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Cordless Drills-Be Aware-Be Safe
By Norman Stanley
Cordless drills are commonplace in many householders tool kit nowadays Whilst they are undoubtedly a great piece of equipment it should be borne in mind that they are a power tool and as such should be treated with respect. Here follows two stories both of which are true and happened to a friend and a colleague. These stories I believe illustrate how a lapse of concentration can have serious and in one case life threatening consequences. I am a full time electrician and as such I work on many building sites. It was on one job that there were three of us first fixing a new house. A first fix is when we drill the holes, feed the cables in and screw the electrical boxes to the wall. This is a job that all three of us are very experienced in and had done many, many times before. As I said part of the job is drilling holes, these are mainly through the joists of the floor above as the majority of cables are placed there. Mark was given the job of drilling. An experienced sparky he was merrily drilling a joist, moving the steps and drilling the next one. Speed is a fairly important part of our work and Mark was progressing well. Familiarity breeds contempt they say, speed compounds the problem. Mark was going for it, all joists drilled by tea break and we would be ready to cable. Until he slipped. Mark had drilled a joist, stepped down with his finger on the trigger and a 25mm augur bit bored its' way into his groin. Gentlemen cross your legs. For the guys amongst you who do not know, an augur bit is designed to pull itself through the wood. It pulled its' way into Marks groin just as well. Luckily, following a spell of unconsciousness and a emergency trip to the hospital, Mark recovered with his pride and everything else in tact. One quarter of inch was all that separated the drill bit and his femoral artery. He could have bled out before an ambulance arrived. Horror story number two involves a friend of mine who is an engineer. The project was running late and he was under pressure to finish and so when a hole refused to line up satisfactorily Chris grabbed his cordless drill to widen it out. Not bothering with his safety glasses a piece of metal swarf jumped from the drill bit into his eye. After a protracted wait at the hospital, when every blink caused eye watering pain he finally got to see a doctor. The inspection revealed the corkscrew shape metal shaving had drilled itself into Chris's eyeball and the only way to extract it was to unwind it out. Fortunately by this time an anaesthetic had been administered. I hope these two tales will serve as a reminder to always respect your power tool, do not rush, don't take short cuts and above all wear safety equipment. |
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Safety is even more important at home when DIYing, where you may be working alone!! Nice reminder, thanks.
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