National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

Over the years I have lost a bit of knuckle skin to a bench grinder. I'm sure many of you have as well. Well, I had a first this past week that could have done me in. I changed stone wheels (steel to al) on the bench grinder and laid the one I removed on the work bench. Whoops, it fell off and hit the floor. No big deal, it looked OK. When finished with the "al" wheel, I reinstalled the "steel" wheel but did not install the guard. Turned it on. No sooner did it reach speed, the damn thing exploded into three chunks. 1/4 went up the wall. I'm not sure which remaining piece hit my hand, maybe both chunks. Needless to say, it hurt like hell. Messed up my left hand but apparently did not break anything.

So guys, make sure you got the guard on your wheels and inspect the wheels. Don't forget your safety glasses.

Dennis

Good point Dennis! Glad everything is alright. Spinning at 1700 rpm can create a lot of shrapnel. Another one to be careful of is the wire wheel and there is a lot of potential 'wire arrows' flying around. Being near sighted I have to take my glasses off at times to see when grinding close up but I wear either safety glasses or a face shield.

Mike
(Back home from Texas and it snowed today )

Dennis,

You bring up some good points. Every time I turn a grinder on I stand out of the arc of the wheels "just in case" something like this happens.

Joe A