Did something dumb today.

[Resonator]

"Installation insert wooden teeth". What wooden teeth?! :D

[goose63]

When I first bought my new house 17 years ago it came with a dish washer know it all me if you put dawn dish sope in it the dishes would get real clean . 

The way that thing was fomeing at the mouth I thought I was gonna have to shoot it now I store pots and pans in it 

[HemlockKing]

I made that mistake too, soap suds started coming up out of the kitchen sink drain too lol 

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, my turn in the barrel (again). So yesterday I am milling an ugly log that might have been better used as fuel in the OWB but either way its gone now. Anyway, I was really focused on trying to get a useable 12x12 cant out of this log for the 1x12's on an order. I was dealing with a lot of non-log-like characteristics especially on the opening cut. I thought I had the log set so everything would clear on that cut but as I got about 5' down the log I could see where a branch stub would hit the column. So I stopped right there and grabbed the saw and whacked off several nubs, just to be sure. That was easy because the head was not too close yet, I had room to work. I went back and sighted it again and had good clearance. So I fired it up and let er rip. The head went another 4' and stopped moving. I turned up the feed a little...nothing. So I stopped and looked all around for interference. I mean ALL around and could find nothing. I literally scratched my head, looked again, nothing. (I will note here that I am sometimes (ok, often) an idiot and should really have remembered that.)  So I could think of no other option and powered up the blade and tried to back it up for a better look. I was thinking something inside the log was a problem. I was wrong (yeah, BIG surprise there). I did drive a wedge between the slab and the log to try and make a gap but when i backed up, the blade popped off. Actually I thought it broke, but it didn't and as it was due for a change anyway, I did that. But first, I discovered my real issue. To wit:



 
 Yeah, that's not a good photo, what you (can't) see there is one of those nubs I cut off fell onto the flex chain and wedged under the control box on the head. Maybe this photo will make it clearer after I backed the head off a few feet:


 

 So once again, all by myself, I made me feel like an idiot. ( I have skills in that regard.) Nobody saw it, but I did take photos, so it did happen. I wonder if I will ever stop discovering new ways to make stupid mistakes. I don't know if that's possible, but I can hope. I sometimes say 'if you're not making mistakes, you're not doing anything worthwhile', I just wish I didn't keep proving that point. Someday I will get good at this. Someday.
 By the way, I did get that 12x12 out of that log and I am slightly proud out that because it was not assured, I worked for that and got lucky. I also got some nice 1x12's and a few that are just fine for shop sheathing. Not bad for a firewood log, but it took too much time.

[WV Sawmiller]

   My dumb move for today seems to be having my electric trailer brakes set too tight or at least I think that is the cause. After a 100 mile trip today I saw excessive wear on both trailer tires on the mill that was not there before. I'll be bringing it home tomorrow and need to be sure to check them before I pull out of the customer's lot.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah that could be pricey. Tires AND brake pads. Gotta check them EVRY time you hookup. DANG that sucks.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I had the trailer serviced about 50 hours ago so the brakes should be good but if I cranked down the setting too much on on these curvy mountain roads...

[DesertHobo]

At work we'd categorize this as a near miss and it'd go into next week's safety meeting slide deck. Never done this before and hopefully never will again. Never felt scared running a saw before either, did for a minute after this though.


 
Not the greatest picture, I'm sure you guys can see I tore into my chaps pretty good though. I wear them religiously, even if it's cutting a lone nub off a saw log. Force of habit. Unfortunately, I am not wasn't always diligent when it comes to fastening the clips behind my knees. Came back to bite me today, or the chaps anyway. Was debarking a saw log with a log wizard mounted on an ms230, standing at an awkward angle and didn't take a step back to make room for the saw. Brought it in too close and the chain caught the inside of the chaps next to my right knee. Not sure what the outcome would have been if I'd buckled the chaps properly, pretty sure what would've happened if the chaps weren't on though.
The ms230 and the debarker attached to it were fine after I cleaned all the fibers out. I'll hold onto the chaps as a reminder of how close is too close.

[HemlockKing]

Glad you’re okay and thanks for sharing(despite the circumstances), reminds us all to remain humble and vigilant while running saws. I had a extreme kick back with the 500i yesterday and luckily my thumb and fingers were properly rapped around the handle and not just sitting in my palm.

[sawguy21]

I hope the chaps got a hug and a kiss! :D I did that when I was a newb except no chaps, if not for the lump of keys or change in my pocket I would have really torn up my leg. Didn't do that again!

[Old Greenhorn]

WOW, 2 whole weeks and everybody has been good. Christmas must be coming. ;D
 I guess it's back to my turn....again.
 So Thursday I started bucking up some firewood late in the day and when I quit at dark I just set the gas and oil jugs in front of the shop door so they were out of the way, but I brought the saw in the shop in case of overnight rain. Friday I didn't get ack to it until the mid-afternoon and I needed to move the splitter and re-position the trailer. So I went right into the shop, slid open the garage door and jumped in the mule to back it out and quickly close the door before I lost too much heat. Well, as I baked out there was a bit of a thump. I missed the gas jug but ran squarely over the oil jug. Messed up the jug pretty good, but it didn't explode. The screw cap held and still works, so I got lucky but boy that was stupid.

[Crusarius]

a long time ago I started using gear lube bottles for my bar and chain oil. makes filling the saw a clean breeze!!!

At the time I started using them I used to do alot of rockcrawling. Well, east coast rock crawling has alot of water and mud. My diffs were always turning to chocolate milk. So I had a few bottles laying around.

I painted one red and thats my bar oil now.

[firefighter ontheside]

Back when I used to actually park my truck in the garage, I backed in and went inside.  The next day I came out and saw that I had parked on the end of the chainsaw case with the saw in it.  Luckily it was the 18" saw and I had only parked on the end of the bar cover.  I squished the end of of the cover, but did not actually get the bar.

Today my dumbness involved setting my track saw track to two different measurements.  That did not go well when I took the pieces to the tablesaw to cut the pieces down more.  All my shelves were trapezoids instead of squares.  

[Nebraska]

Awwh, that's just a new fancy shelf assembly technique.  They probably turned out like that rocking chair..
 

[farmfromkansas]

Crusarius, that is a good idea for the chain oil.  Don't know how many times I have run the chain oil over.

[Crusarius]

super easy to pour to. I know for me its nicer to run over a gear lube bottle than a gallon

[Magicman]

The squirt top off of a gear lube 'bottle' will fit on a quart oil 'can', at least mine does.

[Crusarius]

Magicman, you are correct, as long as 'can' means plastic bottle

[Magicman]

Yup, and as soon as they reduce a 'quart' of oil like they did a 'pound' of coffee we are all screwed.  :

I have used both a squirt lube bottle as well as a spray bottle for my sawmill ATF as long as I have had the sawmill.  The squirt bottle works much better oiling the chains.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well since it was my dumb move that started this, yeah, I like that idea, but I have no problem with filling from the gallon just rarely spill a drop. I switched to the gallon jug a couple of years back because it seemed like those quart bottles would ways run empty at the wrongest time they could. Also, it's cheaper by the gallon But I do like the idea of those squirt bottles on the sawmill chain. That's a keeper for me, thanks.
 OH, and inmy case, no matter what the bottle size was, I would have still run it over. I may be a boob, but I am an accurate boob. :D

[aigheadish]

I did something dumb! I'm moving a log pile I have to make way for the barn build.



 



 

All that went well, other than bending one of my clamp-on forks, and I managed to get it all done. Then I had some scoops of dirt and grass that were coming out of that same pile. I have a hole over by the creek to fill so I took a couple loads over an dumped it, no problem. Next I went straddling the hole to back-drag it and that's where it went wrong. The sides of the hole are too wet and I start sinking, bad. I monkeyed around for a bit and got the backhoe buried deep enough that my front axle was probably 8 inches buried, back wheels about half buried and I'm just sitting on the belly of the hoe. Hmm... The ground everywhere is wet enough so I was just digging holes instead of being able to drag myself out, so I try a chain. I proceeded to break the chain two times and I was still stuck. I stopped and looked at it for a while assuming I was going to have to shovel out by hand or concede that the backhoe lived in that hole forever more. 

Welp, I gave it another go, using the hoe to raise the back side up and shift over an inch or two, then put down the stabilizers to hold me there. Then put the loader side into the mud which, luckily got enough purchase to raise the front wheels a bit. I shuffled my way out like that for probably an hour and a half and finally got it to where my back wheels were on solidish ground. Next I reached out with the hoe as far as I could and ended up having to face forward to drive backwards while reaching behind me to operate the hoe side pulling myself out. I got a good scoop of dirt which actually helped by making the machine do a wheelie and the front wheels were up out of the hole by several inches and I finally got myself out. 

I wasn't smart enough to take a picture of the bad side, it was probably 8-12 inches deeper than this side. I got lucky. This is the third time I've gotten very good and stuck in this same area of the yard.



 

[Nebraska]

It's the end of December that ground should have some frost in it by now.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Pretty minor faux pas for me but while replacing the bracket and bolt/shaft for my roller guide on my mill I dropped my allen wrench used to tighten the set screws. Of course I couldn't drop it on the ground - I had to drop it dead center into the uncovered 3" X 3" front landing gear. Fortunately I had one of those telescopic magnets used to retrieve dropped tools and nuts and such and I was barely able to reach far enough inside to catch it and I was finally able to retrieve it.

[Old Greenhorn]

I did something similar yesterday. The last 2 weeks the ground in the yard has been pretty firm, but the warmup combined with a day opf rain on Saturday softened it up more than I thought.
 So I drove the Mule into the yard pulling the trailer with about 1,500 lbs of firewood on it and thought mu belt was slipping, but it turned out the be the tires on greasy grass and mud. I made quite a mess out of the lawn and it will stay that way until May at which time I will have to do a lot of rolling.

Howard, you have great aim! That ain't easy to do. About 25 years ago I was servicing a big CNC vertical mill working up on top of the column about 12' off the deck. I knocked my favorite antique adjustable wrench down the column hole. Try as I might, there was no retrieving it. It's still there.

[Resonator]

When I had my 2wd backhoe I got real good at lifting and dragging myself out of mud and deep snow. Even with my 4wd tractor I keep planks and beams handy at all times to put under the wheels and get back out.

If you switch oils make sure you relabel those oil jugs, if it was my luck I'd put 80-90 gear lube in my chainsaw and cold weather bar oil in my axle. :D