Angle Grinder Kickback

TX-Dennis

TX-Dennis

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I was working with my angle grinder this morning when it evidently caught something. The grinder kicked back, I lost my grip, and it bounced off my face. I spent most of the day in the ER. It took six stitches to close the laceration. The ER doc recommended a CT scan to check for fractures and brain injury. The scan showed an orbital wall fracture, maxillary sinus fracture, and a small brain bleed.

I was kept for several hours and then rescanned. The brain bleed had resolved, but the new scan showed swelling of the optic nerve. An ophthamologist took a look at the eye, and thankfully he found no damage. I was told no surgery will be required, but I have to avoid heavy lifting, bending, sneezing, and blowing my nose. Also have to take a few days off work and follow up with an ENT doc next week.

Ain't I purty?

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JayFramer said:
Eye protection and earplugs are for wimps.

Until you're in the ER or suffering from tinitus.

Wear your PPE!!
Click to expand...

I was wearing both eyes and ears. I think the safety glasses are what broke the bones, but they probably saved my eye. Think I'll buy a full face shield before I try that again, though.
 
I can't stand working under the full shields when it is hot, but they are far safer. I love angle grinders, they are an incredibly useful and powerful tool, but they can get away from you quickly even if you are being super careful. I was cutting a piece of chain with a cut-off wheel and almost cut the tip of my finger off in literally the bat of an eye. It hit the bone, and gave me a split second to pull back.

You take care and do what the doctors say.
 
Dennis, glad you are okay. Coulda been a lot worse. Live and learn.

Buddy of mine decided to start using a chain saw to clear some property he inherited. He's about my age, so, this is back when he was 60 or so. No previous experience. I found out he was using the saw without wearing kevlar chaps.

No experience and no protection.

God protects the young and foolish, most of the time, but by the time you're 60 or so, I think He expects a modicum of common sense.

Bought my bud some chaps as a present. So far he's still on two legs.
 
My advice: Don't do that again!

I had my epiphany with a die grinder and a mushroom-head carbide burr while relieving a 302 Ford block, building a 348 stroker. My ring finger bled like a stuck pig. I had to be driven to the local clinic, where the PA stopped the bleeding and stitched me up. I still have some fine cast particles showing in the meat.

Gloves, eye protection, etc., are the ticket. And try not to do any work with equipment at an awkward angle. ;)
 
Whew!!
I had a similar close call with a table saw some years ago. I was ripping a partial sheet of plywood nearing the end of cut, and encountered a void in the wood, and the remainder on the end blew off and the blade propelled it upward and back into my face at 125 mph. The chunk was about the size of my hand, hit me on the upper cheek just below my safety glasses, tore off the safety glasses and my eyeglasses underneath, ricochetted off my eyebrow, and left me shaken with a big mouse at both impact points. I thank heaven I wasn't blinded that day. Since then, I never use any power saw, grinder, router, lathe or planer without a face shield.
Most power tools are misnamed. They should be called powerful tools.
They don't give a damn what they cut either.
Your accident was too close to a lost eye or worse. Heal fast, well and wiser.
 
Happy to hear you survived it, of course you already know all the cautions others here have voiced.

As someone who has spent my entire adult life in the trades, I've heard every excuse for not using proper ppe, and I've used some of those excuses myself in all honesty. Ppe is a pain. It slows you down and is uncomfortable for the most part. I know this because I've used it all, and also because as a business owner I have to harp on my employees daily about using theirs.
I would be honest here saying that 50% of my motivation is because of covering my @$$ as an employer, and 50% is because I actually care that my people get home safe.

One thing concerning ppe that people often forget when using a grinder is the dust. Spend part of a day using cutoff or grinding discs and then go blow your nose after. Then blow your nose the next day and look in the kleenex. Your nose probably only caught half of that dust if you're lucky.

I spend a lot of my spare time cutting and welding metal, even outside in the open air you are exposing yourself to some bad stuff. Protect your digits, eyes, face, etc. But don't forget your lungs.
 
The mention of "ring finger," in one of the posts reminds me of another piece of advice: No jewelry around power tools. Or when doing physical labor around equipment in general. I knew a guy who had been loading a semi truck. As he jumped off, his wedding ring got hooked by some protrusion on the truck body. The combination of a tight ring and all of his body weight x gravity essentially pulled all of the meat from the base of his finger and left it all bunched up above the top joint, with the ring stuffed underneath it. Surgeon did a pretty good job putting everything back where it was supposed to be.
 
Re: OP. Just now have found your post. Profoundly thankful your eye is not damaged! I know how scary a head injury can be. In March I fell while on a commuter boat. Hit so hard that I could not see anything. After a while, recovered my vision. Compared to that, my broken hand was not so bad. In your case ... stitches ... there will be a scar but that is not so bad. Half an inch lower and it'd have been tragic. My father ran over 150 crews in the SE United States. Over 27 years, he saw a lot of sad things happen. Majority were not life threatening, but a number were career enders. For goodness sake, please wear a face shield and helmet. Sincerely. bruce.
 
Onomea said:
Dennis, glad you are okay. Coulda been a lot worse. Live and learn.

Buddy of mine decided to start using a chain saw to clear some property he inherited. He's about my age, so, this is back when he was 60 or so. No previous experience. I found out he was using the saw without wearing kevlar chaps.

No experience and no protection.

God protects the young and foolish, most of the time, but by the time you're 60 or so, I think He expects a modicum of common sense.

Bought my bud some chaps as a present. So far he's still on two legs.
Click to expand...

In addition to the Kevlar chaps, wear steel toed shoes when using a chain saw. This thread brought up an image of my dad's steel toed boot that got hit when a chain saw bounced. Luckily all that was torn up was the shoe leather covering the steel and not my dad's foot.

Many years ago I was working summers in a local chemical plant. The company had a deal with a safety shoe supplier who would bring into the plant a trailer of safety shoes once a month and the employees could buy steel toed shoes right out of the trailer. The good deal was that the employees didn't need to have the ready cash for the shoes. The company took a payroll deduction out of the employee's pay so that the employees would have ready access to safety shoes.
 
Thanks for the safety reminders everyone. I do always wear a NIOSH approved filter mask over my mouth and nose while grinding. I know a guy who grinds in a welding helmet. Not sure how he sees what he's doing, though.

I was using the grinder with a diamond cup to remove old thinset mortar from concrete after breaking up tile in a bathroom using a rotary hammer. I've been tiling or retiling my entire house with porcelain "wood look" tile. In the living area I rented a walk behind floor grinder to get the mortar off, but in the smaller areas have been using the angle grinder until now without incident protected only by safety goggles, and a dust mask.

Obviously I won't be grinding anything for awhile, and when I do it will be in a helmet and face shield as well as dust mask and gloves. That sucker hurt. When it hit me I saw gray fuzzies for quite awhile. I'm pretty sure I was nearly knocked unconscious.
 
Last edited:
OP good luck.

Retired 40 year welder here and I have seen a lot and unfortunately been chewed up a couple times by a grinder.


Was in a hurry back in the early 90s and borrowed a HOG (large) grinder that the safety shield was removed in order to work closer by a brother welder. I was wearing face shield, safety glasses and had on good gloves!

It bounced and while running hit me in the chest, wound up my shirt and was choking me. Used my foot to step on the cord and that unplugged it. Got out my knife and cut away the shirt in order to remove grinder!. I was wearing that grinder like a very large necklaces. (I was not wearing leathers at that time)

I was bleeding a little and the wheel sort of cut a question mark path (about 14'' long) on my chest and stomach. I was very lucky as it all was surface cuts and some debris in the "question mark". Cleaned it out put on a few bandages and ointment, got a new shirt and went back to work. First thing I did was put the guard back on the grinder. It felt like a sort of nasty sunburn for a few days, but healed up OK.

Hopefully the lessons talked about on this tread save some people from a rather interesting and potentially lethal situation. You cannot be too safe!
 
About 10 years ago I "wised up" and bought myself a good quality full-face, non-fogging, flip-up face shield. I also bought a replacement shield at the time if it happens to break when I need it. I also bought a half dozen pair of good work gloves to keep in different locations and have been buying 33 dB earplugs by the box for many years now. I keep them all over the place including my car's glove box for unexpected needs.

For many years I was too brazen and was stupid enough to not use these safety aids - thankfully, I was lucky and never suffered injuries like the OP has. I have unfortunately suffered hearing loss but now do what ever I can to preserve what I do still have.
 
TX-Dennis said:
The ER doc recommended a CT scan to check for fractures and brain injury. The scan showed an orbital wall fracture, maxillary sinus fracture, and a small brain bleed.

I was kept for several hours and then rescanned. The brain bleed had resolved, but the new scan showed swelling of the optic nerve. An ophthamologist took a look at the eye, and thankfully he found no damage. I was told no surgery will be required, but I have to avoid heavy lifting, bending, sneezing, and blowing my nose. Also have to take a few days off work and follow up with an ENT doc next week.
Click to expand...


I'd do a follow up with a neurosurgeon.

My 82 year old mom fell a few months ago, and also had a small brain bleed. They kept her overnight to make sure the brain bleed was OK, and sent her home the next day.

She wasn't the same after that, and it kept getting worst. It was kinda like she had Alzheimer's.

My dad finally talked her into going to the ER on a Monday evening, and they did brain surgery the next morning. Drilled a couple holes, and put tubes in to drain the blood.


She's back to her good old self now.
 
As my dad would say "I hope you learned something after that fool mistake. Working on a farm is dangerous. I have seen guys that lost arms in a corn picker. or got clothes caught in a power take off shaft. Take care, heal fast and follow the doc's suggestions. and read the instructions on your tools.
 
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