Tip: Use heavy gloves when handling a gas tank..

... or you'll end up with 8 stitches in your finger like I did

At least it was the nice clean new tank and not the 46 years of hanging under an Electra tank.

I'd moved it about a few times and it was bit of a handful. When I take it off the workbench to make some space - slip! And I find out just how sharp those side flanges are.

Good clean slice that nearly took the pad off my right index finger. When the doc says, "Hmmm. It doesn't line up properly. I'm not sure how I'm going to fix that." it does not inspire confidence. But she did a great job and 8 stitches and a tetanus shot later it still looks gross but at least it's in the right place.

This might delay the current project a bit. Just as the weather is finally getting good.

Cheers!
Bob

 

Sorry to hear it Bob but you might as well post a picture.

I feel like a wimp wearing gloves when working on my car but it's the right thing to do. I nearly had my thumb smashed off years back working a cattle head gate and the only thing that saved it was leather gloves.

 

Would that be the "tip of the day"?
Take it easy and let it heal correctly.
I took most of my left thumb off and thankfully today it still works, as I did what the Dr said.
Take it easy and have a mellow weekend.

 

Tune up and relax. My pal from Federal Mogul who chrome plates piston rings gets me CUT-LESS brand gloves. The are like a stretchy kevlar and dayglo green so I can find them. I can literally pick up a dime with them on. You just haft know the chinaman has an engineering class at Fork Yu University on die shaping for stamping that results in catastrophically sharp edges right?

I was putting a 36" pedestal base shop fan together at work, WITH GLOVES, but when it was time for the set screw for the blade, they had to come off. That damn blade slipped (galvanized too!) and gave me a 3 stitch paper cut on the inside of the finger joint to the bone. Dang Cletus, thats the meatus!

Hopefully, Fun Tung wasn't shearing steel where they keep the pigs at the GULAG. Heal well my friend! ws

 

Remember when you wipe not to use the hand with the stitches!

 

Looking a lot less gruesome after 24 hours and more clean up. Added as a thumbnail to protect the squeamish

 

Meh...looks just a little worse than your typical Buick cut. lol

 

Glad it wasn't worse!
Seems if you get away without a cut or bashing something your doing it wrong. lol

 

Anyone who has had an injury like this to the end of a finger or thumb knows how painful it is. And no matter how much you try to avoid it, you end up banging it against something at least daily.

 

That reminds me of when my father cut the tip of his middle finger pretty bad. They bandaged it up pretty good with a stiffener so he could not bend it. that is when i, as a 9 year old learned how to drive our 79 gmc jimmy 4 speed cause the poor old man would shift from 2nd to 3rd and slam his bandaged finger into the dash board and say a few good words out loud lol

 

Ouch! Between cars, sheet metal fabrication and others, I must have lost a pint of blood over the years. Worst one was an inch an a half across the back of a hand. Interesting yet worrying to be able to see the your own tendons!

 

Bob....ouch... even if it isn't sharp we should all use gloves. None of the chemicals we use are good for us and you don't have to spend time cleaning up.... I use the harbor freight heavy duty gloves for everything. I can't wait to hear how the EFI goes.

 

Hey Bob I hope your hand heals up good!! I cut almost the whole pad of my left thumb clean off with a utility knife at work, " cut to your chum not your thumb" was what I was taught but hey we all don't listen at times. I flipped it over and tapped the crap out of it. I probably should have gone for stitches but I let it heal up on it's own. It still goes numb and tingles the odd time but hey it's still there! When I showed up to work wearing gloves the next week my crew printed off and pasted the interior of my work van with this picture lol

 

Put some Windex on!

 

I "saw" what you did there....

 

One of the shop safety instructors ( an A-hole BTW) was teaching ghetto women shop skills via the training center at work. As they are all standing around watching Larry The Legend (The OEM legend, this was 1990!!) as the table saw/joiner (big new 10hp 3 phase stuff) was winding down, he said, and I quote, "Dont ever do this", and swiped the joiner guard off to the side with the machine still spinning down.
Dont worry Larry, I WILL NEVER DO THAT... There was nothing left to retrieve to sew back on. ws

 

Thank you Erik and other well wishers.

Healing fast but I managed to lose a few stitches along the way.
I held off crawling under the Electra for one day before I was back at it

 

Just hope you don't get an infection in it... About 40 years ago... (Well it actually WAS 40 years ago, come next month), I was boring a hole in a piece of sheet metal to make a CB antenna mount on a large drill press in the machine shop onboard the ship, and set my hand on the table. Needless to say, right then the sheet metal popped loose, and caught my left thumb. How it went around my thumb, I do NOT know, but I had an area about 5/8 inch on the back side of my thumb that was NOT cut, and it did NOT severe the artery/ vein in that area (but you could see it pulsing). I was taken to the base hospital, as it was above what the on-duty medic was certified to do. Several days later I has some of the area oozing. (Yeah I was a hard head and continued my normal work pretty much...) It had gotten infected on the inside, and they had to cut it open, and clean it out... I lost feeling in my thumb for over 30 years, and still have no sensation on part of it...

Long story made short: TAKE CARE OF IT, or it will take care of you...

 

So TRUE.
Im part of the club too. At work we use our fingerprints to clock in and out. Well they had to use another finger becasue of a crushing injury to my finger. Almost been a year now and the nerves in my finger still feal numb and funny. But hey, I say this for all " it could of been worse".

 

Rest your hand, use thy backhand to pimp slappeth.