How often do you do things that are unsafe?

[Ajax-oz]

I had one OH&S manager (Occupation Health & Safety) I told that if he came near me when I am on site working he would be carried away on a stretcher.

I nearly lost my arm due to this idiot.

and another I told if he was on the factory floor I would pack my tools up and leave.

I told both these people and their managers I considered they were to dangerous to work around.

One didn't believe me.

When I saw him I packed my tools up and walked out. The machine was still in bits.

didn't go back until I new he was not going to be on the factory floor.


Also had another OH&S twit wanting to install a safety switch that was not designed for hazardous environments, into a machine that sprayed highly flammable lacquer. Nothing like making a bomb in the middle of a factory.

I took the CPU card out of the machine and said
until I have it in writing from the directors of the company that this machine will not be modified unless it has been passed by an engineer from the manufacturer of the equipment, I will not be commissioning the equipment.

The machine only cost them around $400,000 and it was a critical part of the process.
I got the letter.

Being a service tech I have no chose but to follow test & calibration procedures and it is dangerous. But I take every step to keep my self safe and the people around me.

The main problem to my safety is every one else working near me or wanting to look.
Most of the time it is fine but it is that small % of the time that is a worry.

AJ

[skippy]

I come from an engineering background and as a result I've always taken work safety very seriously. In the following years I've done a variety of things in varying fields and since coming here to Spain I've had nearly four years off during which time I spent two years renovating my house. Just recently I've become involved in a business making biodiesel (in commercial quantities) and so I've started working again. The problem is that it's been many years since I worked in a workshop/manufacturing environment and add to that that I'm no longer 25 years old either. Last week we had a fire in one of the mixing machines which could have been very serious but luckily we were able to put it out with extinguishers. Turns out that the thermostat was incorrectly wired and didn't turn off when it should of. Then on Monday I was filling a 1000L tank with the hose inserted in the tank and in the meantime I was doing something else while keeping an eye on the filling process from a distance. I noticed at one point that the level wasn't rising so I ducked out from where I was to find that the hose had dislodged spilling 150L of Biodiesel on the floor. What a mess! Wednesday (yesterday) I was changing a flexible tube and was undoing a hose clamp with a screwdriver (right hand) while supporting the hose with my left hand. Screwdriver (oily and dirty) slipped and entered my left hand (my writing hand) in the palm area and exited on the other side but just forward of the knuckles. The fire wasn't my fault but the spill and the "attempted suicide with the screwdriver starting at the hand" were so all in all it hasn't exactly been a good start. Hopefully things will get better. Tomorrow I was due to do the practical exam for my Spanish driving licence but I've had to cancel it.
Skippy

[Geof]

I have an aluminum trailer with a hydraulic tipper on it, and I also have a fancy tig welder I bought for my son-in-law.

So when I overloaded the trailer and pushed the back end of the frame apart with the hydraulics I wasn't too worried; I can tig weld this thing together I said to myself.

So I jacked everything up and used a clamps and come-alongs to pull the ends of the broken frame together and then hunkered down underneath the trailer to do the welding. Everything supported on big wooden blocks and things so I was not likely to finish up wearing a trailer.

I hadn't tig welded since 1969 so I was a bit rusty and it took a bit of time to figure out how to run the welder; they are a hell of a lot more complicated than they were 39 years ago.

Tig welders I discovered now have a gas pedal so you can control the arc, so you have to be able to operate this pedal. This was a bit awkward in a 24" high space under a trailer but I managed.

Unfortunately my left foot operating the pedal was right underneath where I was welding; I noticed this when a big glob of molten aluminum dropped onto the top of my left foot. Actually to be precise it dropped inside the top of my shoe

This attracted my attention away from the welding, and I really took notice when I saw that my shoe was on fire. Ripping a burning shoe off your foot when you are scrunched under a trailer takes a few seconds, and ripping the burning sock off also takes a few seconds.

Does anyone know how painful it is to have about two square inches of third degree burn on the top of the ankle joint?

This has given me a new perspective on how painful it must be to suffer burns over a large area of the body.

The moral is; don't put any body part under the weld zone.

[ImanCarrot]

Ouch!

I was in the burns unit for many months and the bloke in the next bed had a similar experience- he was a foundry man and when pouring molten iron into a casting it "spat" up and went down the front of his boot and straight through the top of his foot. Something to do with moisture in the casting or something.

PS- skin grafts it get incredibly itchy as they begin to heal and they gave us pills for it. I didn't seem too affected, but my mate was, badly, so I'd trade him my "itchy pills" for his cans of beer that his friends had brought in

Broken pelvis and skin grafts? Still a bloody good entrepeneur!

[Matt@RFR]

Originally Posted by Geof Unfortunately my left foot operating the pedal was right underneath where I was welding; I noticed this when a big glob of molten aluminum dropped onto the top of my left foot. Actually to be precise it dropped inside the top of my shoe This attracted my attention away from the welding, and I really took notice when I saw that my shoe was on fire. Ripping a burning shoe off your foot when you are scrunched under a trailer takes a few seconds, and ripping the burning sock off also takes a few seconds. Does anyone know how painful it is to have about two square inches of third degree burn on the top of the ankle joint?

That's a long way to go to explain an ordinary day in the life of a professional welder. Try removing a 10-eye boot in the same circumstance. Most of the time you just let it burn or stomp it out...atleast until you've finished the weld.

Try this on for size: One guy welding (me), one guy using a torch within a couple feet (same project) and a third guy delivering a piece of 1.5" plate. Guy drops plate off forklift onto torch hose, cutting it. Now there's acetelyne spraying out of the hose at 8psi, which gets ignited by welding spatter. We've now got 2 guys on fire and the third guy running away screaming. First thing's first...shut off the acetylene bottle, THEN extinguish each other. Ahh, fond memories.

I've been asked a few times what it's like to be a welder, and my favorite response is, "Welders are the only people that think a co-worker catching on fire is funny."

As to the original question in this thread? We do "unsafe" things (as deamed by people that wouldn't have a clue as to how to do our job) every day. Ride a forklift up to the top of a 15' weldment without being tied off? You bet. Hang upside down by your knees from a 4x4 across the top of a 30,000 vertical tank to do some welding? Check. Move a very heavy trailer with an underated forklift, whos rear wheels are no longer on the ground, and steer the first forklift with a second forklift tied together with a chain? Done it more than once.

The thing is to do these things with just a tad of intelligence and forethought and you'll mostly be ok. Bottom line is this **** can be dangerous and the only way to completely make our fields safe is to ship every single machinist/welder/etc job overseas and make us learn how to count beans. Otherwise, people will get hurt, it's just how it is. But OSHA and the like will keep after us until they make it so difficult to do our jobs that we'll no longer be able to compete with countries that let their workers do their jobs at the level of safety they see fit.

But we all know all shop floor workers aren't smart enough to protect themselves...

[Geof]

Originally Posted by Matt@RFR That's a long way to go to explain an ordinary day in the life of a professional welder. Try removing a 10-eye boot in the same circumstance. Most of the time you just let it burn or stomp it out...atleast until you've finished the weld....

I rarely apologize but this time one is necessary: I am sorry I am such a wimp.