A good way to burn yourself ( I found one)
 

I was splitting fire wood today, had to turn it off to cut a longer piece to split. Well when returning to restart splitter, which had only been turned off for like 1 minute after running for 30 minutes.

I decided to lay my hand directly on hot muffler with all of my weight on it to lean down and turn on kill switch. IT FREAKING HURTS, I have large burn on half of my palm which blistered up in about a minute. Which would be a second degree burn, I'll feel that in the morning.

I kept sticking ice packs on it, I never go to a doctor unless life threatening. Stubborn I guess or don't like paying them so much money for it.

Needless to say "Don't Try this at Home" Not looking forward to the peeling process.

Damn dude! I hate getting burned and I do it all the time. Hope it don't get infected.

Morphine!

Bummer. Hope it doesn't hurt too much this morning.

Well not feeling too bad this morning, kinda stiff is all. Sleep was the best thing for it, other than not grabbing the exhaust in the first place. When I get better I am welding a heat shield around it, to easy to lay your hand on this one's exhaust.

I still have a mark on my arm where I burned it as a child on the exhaust on my home-made go-kart. That was back when fish were learning to walk.

Burns suck -- Sunburns, contact burns, chemical burns, electrical burns. Having been a Firefighter/EMT, I experienced a few myself and many times with patients.

As Johnny said, keep it from getting infected. Taking a shower is the worst -- warm anything irritates it. If that gets to you, tape a plastic bag around your wrist to protect hand from the heat and keep it dry and elevated. Change dressings frequently and use a non-stick kind (Telfa is a good brand). Wrap loosely with gauze. Use creams carefully.

Let us know if it's second degree. (blisters, oozing, etc). Stay hydrated too.

Take care,

RH77

Man that sucks.
Sorry to hear of the pain not to mention the inconvenience of having the temporary use of only one hand.
Keep us posted on how it progresses.

Pete.

Well my hand is turning out quite nicely!! It looks about 80 years old where I burnt it but no pain and blisters dried up and did not pop. Was being super careful last couple days. No to start splitting wood again. This time no touchy the exhaust though.

You have an exhaust system and kill switch on your AXE?

You really ARE a modder!!! :thumbup:

Must be one of those fancy new ones!

I went in halfsies with my father-in-law on a splitter. So far, my kids work with him splitting wood, then they come home and split wood. Difference is, at my house they use the maul and a wedge. You can still get burned, but it'll be from friction.

I did this once with a two cycle gas hole auger while digging post holes for a deck. The peeling process was accelerated as later in the week I was moving bags of concrete on my shoulder and it sucked the skin off my forearm. FAILDOZER. surprised that scar is gone, but hey it was like 10 years ago.

Last time I got burned pretty good was last winter, the knock sensor connector came loose on the 6000 wagon while downstate. It misses and sucks gas bad when disconnected, and I had 150 miles to get home. Even after waiting till after filling the tank, I got burned pretty good when reaching down under the exhaust manifold to reconnect it. Next trip I got a new connector from the junkyard and spliced it on after the engine cooled, problem solved.

I remember the first time I worked on a four banger, bout 3 yrs ago, the car died in the middle of the road and had to push it to the side. I pop the hood and lean against what I'm used to on a V6 the intake manifold. Apparently four bangers don't have those where I laid my hand it was the exhaust manifold. That night I had a yellow hand cause I smothered that burn in mustard. Luckily my Yaris' exhaust is on the back so I won't be doing that again.

I did something just as STUPID a few months ago. I had been sweating some copper tubing using a propane torch and I set the torch down and stuck my hand to the copper. I still don't know why I did that. I guess I wanted to see if it was hot or not. It didn't blister it completely fried the skin and was just hard and crusty. I had to keep ice on it for the next several hours because I couldn't stand the pain without it.

Getting burned sucks for sure. When I was 12 years old, I bought an aquarium heater at a yard sale. One morning I plugged it in as I was getting ready for school and laid it on the floor. About 10 minutes later I picked it up, and burned my right hand from the palm to the fingertips. I'd never had an aquarium heater before and didn't know that it gets a lot hotter than 80 degrees when it's not submerged. It burned a hole all the way through the carpet, and I couldn't open my hand for a week.

I also once burned a hole 1/2" in diameter and over 1/4" deep in my left arm. I was working under the dash of my 79 Trans Am, and shorted two wires together with my arm. It made a great smell.

My stepfather bought the first 1982 Mazda RX7 in Austin, TX. A few weeks later he was driving (probably drunk) about 80mph on a twisty 2 lane in the hill country and ran the car off the road. It went through two barbed wire fences, and ripped the front suspension off the car on both sides. The idiot got out of the car and crawled under the back to try and see if there was any damage. In doing so, he grabbed the exhaust with both hands. Keep in mind that this was a rotary, and he'd just coasted it down from high speed. The exhaust was probably as hot as a typical catalytic converter, and he ended up with third degree burns on both hands.

The insurance company decided to rebuild the car, including 4 new wheels, all new front steering and suspension, all new glass except the hatch (barbed wire scratches the hell out of windows), new front sheet metal and bumper, etc. They also had to do a compete repaint. What a piece of junk. I don't think that car ever had more than three wheels touching the ground at one time again.

Fordman, I have done the same thing about 8 years ago. I was a welder for local construction company for about 2 1/2 years. I was welding a handrail joint together, had on jeans that had alot of frayed ends on the pants legs, well my pants caught on fire.

The first thing I did was put the fire out using my welding gloves. The second thing I did was throw off my welding gloves and grab the freshly welded still glowing handrail to pull myself up to my feet. That one hurt alot worse than the splitter did for sure.