Today Jason shared a great success with readers: He managed to remove the jammed batteries from his Changli. Having swollen and basically squeezed themselves against one another and against the battery box that contained them, the lead-acid batteries that haven’t powered Jason’s Cheapest EV In The World in over a year, were almost impossible to remove. But thanks to use of a chainsaw and pry bar, Jason finally has an empty battery box, and the only injury he got from it was a pinched finger. At least, so far; according to readers, Jason’s chainsaw activity was more dangerous than Torch realized.
If you didn’t read Jason’s latest article “How I Used A Chainsaw To Remove Batteries From The Cheapest EV In The World,” definitely check it out, as Jason is hilarious as always. And also watch this clip:
Readers in the comments were awestruck by Jason’s brazen disregard for safety. From maccspowers:
Huffing in that much lead can’t be good for your brain.
Right as David Tracy was finally veering towards sanity, now we have Torch to keep us up at night.
First, I am glad you didn’t suffer any greater injury – that looked fantastically dangerous, as who knows what you could have been flinging around in the air with that chainsaw. Second, your real problem is that you stopped at the batteries – keep going and get rid of that death trap before it gets you killed.
I came here for the stories, but staying for the long term effects of lead poisoning. Never change Torch.
I too was wondering how much lead dust that saw threw up into the air.
A chainsaw! JFC. Someone please subscribe so the man can buy a damn sawzall or grinder. But maybe if that’s the kind of thing you usually use your chainsaw for, the blade was already too dull to cut your leg off. A chainsaw!!
After the first handful of words, I thought you meant wheelchair or mobility device for the impending chainsaw injury.
Oh my! So many OSHA violations in one story. I know you’re playing it off for laughs, but aerosolizing lead dust with a chainsaw without full PPE seems to be pretty high up on the list. Oh, and next time, get at that nail with a hot nail or similar to release the pressure. Seems scary, but it’s painless and instant pain relief.
Keep JT’s neighborhood weird!
Here’s Last Pants with a great reply:
Jason is the boss. Bosses don’t have to listen to OSHA since it’s there to protect employees. Bosses do have to listen to EPA, however. But I ain’t gonna be a downer because small planes be spewing more lead than a torchainskaw.
Jason’s hometown USA:
“911 operator how may I help you?“
“yeah there’s a small crazed man trying to cut his strange Chinese car in half with a chainsaw. I think he may need some help.”
“ yes ma’am. That’s Jason. We’ve had multiple calls about him. He’s just trying to fix his car. Call us back if there’s some extreme explosion.”
“Uh ok”
Here’s a reply from tacotruckdave:
DT and JT spend 72 hours together in involuntary commital at the Psyche Ward.
Dude, were you wearing face protection or a respirator? I’m not saying I’m above doing this exact thing; I inherited my Paternal Grandfather’s tendency to resort to ham fistedly smashing, hammering, sawing or prying anything in my way out of impatience. I’d totally do this. But like… it’s a lead acid battery man, at least wear a face shield and respirator lol. Ah well, your craziness is part of what makes this site worth reading. Guess we can expect it to continue!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJdCJMyBi5I
if you have 10 minutes for workplace safety. Made to highest splatter movie standards to grab the apprentice’s attention. The auto and then to English translation is hilarious in it’s own way, the narrator a legend in Germany
I love that thing.
We get this issues all the time with our rack mounted UPS units. Takes a big pry bar to get the fuckers out. Should have done that. This was not your finest hour Torch.
All this concern about the lead and none about the acid?
Battery acid is not good for you, but its effects are also pretty immediate and, unless something extreme happens, short-term. The amount of lead Jason exposed himself to has almost certainly affected his long-term health in a meaningful way. It’s less obvious, but far more serious.
Everyone should read up on the dangers of lead, particularly the bit where the experts say things like “No amount of lead exposure is considered safe”.
Honestly, Jason needs to call a lead abatement specialist and have them clean up the site. The lead dust and particles are not going away on their own and will pose a serious health risk until they are removed. I first suggested that he clean the Changli and dig up the soil but have since realized there is no way an amateur can realistically deal with this. Someone will need to take lead test strips and soil samples around the scene of the crime until they know how far that chainsaw scattered the lead. It’s going to be a doozie of a project.
Also, those batteries were probably dead enough that they were full of dry lead sulfate with very little sulfuric acid left.
I couldn’t read the article, it just made me way too uncomfortable, so I’m glad we have a nice thorough COTD roundup from it.
Jason…
I’ve read Darwin Award entries that had a less frightening start than someone attempting to cut large batteries with a chainsaw. The Changli and the soil around it are now dangerously contaminated with lead. Seriously, the only way to make the area around where you did this safe is to dig up the soil and have it removed as hazardous material. Don’t let Otto anywhere near the car itself until you have cleaned until it is cleaner than the day you first unboxed it. Lead dust can cause irreversible central nervous system damage in kids, including measurable drops in IQ.
With the tip guard still curiously in place he was exercising due caution. Without it he could have made a nice plunge cut right through to the ground below. This would have prevented the need for all the hammering AND created a nice drain for the inevitable next battery problems.
I am not sure if it is lucky, lead exposure tend to be a long game vs acid / li ion explosions etc short bursts of energy. I hope Jason clean the interior well after the extraction and probably a good idea to test the cabin with lead test stripes before having family members going for a ride.
Pretty sure I just read Jason’s superhero origin story there.
Or supervillain. This early on, kind of hard to tell which way it’ll go.
“I think “wotsac” wins this round.
I’ve done some stupid shit.
Probably will do more.
Hell, I’ve had a bench grinder grab my hair, jump off the the workbench and punch me in the face (Thank god I got it from Harbor Freight. (you’ll never hear that sentence again)).
I was a long haired forty year old and I knew better.
It’s always, “just this one time” or “it will only take a second” that gets ya.
Jason, I like your writing.
Don’t do shit like that.
I’d like to look forward to new articles.
Some may say “never change” but in this instance I disagree with that sentiment.
“Men who wear leather pants don’t have real friends.”
-Some Guy (paraphrasing Chuck Klosterman)-
I let my friends know when they look stupid.
That’s what friends are for.
If you wear leather pants for the purpose of keeping your skin attached to your legs, while riding, you are exempt from that quote.
I had a grinder grab my tshirt once.No deep cuts but a hell of a shock to the system!
Having it happen to hair and face must have been terrible
Luckily, the Harbor Freight motor didn’t stand a chance against my mangy locks.
It was more of an “I’m an idiot” moment than it was a “oh dear god I’ve gone and scalped myself with a power tool” moment.
I remember being young and stupid and doing stupid stuff because I was stupid. But Torch is neither young nor stupid. It’s all about the clicks. What a way to die.
I don’t have much room to talk, I used to play with a giant lump of lead (larger than a loaf of bread) as a kid. I think my dad had bought it to make bullets with but whatever it was for I hauled that thing around with me like it was my only friend.
And I’m perfectly normal!
Back in middle school a friend discovered that wall switches had a little glass capsule of mercury in them. He ended up with a small amount of the stuff that he carried around in a pill bottle and we’d play with it on the workbench in shop class, scattering it across the tabletop and watching the drops reassimilate. It was fascinating fun stuff to play with.
No one called the EPA or HAZMAT people then, but do that today and the building would be sealed off for a month for cleaning.
Back in high school during chemistry lab, someone found some mercury in one of the cabinets (it had probably been in there since before WWII) and thought it would be fun to play with. He poured it out in his hand and swirled it around for a while. When he got bored with that, he asked a classmate to give him one of her rings. He thought it was great when the ring dissolved into a grey lump in his hand. The owner of the ring was less pleased.
Again, survivorship bias… while anecdotes ain’t data by any means, a friend would play with the mercury from some broken thermometers that she had collected, in a similar fashion to your friend, and decades later she now has some serious memory issues despite being otherwise astonishingly healthy and having no family history whatsoever of early-onset dementia and the speculation is that the childhood exposure to the mercury was at the very least a contributing factor. Your friend may be in for some unpleasant surprises as they get older…
The company where I work does functional and seismic testing of components; following testing, all test specimens are stored in large storage bins, often without the original packaging. When I started here years ago, I was sent to look through one of these bins for some small part. What I ended up finding was a switch, its cover long gone and its mercury-containing glass tubes exposed. I’m still amazed that nothing broke them given the way it was stored. (I brought this to the attention of several employees; the general reaction was “well how about that” and “yeah, they don’t make those anymore.”)
You’re commenting here. I don’t feel alone in saying “normal” isn’t an appropriate adjective to describe you… <looks uncomfortably into the mirror>
Ah, yeah, survivorship bias. “I grew up not wearing seatbelts and I’m fine!” Never mind that those who weren’t fine after car accidents aren’t here to say otherwise.
sez the guy and/or cyborg
My understanding is that lead is far more dangerous as a particulate than as a solid lump. People oven talk about the dangers of lead paint in that young kids can eat chips, but the real danger is it degrading into dust and breathing it in, basically giving the lead a direct path to the bloodstream.
As you can see in the pictures and video, the state of the inside of these batteries and the way they were disposed of wasn’t exactly super duper great for avoiding the effects of lead poisoning.
back in the 70s we used to melt lead in a coffee can over a gas burner, and pour it out into molds to make fishing sinkers and lures etc. Not sure I can claim to be normal, and I do sometimes wonder what life would have been like without lead poisoning 😉
also did that thing collecting mercury from the thermometers, and playing with it.. not as much as the lead boiling though.
Yeah that whole deal was a total shit show. Love both DT and Torch like unwanted step children. But that was some grade A stupid shit…
Sorry but Jesus you are really pushing your luck there…
So… if you’re old enough and took shop class in junior high, you may be familiar with the Primitive Pete film. Jason needs to see it, probably available on YouTube somewhere. Stay safe Jason!
I read the story. That’s some crazy shit that Torch did. I can imagine the Slack talk where he says “I going to hack those out of there, hold my beer.”
But I can’t believe anyone on staff didn’t tell him it was a bad idea. It’s only the internet, Jason. Are the clicks worth compromising your well being?
Yes, yes they are.
I forget sometimes that the master of questionable vehicular choices is the boss here. It seems you guys see the world through rust colored glasses. Hacking up a battery like that is not a good idea, even with the disclaimer.
I do approve of the i3 though.
To clarify, I literally said: I love you, be careful.
Questionable vehicle choices? I’d take any of his choices over absolutely anything made by a high-volume automobile manufacturer and legal within the U.S. after 2020(they did make an Alfa Romeo 4C up to 2020 after all). And I say this as someone that generally and near-universally despises SUVs! In today’s automotive environment, David’s choices in vehicles actually make a lot of sense.
David, have you guys picked up any sort of Autopian company life or disability insurance, since joining forces with Beau? If not, you guys might want to look into that, before Torch single handedly destroys your group rates. Somehow I figured you would do that before him. I stand corrected. We have to look out for Otto, you know…:)
Most of the time it’s usually at least semi-educated adults willingly putting themselves through such ordeals but in this case the problem is that so much lead was unleashed into the environs and since children, with their developing biology, and animals, many of who are small, are much more suspectible to harm from lead exposure than full-grown adults Otto and Tomato are at some potentially not insubstantial risk. Egad.