Älä koskaan pidä kiinni mutterinvääntimestä

[Gavril]

Excerpt from a set of workplace safety guidelines:

Ohjeita kehotärinän välttämiseksi:
Älä käytä enemmän voimaa kuin mitä työ vaatii. Anna koneen tehdä työt. Älä koskaan pidä kiinni mutterinvääntimestä, iskutaltasta tai porasta työskentelyn aikana.

If we translate "älä koskaan pidä kiinni" as "never hold onto ...", the result seems absurd: the sentence is telling you not to hold onto hand tools while you work -- tools that by definition are meant to be held.

Could it be that mutteriväännin, iskutaltta and pora do not refer to the entire tools in this context, but only to the end-pieces that are attached to the larger drill?

Or, is there some nuance of "pitää kiinni" that I'm not grasping here?

(No pun intended with "pitää kiinni" and "grasp". )

Thanks for your time,
Gavril

 

[Maunulan Pappa]

At first sight I found the quoted expression rather funny and I wouldn't put it that way myself. But after some consideration, I must admit that it is grammatically correct, and that the words mutteriväännin, iskutaltta and pora here refer to the business end, rather than the whole combined tool. In everyday spoken language they are, however, used for the whole tool.

Actually, at least according to some purists, pora should only be used for the drill bit, whereas the hand-held power drill should be called porakone. I personally call the drill bit poranterä and I think the majority of native Finnish speakers do so.

 

[Gavril]

In that case, I have to ask:

Why would anyone (at least any adult) hold on to the spinning parts of a drill *while they are drilling*? Especially a normal drill bit??

In other words, I find it odd that the writer of these safety guidelines would think it's important to include a warning against doing something like this.

 

[Maunulan Pappa]

Well, no adul should be stupid enough to hold a spinning drill bit, at least not twice. For a power wrench, you might want to lightly hold the socket while loosening a wheel bolt, just to avoid dropping it. But probably this kind of warnings are there just to avoid product liability.

 

[hui]

To avoid kehotärinä the guideline makes sense only if it tries to mean something like:

Älä paina tai purista mutterinväännintä, iskutalttaa tai poraa työn aikana liikaa, jotta työkalu ei tärisytä kehoasi tai käsiäsi tarpeettomasti.