Originally Posted by
thumpism
This took me back. While sorting through the parts boxes and dragging out various cranks to assess their suitability for the Jeunet, I decided to clean up the collection to make the next sort much easier; remove pedals from crankarms (talkin' about you, Dyna Drive) and bag and label them, separating chainrings from crankarms if they'd be more suitable elsewhere and that's how I got this wound. I knew better, of course, but got cocky and was forced to remember the "old shop" days when we'd make a tool or assign a non-bike item to a specific task and keep it around, just in case.
This forced me to remember the Chainring Mitts, heavy leather gloves that one of us found somewhere and hung on the shop wall for just such moments as these and to prevent this result. According to our mechanics' protocol at the time we'd have assigned a made-up VAR tool number to it and would have labeled or marked it as such.
When I started working at the power plant many years ago, it was hard to find a pair of gloves. The tool crib only had slippery thin cotton gloves, so most people just went without. They had leather gloves, but only for welders. The older guys saw skinned knuckles and calluses as a badge of honor. Eventually, the number of minor hand injuries added up to where OSHA forced them to change the culture to wearing gloves for every task, every time. You couldn't just use any glove, though. The safety manual had a chart listing the appropriate glove for different tasks, like Kevlar for cutting, rubber for chemicals, leather for welding, etc. To eliminate the excuse of not having gloves with you, you were required to have a pair on your person any time you were in the plant, even if you were just walking through. I still bust a knuckle now and then, but after working in that environment for so many years, I tend to give more thought to the consequences of not using protective gear.