I thought I would start a thread on your experiences with and without PPE.
splitwood_smiley splitwood_smiley
There is pic. in my gallery showing what cutting with out a hard hat will get you. I posted a pic. before don't think I'll put it up again. Banjo
I try to wear what I need for the job I am doing. Be it a chainsaw,trimmer,skill saw.And I look to see what could/will go wrong.
I have been lucky with near misses. I was clearing the grown up pasture with lots of maple trees that had grown 2-3 to clump. Kinda small trees,not much bigger than 8 inches across. I was cutting them down in a clump all day. There was a shed and 2 maples had grown together. One kinda leaned over a shed a little and the other leaned away from the shed. I tried to cut them together. This time they split. The one kinda leaning over the shed,just hit the corner of the roof and came up in the air and hit my arm and send me back on the ground. Lucky for me,the tree missed me and I just had a scratched up arm for a while.
I have seen trees,a few times hit a rock and come up in the air and set over 8-10 feet mighty quick. But I was out of the way this time,by about 40-50 feet.
i am living proof hardhats work. cut a bushy beech with a yellow birchtop in it i couldn't see. i am told i was out of the way but as the tree fell the top swung and bang. dont remember 4 day. spent a week in hospital. if you cut without a hardhat in my eyes you are foolish. good luck to all and stay safe!!!!
I never work in the woods without a hardhat or without gloves when running a chainsaw. Cutting pants 95 % of the time.
Only on the landing I am cheating a bit sometimes without them and also just wearing a headset. Also I am not getting much use of the face shield, it just gets in the way most of the time but leave it on for the odd situations.
Quite often I hear from some hobby cutters and weekend guys that they're not comfortable with all that stuff wearing.
I am so used to it wearing it and I am not even comfortable without it and would recommend it to everyone. It's not a guarantee for not getting hurt, but it reduces the risk a lot.
Knock on wood, it has worked for me for forty years now.
I have got an $1,800 scar on my left thigh, to prove that chaps should be worn! I could have bought 18 pairs of chaps (enough to last me to retirement) for that price! I wear a tin lid as well, sure saved my bacon when a big honkin grapevine came from somewhere up above!
Tom
Some of you may have read my thread stupidity switch. Was skidding and a sappling switched my head pretty good.
Well was skidding again the other day and for some reason left my hardhat on. Think maybe because it was a little chilly and the ear muffs felt good on my ears. Anyway, log rolled over and caught a bigger sapling and wham again. This time I had my hardhat on so my noggin was safe but the shoulders got a good switching.
It's time to leave that darn switch in the " off " position ;D
I have been hit in the head before and knew full well that without a hard hat it could have been very serious. Safety pants are worth their weight in gold.
Quote from: lopet on November 09, 2014, 02:11:18 PM
It's time to leave that darn switch in the " off " position ;D
Amen. Was standing sizing up a tree when all the sudden a dead limb fell about 4 ft. from me. Ordered a hard hat that night.
You never know. Locally about 3 weeks ago a dad took his two young teenagers hunting. They just sat down to rest when a dead tree fell hitting his daughter (12 or 13). Medflighted her out but she died in the ER.
I was hit on the head once upon a time, December of 1988, by a dead elm. If I had not had my lid on I'd have been dead. As it was the 7th vertebrae in my neck was fractured, my right shoulder was separated, it took a few stitches to sew the lower part of my right ear lobe back on and my left ankle was sprained. Otherwise I wasn't hurt too bad. I wore a neck brace for 12 weeks. I won't fall timber without a hard hat on. The impact drove the hardhat's suspension over my ear and when it popped back up it tore my ear lobe. Small price to pay :)
I once breaked my leg when a small twistet tree kicked back, costed me 8000$ to make the pins into the bone in a private hospital and 5000$ to get them out 2 years later. I am now a lot more careful where i stand when the trees go down. I always use safety pants, gloves and ear protecion. I can not get used to hardhat because of the tempartures here in Costa Rica, we have between 75 to 95 degrees fahrenheit the whole year, so you get a headache after one hour of using a hat. But the teaktrees dont have dry branches, so not alot of danger from abouve.
Quote from: Corley5 on November 09, 2014, 06:48:03 PM
I was hit on the head once upon a time, December of 1988, by a dead elm. If I had not had my lid on I'd have been dead. As it was the 7th vertebrae in my neck was fractured, my right shoulder was separated, it took a few stitches to sew the lower part of my right ear lobe back on and my left ankle was sprained. Otherwise I wasn't hurt too bad. I wore a neck brace for 12 weeks. I won't fall timber without a hard hat on. The impact drove the hardhat's suspension over my ear and when it popped back up it tore my ear lobe. Small price to pay :)
True logger.
Broke vertebrae, seperated shoulder, stitches and sprained ankle. "Otherwise I wasn't hurt too bad".
Sounds a little bad to me.Reminds me of the time I had a bunch of green locust sawn up into 5x5 fence posts. BIL and myself were unloading and one rolled over and two came down on top of it breaking two of my fingers. My little finger was sticking out at about a 60 deg angle from what it should have been. Dumb me asked my BIL "do you think its broken"?
Dumb u was probably in shock from seeing your finger at a ninety degree angle so I wouldn't feel dumb one bit! Ouch.
I have been hit in the head and shoulder by a limb that broke off when felling a tree. Without the hardhat, I would probably be dead.
Don't risk it. I see so many people that are using a chainsaw that are "safety stupid".
I rarely hand cut anymore but had to cut some large sugar maple that were too big for the harvester 8) I bore cut them and after turning one loose I was backing away and a limb came straight down, big end first, and stuck in the ground where I'd been standing just seconds before. It was about five feet long and 1 1/2" diam on the big end. It would've hurt :)
Don't work without it!
I don't run a saw as much as many folks on here, but I always wear my ppe...... except the one time I had about 4-5 privet bushes that needed to be cut from my fence line. I figured it would just be a second and no need to go put on chaps for a few bushes that were under 5 feet tall. I got lucky and just got a hole in my pants , small gash on my knee and a lesson learned. I've always heard that complacency kills and I believe it. If I had been cutting into a 30" red oak, I would have been wearing full ppe and thinking through everything I was doing, but I was cutting through privet and got into a hurry. I was very fortunate that I was not really hurt, and I learned my lesson.
My PPE is the Rockman premium helmet package and full wrap 9 ply chaps and corks. About 17 years ago I caught the bad end of a cedar limb and now wear a scar (though faded some) from top of my head down my face to my jaw...the jaw part is barely visible but yet it exists. I wasn't wearing a hard hat when the accident occurred. I have one scar from a saw from years ago when cutting in 5* weather on a frozen ERC...limb had pressure and exploded sending saw into my upper calf...no chaps were present.
Things can still happen with PPE though...I have a healing fracture in my left hand from a widow maker 2 months ago. Last year I was cutting and got my jaw broke and knocked clean out from something coming from the side at head level, I was wearing a hard hat but from the angle I got hit the helmet didn't help and was tossed about 12 ft. down the slope.
I am a big fan of PPE however I refuse to where gloves until it is cold enough for your skin to stick to metal....can't stand gloves but sometimes ya can't get away from using them. I don't cut anymore w/o a helmet and 95% of the time I keep my chaps on...anymore I just feel naked w/o them. The ONLY time they come off is during excessive heat in the 100* range with high humidity...it isn't good practice but I was about to heat stroke and going home wasn't an option...so off came the chaps to lessen some weight and get some air while trying to get my day in.
oops, didnt mean to quote myself
Couple weeks ago I was showing one of the hired hands how to limb (brand new guy).
Well the log was bound up bad and I didn't even notice. Cut a branch and the log lauched right into my shin. About 8" around. I shrugged it off, kinda angry at myself but holy crap it hurt. Peeled my skin off and I had blood leaking into my soak. I had chaps, jeans and long johns on too.
A week days later I went to the ER cause it still hurt, almost felt like my leg was pulling apart when walking. Fractured the tibia. :(
I guess I have a pretty high pain threshold, several years back I fell from a roof. Ended up finishing building that building... carrying 70lb bundles of roofing. Ended up at the hosital 2 weeks later for a routine physical, doc decided to do x-rays when I mentioned the fall.
Broke 2 vertebrae and herniated 3 discs.
And no, it wasn't pleasant, but I didn't figure I had broken bones!
Haven't had a hardhat prevent my head splitting open for... oh about 2 weeks. :D Chopped a tree down, it landed across another old log that was hidden in the long grass, and when that log went down in the head it came up in the butt, which catapulted a third sapling size thing in at me. Tree I cut went to the right and the sapling came in from the left and banged down fair into the top of my head hard enough to split the (plastic) skid lid. One of those million to one things that you couldn't set up deliberately if you tried. I've always been big on the skid lid though, ever since reading that something like 95% of work related deaths with professional loggers were from falling objects.
Chaps are a bit hit and miss... sometimes I wear them, sometimes I don't. Never been close to an leg injury from a saw, but a lot of thats probably that I run saws big enough that kickback is less of an issue. I have an exemption from wearing them actually - lot of pro loggers around here do - as its considered that the risk of the chaps tangling on vines as your trying to leave the stump area are greater then the risk of leg injury. Leg injuries mightkill you.... being caught up in a vine thats attached to the head of a falling tree will kill you. The joys of working in a jungle.
Chaps, helmet and most of all a tree at a 45 degree angle you can get behind when the tree you just cut is on it's way down. Some say don''t look and others do. I have always looked and yes stuff does fly back at you and fast sometimes. when that happens I was glad to be behind a tree that was a planned escape route. My .02 cents.
David l
Its not broken till the bones sticking out. :D
Chaps are a 100% thing for me, I dont usually skid with a hard hat but will wear it when around the cutter. Knock on wood ive been very lucky in the woods. Broken both legs, both ankles. Collarbone+ shoulder still isnt right, jaw + nose, 2 skin grafts and around 300 stitches / staples so far. Oh, and 9 -3/4 fingers left.
Complacency kills. You can only push so hard before you forget something and its all over. Been roughly 1 guy killed in our area per yr in the woods. If its going to happen at least make it quick, the idea of freezing to death before you bleed to death doesnt do it for me.
We shouldn't work alone either but we all do at times. Someone needs to know where we're at.
Sometimes I do things that the little voice in my head says something like this, "I don't know about that. Maybe you should use a wedge?" Naw, it will be OK.
Had to get the tractor to get the pinched saw out :-\.
http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/about/Publications/Documents/62/WorkRelatedTraumaticFatalitiesInvolvingTimberActivites_Australia_19891992_June1999_ArchivePDF.pdf
makes interesting reading on the statistics and most common causes of chainsaw / sawmill accidents, and breaks them out by industry group from professional loggers to weekend warriors. I figure that the numbers might change a little but probably the ratios of falling object deaths to say chainsaw injury deaths might be pretty similar wherever you are, particularly in the pro categories.
The Darwin Awards nominee on page 22 who cut through to a hinge then tied a rope round his waist from the tree to pull it over... well waht can you say.
I was trimming a maple, large lower limb, it was about 15' up the tree, I cut it clean, it fell, square on the branches, in a vertical fashion, the branches acted as a "spring" it shot back up, straight for me, and the 6-8" end of the limb shot me right off the ladder (hit me on my right side at an angle), and I fell to the ground, with a running saw in hand. All happened in a second. Not sure what PPE would have done me in that situation. Right after that event, I bought a used bucket truck, and dont climb trees or ladders anymore, and I stay way out of the way of what Im dropping.
Otherwise, I do wear one of them combo hard hats/ear muffs/face shields (branded Husky). I also always have on leather gloves, and wear double knee jeans, but have never got around to buying chaps, for I dont cut for a living, just maintenance, and for firewood. Owning a bucket truck seems to get me involved in a little more tree cutting than most that dont do it for a living.
Never gave it a a thought, but I do own a fall harness (mostly for working on steep roofs) and lanyard that would have come in handy, had I had it on, but you dont expect these things. It was a pretty bizarre event, but that is how you get hurt.
Im still recovering from a broken collar bone, and a really screwed up left shoulder right now, I dont recommend falling to anyone. Its been 6 weeks, and Im partially functional. I pulled so many muscles I had a hard time breathing, let alone a yawn or cough. I was pretty close to the ground when I took that hit.
Im back to dressing myself and running a saw, but not without allot of pain. Doc says Im supposed to sit parked until January, Ive got too much to do, and cant sit still that long :D
QuoteLeg injuries mightkill you.... being caught up in a vine thats attached to the head of a falling tree will kill you.
Clearing the site around a tree for an escape route is the
first thing to do so there are no vines.
Wear the chaps, should be no problem at all, IMO. ;)
No offense, but I doubt there's many tropical jungles in Wisconsin.
Used to be that way here once, back before my time. Start at the last stump... take 1/2 a day to hack your way to the next tree... take a day and a half to clear away what vine you thought needed to be cleared around the next tree... then fall and take another day to clean the vine away from the log and then maybe another to open a line for the winch into the log. Two logs a week was an acceptable talley ( but they're the size of california redwoods or near enough)
What I call vine is thick enough and strong enough to bind up a dozer's tracks... and it grows from the head of one tree to the next and some of it won't have any real ground contact at all. "Vine" kills you when a branch off a tree about 100 yards back snaps out and gets pulled down with a falling tree. Other types of "vine" grab hold of your skin/ clothes and leave you hanging like a bat on a barbed wire fence. Skin tears off on the barbs, rip proof clothing won't... which is why long trousers are not highly favoured.
A vine tree got me!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28754/IMG_20140520_111956880_HDR.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28754/IMG_20140520_111918523_HDR.jpg)
I dont do logging for a living anymore but do cut wood to feed the OWB, and I feel since I have all the PPE that it would be Dumb not to wear it. Kinda like not using the safety on the gun.
Quote from: timberlinetree on November 11, 2014, 05:37:38 AM
A vine tree got me!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28754/IMG_20140520_111956880_HDR.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28754/IMG_20140520_111918523_HDR.jpg)
Ouch. :o