Hobby horror story

[Jantrix]

In my LHS yesterday I spotted a fellow in a full leg (ankle to hip) cast talking to the manager of the store. The manager is long time friend of mine and mentioned what happened to the guy as I was checking out. Seems the guy (RC planes hobbiest) had decided to use his Dewalt shop vac as the exhaust for his paint booth. It worked great for several months. And then one day it exploded on him. Bada boom.

The top of the vac (where the motor is) slammed into him breaking his right femur (upper leg bone) destroying his right knee and get this.....................rupturing his right testicle. Yeah, my insides cramp up just thinkin' about it too.

The moral of this story? Use the right tool for the job as my Dad would say. Make sure you have a motor that is safe to pull combustable gases and fumes through. The consequences could be.....................well. There you are.

[Custom Hearse]

All I can say is YEEEEEOOOOUUUUCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[evilone]

HOLY GOD.Im holding my goods right now .He got busted up by a shop vac he better make up a real good story to tell the ladies.If he is reading this just say there was a police pursute and the driver aimed his car right at a old lady.So you dove to save her and your leg was hit in the long run.

[Rob Hall]

Ouch..that makes me hurt down there just reading it...

[DR Dubois]

Still clenching my teeth!!!!!

[Steven Zimmerman]

I broke my left femur and lost part of my left foot in a car accident in october '69,got my draft notice while in the hospital. no cast,but an 18" beryllium rod in my left femur,crutches for 9 months..... Flunked my draft physical because of that,everybody else in my draft induction that passed theirs was sent to Vietnam................nuff said......'Z'

[Jerry Steinbacher]

I am a Q/C auditor for Shop-vac Corp. and a warning is prominently displayed on each unit that they are not to be used to pick up flammable or combustible articles ie, hot coals, flammable liquids or fluids (gas, oils,PAINTS or SOLVENTS). Maybe some of us should read and take these warnings more seriously. I'm not making light of the man's injuries, but he was warned...

Jerry

[Dave in Seattle]

Maybe natural selection has a few more rounds to go....

Had it taken out both testicles, he could have been a candidate for a Darwin Award!

Dave

[mredzadventure]

Ouch Man ! I deal with Hazardous Waste and Flammable stuff every day at work. Let me tell ya. Fumes are the worst ,any paint especially lacquer likes to go "BOOM" Any paint gun does a great job of atomizing the solvent base of the paint. Its as flammable as gasoline then. The safest bet any electrical appliance been used needs to be intrinsically safe Next time you run your shop vac look in the top you'll see the motors bushes doing a fine job and a nice blue spark. Also any time you pull vacuum or pressure through a hose you can get a static charge that's one reason when you see fuel tankers pull into the gas station they ground the trailer. The hoses do a pretty good job of eliminating this but things happen. Just ask EQ of Canton MI there whole facility was burned to the ground from an static discharge. Some of the stuff we deal with you need to wear suits so your over you cloths so there is no chance of a spark. That guy must have had a tone of paint flying through the air to touch it off. It probably filled the vac canister and the rest is history. I guess the lesson is paint is something to take serious.

[FloridaBoy]

YEOOOUCH!!!!

This guy was hit with an accident, and hit hard. Wish him well and a full recovery.

It reminded me of this guy who was a brilliant military modeler when I was in the IPMS. He looked like a biker, and brought his wife to every meeting, which we didn't mind as she was a fox. She came alone to advise us one meeting night her fiance' was in the hospital after a "modeling accident". She came because she didn't know who to call. It turned out he was building this F-something American Fighter jet and was using very radical means to built it perfectly. He weathered the aluminum panel sides by cooking egg shells in a white hot pot and running the plastic fuselage over the fumes. Radical. But his accident happened when he made up some filler using CA and baking soda. According to the story, and I sure don't know how true it is, this mixture produces a form of cyanide which if inhaled is poisonous. even more radical.

When he won Regional Grand Prize at the IPMS Florida contest, we weren't only overjoyed for this brave guy, but relieved he was alive to hold the trophy.

As for me, I have never suffered more than xacto knife cuts, a little ca to the eyes once, and that is fine with me.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[Draggon]

This is pretty scary. When I was about 14, I built models in my Dad's shop, an 8x10 windowless room off of the basement. My dad, being the crafty inventor type he was, didnt like me inhaling laquer thinner fumes when I airbrushed, and set about making a solution. He built a beautiful wood paint booth, floor to cieling with storage for paint on the bottom( usually a couple of gallons of Laquer thiner) , and.........a cheap overhead light and 1940's electric table fan to pull out the overspray and fumes. Sometimes the fumes were so thick you could see them! How in the world I never blew up I have no idea. Yikes!

[ucntcme]

I don't know what to say!

[Fletch]

When I first read Rob's account of this story my mind went to the Darwin Awards. You feel for the guy but, if he won't take the time to read the warnings.... well things go BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!