Most of the time I’m pretty anal about safety but I'm starting to see I’ve gotten a little lazy in some areas. Do you ever work without safety stands when you're underneath a piece of equipment trying to save a little time or effort? Do you "trust yourself" to judge how risky a shortcut may be when a body part could be severed or worse? Ever had a close call you'd like to share? Don't be afraid of criticism, it could help you or others. If nothing else, it might make you think twice or at least make a good story. I don't mind starting. Instead of getting in the seat, I operate the machine standing on the track to flip grapples for welding. I’ll take a quick peek leaning over the frame on a dump truck with the box overhead to assess problems- without setting the safety stand. Doing a brake job on a pickup I’ve come to leave it on the floor jacks instead of using jackstands. I'll grease the swing ring gear swinging the machine from the ground. The only close call I can think of was taking apart a brake can back when you could replace the diaphragm on the spring side. I didn’t cage it. I was green, tired, confused and just didn’t clue in that I was working on the explosive side. I think I turned white when I realized my mistake and found a longer bolt to put in the half-off clamp and then threw the whole can like a grenade behind a rockery under construction. Anyone else want to ‘fess up? Offer tips or wake up calls?
Work unsafe? Well, yes, maybe, sometimes, by some definition of the rule, but not really working unsafe. I keep situational awareness of what I am doing, don't do things with my mind turned off. Yes, I have rotated an excavator, a small one anyway, from the ground, but never without concentrating on what I'm doing. And I'm extremely aware of safety. I never crawl under something that's not supported. Just the thought of squish leaves a bad mental picture. Never had a really close call the scared the dog snot out of me, I guess I just recognise potential hazards and avoid them. Probably the one thing I'm most guilty of is times I've not exited a machine properly, you know, the three point of contact rule. I haven't fallen or been injured by doing so, but there has been a couple of times I've grabbed a new hold at the right moment to prevent a helicopter crash. Then proceed to chide myself for such disregard. I am getting better at that though, age seems to be forcing me to take it easy climbing out of a machine cab, knees don't work as good as they used to ya know.
Just today I heard of a guy around our area that had a car crushing business. he was doing an oil change on a car of his and while he was under it, one of the jack stands broke and killed him. We were just contacted today about purchasing some of his equipment. It was kind of an eye opener and made a guy go and look at all the safety equipment we rely on every day. Not all the safety equipment we use is foolproof. Check your safety equipment and be safe guys.
I wear prescription glasses.. which are impossible to see close work... so I have a pair of ugly safety glasses I wear when working on stuff.. Jack stands, ramps and blocks under the tires, always A mechanic asked me to help put a roller on a cat dozer.. he had the track loose, the blade jacked the machine up in the air... I said not this guy... you put some blocking under the other rollers.. I will help, but I'm not wrestling a roller in a small space with out blocking... He called the oiler to help him, and evidently the foreman, cause he show up about the time they were finishing up... Asked me why I wouldn't help the mechanic. told him why and he left.
I had a big old Buick teach me about using good jack stands under anything I jack up. Never forgot that lesson. I am guilty of stretching out too far without getting something proper to stand on while doing service work. Neighbor asked for help on his truck last month and seeing it balanced on a floor jack I went back home and got my stands before I would crawl under it. You only get one chance to be stupid with a lot of situations.
I NEVER EVER use a jack stand ..I use good wood cribbing ..I had a bad experience with good quality jack stands never again ...Wood for me. Oh one more thing I sorta learned the hard way ..I've got a floor jack that leaks off,it takes overnite .. If i have to leave it overnite [tractor split for a clutch] .I take a piece off wood and jam it between the frame work of the jack ..It cant come down ....I've spent a little time and money in trying to patent my idea .. But I say when in doubt use wood ..
I lost part of the little finger on my right hand at 19 yrs of age........ its a constant reminder to work safely or pay the price. Most of the close calls I had over the years since have been the fault of someone else that placed a lesser value on my well being.
i was born legally blind in my left eye, so i am paranoid about eye safety. i have years of haz-mat training that really opened my eyes about the hazards in everything we do in our trades. my 10 and 30 hour osha training also hammered home the fact we need to be incredibly alert for our safety and the safety of those around us. i am definitely a safer worker now than 17 years ago when i got in the industry.
yeah a lot safer and slower just in 4 years. almost got crushed by a excavator house one a 331 that i was taking apart to replace the house bolts that were broken off. did not have it ballanced and on a two post car lift. went to lift up and luckily had a chain around the front of the house to the hoist and caught it. was in a pinch point at the time i noticed it. everyone else had gone to lunch about 20 min prior hour lunch so if i had been pinned and not killed i would have had 40 min to think about my mistake. It really opened my eyes that day about safety. Also i used to fly through repairs and had a lot of come backs on my repairs. Loose lines bolts now i double check slow down take my time and make sure its right the first time. Safety is a big thing regardless of age or experience all it takes is one second and your done or your buddy is done. So take your time and double check your self and everyone else s safety and support on all equipment you are working on
I work a lot safer today than when I was younger for a number of reasons. I'm wiser, I've seen too many co-workers killed or severely injured from unsafe practices, and have received numerous hours of safety training. I've also come to believe that if I continued to take chances, sooner or later my luck would run out, in fact, I was given a warning at one point doing something I shouldn't. I had a gas powered sander insert for my dump that had clogged with ice between storms and I needed to clear it. I started the spreader up and activated the conveyor. The ice was brought to the rear, but the chute clogged with it. I took a 1/2" breaker bar and was shoving the ice through the chute with the chain still running. As I poked the ice through, I said to myself "This is pretty stupid". I no sooner finished this thought than the chain grabbed the breaker bar and pinned my finger to the sidewall, nearly severing it. The breaker bar was twisted like red hot metal, but my finger was still partially intact. I went to the emergency room and they sewed up my finger and life has gone on since. I figure though, that job was a warning to me and I've worked pretty safely ever since
I thought I stay pretty safe, but about 2 months ago a set of truck brake shoes finally snapped down on my finger and blew it wide open. You know the situation, your holding up a spring loaded shoe with a pry bar, all you need to do is hook the retainer on the roller and yer done. This retainer kept falling off, I should have hooked it with a screw driver or something but I stuck my finger in and POW!
Hmm, ya built a better mouse trap mufflerbearing. Sounds like you were on the last step installing the cam follower rollers, lifting the shoe to install roller. That can be an easy, yet tricky process if not done correctly. Even worse is the spring on the opposite side of shoe on the pivot end. I've seen a number of mechanics not experienced with air brake setups fight with removing and installing that spring, then I show them to flip the bottom shoe backward until it passes the pivot point and the spring simply gets loose, nothing to fight.
If you ever get a chance Atco, would you please post a pic on how you do it? I have a few unconventional methods but the first time I did the brakes on one of our Kenworths, I was pushing down on the lower shoe and one of the smaller springs came off. I head butted the top shoe on the edge. Still have a scar between my eyebrows
Dang Rob, that doesn't sound like any fun at all! I don't get a change to do truck brakes much anymore. When I was a green n00b, I had my share of fights with the springs on truck brakes until I figured out a better way to do them. First, adjust the S cam so the cam rollers are bottomed out. There's a single/large spring at the S cam end of shoes. Use a good prybar against the inside of the backing plate to lift the upper shoe, flip the cam roller retainer clip with a screwdriver and remove the upper shoe cam roller. Use the prybar to do the same on the lower shoe. Now there's enough slack in the large spring to easily remove it. Then push the S cam end of the lower shoe downward, it will rotate backwards on the pivot point stretching the two small springs on the pivot end. Once the shoe goes over center of the pivot, the springs will relax to the point they're loose and you can remove them from the lower shoe. Put them back together in reverse fashion, just listen to Mufflerbearing and don't stick your fingers in that mouse trap when you're installing the cam rollers.
The item I have a whole new respect for is "snap" binders. If I had my preference, I would never be around then ever again. My former shop manager and I were working on getting a grader with a locked up final drive off a detach trailer. The driver had chains making an "X" across the front and the machine had settled back against the chains, so they were super tight. Instead of using the edge of his pipe (or the right kind of handle made for the job) as a hammer and letting the binder handle flip on its own, the driver stuck the pipe over the handle and pushed on the bottom of the pipe and let the binder "unsnap." The boss and I were standing about 4 feet away and didn't realize what he was doing until too late. When the binder unsnapped, the pipe (about 3 1/2 foot long) came off like a missle, flew right past my face and hit my manager. He was lucky that he had reflexes enough to try and block it with his arm. The pipe glanced off his forearm first and then hit him in the temple and laid open his head. The good news is that some stitches fixed the gash, but after that I just don't care for snap or break-over binders.
I understand now Atco. Good stuff. Of course I have to add how I do it. :spongebob Jam a flat blade screwdriver between the web of the shoe and the lower hook on the outside small spring. Strike the screwdriver with the palm of your hand. The spring will pop right off. Remove the inner spring, it will be loose. The bottom shoe will drop right out. Just lift off the top shoe and the bottom shoe will come out with it hanging from the main spring. I install the cam rollers first and do the reverse order thing. It used to be the anchor rollers actually rolled and were easily removable. Now they’re pressed in. I used to just remove the bottom roller, put the two springs on and use a pry bar to lever the shoe down to put the roller back in. Worked sweet. Now I have to wrestle the outer small spring back on and sometimes, it wins the first round. I’m looking forward to trying the way you and Muffler Bearing do it. Thanks!
Yeah, I've stopped telling guys the "right way" to do brakes. I've seen guys go the complete opposite of me and be just as fast. Although I will say that needle nosed vice grips should NEVER be involved. In my defense, when I got hurt, the hardware kit had come with different, crappier designed roller retainers than I had seen before. When I got back from the Dr. I threw those retainers away, picked up the original ones, and popped them right in. As for load binders! I had a great boss, who was just a little wacky, we were unchaining a backhoe and he was using a cheater bar to pop the binders. He said "watch this!" and he had a binder about halfway released with the pipe on it. The binder was bound right there, so he let go of it, stood off to the side and tapped it with another bar. That binder launched that pipe an easy 60 ft in the air. Lucky it didn't go through the cab of the hoe, but hey, he's the boss. I think he did it just for kicks, but it taught me something I'll never forget.
I bought this for doing them over here http://www.pbproducts.biz/Home_Page.html also snap does a prybar with a notch cut out it so you can hook the spring and lever up to unhook it You can also unhook the small spring on the opposite side of the s cam and flip the whole top shoe over
I think it's ageing, you witness so many close calls. Some that stand out were army times sleeping on a hilltop and being woken by a UH-1H landing on us!. piling brush with a cat and stopped the machine 'just in time' with a broken tree comming thru the cab!! load binders, tire rims, .... I think there are more accidents these days because the Gene Pool is contaminated!, simple answer but i love it.
I admit to having done a lot of not very wise things in my day when working on things. We all have. There a lot of things that are just plain common sense like jack stand or cribbing, glasses and the like. We have all gotten older and wiser for it too. What get me though as the so called "legislators" writting the "new rules" as to how we are now supposed to do things according to their laws. I am also the first to admit that certain safety equipment is necessary and serves a purpose, but when the safety equipment manufacturers go the the legislators and convince them that changes are needed in the design on a routine and regular basis and that the brand new stuff I bought last year won't meet the new specifications after the new year it starts to get in my cork. OSHA, MSHA and the like have spawned a whole industry in safety equipment. It amounts to billions of dollars a year for the safety equipment manufacturers and everytime they can make something obsolete it is more money in their pocket. Case in point, the shirts I bought last time no longer meet the new specifications and need to be replaced no matter what condition they are in.
I think I'm getting better in some areas, and not good enough in others. I always use stands, blocks, and alike, but should do way better job on eye protection in general. When I grind, cut, or use nasty chemicals I wear the glasses, but when I'm under the equipment, or blowing off a part to be inspected I don't seem to have them on. Also I need to do a better job protecting my hands from the cleaning chemicals. Need to wear nitrile gloves more. Now that I think about it, I need to do a better job on breathing protection too for welding and other stuff. So I'm not worse, but haven't changed my bad habbits fast enough. One of my new years resolutions.
I am definitely getting to be an "old bull" nowadays when it comes to safety. I tend to spend more time thinking about the best way to do something before I do it, what the hazards and proper equipment needed are and if it doesn't feel right, I think about it some more until I am satisfied it is safe. Despite this I get as much or more work done than I ever did, experience I guess. Seen some bad accidents over the years happen to others, had some close calls myself. If I can't seem to win the lottery these days it's probably because I used up most of my luck when I was young and foolish to avoid any serious injuries.
Definitely I work on safe over the years. It was really hard, when my exavator slip in to the whole and almost kill me...
The closer I get to retirement, the more cautious I am. (Two years away.) I think more of the accidents I see currently are results of people being stretched thin. I see the boss telling somebody to do something stupid and they do it because they are afraid for their job.
I guess everybody has its share doing something stupid. The lucky ones if they are smart enough learn from it or go down in another round. The unlucky ones die or end up in the hospital,never to work again. I musta been in the "Lucky and smart enough to learn" category In 40 yrs of working mostly by myself i didn't get more than a couple cuts and bruises,so i must either be smart or lucky.tap tap.(knocking wood) The closest call i ever had was when skidding a big log hooked to a chain on the drawbar of my tractor out of the bush. The log snagged behind a stump and the chain broke at the sliphook,sending the hook trough my rear widow,clipped my left ear and departed trough the left cab door window to disappear forever in the bush. I didn't think i was doing anything unsafe as i had done this many times before. I blame it on Old Murphy paying a visit.
I try harder to be safe these days and I do work safer than I ever have. But like equip guy said I still find myself not wearing air respirator when leaning over the welder all day or using cleaning chemicals like brake clean & solvent without gloves. I Usually find myself caught up in getting the job repaired quickly and not thinking about the long term health risks. I'm only 35 and have had too many close calls in the shop. Heres a couple of my stories. Recently I was pulling a stuborn bearing, it slipped and piece of the bearing chipped off and branded my forehead with nice little gash. For a 1/2" cut it sure did bleed. With a shop rag and couple wraps around my head with black tap I used a die grinder to relieve the that bearing race. 2 years ago I was jump starting a John Deere tractor. I turned the key standing just inside the cab, the engine started and I got down and was unhooking the cables. When the tractor started to rock backwards I grabbed the hand rail and seemed to jump instantly into the seat as the Rpms were racing upward. The tractor neutral safety was bypassed and tractor was moving in reverse. 8 feet behind the tractor was a pickup that I had on jack stands, I was pushing in the clutch and standing on the brakes Looking backwards, it came to a hault less than 4 inches from the truck. I let out a long sigh. I did not own any of this equipment and was glad nothing was damaged. Then as I re-ran the events thru my head that I got the shakes. A split second slower and that tractor would have ran me over, hit that pickup and pushed it out the back of the shop. I turned the lights off in the shop and went home for the day. But whats funny I can recall several times jump starting something and reminding myself to sit in the seat and start the equipment. I'm self employed and when I'm feeling run down I will purposely put off some jobs because I don't feel mentally all there to do the job correctly or safely.
some people laugh at me cause i use cutting goggles (the old two cup kine) when im doing alot of grinding. ive done enough grinding to know that safetey glasses are only the minimal osha requirement. i use ear plugs more often these days cause you lose your hearing a bit at a time and you never get it back. losing your sight separates you from the world. losing your hearing separates you from people. i have done things that i will not do again, like walking on open beams 20 feet up. stay out of the killl zone my friends. if it looks bad, rethink it. dont trust hydraulic cylinders that dont have holding valves and be careful of the ones that have them. you never know what kind of yoyos worked on that equipment last. dont go stickin your fingers in holes they dont belong in. been there done that. when you pull a wheel off something it may be a good idea to shove it under the vehicle as an extra life support. take first aid and cpr classes or at least check it out on like you tube or something. the life you save may be yours. safety is not something you just learn its more of a lifestyle and refresher courses are needed from time to time.