A near miss

[Sawyerfortyish]

I never saw it comming and I've been sawing  26 years. I sit behind a plexiglass shield 1/4" thick. I've seen knots and bark bounce against the shield but today for the first time I had a bit and shank come through the plexiglass right beside my head and the shank ended up on the far side of my live deck more than 20' away  . There's a 4" triangle piece of plexiglass that knowone can find still missing. Had I been using the mud saw at that time I wouldn't be sitting here telling you this tonight.This is the second time in 26yrs that I got pretty shook up. The first time I had the nut that holds the blade on almost come off but that another story. So I feel pretty lucky that someone was watching over me today.

[Nate Surveyor]

Glad you are ok,


Nate

[pineywoods]

I'd be replacing that plexiglass with lexan.  1/4 inch will stop a rifle bullet.

[Mooseherder]

Maybe build you one of dease. ;D

[Don_Papenburg]

Good thing it was something small.   My mentor had a board smak him and rearange his arm when he was a wee sawyer many years before I met him .

[pasbuild]

I got a chill reading this, be careful out there

[thecfarm]

Wow and I do mean wow.I suppose another piece of plexiglass is on order.I do hope that is saftey glass.

[lmbeachy]

Man, I think it was a near hit and not a near miss. Sure glad it didn't get to you.

[brdmkr]

Glad to hear you're OK.  It sure makes you think.

[Jeff]

Sawyerfortyish, you really need to get some bullet prove stuff in there.  In the 25 years I sawed I was saved more then once, but had a few nasty neck sprains from reflexively jerking my head out of the way when stuff came flying at me.  The first Mill I sawed at, from 1979 until 1983 was Oneal and Company in Clare Michigan. At that mill my sawbooth door opened to the outside of the building. It was not uncommon for me to step out to take a leak or something during the day.  One day the fellow on the greenchain looked up because the lumber quit coming and noticed I was gone. He figured I stepped out so he shutthe chain off and ran for the restroom himself.  When he got back I was still gone so he grabbed a broom and came and started sweeping his area. He couldnt come shovel sawdust because everything was still running.  after what he said was like twenty minutes and I still was not back he looked up again. Thats when he saw the big hole in what we were told was safety glass but turned out to be justs 1/8 plexi.  He came running around the outside and opened my door and found me in the corner.

We had been sawing sheared small hardwood. If you ever sawed sheared wood you know what the ends are like. Often shattered.  I had started into the end of a sheared beach log and the end came unglued. A chunk about the size of a fist blew through the booth window and hit me right between the eyes. Knocking me out of my chair and unconscious. 

They were able to revive me right off and took me to the emergency room. Turned out I had a concussion. I left the emergency room and went back to work as I was the only Sawyer and we had a load that needed to go that day. I cut a couple thousand more feet to finish the load while keeping my upper eyes pushed out of my vision by pushing the swelling back with my thumb. I ended up missing the next two days because both eyes swelled completely shut with a couple of the nicest shiners a guy could ever have.  The one of three times I had double black eyes in my sawmilling career.

Get some lexon in there.  My episode came early in my sawing days, but it would not have been the worst if I had not learned a lesson that day about insisting on bullet proof stuff.

[slowzuki]

Jeff, I don't know if I coulda got back in that booth the same day.  You're a lucky man to be alive still.

[mike_van]

Lexan, the way to go - One of the wheel covers on my bandmill is 3/8" Lexan, you can drill it & tap threads in it too - 

[KGNC]

I'd be replacing that plexiglass with lexan.  1/4 inch will stop a rifle bullet.

I 2nd the Lexan,  the Plexiglas will crack and break way to easy. I'm involved in a lot of machine guarding and we always use lexan (polycarbonate). I'm not sure that the 1/4" is bullet proof  but it's good. You can drill and tapif and if you find someone with a break you can bend the stuff.

[slowzuki]

A note for cold weather too, all plastics get more brittle in the cold.  You may wish to thicken your sheild or even better double layer it for cold climates.

[OneWithWood]

sawyerfortyish, I am glad you are ok.  If you want to get to be sawyerfiftyish you best be putting in the lexan  ;)

[urbanlumberinc]

Ditto what the others have said about Lexan.  A few years back A glazier friend of mine had some leftover 1/2 Lexan from a job He'd done.  We decided to take it shooting and start with the smallest caliber and work our way up until something penetrated.  We didn't punch through till we got up to .338 Win Mag, and even that wouldn't punch a hole at a 100 yards (it did at 10, though just barely)

[Sawyerfortyish]

I ordered 3/8 lexan from a glass shop that installs the bullet proof glass in all the local banks.They said the 1/2"would be overkill and 3/8 would do the job. I would normally complain about the price but I have to stop and think how much am I worth.

[Dan_Shade]

safety is cheap, compared to the cost of an accident.  Glad you're ok, and glad  you're making it safer

[Jeff]

I ordered 3/8 lexan from a glass shop that installs the bullet proof glass in all the local banks.They said the 1/2"would be overkill and 3/8 would do the job. I would normally complain about the price but I have to stop and think how much am I worth.

I'm sure glad to here it. I'm pretty sure ours was 3/8s as well. I was lucky enough to learn some harsh lessons early on as a sawyer and survive them. Very lucky to survive one I wrote about quite some time back.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=1556.msg1199#msg1199

[submarinesailor]

As many of us know, the Navy has a very strict lock out/tag out procedure.  After using it for twenty years, I retired and went to work as a consultant in steel plants in and around Cleveland and Pittsburgh areas.  To this day I can't believe just how dumb I got while working in a plant on the river in Cleveland.  During an 8 hour maintenance shut down, we were working on this gear box, very large gear box, taking resonant (sp) frequency measurements (basically hitting the bearing, bearing housing and coupling with a big oak 4x4 and recording the base frequencies).  When the boss told me to "ring the coupling".  Now let me tell you about this coupling.  It was 7.5 feet in diameter and took just over 55 gallons of DTE 90 weight lubricate to fill it.   Any ways, after trying several times to make it ring while standing on the floor, I decided to climb up on the gear box, out on to the shaft and on to the coupling.  After the first couple of rings, someone started the motors, twin 1500 HP DC motors on a single input shaft.  And we all know DC motors have great starting torque, so they were up the speed right now.  Bruce got some flying lessons that day.  Got real lucky in the landing phase, a large pile of rags.  Boy was I lucky.   Guess I was also lucky that the 6' oak 4x4 didn't land on my head. The wife still comments that my head would have hurt the 4x4, not the other way around. : : :  If any of you have ever been in large steel plant, you know about large heavy and very hard equipment being every where.

Come to find out someone was trying to teach us a lesson and starting the mill was their way of doing it.  They didn't like consultants working on THEIR MILL. >:( >:( >:(  One of the things that kinda saved our bacon with the mill super, was that this $%^& damaged well over $20,000 of vibration monitoring equipment.

So, after all was said and done, we started following the plant's lock out and tag out procedures.

Don't think I will ever forget those flying lessons.

Bruce

[Mooseherder]

This is a very interesting thread. The flying shank and inserts have crossed my mind. I have been wondering since this past summer how we are gonna set up a Sawyer's Booth when we re-assemble our Circle Mill. :P Previous owner had absolutely nothing. He just stood about 6-7 ft. away with the blade 1 ft. off center to the right behind the Hydraulic deck and controls. :  My big concern right now isn't making a booth. That should be do-able. It is when I have to get out from the comfort of the booth to turn the log.(puts you right in line with the blade) Everything is hydraulic except for log turning. :(
I need help in setting up the most efficient and safest layout for 1 man operation. My only point of reference is disassembling the operation that was set-up for 6-7 people.
That configuration might be okay for that many people but will have some safety issues getting around the equipment as the boards or beams pile up on the other side for a one man operator. Made that observation and ain't even qualified to do so. :D
Got plenty of research to do. Any suggestions appreciated.

[gcgrant]

I have been a glazier for 40 years.  As such I've installed a lot of Lexan  (polycarbonate sheet) to mill operating booths and to a lot of logging equipment that use cutter heads.  In equipment where there is a danger of flying debris to the operator, and they are operating without metal grates, they have to have at least 1/2" Lexan.  1/4" would only be suitable for stopping flying wood.  I would go with a minimum of 3/8" if there was danger of shanks etc.  As far as being bulletproof, it is not!  I have fired my .270 at close range through a stack of 9  1/4" pieces!  The so-called "buttletproof" stuff is usually polycarbonate sheet laminated with alternating sheets of tempered glass or high tech energy absorbing materials.  In any case it can be very expensive, especially if you get into Lexan with a hard coat finish that doesn't scratch quite so easily.  I would rather concentrate on steel guards that would deflect saw debris away from an operators position.  As a weekend sawyer I do have to remind myself that as much fun as this sawing is......there is definitely a potential of doing great damage to oneself if you don't keep your wits about you.........be safe ........George
.

[Ron Wenrich]

Put some sort of downturns on your carriage or get a log turner.  There is absolutely no reason to get out of the booth to turn logs.  A bar type log turner is pretty cheap, and you don't have to have a pit to put it in.  It also doesn't hurt your board side like a chain turner does.

My saw booth is right directly beside the saw.  I look straight out at the saw.  I haven't had too much bother me in the booth, but I have cracked several windows.  But, the roof over top the saw has quite a few holes in it.  Some are shanks, but most of them travel down into the sawdust conveyor.

The most efficient layout is to run your boards out onto a green chain, along with slabs and anything else that comes off the saw.  Have a start/stop switch so you can advance it and fill it up from one end to the other.  Then, go out and stack, edge and do whatever has to be done.  Load up the log deck, and do it again.  A vertical edger would help quite a bit of your handling.

[Mooseherder]

Thanks Ron. Does the log turner go on the headblock assembly or underneath the log bed that is bringing in the logs. There is a Resaw, Horizontal edger and Chipper all running off the same power as the Headsaw. The interconnecting pulleys, belts and chain is where I will probably be limited with changing the set-up. I like the green chain idea and will somehow implement.

[Ron Wenrich]

I'm using a Jackson Lumber Harvester log turner.  I like it because it has a bar turner and a separate slapper that you can push logs onto the carriage.  It is run by hydraulics.  If you don't have some sort of hydraulics, then get it.  It will make your life a lot simpler.

These turners set next to the the tracks.   On board turners are OK until you get to logs that are heavy on one end or real long.  I wouldn't suggest one. Our mill sets on steel.  So, the turner is welded in place next to the carriage.  On some setups, I have seen where the turner was attached to the tracks to prevent it from walking or pulling up when you get to a heavy log. 

If you look around, you'll be able to find a used turner.  Used log decks and green chains are also fairly cheap.  Our log decks run on hydraulics, and there isn't any reason you can't run a green chain on one.