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Something my Dad taught me many, many
moons ago, is that common sense is not common. Safety goes hand-in-hand
with common sense. And never be in such a hurry as to skip safety steps
just to get a job done quickly. I’m not nearly as eloquent as many
who post here, or as verbose. So hopefully the few words I do use, mean
something. Ken 67 Crown 4 Dr Ht (thinkin’ about looking for a 69 2
door LeBaron) From:
mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of randalpark@xxxxxxx This brings to my mind something else that isn't common knowledge. It
also could come under the category of "nobody ever told me not to do
this". Cinder blocks must NEVER be used in place of jack stands. I have
seen many cars held up this way, and two of them came crashing down once the
cinder blocks blew apart from the weight.
I have come across folks under their cars, while held up this way, and ordered
them out. One time it was just in time, as the car came down shortly after
that. The guy was about to punch me out for interfering, until he saw what the
hoopla was all about right then and there. Quality jack stands should always be used, and used properly to
protect against injury. They should also be used as a safety with any jack,
including hydraulics. Paul W. So right Mikey.
Safety has to always be job #1. I work at home along 99% of the time and I
am forever taking measures to be sure I don't get trapped under something
or have some other mishap that will cause the need for emergency
assistance. We all forget the simple things too though, like Thursday when I
was welding something in the bench vise and neglected to check the work
bench for flammables left over from previous projects. I set some papers and
rags on fire when some residue from a lawnmower
gas tank was ignited by the
welding sparks. It was a tense few moments until I managed to grab the
garden hose and douse the bench. I felt so silly because that is such an
obvious error...I got careless. I'm glad I had this little reminder and
nothing valuable went up in flames. I also agree it
is valuable for everyone to throw in their two cents because no single person
knows it all BUT, there is also a time to seek the advice of those who have
been there. It is not always apparent, on a list like this, who are the
seasoned veterans and who are the back yard hacks (like me). Trust
me, I know for one, Mikey
knows his stuff. This is not to say Mikey
know it all or is infalable,
he doesn't and he is. This is also not meant to be a
post about Mikey,
it's a post about safety. You can bet that people who have
worked in the industry for many years and still have ten fingers and ten
toes and can see with both eyes and hear with both ears have a good idea of
what it is to work safely. Sometimes, those
of us who have been wrencing
a while, tend to forget to point out the
pitfalls that are associated with a particular project. The comment was made
that "I wasn't told to NOT do it." My advice is to always work under the
assumption that if you weren't told to DO it, then you should NOT do it.
You need to take that with a grain of salt of course but it remains
true. You can't assume it is ok
just because the person or people giving the
guidance didn't point out every possible thing that could possibly
happen. There are certain assumptions. An example is, if I told a person to jack up
the car and remove the tire. I would make certain assumptions like,
they will use axle stands to set the car on, they will chock the wheels
to prevent the car from rolling off the jack, they will remove the rim
from the car rather than prying the tire off the rim (because I told them to
remove the tire). Some assumptions were made, some need to be repeated, some
need not be repeated, some often aren't but should be. It all comes down to
our good friend "Communication". Mine is not always that great and things
often end poorly because of it. Anyway, thanks
for all the good advice, people. Thanks for letting me ramble. I
think this is a topic that is not discussed enough, particularly considering its
importance. ----- Original
Message ----- From: "mike
and linda
sutton"
<mikanlin62@charter.net> To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday,
September 16, 2006 11:12 AM Subject: Re: IML:
advice - the pros and cons In the past 8
years on the IML I
have learned quite a bit about much of the who, what, where
to get a lot of valuable parts and such for our cars. Being a mechanic
by trade has made the work itself pretty much a no brainer for me but I do
understand that not everyone has acquired the methods and skills to do
their own stuff, but thats
ok. For
whatever reason some folks just dont want
to, dont
think they can, prefer to pay to have it done by someone else or
just never got the knowledge and skills to do it themselves and thats
fine, for the people who are trying to learn thats great...knowledge
is power and theres
nothing better than getting knowledge - as
long as its the correct knowledge. Point
being...today some of the best possible advice you can or will ever get in your life
about jump starting was given out by someone who definetly knows his stuff
in that area. Im
not here to cause a flame war or point fingers but I
have seen a lot of anecdotal advice given out since Ive
been around here that
makes me cringe to think what kind of potential damage could result to a
car, or more importantly, to the person doing the work. Usually its
things of purely mechanical nature that if done wrong generally only result in
frustration, possibly damaged parts and lots of extra time wasted in trying
to correct a problem. Today it was on a subject that could very easily
result in SERIOUS damage to ones person and ones car. I used to throw a
lot more " how to......" stuff out, but often found it being debated by
people who were convinced they knew better, or that the advice they got
from their nephews brother in law's neighbors paper boy who knows a guy who
had a car that was kinda
like that but it was different was better advice
than mine. So I figured that if someone wants to throw money out the window or
do it the hard way, its their choice. Still, Id hate to hear someone
caught themselves on fire , blew a battery up in their face and is blind, dropped
a car on their chest in their driveway ( happened to a neighbor of ours
once ) or anything like that. Folks,
PLEASE,,please be careful out there. Most of the time youll
never have a problem
but it only takes once. Your car can always be repaired after a mistake
but you only get one set of eyes, ten fingers and two hands. I tell my
students you want to leave the shop the same way you came in every day, we should
all want that. Thanks much Mikey 62 Crown Coupe -----------------
http://www.imperialclub.com
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