Removing lead-acid batteries from your dirt-cheap electric car using a chainsaw is a bad idea. Using that chainsaw without a respirator is probably worse. Jason somehow succeeded in his Changli mission without killing himself.
But now our readers won’t be able to tell if they’re reading regular Jason or lead Jason. Maybe there isn’t a difference? Just take today’s Cold Start as an example. COTD winner Phonebem makes a good point, is this lead Jason?
You know how sometimes you’ll get a random, unbidden vision that pops into your head, often in the form of a demonic caterpillar that tells you to do terrible things or it will reveal all of your secret and shameful desires to the entire world via a series of paid Facebook ads?
Are hallucinations a symptom of acute lead exposure?
Also hilarious is this comment directly below it from Canopysaurus:
If Jason was so obsessed with hinged things as a child, how did he wind up so unhinged as an adult?
On a serious note, a number of readers are concerned for our safety, like OrigamiSensei:
The finger is painful and needed treatment, but ultimately not a big deal. Using a <Jasonism here> flapjacking chainsaw to cut into lead acid batteries is lunacy of the highest order. I wouldn’t do that even with full face masking and respiratory gear. All that lead dust flying around is really, really bad and that residue will eventually get into people’s bodies. I also hope Otto was nowhere in the immediate vicinity because as bad as lead is for adults, it’s extremely bad for kids.
I love the lunacy around here, but I just can’t adequately communicate how bad an idea that was. If cutting was required, using an angle grinder to cut the top of the center battery out with full PPE and then gently removing the plates and internals from the batteries would have to be a better way to go.
Please stay safe!
We definitely do not recommend trying our antics for yourself. Don’t cut into batteries without protection. Heck, don’t cut into batteries at all if you can avoid it. The good news is that Jason will probably be ok. We all care about each other here and we try to help each other out if we can. What I can say is that we will try to be safe!
Have a great afternoon, everyone!
Wow a throwaway musing got COTD. Mercedes, you should be worried about yourself for having as deranged a sense of humor as I do…
Please Jason, lets try to make slightly better decisions. David already set a pretty low bar, the point should have never been to make a limbo contest out of it…
Quoth the WHO: “There is no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects.”
The effects of lead poisoning are not necessarily immediate or obvious (which is why some assholes got away with pushing leaded gas for so long). Also, his whole yard is almost certainly contaminated with lead now, so even if he’s 100% fine today he might not be in a year. Lead exposure is cumulative.
Since this site seems to be hell bent on downplaying this, let me say for everyone reading that of all the stupid and dangerous things the writers here have done, this is by far the worst. Yes, worse than David’s trenchfoot.
Please be careful with lead.
Until 2 years ago my home of 30 years had lead water supply pipes coming off of a wooden main pipe, hasn’t affected me at all, I think, maybe, what was I talking about, where are my pants, these are my fighting trousers
More content on your “wooden main pipe” please, but keep it PG rated.
Someone with lead poisoning is running the top part of this site: Now it has THREE bars running across it at the top:
The black Jazel(?) one with the site name (should you have forgotten that) and your own username (should you have forgotten that) and a magnifying glass for search
The almost black one with some more account stuff ,and some social media site logos, because all the stand up A OK dudes Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk need is more free branding..
The Autopian logo bar, which is not excactly small either, and with the horisontal menu bar and a magnifying glass for search.. Yes maybe it should follow you around, everywhere you scroll, but it really doesn’t HAVE to
Could you just skip the not needed parts and just have ONE bar with everything in it. AND maybe leave it in the top, so we get more screen real estate to enjoy all your wonderful content? Just a thought..
It is beginning to look like your grandmother’s windows browser with all the stupid tool bars, and just a small letterbox view to the actual sites.
Oh yeah the floating comments bubble icon thingamajig, forcing you to scroll to actually READ stuff, can also go f*** itself. Or at least move to somewhere less annoying.
But do keep the Adolf Hitler hairdo – dark rss icon superimposed over white anonymous avatar icon – because that is kind of fun..
Yes I am a designer..
Thanks for removing some of the clutter 🙂
The follow you around top banner/menu is still 100px tall, seen on my portable mac in Chrome, thats is still 1/8th of the whole screen here, which I eben in full screen mode can’t use for seeing your wonderful site content.
When you think about Jason will be fine. He will probably kill himself way before the long painful bouts with lead poisoning. My main concern is Otto. He is Jason’s son? I ponder the likelihood of Jason obtaining willing partner given his proclivity for car antics. We never have heard her mentioned or seen a picture.
The alleged partner willingly drives a VW so I’ve wondered if she was the Dr Jekyll to Jason’s My Hyde.
“The good news is that Jason will probably be ok.”
I certainly hope so, and while Jason is not required to post his medical details, without a blood test for lead, you don’t actually know that. As stated, the entire inside should be carefully cleaned to remove any remaining lead dust; especially before Otto gets near it.
Love this site’s articles though, so everyone stay safe so that you can continue doing this for years to come!