"Roger" wrote in message
...
On 19 Feb 2006 13:00:19 -0800, wrote:
SNIP
But as to safety, I've had a half inch drill bit pull a piece a 1/4
inch Aluminum out of the clamps and try to beat the column to death,
but I've never seen anything throw a piece like an innocent looking
surface grinder. I saw one smash a hole in concrete block wall.


I have a rolling workbench in my hangar that I made. I built it out of
leftover oak cabinet parts when I was building my wife's kitchen cabinets.
I had it all finished and I was trimming 1/16 of an inch off of one side of
the cabinet doors so they would fit properly on my 3HP cabinet saw. I
accidentally jiggled the door in the saw as I was making this minor trimming
cut. I went ahead and put that door on the workbench anyway so that I would
be reminded every time I looked at it what that saw can do if you get just a
smidgin careless or complacent. :-)

I also remember a time when I was a young man working as a structural
ironworker. It is not unusual for the holes you need to connect the
structural iron in a building to not properly line up. Every once in a
while you get a guy who puts a wrong dimension on a drawing, or who measures
wrong, or whatever. When that happens with structural iron, you don't
usually discover it until you are fifty feet in the air hanging on by
toenails trying to get a bolt into this darn thing so it will stay together
long enough to unhook the crane and get the next piece. Solution? Sure.
We kept a cutting torch on the job with REAL long hoses so we could reach
the bad spot and burn a properly located hole to get the job done. One day
I was hanging out there with the torch trying to get it into position to
burn a hole so we could get a bolt in to hold the steel in place. I could
almost reach the spot. I get the hose a little jerk to get the slack out of
it and cut the hole. Unfortunately, I already had all of the slack out of
it. When I jerked, the full oxygen tank fell over against a concrete wall.
Real unfortunately when it hit the wall it busted my gauges off of the tank.
That tank took off like a toy balloon when you blow it up and let it go! It
took off with such vigor that it went right through a 12 inch concrete block
wall. Made a believer out of me. Don't jerk those hoses now. :-)

Highflyer
Highflight Aviation Services
Pinckneyville Airport ( PJY )