my husband never got a chance to develop the handyman instincts–his uncle got that role in his family, rather than his dad, so he was apparently never exposed to extensive tool use. :: sigh:: i, on the other hand, grew up in the combined son/daughter mode, since i was an only child. i learned to wield a hammer and screwdriver as well as the next person. so when we got a new home after being married about a year, if mechanical things needed doing, i was the do-er. one of the things we agreed we needed was a dead-bolt on the front door. after buying one (and the necessary special drill bit), i attempted to begin installation. the wimpy drill that my husband owned (and why he actually had one i’ve never gotten around to asking) didn’t have enough power to do the job. i borrowed a better one from our neighbor across the street, and set to work.
if you’ve never done it, putting in a dead-bolt is a multi-step process. first you drill a regular hole straight through the door, to serve as the centering point for the install location. then you’re supposed to drill a large circular hole (using the special bit) through one side of the door, until you get about half-way through. then you go to the other side of the door and finish the hole.
well, after getting the pilot hole done, i tackled the first half from inside the house. in the process, i discover that we don’t have a metal door as it initially appeared–we have a wood-core door with metal covers on both sides. so, ok fine as far as additional insulating properties, and probably strength for the door… but when you transit from metal to wood while drilling, the bit tends to “grab” when it makes the switch. i discovered this when the bit tried to stutter across the metal surface on the inside of the door. less than pleased with the mild marring of the surface, i made sure when i started working on the other side that i wouldn’t allow it to happen again. remembering how the drill tried to rotate, i was using my left hand to power it, hoping to provide additional bracing against the time of transition/skipping across the surface. got through the metal layer, hit the wood … and the damn thing kicked like the proverbial mule. major pain from my left hand. i wore a ring on my index finger; as soon as i could stop swearing, i eased it off, figuring that i’d sprained that finger pretty badly and it was bound to swell up. after a couple minutes, the pain got back down to tolerable levels. i figured i might as well finish the job, before the swelling got too bad for me to hold the drill. funny thing though-- i couldn’t seem to get any strength on the trigger of the drill from my index finger.
REALLY pissed off now, i figured if i sprained it that badly, i better take it to the emergency clinic to get looked at. didn’t want to neglect it if i’d injured a tendon or anything like that. so i drove myself over there, sat around until they x-rayed it. when the doctor came back in, i said (only half-jokingly): “You better not tell me it’s broken.” his reply? “Ok, I won’t say it’s broken. It’s broken in three pieces.”
crap.
i declined having pins put in to hold it together. unfortunately, the bones compacted a bit as it healed, so the length shortened and now the end tendon is a bit slack. i opted for the screws next time i did a multi-break on that same hand. (i have weird bones; they don’t just break, they do interesting spiral breaks. every time lately.)