Your worst encounter with the wrong end of a soldering iron.

[yeahyeah]

Mine happened today. I use a xytronic soldering pencil (with a sharp fine point) for working on pedals and I was using it at a higher temp than normal because I was desoldering with solder-wick braid.

I was using pressure to hold the wick in place while holding the circuit board with my other (left) hand. The iron slipped and the sharp tip of the iron found itself in between my thumb and its fingernail and with all the extra heat had no trouble sinking deep. All the while making a nasty sizzle sound and a stomach turning burnt flesh smell.

I remember reading that there is a torture technique where bamboo is inserted underneath the fingernail...well how about a 480 degree soldering iron!?!?

needless to say I'm on ice at the moment.

[skyboltone]

Oh yeah!!!! Well dummy, what'd you expect? Hehhehehehheh.

When I was a kid, the chain on my Honda 50 sport kept breaking, so I'd have to rob a link out of another piece of chain and, not having any keepers, I'd rivet over the pins on the added link. So I'm holding the chain on the anvil of my Dad's vice and wailing away with a big hammer to peen the ends over.......but on a particularly vicious wack I hit my left thumb square in the middle, hammer----thumb----anvil. I remember only that my first look was at my pretty horrid looking thumb then bang I went out like a light. Passed out. Fainted. Hit the garage floor.

That thumb took months to heal and still hurts when it gets chilly out.

Good luck on your thumb mister. Ouch!!

Dan H

[rfgordon]

A coupla years ago I bought this new lawn mower, whose muffler was in a different place than the one it replaced. The first day out I managed to make substantial tender-underside-of-the-forearm contact with the muffler. I left about 8 square inches of skin stuck to the muffler!! What's wierd is that it didn't really hurt...until a few hours later....the pain came on so strong I broke out into sweats. Yep, it left quite a mark.

[benoit]

Delightful mid-morning reading, thanks boys

[jedd63]

When I was a kid, I was using a soldering iron the had a bad cord. The cord arced to my stomach. The arc burned a hole in my shirt and left a blister next to my belly button. More scary than painful though.

[Jack]

3 burns while messing around amps at this point in my life. Nothing serious fortunatly.

[LeftyStrat]

In my younger days, I was in my bands rented practice space (with various styles of cheap carpet covering the floors and walls). I had a cheap Radio Shack soldering iron and was repairing a guitar cable, while sitting on the floor in shorts and barefoot. I was using a tester to make sure the cable had no shorts when the smell of burning insulation made me look over at the iron. It had fallen off the dinky little holder that came with it, and was burning through it's own power cord insulation. I reached out a hit it away right as it shorted out the power cable and blew a fuse, knocking out the lights.

I jumped up, in total darkness, now to the smell of melting crappy carpet. I then realized I had no idea exactly where the iron was. The thought of the whole room igniting freaked me and I ran kind of tippy toed towards where I thought the door was.

No, I didn't step on the iron. However, I did mange to run right into the drum kit, knocking over a cymbal stand and falling to the floor. Perfectly timed, the door opened and my bass player was standing there.

What I uttered at that moment took years for me to live down, because that bass player had to tell the story to everyone:

"Help, there's a soldering iron loose in here!"

From then on, anytime any band member needed something electrical fixed, "Hey Tomy, loosen up that soldering iron for me."

[yeahyeah]

that's hilarious!
good one lefty

[jurgen]

Years ago on a darkened stage I reached for my red meter probe
and grabbed my red soldering pencil by the angry end. Got a real good
grip on it too. Couldn't hold a guitar pick for a month.

[LeftyStrat]

Not really an accident, but some humor. Not sure if any of you guys remember "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handy on Saturday Night Live from years ago, but this was always one of my favorites:

"If I lived back in the Wild West days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like, 'Hey look. He's carrying a soldering iron!' and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, 'That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice.' Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink."

[Noel Grassy]

Not so much the soldering iron but related. One summer I was feverishly repairing clients amps as well as trying to build my own prototype amp and dying in the summer heat. I always wear shorts[it's Cali,ok?] and had become accustomed to bits of molten solder hitting the tops of my thighs to the point of not flinching anymore. Well something required that I breakout the hot glue gun to immobilize it and I set the HGG down on the bench to position the parts and molten glue oozed out and dribbled on my thigh. I didn't think twice about the hot "stuff" as explained but a few moments later I bolted upright cussing and flinging stuff to see WTF! I looked down to see the ooze embedded in my furry leg, tried in vain to pull it off, that just hurt worse. I had to leave it there slow roasting until it cooled down to a tollerable state. I think I had to cut it out with shears but I'm not sure because the mind seems to blot out those hideously painful experiences or else women probably wouldn't have more than one baby. I still haven't bought one of those modern glue guns that don't drip. I actually hate glue guns!

[CaseyJones]

Burns on your fingers are painful and inconvenient but they'll heal. It's much worse to flick hot solder off the soldering wick and into your eyes when de-soldering. The moral of the story is to wear eye protection when soldering and especially de-soldering.

[LeftyStrat]

Burns on your fingers are painful and inconvenient but they'll heal. It's much worse to flick hot solder off the soldering wick and into your eyes when de-soldering. The moral of the story is to wear eye protection when soldering and especially de-soldering.

Amen to that. I had a near miss once, and now always wear eye protection.

[keithrick]

Yeah guys!!!!

Definately wear eye protection. I have a Uncle blind in one eye who thought he didn't need eye protection while welding. You would be suprised how much solder can jump too!!!!!!

FWIW- I just burned the tips of my left hand last night soldering a new OT in my Rocket build! No string bending here for a few days!

No pain no gain!

[LeftyStrat]

It seems far more likely to have flying solder when working on amps than doing PCBs, at least in my experience. When you're tweaking an amp and heating up turrets and pulling components off, the solder will go flying. Eye protection is a must.

And long pants are probably not a bad idea, unless you enjoy frying bacon naked...