Safety reminder

[Dark Knight]

(Before ya'll start reading, keep in mind that I'm a country boy and work on a farm, just so everything will make sense) I know this has nothing to do with 67-72 trucks, but I did drive my '67 to work Wednesday, so maybe that counts. Just a little reminder, take your time with your project and please wear the proper safety gear. I was changing the water pump out on a Jeep with a Buick 225 V6. Just your simple, routine, water pump change. All of the bolts came out except for that pesky last one. I knew the head was going to break off, so I said "to heck with it" and broke it off anyway. Then, I was left with a broken bolt to remove. I tried welding a nut to it. That broke off. Then, I tried using a pair of Vise-Grips on what was left of the bolt. It broke off flush with the pump housing. Screw extractor time. Bad idea. I drilled a hole all the way through the bolt and inserted the extractor. I turned it to the left, but it wouldn't budge. Me being the idiot I am, decided to put a little more force on it, not even thinking about all the other stuff that had broken before. The extractor broke in half and left a nice little shard of metal sticking out, just long enough to cut my hand open. So my hand was immediately covered with blood, and left a trail all the way to the breakroom. My co-worker brought me a cloth and I grabbed some electrical tape from the parts room to keep pressure on it. The nurses at the ER loved my makeshift bandage and were surprised when I told them that my pain was a barely a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10. Long story short, I had to get two stitches. Heck, the part that hurt the most was when they gave me the shots of local anesthetic. Then, as soon as my bosses wife brought me back to the barn, what do I do? I went right back to work and got that stupid bolt out. Drilled it and tapped it. So the moral of the story is, wear safety gear and know when to take a break. Oh yeah, and don't use screw extractors, they're junk. Your project will be there when you get back. On the plus side, I got a free lunch out of it! Might just have to hurt the other hand soon...