Tungsten carbide rings

[Thor]

During my stint in Naval Aviation, I saw one too many people with missing/ deformed ring fingers. I never wore wedding bands, except on dress occasions.

[Gewehr98]

You weren't the only one who noticed, Thor.

Wearing rings was verboten in USAF aviation, and from my exchange duties with Navy P3 crews, apparently there, too.

[erictank]

During my stint in Naval Aviation, I saw one too many people with missing/ deformed ring fingers. I never wore wedding bands, except on dress occasions.

I remember a sign posted in one of the main passageways on my carrier, back in my Navy days, which had photos showing the results of getting jewelry (including rings) caught in some of the rotating machinery found in the Engineering spaces.  The technical term used was "degloving".

Eewwww.

[Bogie]

George Kelbly Jr made his wife an anodized aluminum ring... It's kewl.
 
(they make aluminum-sleeved benchrest actions)

[zahc]

I don't wear a ring cause it's dangerous in the lab and I can never be bothered to remeber whether I'm wearing it or not, so I just don't wear it. My friend managed to complete a circuit with is fancy watch a couple weeks ago. A ring would have been much worse.

[BridgeRunner]

I remember a sign posted in one of the main passageways on my carrier, back in my Navy days, which had photos showing the results of getting jewelry (including rings) caught in some of the rotating machinery found in the Engineering spaces.  The technical term used was "degloving".

Eewwww.

I gotta ask.  Is the hand ever salvageable after that kind of incident?

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

What kind of watch is that? I'm terribly hard on my watches, and I want to find a very durable one before I waste any more money.

Skagen.  They look sharp (in my opinion) and they aren't too expensive.  Most department stores carry 'em, but amazon has 'em cheaper.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I knew an electrical engineer who lost a finger because of his wedding ring.  He reached his hand into some sort of high power junction box, and shorted a line out through the ring.  He said he felt a sharp pain in his hand, then looked down on the floor to find his finger sitting next to a small puddle of gold.  The current instantly melted the ring, and the molten gold cut through his finger.

[BReilley]

Last I knew where it was, my wedding ring was at the bottom of the Potomac River.

...along with all the guns you used to own, right?  Same tragic boating accident?

I knew an electrical engineer who lost a finger because of his wedding ring.  He reached his hand into some sort of high power junction box, and shorted a line out through the ring.  He said he felt a sharp pain in his hand, then looked down on the floor to find his finger sitting next to a small puddle of gold.  The current instantly melted the ring, and the molten gold cut through his finger.

You know, I'm sure it sucks and all, but... cool!

My ring is titanium, pretty plain, and cost $40.  I liked the duller look of titanium compared to gold.  It is quite worn(rounded) and scratched.  I've had it just over four years now and it's survived changing truck tires, working on cars, operating forklifts, handling batteries, and more.  At some point(when I stop handling heavy/caustic/generally dangerous stuff as a condition of employment) I'd like to get a nicer ring, one of those two-tone deals with a titanium body and a thin gold stripe around the middle.

[Gewehr98]

BridgeWalker, I've had to post those photos in my squadron, too.

It was part of my job managing the Flight Safety Program as Chief of Stan/Eval. I actually failed one of my flyers on a check ride for wearing a ring, we were that serious about it.

I have some of those pics saved as .jpg, but I won't post them here.  Here's a link to a similar incident, and the treatment thereof:

http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijos/vol8n1/ring.xml

Suffice it to say, a degloving or avulsion of that magnitude can often results in clinical amputation of the remaining (exposed) bone afterwards. There has been some success with re-attachment and skin flap surgery, but one should not accept that as the norm.

It's best just not to wear a ring in occupations that pose such a hazard. 

[Gewehr98]

knew an electrical engineer who lost a finger because of his wedding ring.  He reached his hand into some sort of high power junction box, and shorted a line out through the ring.  He said he felt a sharp pain in his hand, then looked down on the floor to find his finger sitting next to a small puddle of gold.  The current instantly melted the ring, and the molten gold cut through his finger.

I'm trying to do the mental math, and figure out how many amps it takes to melt gold, especially as good a conductor as it is.

That may be a potential Mythbusters episode.

Maybe they can tie it into Kari Byron's electric pickle experiment?   

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I'm trying to do the mental math, and figure out how many amps it takes to melt gold, especially as good a conductor as it is.

That may be a potential Mythbusters episode.

Maybe they can tie it into Kari Byron's electric pickle experiment?   

"High power" was all I was told.  The story was told int he context of arc blast levels of high power, FWIW.

[Tallpine]

I lost a ring in a deep cold mountain lake.

Years later, I caught a 24 lb Mackinaw trout from that same lake.

You're not going to believe this, but when I gutted the fish, there were no rings whatsoever inside. :(

 

[KD5NRH]

I'm trying to do the mental math, and figure out how many amps it takes to melt gold, especially as good a conductor as it is.

...and given the thickness of the conductor.  The average men's wedding band should be roughly equivalent to what, 8ga wire?

[Fly320s]

I lost a ring in a deep cold mountain lake.

Years later, I caught a 24 lb Mackinaw trout from that same lake.

You're not going to believe this, but when I gutted the fish, there were no rings whatsoever inside. :(

 

Did you look on the outside?  Check the fins? 

[Tallpine]

Did you look on the outside?  Check the fins? 

Actually, it was an 8" Rainbow 

[cfabe]

I've got a titanium band. The wife wanted ours to match so it's white titanium with a gold strip inlaid. Got it with the "satin" finish so it wouldn't show scratches as much. I like that it is light weight because of the titanium. I held a friends ring which was tungsten and it was really heavy. I have gotten some scratches on it but due to the finish you can't see it unless you look closely.

[K Frame]

This story is true...

A coworker lost his ring while doing a bunch of landscaping at his mother's house. He got a metal detector and everything, but no ring.

A few months later one of the shrubs he planted died, so he pulled it to plant another one. When he shook the dirt off the dead plant's rootball, his ring dropped out.

After that we always joked that his and his wife's love was toxic to living things.

[BrokenPaw]

Slight thread drift on the subject of re-finding things under unlikely circumstances:  When I was a kid (1980 or so), I was fishing from the beach at Cape May NJ with my dad.  On one of his casts, his line broke, and he lost his lure (It was a Hopkins; it was his favorite for surf-casting, and it was the only one of that type he owned).  He'd forgotten to bring another lure with him, so he walked back up to the house, got a different lure, and came back.  On his very next cast, when he reeled his line in, his Hopkins was caught on the hook of the new lure.

True story.  He still has that Hopkins lure to this day.

-BP

[ramis]

Ouch! Those "degloving pictures look very painful.

Does anybody have an everyday ring and a dressy ring? Or am I the only one that likes that idea?

[lupinus]

google degloving injury on google images.

Some ouchness in there

[BridgeRunner]

Does anybody have an everyday ring and a dressy ring? Or am I the only one that likes that idea?

To me, a wedding ring is kind of inherently an everyday thing, kind of like marriage.  Mine has a row of tiny diamonds, slightly larger than chips.  One fell out almost right away.  Never replaced.  Figured it was a good reminder to not expect perfection from anything, least of all marriage.

[Paragon]

I've had my Tungsten ring on for a few years now, and still have yet to scratch it.  Besides the fact that we paid way too much for it, I'd get another. 

I remember when a relative first saw it and asked "Is that one of those tungsten rings?  Can I see it?"  I handed to him, and then watched him lean down and grind it on the stone walkway.  You should have seen the looks on my wife's face, I thought she was going to go after him.  No scratch, though. 

[Nightfall]

Okay, I just wanted to say thanks for the whole degloving talk.  Never heard of it before.  Never thought about it.  Fast forward one APS thread later...

Wife: "Why aren't you wearing your ring?"

Me: "Degloving."

Wife: "Huh?"

I think I'll start drawing a ring on with a pen everyday.

 

[BridgeRunner]

I think I'll start drawing a ring on with a pen everyday.

Just get one tattooed on.  Saves time.