Using your teeth to strip wire

ICBM

A few months ago I did that because I was working somewhere else in the house and couldn't be bothered to go and get my proper wire-strippers. Somehow I put a tiny little chip in my tooth - I didn't think much about it at the time, but after a few weeks I noticed a dark line up the tooth from the chip.

Went to the dentist today for a check-up and apparently the tooth enamel is cracked. Leaving it isn't a sensible option - sooner or later I will probably bite on something hard and split the tooth, which will mean an extraction and an implant… so I need to get it veneered to hold it together and protect it.

Estimate £500.

So don't do it.

Sarge

Yikes! I do it all the time. 
I have a perfect little gap at the front 2 top teeth for thin wire striping..... 500 sovs though.... Might invest in some new strippers


then maybe some wire strippers too! 

Sporky

Ouch.

And I thought the nice Barco strippers were expensive!

axisus

When I saw the thread title I came here to say don't do it, but I see that was the message anyway. You should never do anything with your teeth that they aren't designed for. A college pal of mine had a party trick where he would drink a can of beer then bite and chomp a lump out of the can - utterly mad. A friend of my mum tried to take a coke bottle top off with her teeth and wrecked both front teeth!

octatonic

I have my first chisel on a wall in my workshop- sort of as a 'reminder' to do things properly.
It is the chisel I used totally incorrectly- I didn't know how to sharpen it, or even that I needed to.
It was used as a screwdriver, as a marking knife- loads of misuse and it looks like it- huge gouges out of the blade- it can never be used properly again.

I guess ICBM will have to put his teeth up on the wall now.

trolley

I have always done that - & I have a small chip between my 2 front teeth! But no problems so far (about 20 years).
However I did buy some wire strippers & try to use them now

ICBM

octatonic said:

I guess ICBM will have to put his teeth up on the wall now.

lol

The annoying thing is that I never normally do it - I don't even like the sensation of it, it always felt uncomfortable - I was just too lazy to go down to the workshop and get the proper tool.

Most of my serious working injuries have been caused like that - cutting corners to save time or a walk, and I always know it's a bad idea even before the inevitable slip and "oh… bugger" moment.

This is one I will not do again though.

octatonic

ICBM said:

octatonic said:

I guess ICBM will have to put his teeth up on the wall now.

lol

The annoying thing is that I never normally do it - I don't even like the sensation of it, it always felt uncomfortable - I was just too lazy to go down to the workshop and get the proper tool.

Most of my serious working injuries have been caused like that - cutting corners to save time or a walk, and I always know it's a bad idea even before the inevitable slip and "oh… bugger" moment.

This is one I will not do again though.

I managed to put a scalpel through my right hand a couple of years ago by trying to quickly change a blade.
I now change those blades with a pair of pliers- my fingers go nowhere near the blade.

Jalapeno

I've had a cracked tooth collapse mid-meal (pasta of all things) - it fecking hurts.  Then there's the root canal filling - that fecking hurts too, followed by a crown (suprisingly that didn't really hurt a bit.   My missus has had a front tooth enamel done - suprirsingly not painful (hugely disruptive with the temporaries in though).

Wire strippers for me these days.

octatonic

I had a tooth reconstructed- had a tongue piercing for a few years and managed to crack it.
I was an idiot.

Modulus_Amps

...Stopped doing that years ago, my lesson is never use a stanley knife to strip wire.. or could will cut the end of your thumb off.. ask me how I know....

Sarge

I wonder if this is the thread in which we find out DaLefty's alter ego... 

impmann

Good advice, that.

All of my dumb-ass injuries have been as a result of cutting corners... such as my now permanently crooked 1st finger on my left hand caused by not using a spring compressor to remove a damper on the car - I was holding the bottom of the damper whilst undoing it from the top when then thread stripped on the nut and the damper shot down toward the tarmac taking my hand with it - 300lb/ft springs have a lot of stored tension in them. Or the cross shaped white scar on the same finger's pad caused by a Philips screwdriver slipping whilst struggling to get the back panel back on my amp after an emergency valve change - it was a cheap, nasty screwdriver that wasn't the right size/fit on the screws... I could see the right sized one sticking out of my bag but couldn't be arsed to walk across the stage to get it.

Easily done. Even easier avoided.

Rocker

Modulus_Amps said:

...Stopped doing that years ago, my lesson is never use a stanley knife to strip wire.. or could will cut the end of your thumb off.. ask me how I know....

That is what I was trained to use [a Stanley knife]  and did up to when I stopped working 'on the tools'.  New Stanley knife blades are nowhere near sharp enough though, which is why it can be dangerous.  Sharpen the blade on an oilstone before use.  Always cut or strip cables away from you.  One of the guys on site had an adjustable wire stripper, I tried it but preferred the knife.  A fixed blade knife, I think the knives with retractable blades are very insecure and dangerous.  

ICBM

impmann said:

Or the cross shaped white scar on the same finger's pad caused by a Philips screwdriver slipping whilst struggling to get the back panel back on my amp after an emergency valve change - it was a cheap, nasty screwdriver that wasn't the right size/fit on the screws... I could see the right sized one sticking out of my bag but couldn't be arsed to walk across the stage to get it.

I have the same sort of cross-shaped scar on my left middle finger. I was trying to undo the screw on a cheap single machinehead to change the gear, on a shop counter - the screw head was a bit chewed, so rather than go downstairs to the workshop where there was a proper bench vise, I decided to balance the machinehead on the end of its post and push down hard on it to give more grip. About half a second after I thought "this is a bit stupid, this is going to flip over… nah, it will be fine!" … it flipped over. The screwdriver tip - which had most of my right-shoulder weight on it - landed on my middle finger pad. It almost went right through - it was off-centre so the bone didn't stop it. I couldn't play guitar with it for six weeks. The scar still hurts in cold weather, and that was twenty years ago.

So don't do that either...

ChrisMusic

Reading all this ~ is a bit like a visit to the London Dungeon    #-o

usedtobe

The Fretboard Darwin Awards!

ICBM

usedtobe said:

The Fretboard Darwin Awards!

Luckily I haven't damaged anything that important yet .

It is true that all these work-related accidents tend to be the result of stupidity and laziness though. Familiarity and contempt and all that...

ESchap

Bloody dental work .... old bridge (2 front teeth -  rugby injury 30 odd years ago)  finally gave up the ghost.  Not enough root to retain a replacement, bone shrinkage, yada, yada.  Choice .. plate (nooooooo!) or implant.  Cost £3,000 including the bone graft required!    The cost of a Historic LP FFS!.