Here's where things got dicey.
I installed the new Sparx 3 phase alternator, and the alternator rotor nut wasn't wanting to slip into the rotor's hole. So, like I've done a hundred times, I took the nut to the grinding wheel to dress the face a bit. I'm slowly turning it through about 90 degrees and ZIP! CLUNK! The wheel sucked the nut right out of my hand and locked up the grinder motor. As I reach over to turn it off, I realize the tip of my index finger is gone!
Well, that's gonna leave a mark! I took a picture, but I'll spare you. It was bleeding pretty good, but didn't really hurt. It was just sliced clean off about even with the fingernail quick, and I think I saw the very tip of the bone poking out. Anyway, I looked down in the grinder at the jammed nut, and there's the tip of my finger, squashed in the built-up shavings inside the wheel's housing. There wasn't going to be any taking it to the hospital in a zip-loc with ice, that's for sure.
So, I wrapped a dirty shop rag around my finger (leaving the cleanest part near the injury), closed up the shop, and went next door to ask for a lift to the hospital. Then, I went inside and told my daughter to go next door and visit while I "ran an errand". Frank pulled around with tires smoking and eyes wide, I jumped in and off we went.
The nurse at reception gave me some tissues and a couple of alcohol wipes as I answered her questions. I really wasn't feeling much pain, I've certainly been hurt worse (like when I almost chopped off the SAME FINGER TIP when loading a dirt bike on the back of a truck and got my finger chomped by one of the sprocket bolts against the swingarm). Well, just like the other time, it really only started to hurt when the alcohol hit the nub! YEEF! 3 HOURS LATER, after an x-ray, lots of waiting, and not much more than a proper scrubbing and splint/bandage, I was sent off with a bag of bandage stuff and a scrip for pain killers & some neosporin. I'll take the neosporin, forget the pain killers (I hate pills, all of 'em).
As soon as I got home, I fetched out the jammed nut from the grinder and threw away the mangled hunk of meat & fingernail. Looks like it's time for a new grinder wheel; it's got a little chunk taken out of it, and I know it could expolde violently at any time after a whack like that.
Thi is going to slow me down; the bandages are already dirty from this mornings work, and it's a PAIN IN THE BUTT to wrap the finger in a zip-loc to wash my hands, which I do about a half dozen times a day!