No matter how safe you are....

[Stytooner]

You can always get bit. They are called accidents for a reason.
Case in point, yesterday I changed the grinding wheel on a Foley Belsaw Sharp All.
It is one I have been using for 6 to 7years.
The cost of these wheels have more than doubled in that time and I use a lot of them. I recently bought a hand held Dewalt 7" grinder to replace the Sharp All for doing this. It actually does a better job of it and the discs are much cheaper and readily available locally.

I only had three more wheels for the Sharp all and was just intending to use them up.

Well, I always wear a full face shield when using this. Upon start up anytime, I stand to one side or the other. Especially when a new wheel is installed.
This time the wheel flew apart almost instantly into about 4 pieces with a little shrapnel as well. About a 3rd of this 1/2" by 8" wheel caught me in my left shoulder as I was pulling myself to the right. It hit the soft part of my shoulder muscle HARD. I don't bruise easily, but it certainly put a frog in there. Gave me a little road rash looking mark about golf ball sized as well. Just a bit sore this am. It's okay.

If it had hit just maybe 1" further right, it would have broken my collar bone. I can just about guarantee that. I was lucky, yes, but safe practices helped reduce the outcome of this injury. I had never had a stone fly apart on this machine, but always practiced start up as if it could.

If it had hit my face shield, it would not have been pretty either.
The spot it chose was likely the best spot on my upper body to have received such a forceful blow with the least amount of damage.

Lets be careful out there guys and gals and always use good safety and machine operating techniques. Now where is that Icy Hot?

[cabinetman]

Originally Posted by Stytooner

You can always get bit. They are called accidents for a reason.

I had never had a stone fly apart on this machine, but always practiced start up as if it could.

You were very fortunate. Hope you heal up quick. The key here is being aware of what could happen. Some of that caution comes from experience. Even with that there are those times that the inevitable happens. Who would ever think a stone would come apart? But it did. Its those freaky rare happenings out of our control.

Bad news of the incident, but it's good to bring it up as a reminder.
.

[Uncle Cracker]

Definitely a good lesson to point out, Lee. I am especially careful when starting up anything with a stone wheel, because these can develop latent cracks just from temperature changes or seemingly light shock, and these cracks will be invisible until spun at speed. Even the oscillation from a broken wheel can cause the machinery to throw itself at you.

[Richard in Smithville]

There is a difference between an accident and one from the operators carelesness. We can minimize the danger but sometimes things cannot be helped. That's why we have procedures for just such a possibility. I'm glad to see that you practice safe start-up and that you came out relatively unscathed. It is a good lesson and you set a good example for all who work with tools.

[chopnhack]

I don't own a grinder, but that bit of common sense never occurred to me!! Thank you for the PSA and speedy recovery to you.

[LCHIEN]

Ouch. You going to risk the other two wheels or have you had enough? Even if they don't fly apart on initial startup they are now suspect being the same age and batch and can fly apart at any time...