"Mercury spill, Mercury spill."

[prometheus578]

(My son, who's been working with me this summer)
"Hey Pops, come over here and look at something."
"What the hell? Hey... where'd this mercury come from?"
(The Triumph mechanic)"The service manager dropped the synch sticks."
"When was this?"
"A month ago... when you were in Colorado."
"Why didn't he clean it up?"
"I dunno."
"Ok... why didn't YOU clean it up?"
"I dunno."

Oh fer sh!t's sake. This was next to the tire machine. We've been kickin' and sweepin' this stuff around the shop fer a month! Called a buddy who's an instructor with the Seattle Hazmat team fer advice. Spent two hours this evening chasing little beads of mercury around the shop floor with an index card. Corraled a nice sized puddle of it, too.
Anyway, purpose of this rant. Just a reminder to those who have mercury sticks hangin' in their garages at home(like I do), to make sure they're secure. Clean up's easy on a cement floor... just wait till you track it onto the carpet!

[LoHo]

...and don't hang the sticks by the plastic tubes; they will eventually pull out of the merc reservoir and it will fall and spill. Don't ask me how I know...

[Wildkat]

Mercury Blues? Mercury Rising?

Has anyone started developing a third eye? Scales? A little more insane than normal?

Nothing like going a month with poison all over the place... The service manager really loves you guys.


They've heard of OSHA? Yes? or the Health Department even?
Or were they thinking... "We can put level marks on the side of the building and take the temperature everyday through the windows. Hey look! Kurt's over there flopping like a fish! How Cool!"

[prometheus578]

The service manager really loves you guys.

The plan was, at my insistance, to fire the service manager after I returned from my trip. (He was canned while I was away)
The new owner's plan is for me to run the show. I haven't decided on that one yet, but if I do take it, I plan to continue my Reign of Terror and replace the snooty Triumph tech, as well.
Yes, I'm accepting resumes.

[trbig]

I'm surprised to find that you didn't have several of your little "Guardians" posted around the shop to inform you of things while you were gone!

I remember when a thermometer broke when I was a kid... playing with the mercury in my hands. It kept getting smaller and smaller... then was gone. I thought it evaporated... naw... I just absorbed it in my skin is all! lol... Between that and the lead paint... I wonder why I keep blaming all the pot I smoked in high school for my mental problems! lol

For some reason... I think Kurt would be just about as easy to work for as Paul Sr.! I believe I'll hold of on the resume at this point! lmao.

Tod

[GNEPIG]

The new owner's plan is for me to run the show. I haven't decided on that one yet,

.. food for thought: in the time that you have worked at this shop, how many managers/bosses have come and gone? managers are usualy over paid people that sit around and are not real productive. so when times get hard and it's time to "trim the fat", over paid people are usualy cut first, the people that are making them money are the ones they keep. managers are supposed to be the first ones at work and the last to leave. also being responsible for other peoples actions sucks. if one of your techs makes a mistake it's not his fault, it would be your fault.. ok, to keep this short, dont do it man, the misery is not worth the slight raise in pay.

[Wildkat]

A perplexing situation indeed

a quandry, a quagmire, a conundrum even...

More pay(?)... more control... more power (bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha)

More responsiblity(?)... more finger pointing... more depending on other people to get the job done correctly and wondering if they will... when you know you can...

Man... good luck on that one.

(sorry... just got through with 2 years as PTA President... the flashbacks are still nightmarish)

[JWSanders]

That was the decision maker for me in getting the vacuum gages vs. carb sticks. Mercury is nasty stuff.

Manager sounded like a real winner....

FWIW, I have to agree with GNEPIG too. A good manager is worth a lot but the money makers are usually worth a lot more. I guess it would depend on how sound you feel your position as manager would be.

[LoHo]

Yep, me too. I bought the four gauge set after I finally tracked down the last little silver roller. When I was in grade school in the 60s, a kid brought a jar of mercury for show and tell. We played with it, stuck our hands in it, and after school, she dropped the glass jar in the wooden hallway and it scattered all over. The janitor swept it up and threw it in the trash. Ah, those were the days, EPA be damned!

[strom]

FFS get the vacuum gauges...
I see absolutely no advantage of the mercury stuff.

LP

[TADracer]

Tell em Charlie sent ya!

Mercury, I dont know, I played alot with that stuff while I was a kid. And I know I have eaten my share with my pound of dirt. Hell, Charlie the Tuna was probably full of Mercury....nothing wrong with me y.........Oh! Its the big one!

[tommystinson]

My two cents: MORGAN CARBTUNE II!
Spilling mercury in your own garage, well, no big deal. In a commercial shop? God save you!

[kf4anm]

merc

oddly enough we recycle all sorts of alkaline batteries at my work. the other day i was tranferring to a larger container when low and behold someone snuck a mercury switch in with their batteries. at first i thought it was a bulb but when i got to looking it is definately a tip switch of somekind. now i have to get rid of it. i ask myself now what the hell am i gonna do with this. wonder if the tip over switches in motorcycles are merc.

ps.
what is worse for the environment a few ounces of mercury or a thousand dirty diapers and styrofoam cups

[Pat Kelly]

Where does mercury come from? Is it mines from ore out of the ground? My used oil came from the ground. If I dump it on the ground isn't that recycling?
Diapers are biodegradable, it just takes sunlight to do it. Plastic garbage bags are biodegradable too. Ever have one that's sat outside for a long time fall apart when you finally get around to moving it?
It takes sunlight to break these things down. Unfortunately we bury this stuff underground where it will last for thousands of years.
Gives future archeologists something to do I guess.
All the chemicals that are here have always been here, we just move them around.
Your glass of water is recycled dinosaur urine. They drank water, disposed of it, it evaporated, came down as rain, was drank.... over and over for millenia.
Even artificial products are the combination of existing things. We mix them together and think we made something new and call it "man made", kind of arrogant.

[prometheus578]

"Diapers, etc"

People bitch about the silliest things. Every once in a while, as I have two German Shepherds, I need to empty "The Wheelbarrow O' Poop". I shovel it into plastic bags and place them... (on the neighbor's doorstep after lighting them on fire) in the weekly garbage can.
"You can't do that!
"Why not, the landfill is full of diapers."
Mercury is processed out of cinnabar ore, yes, from the ground. While the cinnebar holds it in suspension of sorts, me dumping pure mercury into the ground is something different. I still have it in a jar on my workbench, too contaminated to reuse for mercury sticks.
Anyway, unofficially, was told by my HAZMAT buddy to just mix it with a binder, like cat litter, and toss in the dumpster in a sealed container. he states, too, there is so much mercury in the landfill already from batteries, car parts, electronics and such, that it really doesn't matter. It's one of those things that environmentalists don't like to talk about. Mercury is bad stuff, but in the small quantities that we're talking about, this is the usual disposal method.
Landfills have several feet of cement and plastic liners to protect the underlying ground. Should be good for several thousand years