Really dumb move

[SavannahLion]

Another safety lesson.

At 1AM I was feeling kind of restless, so I decided to get up and do some much needed house work. I had a PCB lying around that needed to be stored away for long term so I broke out some spare cardboard and went about constructing a custom box to fit the PCB. One important tool is a hot glue gun to join the ends together. But for some damn reason, even though the hot glue gun was at temperature, very little glue was coming out. So I pulled the stick out and there was a misshaped glob of cold glue on the end. Cut it off and proceeded to stick the glue stick back in.

I, in my shorts at 2AM, pushed the glue stick in not thinking of the already heated glue in the gun. A big glob of ultra hot glue squirted out and landed on my knee. Rather than making haste for the nearest source of nice cold water, I wiped off the still liquid glue with left hand which immediately caused me to wipe it off with my right. Dumb dumb dumb. I don't know what got into me. I've broken bones, flayed my skin and nearly cracked my skull and knew exactly what medical procedures needed to be done, but when it comes to heat and burning flesh, my brain just forgets what to do. 

For the next hour, I had to keep my left hand under cool water because the pain was nearly unbearable. I eventually went to sleep holding a lunch bag filled with water to suppress the burning. My knee fared a little better.

In the end, I suffered a four inch 1st degree burn on my knee and 1st & 2nd degree burns on my left hand. 

My initial mistake was forgetting to treat the hot end of the glue gun as the same as a loaded gun, ie don't point it towards oneself. My next mistake was immediately trying to remove the hot glue and not get to cold water right away. What I did was really stupid, feel free to award me dumb ass of the month award.

My injury is nowhere on the same scale as Toolaa's, but it's important to avoid any injury, big or small.

[Joystick Jerk]

Ooh, I know your pain. Back when I was a dumb kid, me and some friends were burning pieces of plastic, so we could see the flaming gobs of plastic as they dripped off the main piece. Needless to say, after getting a bit careless, one of these flaming gobs lands on my hand. Not only is it burning the hell out of my hand, the exterior of the molten glob of flaming plastic hardens quickly, so I can't get it off my hand, but the interior is still red hot, burning my hand underneath.

In the end, the plastic glob was fused to the skin on the back of my hand. Took 3 weeks before it finally came off.

[fjl]

Post a pic of your hand and your knee savannahlion

[ChadTower]

I know a guy who dropped a hot soldering iron in his lap.  Burned through his pants and grazed his nad on the way to burning his thigh pretty bad.  Still has a hole in his thigh from it.

No, I didn't ask to see if there was a scar on his sack.   

[ScottS]

I managed to drop a sizable blob of molten aluminum on my leg and another one on the chair I was sitting in while TIG welding one day. Luckily, the blob that landed on my leg rolled off quickly... after burning a hole in a brand-new pair of jeans and giving me a 1st degree burn. The one that hit the chair burned into the padding and I thought it was going to set the whole thing on fire! Luckily, the foam padding was fireproof and just smoked for a while...

[2600]

Once when I was in HS and once in college I had some @#$% put the iron down on the AC cord right next to me.  First time, I saw the brightest white light and for some reason dove for cover.  A big crater was left in the iron.
I forget what happened the second time, but don't recall thinking highly of the person afterwards.

[Tahnok]

Ouch, hot glue burns are terrible. I've gotten burned by both solder and hot glue, and the glue is much, much, worse. Solder stings once and then it's over. Hot glue keeps burning until it cools down, which can take a little while if you're not cooling it with water (as you found out). Sorry to hear it.

[shardian]

From my experience, soldering iron burns are MUCH worse than hot glue burns...of course your glue burns sound pretty bad.

I got lucky the other day though. When I fixed that pump, I was soldering just wearing my boxers sitting at the kitchen table. After a small fleck of solder bounced off my leg, I thought for a second, then went to put some clothes on.

[fjl]

I know a guy who dropped a hot soldering iron in his lap.  Burned through his pants and grazed his nad on the way to burning his thigh pretty bad.  Still has a hole in his thigh from it.

No, I didn't ask to see if there was a scar on his sack.   

Soldering Irons don't really get hot to the point where they will burn through a pair of pants. Maybe unless they where plastic pants. Otherwise the iron would have to be on his pants for a good while to actually burn through them.

[SavannahLion]

I got pictures about a day or two ago, I just need to download them to the PC and upload them here.

Imagine this. My work threw a fit when I went in today. Demanded a doctor's note and forced me to go on light work detail... in other words, I have to sit at my desk all ---smurfing--- day. I did that anyways, but now, I don't have a choice.   

What's annoying is that I have to go get a doctors note, and I don't really want to pay for the visit. Because of that, it escalated to a union matter, holy crap, I can't fart without someone filing a grievance.

[fjl]

What do they need a doctor's note for?

[ChadTower]

Soldering Irons don't really get hot to the point where they will burn through a pair of pants. Maybe unless they where plastic pants. Otherwise the iron would have to be on his pants for a good while to actually burn through them.

I've witnessed one burn right through a towel I dropped it on.