Did something dumb today.

[Old Greenhorn]

Maybe it's my age, or maybe I jut notice it more, but I find that with any illness that messes up your ability to think temporarily can have lingering effects we all have to be cautious of. Those who are very quick and competent with things they have done for so long may have to slow their roll for a bit. Your confidence is high because you are good at what you do, but with that residual 'fog' after an illness your thought process can be dulled quite a bit more than you think. You can get hurt quick trying to work at your previous pace from the git-go.
 My recent weeklong vertigo attack really messed me up on this score. I got back on the mill when I was 'stabilizing' and rolled a log up and took an opening cut. then the second face, then I stood there for 10 minutes trying to lay out in my head how I was going to get the boards out that I needed. I could not get it straight in my head how this log would go. It should have been, and was, simple, but I could not wrap my brain around it. It freaked me out a bit.
 You gotta work back in slow and safe is all I'm saying.

[Patrick NC]

Tom, 
 I'm sure everything will come back to you soon.  I guess the older we get, the longer it takes to recover from seemingly minor things.  I'm almost back to normal,  but not quite yet.
 Best wishes 
  Patrick 

[Southside]

Nebraska - the performance of your band sounds a lot like what happens when a band is put on backwards - or so I have been told.   :

[Nebraska]

 Southside, I'd like to say I didn't  know the reversed band, performance, sound and smell signs, I am familiar, I actually  caught myself a few weeks ago trying to put the saw chain  on backwards on my little Dolmar saw...(again, but I caught myself as I was doing it)  😳 
I can't blame it on the covid fog.

Any body else sit on their log handling equipment looking at their log piles and not knowing what to saw next.  Then spend half an hour moving logs  so you can get to the two logs that trip your trigger...then notice that your slab rack is about running over and maybe you should've been cutting it instead..

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I guess I am due and I don't want others to think I could go so long without messing up. Yesterday I nearly had a disaster. We had an order for 16' x 3" x 24"+ live edge pine slabs. I had a big log on the mill, just about at the lifting cap of the arms. I could not get the chain turner to rotate it without tearing it up, which would mess up the L/E, so I milled it as it sat. I took a slab, 2" flitch, then  3" slab off and set those to the side with the forks. Then I had to flip the log 180° because there was a couple of bumps that would catch the inner blade guide and not allow it to pass. Besides, flipping would allow me to just saw to bed. But the log was still really heavy and the chain turner was still tearing it up, so I used the 2 plane clamp to get under the log, lift it a little and slide it away from the back stops, then I could roll it a little with the chain turner until it hit the backstop stops again and would jam. I had to do this a couple of times and got it rolled to where the top flat was now at about a 45° angle under the log between the bed and the top of the backstops. SO I came in with the clamp to the inside of the flat, lifted it about 2" and THOUGHT I could just drag it away from the backstops and let it slide down onto the bed.
 Well, as soon as I touched the log with the clamp, I realized the balance point was way high still and the log rolled right back the wrong way (clockwise) and right off the mill in a very energetic manner. There was nothing in the way to stop it, the chain turner was down and the loading arms were mostly down. The whole mill jumped.
 Fortunately, I had the forks positioned to get the next slab and the log landed partly on those and partly on the loading arm tips. I got lucky. It was easy to get it back on and I could see no damage anywhere, but is was a little scary for a few long seconds. Had those forks not caught it, I think the whole mill would have flipped or at least twisted.
 Boy, that was a lucky lesson for me.

[trapper]

• no pic but pulled a majicman today.  Had a 27 inch 11 foot ash on the lt30 manual today.  Sqwing by myself and had a slab I didnt want to carry to the slab rack so cut it into 30 inch long pieces which go in the owb.  Went to throw one on the firewood rack not looking what I was doing.  went a little too high and my thumb got between the slab and the top of the rack.  Lots of blood on the kitchen floor by the time my wife got it patched up.

[stanwelch]

OUCH !!!   Thanks for not posting pictures, Trapper 

[firefighter ontheside]

Tom, that does sound scary.  These big logs have a lot of potential energy when they are up on a mill.  I'm glad your log's energy did not break anything.  I need to mill a big white oak today.  I have an order for ten full 2x12x8's.  I hope I have the logs to get them out of.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, it happened in a flash and all I remember is the head swaying and that loud hit when the left legs set back down on the concrete. It I didn't have those forks where they were I would still be down there repairing stuff, no doubt, because the load arms were halfway up and that log would have brought them to the ground. As it was, it rocked that toolcat pretty well when it hit. That's a lesson I only need to learn once...... I hope.

[caveman]

 

Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevate.  Do stoopid things, win stoopid prizes.  I should be sawing right now.

[Old Greenhorn]

Sorry buddy. I use the same therapy for my back issues.
 Did you get the number of that truck, or at least get off one good shot before he was out of range?

[WDH]

Kyle, looks like I missed something.  Something not so good. 

[caveman]

Danny, I feel a little like a wus, considering all of the stuff others have to go through.  Yesterday, while sawing, I got phone call to come get some logs.  I was moving across an area where a loader with a root rake was working, probably faster and more carelessly than I should have and thought I either caught a cramp or got a snake bite to the calf.  I was wearing shorts and chainsaw chaps (last week heat stress nearly was the death of me).  After getting home and doing all of the cramp protocol, and after a massage to the calf that almost required an epidural, I decided to go to urgent care this morning.  They confirmed, after a sonagram (at least I'm not pregnant),  my suspicion that I had torn my calf muscle.  The prognosis is 6-8 weeks to recuperate.  The seat will likely go onto the mill tomorrow and I'll be looking for someone to roll logs, sticker stack boards and handle slabs.  I still have a couple of loads of  logs to get and several trees to fell and several orders that need to be filled.  

I recently purchased a couple of Husqvarna 572's.  Not a dumb move.  They seem to be the real deal.

[SawyerTed]

Sometimes dumb stuff happens whether we do it or not.  Kyle, I hope it is a quick recovery.

[Crossroads]

Oh man, I hate when normal actions have negative results. I was getting up off the can one time and my back went out, it was bad. I had to have the wife help me get my pants back on and load me in the car, so I could go to the chiropractor and get straightened out. 

[aigheadish]

I had a close call with the kids yesterday...

I'm building a rock screener out of warehouse racking parts. It's been a long process that I'm taking my sweet, sweet time on, but I'm making progress. The dimensions of the screen are about 10'x10' with racking beams and the wire decks that often sit between beams. The individual parts are not too heavy and are manageable but I've got the whole frame welded together now, so it's four 10ish' beams and six wire decks and it's weight has increased substantially.

My little MIG welder only seems to behave well on one outlet right on the inside of my garage and the cables are short so my reach is just within the garage door. What this means is I've had to spin this whole assembly around a few times and flip it over some as well.

Well, now, it's too heavy and big to flip by hand. I got out the backhoe and had my son hook the chain around the far side, then to the backhoe bucket, so I could reach out, lift the whole thing up, push the bottom in towards the garage and set it down. As he hooked the chain around the beam I'd be lifting he put the hook into the chain link rather than around and I showed him that it needs to go around (but didn't explain why...). As I started lifting I had both kids off to the side, out of the way, but ready to push the screen frame back as I dropped it down. I lifted and had the frame standing straight up, high and heavier than could be controlled other than with the backhoe, but I noticed the chain was through the link again. I tried to reset but the frame was already too far past a good resetting point so I tried to gently ease her down (the kids had already pushed it back to where I wanted while it was hanging). Almost as soon as it touched the ground the chain hook came out of the link and the whole thing crashed to the ground. My daughter was out of the way but my son tried to keep it standing for just long enough that it kind of knocked him over. Luckily, he was also out of the way as he fell because I assume this thing would have at least broken him legs.

So, lesson learned is to find a better way to chain this thing up, I have to flip it at least one more time but probably a few. I have, somewhere, a choker chain that I'm just now realizing would have been a much better option.

On a good note, I'm a very novice welder and my welds all held as the whole thing crashed down onto the concrete!

[Crusarius]

I have gotten into the habit of using straps and d-rings when I can. especially moving stuff around like that. the chain around the steel slides to easy and throws the balance off.

[aigheadish]

Yeah, the wife suggested welding some hooks to it and as I was walking into the shop I found a box of weird, beefy, metal hooky things I can use and since I've forgotten what they are really for, nothing will remind me faster than welding a couple to something else... The next time will be much safer.

[Old Greenhorn]

... I found a box of weird, beefy, metal hooky things I can use and ......

I love it when you talk all technical and stuff. :D :D :D :D :D

[aigheadish]

Hahaha! I get mad because there's just this box of these things that I pass every day on the way into the shop. Now, granted, my place is quite cluttered and I tend to buy/find things for projects that either take a back seat or never get done but I usually remember what ideas I had for things. This box I've stared at to never come up with an answer. The other issue is the FIL is cleaning out a warehouse and we've take a couple trips through and he'd point at something and I'd say "yeah, I'll take that" so it's possible that these had no use but looked useful. Again, if they had an intended purpose I'll remember what they were for the second I weld them on something.

To get a bit more technical they look like pegboard loops, like you'd hang on the pegboard and maybe hang a hammer in, or something, they have that kind of offset, but they are at least a 1/4-1/2" thick, so much, much larger than normal pegboard hooks. I'll try to get a picture...



 

[Crusarius]

Those look like they were cutoffs from stackable metal shelving.

[DWyatt]

Another solution would be to make up an extension cord for the welder. Dad made one up for his welder and it's as handy a pocket on a shirt. It's about 25' long, and made with heavy extension cord type material that I can buy by the ft at the local electrical supply

[Wlmedley]

I agree with the extension cord solution,I made a heavy duty one for my welder and it worked out good.

[Magicman]

I have a welder extension cord for the Hobart mig here at home and another for the Lincoln stick at the farm.

[thecfarm]

I put my welder on a hand cart, 2 wheeler, with what ever corded wire the manual said I could. Gauge and all and maybe 50 feet?
I just unwrap what ever I need.
Pricey!!!   and this was back 20 years ago. But I think I got my money back on it,  ;D
As I say, Anything to make it easier and better for me is worth it,