120 people killed in DIY car maintenance accidents in Australia since 2000

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

No I meant the split rings, I just phrased it badly

Scaredy cat. I have an old (80 something) bloke up in Beechworth who does most of mine. I watched him bang the living daylights out of those rings with great skill.
Split rims on the other hand.

[BENT_8]

I had to have a tyre swapped over on my bus a few weeks ago, the rears are split rings, old mate is there inflating it whilst has his head over the face of the tyre, I said to the manage r I know a bloke who killed himself doing that, aren't you supposed to put them in a cage?", "nah, just be careful" he says...
I turned my back and stood behind a wall, I don't want to see that **** if it goes pear shaped.

[XD 351 Ute]

Originally Posted by roKWiz

Last week I needed to "cage' the old spring brakes (way of releasing the park brake without air) on the Louie but found the LHS containment bolt would not engage into that chamber due to the slotted receiver being skewed, it took me 2 hours+ just to get that bolt in, to screw down.
Hid behind the duals the whole time while I did it as if these chambers let go, it can fly in any direction.
I reckon hayseed and GasOLane would agree. Killed a few people in the past.

Be safe everyone.

True words indeed; if you can get hold of it, a movie done some years ago now by Caterpillar is one worth watching.

"Shake Hands With Danger" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v26fTGBEi9E

Well worth a watch.

Ed

[.:4:.]

Originally Posted by XD 351 Ute

True words indeed; if you can get hold of it, a movie done some years ago now by Caterpillar is one worth watching.

"Shake Hands With Danger" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v26fTGBEi9E

Well worth a watch.

Ed

That was pretty much what happened with the bloke i saw at work end it. Not in the same fashion, but if youve done it a hundred times and been fine, increasing the corners you cut because so far youve been fine, its the hundred and first time you do it when something finally goes pear shaped.
I was wondering what bought on the epic safety audit and subsiquent over the top safety in the warehouse at the wholesaler my work uses. Also wondered why i hadnt seen my mate who is the head storeman. After a few weeks i asked thinking he had quit, but no, he shattered 2 toes when his foot got run over by the forklift. That was 3 months ago. He is back now, but when the fork is in use its steel caps and high vis vests if you are in the warehouse, and its blocked off to all who do not need to be in there.
Ironically the dodgiest site i have ever worked on was one for the workcover office. On one site inspection the workcover peoples were walking around and they turned a blind eye when one of the gyprockers fell off a ladder and through a wall. They also turned a blind eye to the fact i was running the show for electrical and was still an apprentice at the time. I did have a work car so i guess that was good enough for them.

[Vesper Martini]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

No I meant the split rings, I just phrased it badly

I've seen some Videos of them going off killing people. I changed a few in my early 20's but mostly I worked on tubeless
we took a lot of care but I never really realised how dangerous they were until afterwards.

[jpd80]

Not meaning to be dismissive of the topic but 120 deaths over 20 years is pretty much in keeping with what you’d expect given our population size, 120 lives lost is still regretable but I wonder if a lot more people were killed doing home renovations in the same time period, thinking asbestos exposure

[Vesper Martini]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Not meaning to be dismissive of the topic but 120 deaths over 20 years is pretty much in keeping with what you’d expect given our population size, 120 lives lost is still regretable but I wonder if a lot more people were killed doing home renovations in the same time period, thinking asbestos exposure

No Doubt higher, Id expect ladder accidents alone

[DJR-351]

Start with the good habits when there young my old man used to say.....

[Tassie f100]

I would reckon you are rght jpd80 as far as reno mishaps are concerned.As far as asbestos is concerned,has anyone ever died as a result of having a casual contact with household cladding or is it just a scare tactic by self professed asbestos removal “experts”

[Citroënbender]

I believe that a few (unlucky) people have.

Real hit-and-miss stuff though; a neighbour lagged marine boilers for much of his working life (using asbestos and cement paste to bind the cloth), smoked a pipe and died of dementia in his eighties.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Not meaning to be dismissive of the topic but 120 deaths over 20 years is pretty much in keeping with what you’d expect given our population size, 120 lives lost is still regretable but I wonder if a lot more people were killed doing home renovations in the same time period, thinking asbestos exposure

I honestly believe a lot more people would have been killed doing work around their homes from various accidents.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by Tassie f100

I would reckon you are rght jpd80 as far as reno mishaps are concerned.As far as asbestos is concerned,has anyone ever died as a result of having a casual contact with household cladding or is it just a scare tactic by self professed asbestos removal “experts”

A lot of houses have asbestos material in them, I wonder how many home reno's done by DIY people would have come in contact with it without knowing of it, only takes that one particle to get in your lungs then Russian roulete it is if it becomes malignant over the years.
My details have been taken just in case I develop mesothelioma as I was exposed to asbestos dust in the 80's during my employment.

[.:4:.]

Now i dont know how much truth is to this, but one of the old blokes i work with was saying a lot of the people who got asbestosis were the wives of the workers in the asbestos mines. This was due to shaking out dirty work clothes before washing them. Dunno if thats true but it sounds plausable. His next theory im not entirely sold on, but he also reckons heavy smokers were less likely to have fibres penetrate due to the layer of tar in their lungs. My thought on that is lung cancer probably got them first.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

My thought on that is lung cancer probably got them first.

Not all of us

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by .:4:.

Now i dont know how much truth is to this, but one of the old blokes i work with was saying a lot of the people who got asbestosis were the wives of the workers in the asbestos mines. This was due to shaking out dirty work clothes before washing them. Dunno if thats true but it sounds plausable. His next theory im not entirely sold on, but he also reckons heavy smokers were less likely to have fibres penetrate due to the layer of tar in their lungs. My thought on that is lung cancer probably got them first.

Very true if you google for that info about asbestos miners and their families being exposed to it.
Have a read of this........http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201209044...r-kids-exposed


As for the smoking preventing mesothelioma I would say that is an old wives tale.


Whichever Lung cancer or Mesothelioma would be on par with each other for a slow agonising death.

[LTDHO]

Originally Posted by smoo

Some knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge.

To make it worse we have Facebook mechanics!

[Citroënbender]

Edited for accuracy. :p

To make it worse we have Facebook mechanics!

More seriously, I think the danger as it lies presently with home mechanicking, is the divergence of ingrained experience away from social pressure to uphold a perceived element of masculinity/self-sufficiency/resourcefulness/skill.

Not that the issues with home renovation aren’t similar. Unreal television shows about renovating, are absolutely culpable IMO. Not very different to the YT channels where people clown about and “do” major works on vehicles.

[PhilT2]

I'm new here so I probably can't put up a link yet but smoking increases your chances of asbestos related disease by about 25 times. Something about healthy lungs being able to clear themselves. I think we lose around 300 people a year to asbestos, mostly older folks so nobody cares too much.

Meanwhile eight people a day top themselves...

[Thornie]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

I had to have a tyre swapped over on my bus a few weeks ago, the rears are split rings, old mate is there inflating it whilst has his head over the face of the tyre, I said to the manage r I know a bloke who killed himself doing that, aren't you supposed to put them in a cage?", "nah, just be careful" he says...
I turned my back and stood behind a wall, I don't want to see that **** if it goes pear shaped.

Damn scary **** inflating them even when they are in the cage, my old work had plenty of scars in the roof from rings blowing before the days of the cages.

[aussiblue]

Do these also kill as claimed:


This was scary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLVvS6CuNlQ

I have always been wary of them and surprised retraining pins or hooks like these are not mandatory:



I'm thinking of buying one of these next time I have a spring job to do:


But are they really safer?

[aussiblue]

I wish thise video was clearer so we could really see what happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIB8K9Lltyk&t=13s

[aussiblue]

Then there are the idiots that don't even use a spring compressor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWTg9VaL08

[hayseed]

Originally Posted by aussiblue

Then there are the idiots that don't even use a spring compressor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWTg9VaL08

He's just Proof that Darwin was right.......

[asagaai]

Originally Posted by aussiblue

Then there are the idiots that don't even use a spring compressor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VWTg9VaL08

I shudder but feel sorry for him and can relate.

When I was 20 I had my MK 11 GT 1600 and had inserted a second hand rally shop built Kent 1600 into it with twin dcoe 40mm webbers and the car kept blowing diffs with axle tramp.

Anyway I had no-one to teach me mechanics, was self taught using a Haynes manual. Second time it blew was far from home near a servo. Had no one to tow me home and had no money for ramps and car stands.

So I jack the car up and use bricks (found discarded in a rear laneway) to support rear axle- and local servo and mechanic gets me to leave their concrete area, so I set up just outside and set up again on side of public roadway.

Car jacked up, held by brick pyramids both ends, get the axles out and then diff, and remember at end of job of putting in second hand diff one side of the bricks holding drivers side axle up starting to crumble.

I shudder now- but that young guy releasing the spring sorta reminds me of myself when young- learn the hard way with no guidance from an experienced father.

Hope he was not hurt....

[roKWiz]

Originally Posted by XD 351 Ute

"Shake Hands With Danger" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v26fTGBEi9E

Thanks very much, now I keep singing this to myself at work. All bl**dy day !

[aussiblue]

My favourite safety video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oB6DN5dYWo

and another version of "shake Hands with Danger"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A03jmS3jA8o

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by aussiblue

Do these also kill as claimed:
image

This was scary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLVvS6CuNlQ

I have always been wary of them and surprised retraining pins or hooks like these are not mandatory:
image

image
I'm thinking of buying one of these next time I have a spring job to do:
image

But are they really safer?

Only use double hooked end ones as I once had single hook spring de-compressors, had one slip off a compressed spring and the spring just missed my head.
Scared the s*** out of me.

[Crazy Dazz]

30+ years ago I was a TA in the Mining Industry.

Some of things we did, (like working under lifted trays without safety chains) I just shake my head in wonder and thank God none of us got killed.
But some of the stuff, which I know would be frowned on today, I'm a bit more tolerant towards. But it comes down to the nature and severity of the risk. There is stuff that will kill you, or at the very least horribly maim you. Electricity, extreme high pressure, flammables, working at (actual) heights and heavy loads. And mostly these are the same things that you can't mitigate.
Never take risks with these, and always ensure that your protection has redundancy.

[janddbone]

Originally Posted by BENT_8

I had to have a tyre swapped over on my bus a few weeks ago, the rears are split rings, old mate is there inflating it whilst has his head over the face of the tyre, I said to the manage r I know a bloke who killed himself doing that, aren't you supposed to put them in a cage?", "nah, just be careful" he says...
I turned my back and stood behind a wall, I don't want to see that **** if it goes pear shaped.

I have helped renovate shops and they throw these cages out as 'old fashioned'. Then they proceed to work on split rims and truck and bus tyres all day long... You will only witness them go bang once and not have respect!

[aussiblue]

The dangers of asbestos dust in brake pads has been known at least since 1970 when I first started working on cars. The sad part is that the CRC Brakleen I and others used to regularly use to deal with the asbestos brake pad dust (soak the pads with the CRC sprays and use it to clean the dust off any drums or discs) when changing pads at that time contained carbon tetrachloride , trichloroethene or tetrachloroethyene or something similar that was later found to cause liver and kidney cancer and probably more dangerous than the asbestos dust. I used to but it by the drum and decant it into spray bottles. And no carbon filter mask in those days. The formulae has since changed - some discussion here http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages...tml?1408150589

Just an fyi, but trichloroethylene is the same thing as trichlorothene. Those are just synonyms.

Also, there is only one Brakleen that still has chlorinated compounds in it.

There appear to be 6 varieties of Brakleen. See
http://crcindustries.com/auto/crc-br...-parts-cleaner
Two are red cans, four are green. All the greens are non-chlorinated. Only one of the reds is chlorinated.

The non-chlorinated red can says non-chlorinated. The other says "original" formula, and it's Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) says it is 90-100% perchlorothyelene (a.k.a. tetrachloroethyene). See
http://www.crcindustries.com/faxdocs/msds/5089.pdf

I do not know if Brakleen has always been tetrachloroethlyene or if it was, at one point, trichloroethylene. Both are common degreasers/solvents.

If anyone wants to know, generally, what is in a commercial chemical mixture, just google the name and "MSDS" and you should be able to find out pretty quick. Just understand that the can that has been on your garage shelf for thirty years may have been different at the time it was made.