Sawmills & Murphy's Law

Birk-man · April 30, 2012, 06:05:48 PM

I'm glad to be writing this incident report - I hope it might save someone else grief and injury. I probably came within inches of serious injury or worse on Saturday.

I had some Big Leaf Maples come down in our winter storms and was experimenting with cutting up a few logs to see if the material was worth drying and having milled up into maple flooring.

I'm still cutting the material to build the roof over the saw & in the meantime I keep it covers with tarps. I lay pallets across the track sections to create a flat surface that will drain when the tarp is in place.

I'd done a bunch of clean up work early in the day to make it easier to maneuver logs onto the mill with my tractor. Part of the clean up was to get rid of extra pallets I wasn't using anymore. The remaining five pallets that cover the out-feed end of the track were leaned up against the mill frame - three on the end and two on the side where they would be handy when it came time to cover up the mill.

I was working with a 12' log and had it whittled down to a 5" wide by 2 1/2" stick and wanted it ripped in half to get two square sticks. A friend has been asking for local maple to use in making native flutes and I was roughing out the blanks needed for that project.

The nearest pallet is almost exactly 12' from the cutting edge of the saw blade. As I neared the end of the cut, the far end of the trimmed-off piece jammed into the pallet. The continued forward pressure from the carriage feed bent the stick, storing energy like a poll-vault pole. When the cut was completed, that stored energy was released and the stick jumped straight up and landed on the top of the spinning blade. The teeth caught the wood turning the stick slightly and quickly cutting through the material. The end 30" of the stick was cut off and flung right at my head.

I had a reflex flinch and ducked my head slightly and turned just a bit to the side. The chunk of wood grazed my shoulder, glanced off the bottom edge of my earmuff and slammed hard into my neck. I'm grateful that it missed all sorts of boney things like teeth and and jaw bones and just has left me with a slight scrape and a nasty bruise.

Here's a shot with my helmet and the stick near the point where in made contact.

This shot shows the blade side of the trimmed piece - you can see how the tooth marks got steeper as the stick was bowed upwards in the middle by the advancing carriage.

The chunk that it me weighs in at 1 lb 10 oz and is about 30" long.

snowshoveler · April 30, 2012, 06:30:28 PM

You need to protect yourself with a screen of some sort.
I got hit in the belly by a good sized knot.
Stopped right then and there ...as soon as I got my wind back .
I put up a heavy stainless screen.
Stuff has hit it but not me anymore.
Regards Chris

beenthere · April 30, 2012, 06:49:33 PM

You are very fortunate.
I guess keeping the mill area clean and free of debris is one thing to get from this.
Had an oak 4x4 8' long come over the top of the blade which propelled it past me at the control stick and past my buddy who was getting another log ready to roll on the carriage.

Happened somewhat the same, but was caused by the offbearer, who decided instead of just removing the two 4x4's from the carriage, he would reach up to move the carriage knees back (but instead advanced them enough for the blade to catch one 4x4 and launch it). That 4x4 went past the two of us and through two apple trees before landing about 60 feet from the head saw. Very sobering experience (and the guy that caused it had the most circular saw experience of any of us).

Birk-man · April 30, 2012, 06:53:47 PM

Here's the rest of the post I put up earlier -

Lessons learned -

DO NOT RUN A CIRCULAR SAW WITHOUT A SAFETY SCREEN BETWEEN THE SAW AND THE OPERATOR! Don't even consider starting the engine unless the safety equipment is in place.

DO NOT HAVE ANY OBSTUCTIONS THAT CAN CAUSE THE END OF YOUR TRIMMED WOOD TO BE BLOCKED ON THE OUT_FEED SIDE.

Cedarman · April 30, 2012, 07:11:09 PM

About 20 some years ago I turned down a load of cedar logs because I wouldn't be available to measure them up since I was going to a trade show. The logger took them to an Amish mill about 15 miles away.
Jacob, the Amish sawyer had his young son as off bearer. The last log in the load was being sawed. The son let a slab get back into the saw for some reason. The slab bounced off the roof of the mill shed and hit Jacob in the head. He was buried the next day.
I always think of that when circle saws are mentioned.
If I had been able to buy that load as I planned, then ...
But I suppose that can be said about a lot of things.
I am glad you only have bruises Birk-man.

Delawhere Jack · April 30, 2012, 07:47:25 PM

Birk-man, glad that you're ok.

At a lumber yard where I used to work, they used to use a 16" radial arm saw turned ninety degrees for ripping. That practice ended after a 2x4 12' long got launched 40 yards back and buried into a railroad embankment. Less than a foot of the board was left sticking out of the ground.

beenthere · April 30, 2012, 09:29:48 PM

Someone fed a piece in from the wrong direction...

customsawyer · April 30, 2012, 09:43:10 PM

Glad to hear you are okay.

eastberkshirecustoms · April 30, 2012, 10:47:47 PM

That could have gotten real ugly. At my previous employer, it was an absolute no-no to ever lean a pallet against anything. This could be a new reason not to. I'm glad you walked away no worse for the wear.

JohnM · April 30, 2012, 11:03:25 PM

Quote from: customsawyer on April 30, 2012, 09:43:10 PM
Glad to hear you are okay.

+1!
That Murphy can be a real jerk sometimes.

JM

Magicman · April 30, 2012, 11:10:00 PM

I am glad to see that you are and will be OK. It seems like stuff is continually out to get us.

dgdrls · May 01, 2012, 06:49:57 AM

Sorry you took a hit, it's events like these that create opportunity
to share lessons learned on how to stay safe.
There is no doubt we all are working with tools that can
maim or kill us in an instant.

Glad you are OK,

DGDrls

Jemclimber · May 01, 2012, 08:36:09 AM

Thanks for sharing a close call. Intelligence is learning from your own mistakes. Wisdom is learning from other peoples mistakes. Hopefully you've spread some wisdom with this lesson.

Chuck White · May 01, 2012, 11:17:08 AM

Luck is a good thing!

Good to hear it was not too serious!

thecfarm · May 01, 2012, 11:23:56 AM

Glad you are OK. Not to preach to you,but that was a wake up call.
At work we could not lean a pallet angainst anything either.

markd · May 01, 2012, 11:36:09 AM

It's a good wakeup call to us all, it's easy to get cocky when things are goin good thanks for the report and really glad you're okay!! I've got a expanded metal screen on my mill but I've caught myself peekin around it for a better view and have had small pieces come whizzin by ear so we all need to remember to pay attention. Markd

Cedarman · May 01, 2012, 02:08:58 PM

For those of you who worked around lots of pallets I am hearing that a leaning pallet is a bad pallet.
What are the safety concerns about a leaning pallet and all the ways it is bad?
When I tell my employees, I want all the reasons so they understand them too.
Thank You
Richard

Kansas · May 01, 2012, 02:21:50 PM

We have some younger guys work for us, rougher crowd. They do a good job for us. But we have a heck of a time teaching them safety. I guess at 19 or 20, you think you are invincible. Guess I did too at that age.

Magicman · May 01, 2012, 03:24:04 PM

It seems that the only lesson that some of us understand is a "learned" lesson. And learned lessons normally hurt.

Woodchuck53 · May 01, 2012, 04:26:48 PM

First of all glad your okay. Good point about the guard guys. There for a reason. As long as we can keep Murph in the truck and learn from each other we will make another day.

All good stuff as my boss would say. Thanks for sharing.

steamsawyer · May 01, 2012, 05:06:16 PM

Quote from: Cedarman on May 01, 2012, 02:08:58 PM
For those of you who worked around lots of pallets I am hearing that a leaning pallet is a bad pallet.
What are the safety concerns about a leaning pallet and all the ways it is bad?
When I tell my employees, I want all the reasons so they understand them too.
Thank You
Richard

Me too Cedarman. First off, if I lean a pallet on something it will be way out of the way. I realize that it should not be left in the way of things but reguards of the location, I am just clumsy enough to trip over it.

hardtailjohn · May 01, 2012, 06:21:51 PM

First off, glad you're ok!! Second, thank you for sharing. I'm new at this and posts like this are great for those of us that haven't been around mills all our lives. Murphy can be a jerk sometimes...but sometimes just enough of a jerk to educate many!
John

eastberkshirecustoms · May 01, 2012, 06:30:55 PM

Quote from: Cedarman on May 01, 2012, 02:08:58 PM
For those of you who worked around lots of pallets I am hearing that a leaning pallet is a bad pallet.
What are the safety concerns about a leaning pallet and all the ways it is bad?
When I tell my employees, I want all the reasons so they understand them too.
Thank You
Richard

Here are a few things that come to mind, but I guess this pertains more to pallets on a concrete floor.
1. They are a trip hazard
2. They can fall over and smack you in the shin, ankle, or knee.
3. They can fall over and make a h@ll of a loud bang, which can make you 'jump' when you are inside 'hazardous' machinery making adjustments and such.
4. And as demonstrated, a slab can catch on one and throw it back like a missle.

We were always told that it was against OSHA's safety standards to have them leaning. Of course, many of our pallets were the heavy plastic ones with an internal metal frame. They weighed 78 lbs. a piece.

ArborJake · May 01, 2012, 10:08:45 PM

Quote from: Kansas on May 01, 2012, 02:21:50 PM
We have some younger guys work for us, rougher crowd. They do a good job for us. But we have a heck of a time teaching them safety. I guess at 19 or 20, you think you are invincible. Guess I did too at that age.

My father always said in reference to teaching tree climbers. "you gotta get em young like teens and twenty's, once you approach thirty your brain starts to work". We try not lean anything thing up against anything at work because of gravity,and it seems any tool leaning up agains a truck or a tree is waiting to be broken.