Heck, might as well post the pics. Sorry to hijack the thread!
Background: I set all of the fence posts with a string level, but my sister and her husband weren't sure how tall they wanted the gate so I left the post on either side of the gate taller. Once they decided on the height of the gate, I used a 5" cut off wheel on the grinder to cut the excess material off the top of the post. Gate posts are 4" square and 1/4" wall. Scribed my line around the post, started cutting. I wear safety glasses, hearing protection, hat and full leathers when doing the metal work. I don't usually wear a full face shield or cut at face level for that matter. So got done cutting one side of the post, started to transition to the adjacent surface. Adjusted my grip and I think what happened was I didn't have the blade all the way out of the cut when I adjusted my grip and it caused the grinder to tilt and bind inside the cut, kicking the grinder back. I've had many a kickbacks before, but I've generally had a good grip and able to control it. But being that I was adjusting my grip, I wasn't able to clamp down fast enough and the pics below are the resulting carnage...
Culprit, I know, no guard
Fence I was building when the grinder to face incident occured. This pic was taken about 30 minutes before said incident. The taller post to the right of the gate is the one I was cutting shorter. Only thing added to the fence since this pic is the electric gate opending hardware.
about 30 seconds after initial hit (blood was instant, but wanted to see how bad it was to see if I needed to go to the hospital or not?)
After getting cleaned up and right before plastic surgeon started sewing. Not sure how many stitches, he lost count. But he sewed for about an hour (gum line, inside and outside of cheek). I got extremely lucky and didn't hit my teeth or anything vital. 1/4" closer to my ear and I would have cut my saliva duct in half, requiring major surgery. I still have some nerve damage in my cheek, which will hopefully heal over time. The blade went through my cheek, gums and hit my upper jaw bone. I could breathe through my cheek (had some fun grossing out the nurses lol). As the grinder was falling, it more or less shaved my face where it hit the second time. Cut was still fairly deep, but didn't go all the way through, the width of the cut was more the issue.
About 2 months after. Top scar is barely noticeable now (5 months later).
Download DXF/SVG
