http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQhfcdQf1QA
Doesn't seem that dangerous...? Fingers are well away from the moving parts because of the long screwdriver, and it is only potentially dangerous when the belt is on the moving pulley. When there is no belt, your finger(s) cannot be trapped against the pulley, and, depending on the tension, it would just pull the finger around and spit it out. That would be quite painful, but it wouldn't lead to dismemberment. You would need spinning blades or some other way of mangling the fingers for that. Have people lost fingers through the belt/pulley before? Seems fairly unlikely.
I am serious. If you are an uncoordinated moron, yes, it's dangerous. Otherwise, it's not. Watch video. Do the same things. You will get the same results. Screw up and do something different, you will get different results. But it is unlikely to be amputated fingers, unless fanbelts have tremendous tension. They don't.
I realize you are serious so no disagreement there but honestly safety and common sense should always be a part of any project. I did not even need to watch the video to know I'm right. Courtesy of no common sense: Image Unavailable, Please Login
"prudent" vs. "possible" IMO are at great odds here. Ya get 10 fingers if you're lucky. Keeping them is the goal, no matter how cool a YouTube video might say otherwise. Jedi
I've personally seen the result of sticking fingers into a moving serpentine belt. Usually it's not a clean cut. All the meat is pulled off and the bone is unusable. Mind you this was on a car where the tensioner was not locked and is able to "automatically" apply and release tension. It just wasn't able to change as fast as the finger went through. BTW, he was trying to apply sandpaper to get rid of a belt squeal. Pwned.
Notice that the fellow in the video is "Kelso" and that this notes him as RIP. While it is possible to do this, it is not terribly prudent. Perhaps imprudent decision making caught up with him....
