Worst Injury by a Copier

**cobiray** · 09-17-2008

One of the other techs ran my foot over with a huge Toshiba we picked up and it turned my instep a gnarly purple color. I just wondered what are some of the bad or interesting or whatever injuries you've sustained from a copier.

I'll start. I had a few broken fingers from an out of control doc feeder on a Minolta di450. The weirdest one was slicing the tip of my finger off while cleaning the optics on a di620. I must have caught the edge of a mirror and it just came right off. The worst part was the newbie doctor (or intern) who stitched me up. He bent two needles before going to a heavier gauge. By this time the local anesthesia had worn off so every time he sewed I could feel the needle pop through the skin. It looked very "frankenstein" too.

mjarbar · 09-17-2008

Ouch!!!

Somehow grazed shin's and fingers caught between DADF's and the platern reader seem rather insignificant now...

My worst was when I nearly cut my nuts off when I slipped off the back of a lorry. One leg slipped off the back whilst the other stayed on!!! I landed up against the guide used for the roller shutter which was only a couple of steel plates. I cut through my trousers to my leg underneath but luckerly missed the family jewels by 3/4's of an inch...

Not really a copier injury but I was loading them at the time, so it might count. Apart from that the only thing I have found is that you can't work on a Canon GP215 without spilling blood somewhere.

**blackcat4866** · 09-17-2008

You probably already read about mine in other posts.

The most painful by far was when I was chasing a noise/vibration in the back of a Mita DC-3285. I had my right forefinger on the end of the registration shaft and had decided that it was definitely a registration clutch problem. About that moment a young lady tapped me on the shoulder, and when I turned to look the cast iron registration clutch hub grabbed hold of my finger and chewed most of the flesh off to the first knuckle. Fortunately it pulled a main drive motor error so the motor stopped, but it took 4 hard yanks to take what was left of my finger back from the drive train. It all grew back, just not quite as pretty as it used to be.

I had a memorable learning experience with the Mita 900D. As a newbie I had the habit of cleaning corona wires with my forefinger (same one!) and a little spit. To my great surprise the 900D uses a primary razor blade! Only halfway down its length I hit bone. (I did learn from that experience, while bleeding all over my dress shirt.)

Then there was the Toshiba BD1310. Like all moving tabletop machines, I left the cable attached and just tipped the glass back against the wall. I turned around to get a towel then heard the machine rolling away on the smooth tile. In one swift motion I grabbed the glass just as it was shattering into many sharp pieces. Fortunately for me there was a volunteer paramedic working in the tool room that did a great job of cleaning up the cuts. This makes for interesting conversation when visiting the palm reader. They have a hard time explaining all those craggy lines across my palms. =^..^=

**pspahr** · 09-17-2008

Posted this in an earlier thread, takes too long to retype:

Originally Posted by pspahr

About 10 years ago I was at an account which, luckily, was a hospital. I was working on a Ricoh FT8680. Those machines had a thing about jamming fairly regularly if nothing had been done to them in a while. Of course they'd get a delay jam, the customer would open the drawer, and they'd shred a sheet of paper in the feed unit inlet guide. Occassionally another sheet of paper would get behind the drawer (still happens even on new equipment) and get crammed into the drawer connector.....

Well on this day that had occurred. The machine was a big thing (ran 11x17 LEF) and they had it in a virtual closet. Literally just wide and deep enough to fit in the room. Opening the front doors would touch the opposing wall. Well, I shut off the copier, pulled out the tray, got down on my back and with hemostats in hand, went to pull out the paper from the connector.....forgetting that the tray heaters come on when the main power was shut off. 100Vac across the two pins in the connector and my hemostats completed that connection.

I already had a bum shoulder from a previous accident (running network cabling) and this posistion my body was in and my reaction to the shock easily dislocated my shoulder again. Picture now if you will a man, on his back, one shoulder touching a wall, the other deep inside a machine, screaming, in a hospital. Had I been watching I'd have laughed my azz off, certainly. Luckily, the nurses who got there first were much more professional (in other words they waited to laugh when I couldn't see). Anyway, to get out of the copier they had to roll me ONTO the dislocated shoulder in order to allow my arm to come out of the machine due to the confined space.

Anyway, no matter the pain it caused, physically and mentally, I still loved those old FT8680/90/8780/90 machines. I must be in a world of my own.

redime · 09-25-2008

[

All the way down to the bone, avulsion fracture - basically my muscle was so tight it pulled a piece of my bone out, chipped elbow... and im still having nerve issues from time to time

E Winter · 09-25-2008

ooouuchh.....

I can't report any major injuries from my side. But I remember that I was asked to take a look at a copier wich I wasn't familiar. Well, kind of "last minute" action, some paper was stucked behind a LCT magazin and I tried to access it with my bare hands/arms. It was a very tight way but finally I was able to fetch it - unfortunately some plates weren't proper deburred so during the way back I earned myself a few cuts.

**DadO** · 10-07-2008

Few scratches and burns from time to time

but main injury was when i cleaned an drum cleaner from bizhub 500. I usualy take an small cloth and glide across cleaner whit my thumb.

In one moment someone asked me something and i turned my head away.When i looked again I saw that cleaner was stuck oround 1 cm in my thumb and cloth was slipped from it ...then i started to feel a pain.......

p.s.
couldn't believe that gum can hurt u till then

**10871087** · 10-07-2008

Originally Posted by cobiray

He bent two needles before going to a heavier gauge. By this time the local anesthesia had worn off so every time he sewed I could feel the needle pop through the skin. It looked very "frankenstein" too.

Thanks dude, I just about tossed my lunch. Did you finish the call?

**cobiray** · 10-08-2008

No I didn't finish. I tried to apply pressure but it required a bit more than basic first aid to fix up. Hence the 8 or so stitches. There was a pool of blood under the mirror carriage that one of the other techs came out to clean up while I was at the ER.