Carpal tunnel syndrome and scrapping

After this post, maybe it will be clearer not to waste your time breaking down certain tedious items such as some tightly wound motors and so on. Your hands have certain nerves in them and over use and excess use can lead to carpal tunnel. Say for example a motor from an a.c. After cutting away the twines, a nice piece of copper awaits but you are going to put your hands through hell to get it. It's not worth it. When you look at how much that item scrapping value is compare to the time it takes to process, you are wasting time and worst of all, over using your hands. Check out this definition: Carpal tunnel syndrome
Consult a doctor if you have a medical concern.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition in which there is excessive pressure on the median nerve. This is the nerve in the wrist that allows feeling and movement to parts of the hand. Carpal tunnel syndrome can lead to numbness, tingling, weakness, or muscle damage in the hand and fingers.

Keep this definition in mind the next time you plan on tearing away at some little pain in the butt item. No piece of scrap item is worth your health at any time. I welcome all your responses. One last thing, for those of you who elect to use a power tool instead, the issue of cuts and slicing body parts is a matter of when, not if. I guess I will leave that for the next post.

I guess it depends if ur a man enough..

ive got a broken right ankle right now n have broke down over 50 motors this week..

Gota do what ya gota do..i cant drive or work ft..everyone is different

It is still profitable..

Thats what scrappin is about

I chop saw motors in half, saves time I beleive. And Probadly quite a few nerves!

I had carpal tunnel surgery. got to watch it as they did it. really nifty to see. that's all.

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Originally Posted by scrappy888

I guess it depends if ur a man enough..

ive got a broken right ankle right now n have broke down over 50 motors this week..

Gota do what ya gota do..i cant drive or work ft..everyone is different

It is still profitable..

Thats what scrappin is about

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http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/5480/f9f.gif You're letting a broken ankle stop you? http://imageshack.us/a/img7/4236/6bc.gif

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...27789798_n.jpg

After this happened, I finished loading the four server racks I had intended to take that day, took them home, put them in the garage, took the UPS's out of the one that fell on me, THEN went to get my foot xrayed. I took the next day off from my real job, although I still worked the whole day in my garage. Haven't missed a lick since.

I'm just hoping that no cop spots me getting in or out of my truck with this cast boot on! Did you know that with practice it's actually pretty easy to gas & brake with your left foot? LOL

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Originally Posted by scrappy888

I guess it depends if ur a man enough..

ive got a broken right ankle right now n have broke down over 50 motors this week..

Gota do what ya gota do..i cant drive or work ft..everyone is different

It is still profitable..

Thats what scrappin is about

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Scrappy I totally get what you're saying. This is not an issue of being man enough because being a scrapper takes balls so there, the issue of tough is dealt with. I'm getting at longevity and efficiency. We must never be too old or stubborn to learn, isn't that why we are all part of this great forum?

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Originally Posted by auminer

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/5480/f9f.gif You're letting a broken ankle stop you? http://imageshack.us/a/img7/4236/6bc.gif

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...27789798_n.jpg

After this happened, I finished loading the four server racks I had intended to take that day, took them home, put them in the garage, took the UPS's out of the one that fell on me, THEN went to get my foot xrayed. I took the next day off from my real job, although I still worked the whole day in my garage. Haven't missed a lick since.

I'm just hoping that no cop spots me getting in or out of my truck with this cast boot on! Did you know that with practice it's actually pretty easy to gas & brake with your left foot? LOL

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While you may get the award for the toughest scrapper of the year, you have got to take care of yourself. The risk of permanently damaging tendons and nerves all in the name of being man enough and to continue scrapping is not worth it. Maybe back in the 50s but not today. One has to be smart, careful, and efficient in all they do if you want to enjoy longevity. That's all I'm saying. No disrespect.

Heck you can get carpal tunnel from just typing if you do it for work. Many of stories of friends who've gotten it. Whether secretaries, programmers, etc.

I get what your saying tho, an agree..Gotta take care of yourself as best you can. In this line of work though, injuries happen even to the most careful of us. Sucks but it's a fact of life.

Sirscrapalot - I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. - Douglas Adams

I'm sure carpal tunnel is real but also find it funny that I have never met a self employed person with it, it's always someone that works for somebody and usually belongs to a union.

My question is why do you take the twine winding off the copper? Waste of time and no additional money.

I think I'm getting it, I'm only 17, My wrists sometimes hurt like heck, I used to play computer games ALOT before I could drive and scrap, so when I'd be like 12 or 13 I'd be sitting on the computer playing runescape all day lol, screwed up my hands now any time i twist them a certain way you can hear my wrist crack. Sometimes it hurts really bad.

Not too concerned about carpal tunnel, I'm more concerned about protecting my only good eye when I'm working or getting arthritis from my chronic knuckle and toe popping addiction. ;)

I've already had both wrists operated on for CT. I had them done at the same time.

My biggest problem now is not swelling in the wrist but swelling in my finger joints from scrapping

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Originally Posted by newattitude

I've already had both wrists operated on for CT. I had them done at the same time.

My biggest problem now is not swelling in the wrist but swelling in my finger joints from scrapping

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Not to be crude but if you had surgery on both at the same time, I'll bet you found out who your friends were when going to the bathroom,,,lol

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Originally Posted by KzScrapper

I'm sure carpal tunnel is real but also find it funny that I have never met a self employed person with it, it's always someone that works for somebody and usually belongs to a union.

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That's good to know.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Not to be crude but if you had surgery on both at the same time, I'll bet you found out who your friends were when going to the bathroom,,,lol

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Lol! The casts left your fingers out so I was still able to function fairly well. I remember pushing my grandpa through the grocery store with casts on both hands in a wheelchair. I also cut the casts off myself. the doctor wasn't too happy about that!

When I first started scrapping I didn't have a drill, I used screwdrivers for everything and I remember my hands starting to get that ''numb'' feeling again but since using a drill that has taken the repetitiveness off my wrists and it hasn't been an issue.

I guess the one thing I would like to express more than ever, many of you on here will have a tough guy/girl story or something exceptional to refute the underline message here. It comes down to this concept, you need to be educated about yourself to take care of yourself. The body is a phenomenal rejuvenating machine but if you don't take the time to properly and efficiently maintain it, it will slowly start breaking down. Just like how we take the time to separate ferrous from non ferrous, we have got to take the time not just to work hard but work smart.

For those of you doubting if carpal tunnel is real, it most definitely is real.

Not only do you lose feeling in your hands, if you continue to push through, trying to tough it out, the tingling and numbness goes all the way up the arm and into the shoulder. It is extremely painful and when it gets to that point there is nothing to do about it.

Ive had carpal tunnel for about 8 years now and have learned that when i am scrapping i need to wear wrist braces to keep my wrists as straight as possible.

My carpal actually started because of drumming constantly, trimming parts at work all day, etc.

Some people use their hands all day their whole lives without a problem. Others develop problems.

Dont call BS about something just because it never happened to you.

I think it is a very good point and am glad it has been brought up.

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Originally Posted by 41haikuwarriors

For those of you doubting if carpal tunnel is real, it most definitely is real.

Not only do you lose feeling in your hands, if you continue to push through, trying to tough it out, the tingling and numbness goes all the way up the arm and into the shoulder. It is extremely painful and when it gets to that point there is nothing to do about it.

Ive had carpal tunnel for about 8 years now and have learned that when i am scrapping i need to wear wrist braces to keep my wrists as straight as possible.

My carpal actually started because of drumming constantly, trimming parts at work all day, etc.

Some people use their hands all day their whole lives without a problem. Others develop problems.

Dont call BS about something just because it never happened to you.

I think it is a very good point and am glad it has been brought up.

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Thanks dude for this post. The thread is now going the way I had intended, to educate each of us in an effort to make us better at what we do. I wish there were more posts like this.

One more thing, besides carpal tunnel, a few other things exist and the sad thing is, us men act ignorant towards our health in the name of being tough. Stuff like "Don't be a wuss or man-up" is a common phrase. Research shows that the main reason men do not live as long as women is because we don't deal with our health issues until its too far gone. In the scrapping business we are exposed to a ton of things that can hurt us. I would like to see admin start a thread that deal with safety and health issues in regards to scrapping.