[Power Hungry]

Wire wheel I've done and it's not nearly as bad as a bench grinder.

One of the worst ones I've done was back when I was 17. I was working in a welding shop and had the oh-so-lowly job of buffing stainless steel welds using a Black & Decker right angle grinder and a 10" buffing wheel with polishing compound. (Cody, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about.) Anyway, this is not the most glamorous (or cleanest) job, and in the Florida summer heat it is almost intolerable. I would frequently work without a shirt because at least we were in the shade and the shirt would just be covered with sweat and make things stickier than they were already.

Well, I was working on a fairly complex set of rails one day and had just changed to a new buffing wheel as the old one had worn done the the point that it was useless. For those that don't know, the buffing wheels are layers of cloth stitched together to form a wheel about 1/2" - 5/8" thick. As they get worn in, the circumference forms a nice, smooth circle and the wheel is much more stable and manageable. However, when they are new they are circular only in a vague sense and they are really difficult to manage; In fact, they are floppy like a soggy pancake. So I am cleaning these welds and it's taking everything I can to manage the grinder because the wheel is getting caught up in the tubing. Well, it finally got tangled up enough that the grinder kicked back and the wheel caught me right across my stomach from my hip to my belly button, taking off a couple layers of skin. This was about the same as road rash, only with one major difference (as I would learn later).

I cleaned and bandaged my boo-boo and went back to work. A few days later I wasn't feeling well and my back started to hurt quite badly. The the red pee started. I go to the emergency room and they find that I have a severe kidney infection caused by blood poisoning in relation to my "accident". What I had failed to consider during my injury was that the polishing compound was essentially injected into my bloodstream and was wreaking havoc with my immune system. Polishing compound is little more that a grease paste combined with a blend of abrasives and and anti-oxidation chemicals. Surely NOT everything a growing boy needs.

I was put on IV Penicillin twice a day. Fortunately, they nurse came to the house to hook me up to the IV bag. It was amusing going around for days with an IV port (catheter) sticking out of my arm, although the interesting times would be when I forgot to take the IV bag out of the fridge to warm up before the nurse arrived. It's a very odd sensation having cold fluid running up your shoulder and into your chest. I still get chills thinking about it. When it was all over, I was back to work... a little wiser for the wear.

I have several other "horror" stories and notes from the field (like the time I had a battery blow up on me or the time we set the shop on fire), but those are for another day.