaking. In reality law only states that you should leave enough space for cyclist so they are not hindered. In my head that means change the lane, others thought it was okay to pass closer.
For your second point: If you suspect lines are live, you shouldn’t be messing with them at all. And don’t trust those little AC detector probes that light up and beep when they detect power nearby. Electricians call those widowmakers, because the apprentices will trust it, it fails to detect power, then the apprentice gets shocked because they think they’re working on dead lines when they’re actually live.
If you absolutely must check it without a proper multimeter, use the back of your hand, not your palm. It will cause your muscles to clench when you get shocked. So using the back of your hand will cause you to flinch away from the shock; If you use your palm or fingers, there’s a good chance that your muscles will contract around the wire and you’ll be “stuck” to it until someone else kicks you off.
Lastly, if someone nearby is being shocked, don’t grab them to pull them off. For the same reason as stated above. Your muscles will all lock up as soon as you grab them, and you’ll get stuck too. Kick them off instead. Kick hard. Like a full blown Sparta kick. You need to kick so hard their hands are ripped away from whatever they’re locked onto. Or if they’re not in a place you can kick them away, take off your shirt, twist it up, loop it over their shoulders, and pull. And again, you want to pull so hard you knock them completely over and rip their hands away from the electricity.
Quality.
A lot of people forget about not wearing gloves with rotary tools. All of those diy channels on youtube wear them when using a drill press and it makes me die inside.
Indeed. Sometimes when I watch people working with wood I honestly wonder how they still have all the fingers.
With regards to your container bit: don’t enter ANY confined space, regardless of where the egress is, without a lifeline and someone on the outside watching and ready to pull you out, preferably two or three people. Make sure THOSE people do not enter after you to get you if something goes wrong - chances are they’ll just wind up dead as well.
Yeah, plenty of gasses can accumulate on closed spaces but I’ve seen far too many documentaries about people dying with simple rust causing lack of oxygen.
Use jack stands for your car. If your body will be under the car for even a second, there should be jack stands. There were five different people at my high school who were in a wheel chair because they thought the jack was enough.
I don’t care if your jack costs $100,000 made of pure titanium; do not trust it.
Related pro tip, if you’re changing a flat tire and don’t have any jack stands, place the spare/damaged wheel under the car while you’re working on it. Better to have the car fall on the wheel then potentially your leg
They really need to print this one on the spare tire.
Why would you be under a vehicle to change a flat? You just sitting at the wheel legs under the car?
If no one told you not to, you wouldn’t know not to.
“My knees hurt from kneeling fussing with the nuts, but I still need to be close…”
I do this anytime I take a wheel off, even with jack stands. Doesn’t hurt anything and I’ll take anything extra between the chassis and my head I can get.
I just posted elsewhere in the thread, neighbor had his car roll off his jack stands because he was, let’s face it, dumb enough to be working on a sloped driveway. Crushed his head and killed him. His parents found him.
If you’re only using two jack stands get chocks too, not just a log from the wood pile.
People seem to think nothing bad will happen to them because it never has before. This is wrong.
People are way too comfortable with getting underneath unsecured loads, especially cars. I feel bad for the kid, but damn, don’t get under a car on a slope.
I need to buy some chocks now that you mention it. Parking brakes aren’t enough
People are way too comfortable with a lot of dangerous situations. There were two sanitation engineers in my city just a week ago who died trying to replace a pump in a subsurface pumping station (read: one of those big manholes that had a pump inside it). One dude went down to secure a rope around the pump, didn’t come back up, his buddy went in to save him, also didn’t come out. This is an almost identical event to one that happened 6 years ago in the same city, for the same sanitation department.
There was a waiter at my second job who was crushed by a car that fell off a Jack. Same, he was in a wheelchair. But then he (probably partially from continuing to do meth) had a heart attack and died 6 months later.
I was not expecting that ending
We weren’t either. I guess being in a wheelchair is hard on your heart already. He was only 45 too, and a really chill and nice dude.
Taking a wheel off of a car, and you don’t have jack stands? You have jack stands and are taking a wheel off as part of your work? Does it involve being under the car? Throw that wheel on the ground under the frame rail / pinch weld. If something horrible happens and the jack kicks, dropping the car on you, it may save your life, and you have to put that wheel somewhere anyway
I lost a coworker when his beloved 70s Camaro fell on him while he was alone at home. His partner had to come home and find him, and he was never quite the same. I tell everyone to use jack stands or a block or a wheel.
That had to be a HUGE wheelchair
Similar to this, once you have a vehicle on jack stands, shake it lightly to make sure it doesn’t fall easily. Better to find out now by shaking the car before being under it.
Cutting down trees of any real size is incredibly dangerous. They can kick or barber chair and instantly kill you.
For anyone like me who didn’t know what barber chair meant in this context: https://youtu.be/9O7H9qWdquk?si=KvGhTKrfYVUN84Pw
It’s when the tree rips in fucking half and tries to murder you specifically as an act of final revenge.
Investing some time in properly learning how to fell a tree is important. It doesn’t take long but can save a life and property damage.
Never ever EVER walk under a forklifts raised load (the pallet it’s carrying).
Things can fall from it, the hydraulics can giveway, the operator may not see you and lower it on you.
Especially an ‘order picker’ as the operator can not see under them.
Springs again, do not replace car shocks with a cheap spring compressor, my cheap ones bend and slipped when the springs were fully compressed. Literally like a mini explosion
I had a friend that told me he was going to replace his shock springs using Harbor Freight spring compressors, and I told him it was nice knowing him. Luckily it went ok, but that shit will rip you in half if things go sideways.
I was so lucky with my failure, it shot between my legs and missed, almost joining the eunuch community. If I ever want to do it myself again I will remove the shock absorbers, but then take them to a proper shop to remove and replace the shock
I actually did do a DIY spring swap on to my new struts with a “cheap” spring compressor from Harbor Freight. I did buy two sets, for a total of four spring compressors. Instead of using just two, I used three total spring compressors and ensured they were fixed properly with the guide pins locked in. Three points of support are inherently more stable than two or even four. I also compressed them with hand tools, as recommended in the instructions, and went around to compress each of the 3 little by little. I not only paid attention to the screw rotations, but to how much force each one was taking to spin so they would all be loaded up equally.
Still cheaper and more convenient than taking it in somewhere. And combining the extra safety factor of using an additional spring compressor, along with keeping the ends of the spring oriented perpendicular to my body at all times, I felt pretty good about it!
Funny anecdote - my first car was a Chevy Chevette. That thing was so under-built, undersized, under-specced ……
- I didn’t know about the existence of spring compressors but had no problem fitting them by hand. All ya gotta do is just press hard to compress them enough
- my brother said it was the easiest car to work on because the transmission was light enough to hold up with one hand while unbolting it with the other
If you have to secure something heavy to work under/beside it, secure some more.
My dad nearly lost a hand to it.
And don’t cheap out on safety devices. Don’t buy Walmart jackstands (for example) when you can purchase better quality ones from a more reputable vendor. Your life isn’t worth $20.
Edit: Better yet, since I mentioned them, learn yo’self: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6ufAL5R0mg
If you need info on most anything, this dude has tested it.
A neighbor of mine was working under his car (on a sloped driveway to be fair) and it rolled off the stands and fell on him. Killed instantly as his head was crushed.
Don’t forget to get real chocks and not just use miscellaneous junk from the garage.
Your life
isn’tis worth $20+.Corrected it for you 😉.
Always cut away from yourself (and others).
Computer Power Supplies (PSU)
Unless you have very specific training on opening one up, discharging it properly, and the skills to repair it safely for future use, just buy a new one when yours dies.
This is certainly a case of the phrase “voltage hurts, amps kill” to the best of my knowledge.
I received the above advice and heeded it.
My second IT job was filling the role of someone who never received this advice.
Same with microwaves
And old TVs, CRT monitors, etc. If you open it up and say “huh those capacitors look a lot bigger than normal ones”, don’t touch it. Put it back together, and leave it alone. Even if it’s been unplugged for days or even weeks, those things can - and sometimes do - hold enough juice to hurt you seriously, even kill you if several decide to discharge at the same time.
Was doing tours of primary schools and one had a “what’s inside?” Table where parents brought in old broken things for kids to disassemble.
One of the things was a computer with PSU. Spent my 10min interview with the teacher taking it apart to remove the PSU.
This goes for anything with large capacitors.
I replaced the spring on a garage door.
It’s officially the most dangerous thing I’ve done. Even if the door hadn’t almost crushed me it would still rank way up there.
I’ve worked on the Water with little LEO presence. I’ve carried a rifle for my queen. I’ve taken the crowchild to Glenmore exit in full drift in winter. I’ve fallen on my head, been run over, almost lost my arm, separate incidents. Swapping the spring on the garage door - in a rental no less - is still the riskiest and dumbest thing I’ve done.
So far.
taken the crowchild to Glenmore
What?
Fast & The Furious: Glenmore Drift
What makes Garage door springs so dangerous? I feel like the spring on a car shock absorber holds way more energy, and I’ve done that dozens of times with spring compressors of dubious quality. Just don’t put your body where the spring would like to go.
There are two types of garage door springs, and one is more dangerous than the other when it comes to replacing them.
If there is a single spring enclosing a shaft that spans the top of garage door opening then you have a torsion spring, and these are the more dangerous ones for a DIYer to replace because it has to be wound tightly enough to lift the weight of the door.
If your door has a spring on both sides of the tracks that guides the door overhead then you have extension springs that stretch when the door is closed. These can be safely & easily replaced when the door is open (make sure the door is somehow locked/blocked open and can’t close by accident). The springs should be under no tension at all when the door is open.
Garage springs become a lathe, spinning really fast. I’m sure you can find examples of lathe accidents on NSFL channels.
Additionally, it’s under tension. When suddenly not under tension, it has to release all that energy somehow - and these things have a LOT of potential energy wound up in them, it’s like your engine throwing a rod - except you, since you’re working on it, have a tendency to potentially wind up as the engine block in the analogy.
Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
Replacing torsion style garage door springs can be dangerous, but replacing extension springs is fairly straightforward and safe to do yourself. Extension springs are the ones that are parallel to the tracks the door slides on and should not be under any tension when the door is open.
One downside to extension springs is if/when they eventually break it’s likely to happen when the spring is under tension, and pieces can fly around the garage. To prevent this, string a length of wire cable through the center of the spring and attach it to the wall/ceiling at either end when the spring is extended. Leave a little slack in it so that it doesn’t interfere with regular operation of the door. This will prevent the pieces of the spring from shooting around the garage if it does break under tension.
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House or apartment, make sure carbon monoxide detectors are installed NEAR GROUND LEVEL.
So many slumlords do not even give a fuck, and many homeowners think they are just some other kind of smoke detector.
EDIT: bus_factor has pointed out to me that this is actually a common misperception. CO actually more or less evenly dissipates in a room and does not settle near the floor.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21536403/
Im now going to think about my life choices that lead me to this moment, and more importantly:
Go out for a breath of fresh air =P
My stepdaughter at 12 years old accidentally bumped into our gas stove and turned on one of the gas burners and then went to bed. Our cat came into the bedroom and started howling at 2AM and woke us up, alerting us to the smell.
Little dude saved our lives. The whole house was filled with gas.
If temperatures drop close to or below 0deg celsius, don’t drive with summer tires. It can get stupidly slippery in some spots.
I remember approaching a bend after a bridge on winter tires this november and having absolutely no control - at a measly 10kph. Ended up bumping into the curb,
If the temp is below 8c you’re at risk with summer tires; and even all-season.
All-weather will get you a little farther a little cooler but just put the winter snowies on.
The added bonus is they’re super grippy.
Loosen (but do not remove) lug nuts from a wheel, before jacking up the car.
How would failing to do this kill you?
I prefer to jack the car until the wheel is barely touching, then loosen the nuts while the wheel still doesn’t rotate, then jack it all the way up. Have I been risking my life somehow?
If the nuts are too tight you risk rocking the car off the jack when you undo them.
The least you’ll do is possibly damage your cars bodywork the worst is to injure yourself.
Hydraulic systems can be stupid dangerous. If you can’t be positive it’s depressurized, or are confident whatever work you’re about to do will hold when it is pressurized, take the time to find someone knowledgeable.
Of a few other issues: even a small stream can more or less act as it’s own hypodermic, putting really nasty (chemically and biologically) stuff into deep tissue. The resulting infections have killed people. I don’t think it’s like a death sentence but it can that sort of bug you think you’ll sleep off and wake up dead.
I work around a lot of grosse stuff, but it doesn’t get a head start from inside my muscle tissue.
