Things happen...

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... that sound unbelievable, yet they are true.

I am just packing a box to send my brave wedding ring, from our 10th anniversary and wedding renewal this summer, back to the scottish jeweller who made it. He will try to repair it.

Had a workplace accident last week. We were cleaning a polishing machine with a large metal lid, approx. 70cm by 70cm and quite thick. During the process, we were moving around a lot and suddenly the heavy lid fell down while I had my left hand in between the lid and the narrow metal edge of the housing.

Although the ring is only 6mm wide, it was exactly in the right place to catch the force of the impact. It is totally bent out of shape, but it kept the lid open by two centimetres and saved the fingers of my left hand from getting seriously injured. Without the ring, the metal edge of the machine housing would probably have crushed the base joints of all the fingers on my left hand.

So my wife's proposal to remarry after 10 years saved me from getting seriously hurt only a few months later.

Regards,
Rundmaus
 
Disabled Account
Joined 2002
A local comedian here once told his mother wanted him to have a statue of Saint Christophe in his car after he finally got his driving License and bought a car. This would protect him against accidents.

The very first day he crashed and the car was a total loss. When he told his mum that having the statue in the car apparently did not work out too well his mum replied: “it is because of the statue that you survived” ;)

Anyway, stay happy together!
 
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To the OP: I'm glad you were able to avoid a painful, disabling injury and I certainly hope your jeweler will be able to accomplish the repair. Sounds like your wife is a really special lady. If you haven't already, take her to dinner - or better yet a weekend out! :)

I've seen some accidents up close where the individuals involved saved their toes by breaking rules and NOT wearing safety boots...
Absolutely. And I've seen accidents where the cure (steel toes) were almost as bad as the disease.

Back in my previous life as a Surveyor, we were required to wear steel-toed safety boots as a condition of employment. The problem was, we also had to use bushaxes like the one shown below. More than one person wound up in the hospital after the blade glanced off the steel toe of one boot only to strike the heel/ankle/instep of the other. I guess a few toes were saved from amputation, but the alternative wasn't much better as such wounds were deep, had lots of embedded debris, and usually required some sort of orthopedic surgery. Tetanus shots were an absolute must!

All in all I suppose we didn't fare too badly considering. Those tools are about 1.5 m in length and fully capable of decapitation in one swipe. These things are no joke.
 

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Very good Randmaus. I have a similar story but that's for another thread.
You guys who are doing the 'anti' thing here, why are you bothering? Take that crap somewhere else, this is a great story. A man saved his finger because of 'love'.

This reminds me how safety boots are not allowed to have steel toe caps

The blade will glance off an external steel toe cap

We must be in the dark ages. We don't seem to have anything except internally mounted steel caps
 
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Joined 2002
His name is Rundmaus and who are you referring to?

It IS a great story. I can also tell a similar one that is even more unbelievable. Some things are unbelievable but they do happen. If there is a logic behind it... there I have my doubts :)
 
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We must be in the dark ages. We don't seem to have anything except internally mounted steel caps

Nah, I was wrong. They are still allowed in Europe as long as they are properly tested and certified. I just took a look at the testing criteria and it looks like they do a lot of testing on these things, including puncture and compression tests. I just have a faint recollection of some steel toe boots being banned because the cap wasn't strong enough and it did curl in. I have only one pair of safety shoes and they have composite caps and so do my military boots. I used to have steel capped boots but they were horrible in the freezing winter. Seems like composite toe caps are getting more popular than steel.
 
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