Over the years I saw two different guys get a second chance working with me on different tree crews. One guy took a bar kick back to the front and side of his helmet. If not for the helmet he would have lost his ear for sure. And on a line clearing crew, a guy flying the bucket flipped a piece of firewood size wood from over the primary wires with his stick saw, which wound up hitting a guy, a ground worker in the head, buckled his knees, needed stiches in the top of his head, as he was wearing hearing protectors that went on before the helmet, metal bands cut into his head. He would have surely been dead without a helmet. When you see people who get a second chance , simply by wearing something , that takes 3 minutes to put on, it makes you think. Otherwise it could be a lifetime of being a mess or dead. Guy who got hit in the head was not watching and walked into a drop zone, never looked up.. With the chippers running and hearing protection he couldn't hear anyone yelling to him before he got hit.
Scored some wood and got to see some pros in action
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Right after I bought my first saw, I bought chaps and helmet/muffs/face gaurd. I spent a little less on a saw (Used Husky 257), and got decent safety gear. I always wear steel toe shoes when cutting... I will get proper chainsaw boots one of these days when the budget allows for it.
And like others are saying... stop cutting when you get tired. There is always lots of other work to be done that doesn't require the use of dangerous equipment.
And like others are saying... stop cutting when you get tired. There is always lots of other work to be done that doesn't require the use of dangerous equipment.
Jack Straw said:
+1
My neighbors laughed at me the first time they saw me in all my PPE. I told them that they could laugh all they want, because I need both legs at work Monday.
sksmass said:
I can't tell, are you being sarcastic or serious? If you are serious, that's fine. Whatever makes you feel safer, the better. I don't think I've ever seen someone wear safety glasses running a lawn mower. I might of seen somebody wearing safety glasses with a weed eater, but I can't remember for sure.
I have a friend who is a 1/2 owner of a tree service. He and his partner do all the work, climbing, felling, chipping, etc. in cut off shorts and work boots with some ear plugs. In the cooler weather, they where shirts. They have been doing it for 20+ years now and still have all their fingers, toes, eyes, ears, arms and legs. They scared the crap out of me when they did some work at my house a few years ago.
I like the one on the right. I think chicks would dig it too. You could take advantage of the inner princess that every girl has.
elijah said:
I'm totally serious. I don't screw around when it comes to my eyesight. I once had a little stick or rock fly up out of my lawn mower, and by some freak ricochet off of God knows what, ping right off my sunglasses. I can't fathom how it happened, but it did. Safety glasses ever since.
I find that more and more often I am wearing some kind of eye protection when working around the house. At work, eye protection is mandatory when any power tool is used. I also use hearing protection a lot too. My ears have taken quite a beating over the years and I already have some hearing loss at only 40. Loud hurts now. I must be getting old.
sksmass said:
Wow, crazy...but I guess it happens and I'm sure it wasn't the first time it's ever happened.
I went back yesterday for another load of wood and got mostly Red oak this time with some ash, grey birch, red maple thrown in for good measure.
As for not needing safety equipment because you are a pro, well I'm not so sure. While I'm 100% sure they will make less mistakes then me they are also spending way more hours working in harms way. So lets say they are 100 times safer then me due to experience but spend 200 times more hours cutting wood then I do then they are twice as likely then I am to have an accident. Being a pro also doesn't keep freak accidents from happening like tripping over something, somebody bumping you, a metal rod in a tree, broken chain, a tree or branch that snaps or breaks etc.
It all reminds me of the best advise I got about riding motorcycles, when you stop respecting them it is time to stop riding.
As for not needing safety equipment because you are a pro, well I'm not so sure. While I'm 100% sure they will make less mistakes then me they are also spending way more hours working in harms way. So lets say they are 100 times safer then me due to experience but spend 200 times more hours cutting wood then I do then they are twice as likely then I am to have an accident. Being a pro also doesn't keep freak accidents from happening like tripping over something, somebody bumping you, a metal rod in a tree, broken chain, a tree or branch that snaps or breaks etc.
It all reminds me of the best advise I got about riding motorcycles, when you stop respecting them it is time to stop riding.
sksmass said:
I'm with you. When my paycheck depends on flying airplanes and maintaining a first-class FAA medical certificate, I don't take any chances with my eyesight, hearing, or any other body part . . .
The extra 60 seconds it takes to put on my ear and eye protection, or the 2 minutes it takes to put on chaps, is well worth a lifetime in a career of choice or the ability to see and hear my son laughing.
A few weeks ago, I am mowing my lawn. My 80 yr old neighbor comes up to me with some ear plugs and says "You better start using these or you'll wish you had when you get to be my age". I popped those suckers in my ears and they obviously deadened the sound. The added benefit was that they really absorb the vibration of the tractor, kind of like wearing a mouthpiece in football or boxing. Now when it comes to chainsaws, I would dress in armor, if I could. I only use it when I have to, which is a few times a year.
Does it really surprise any one, how many people do you see riding motor cycles with out a helmet, boots, jeans or brains?
Doesn't surprise me but doesn't upset me either. I call it choice. Each one should make his own choice.
In the early 1980s I worked on a tree thinning crew in western Montana. We wore PPE but at the end of the summer half our crew had scars on the back of their left legs. Picture this. You are leaning over cutting a thin tree, swinging the saw from right to left. Suddenly you cut through but you are still straining on the saw. The saw continues in its arc to contact your left leg, luckily covered in the front by nylon chaps. The teeth on the chain grab the front of the chaps and slightly twists the fabric in a clockwise fashion. The chain slows down but the momentum of the saw whips it around to the rear of your left leg, now bereft of protection. Zip goes the jeans and slash goes the skin. Next stop, one or two hours away, is the emergency room in Missoula. I was respected the dangerous equipment and had close calls, but emerged with no scars.
Wow. That is something I've never heard of and have a problem trying to visualize it. And why are you straining on the saw? Should you not let the saw do the work and you just guide it?
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