I found this picture scary...

[Indiana Robinson]

Didn't anyone here use a table saw for carpentry work-same thing and just as dangerous.You have to keep in mind that the saw blade doesn't move the man is moving.

You have got to be kidding...  That blade "IS" moving... It is fixed on an axis but it is spinning. How could you even begin to compare that large sawmill sized blade with what is typically 10" blade on a table saw??? A table saw can easily injure you painfully but is not going to cut you in half. When I use one of my table saws I am guiding the wood against either a fence or with a miter gauge and the surface of the wood against the table is a completely flat surface not a round log or a rough split face that can rock back and forth and bind a blade. Also the blade on a properly used tablesaw is not sticking several feet above the wood. It is normally 1/8th to 1/4 inch above the wood. Not the same thing by any stretch.
Who here would freehand firewood into your big circle sawmill??? On your sawmill I would hope that you have a danger zone that you keep your body parts out of.

Having said that, I do generally believe that individuals should be free to do stupid things if they are doing it for themselves. As stated it is akin to jumping out of airplanes or tying rubber bands to your ankles and jumping off of a bridge.
I didn't see the splitter as nearly as dangerous as the saw even though the operator did make a few moves (like some of his vertical second splits) that were extra dangerous. The danger zone on the splitter was actually quite a small area and a little basic (not extreme) guarding might make it "look" safer.  ;)
I was actually a little surprised at how effective it was and also surprised at how little it seemed to want to twist the billet if it hit a little off.
I have a bit of a collection of old Gravely garden tractors and one of the attachments I acquired was a new in the box "Unicorn" style log splitter. I'm not sure that I see that splitter in the video as more dangerous than the Unicorn. BTW, so far I have not used that splitter but I originally bought it to use. These days my awkward skill is stronger and so I avoid stuff I can fall into when I can. 

Back to the firewood saw. There are several things that might make it less foolish. Reducing blade size would be a good start. Perhaps a device that would grip the billet and give it handles so you hold from only one side.  The "free-handing" of an odd shaped piece (which I would NEVER do on one of my tablesaws) is the biggest problem after the silly large blade.

I have done a lot of risky things in my life but always with careful study of the risk. As it sits in the picture that firewood saw wouldn't get to first base on my "I can do that" list.
As an old lifetime farmer I grew up going to farm meetings and dinners and seeing a shocking number of guys with one arm gone. A personal friend lost both arms in a corn picker. I personally know (knew) a number of guys that died in farming accidents including a close neighbor who lost  a small son about 7 or 8 years old.
Anybody that thinks that the old days and the old workplace safety attitudes was better is wearing blinders and is in denial. I shall not seek their advice...

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[rmack]

lol!... no shortage of guys whining about government getting in the way... funny how quick the story changes when they need somebody to come in and clean up the mess caused by some half with chasing a quick and careless/irresponsible buck.  :D

[Magicman]

Several years ago my Son and I watched a family splitting firewood with a PTO driven screw splitter.  There was a young boy about my Son's age helping.  The very next weekend, he got tangled in the splitter.  What a horrible loss.

[tcsmpsi]

Put 6 of those on a shaft, and it would look like the saw I ran back in the early '70s....but, safer.   :D

[stumpy]

The problem with SOME of the safety regs is they are born out of people being irresponsible.  What I mean is, when an accident happens, the authorities first reaction is to impose a new regulation rather than going to the source of the problem.  The worker. Case in point.  I used to work for a local electric utility.  When an accident or injury occurs, an investigation is conducted.  No problem with that, but where it goes from there is the problem.  I had a worker shoveling in a hole after setting a pole.  He claimed he threw out his back while doing it.  After a thorough investigation and a 3 page report, it was concluded that the company should research alternative shovels.  Mind you, he was using a standard 5' shovel the likes that have been used since dirt was invented.  It was also sunny summer, he was a healthy 26 year-old and he was shoveling sandy soil. Oh, and by the way, he was in the middle or remodeling his home and by claiming injury, he was able take a week off(paid) to rest.  Any guess what he was doing during that week?
My long winded point in this is that too many times, we fail to realize the real cause of accidents, nor do we hold those involved responsible for the activity. If a man wants to operate that scary log splitter, let him.  If he's careful, no problem.  If he's not, It's his problem.

[John S]

It may be somewhat unsafe but it looks like the fastest splitter that I have seen.

[Paul_H]

We had a oldtimer that drove logging truck for us in the early 90's.He was in his mid 60's and was a good humoured guy to work with.His wife inherited a farm in Saskatchewan and they moved back there to do some farming.
Bill was having trouble with the pto on his tractor and was under there with a hammer.He got caught and lost his arm at the elbow.I asked his son after a couple months how Bill was making out and he said "Dad says he's feeling shorthanded around the farm these days"
He still kept on farming.

[red pine]

I totally agree with Indianna the difference between table saw and this huge buzz saw blade is like night and day. On a table saw without any guides if the piece of wood binds against the blade watch out. The piece can easily pearce through paneling wall. If lucky the saw will jamb and stop the blade. I don't think this huge saw would jamb so here comes a sore gut for weeks, hopefully not in the head that could finish you off. You don't have to slip unto the blade to die. :'( Red Pine 

[cutterboy]

I wonder if the picture of the big saw and the stupid operator is real. Could be photoshopped. I can't imagine anyone being that fearless and stupid at the same time. But hey, he is wearing safety glasses. :

[trailman]

table saws are the most dangerious saws made. i feel safer behind a band mill.hope that guy dosnt get hurt.b

[Indiana Robinson]

I wonder if the picture of the big saw and the stupid operator is real. Could be photoshopped. I can't imagine anyone being that fearless and stupid at the same time. But hey, he is wearing safety glasses. :

There are millions of them...
One day back in the early 1960's I was driving down a back street in town and typical of a small Indiana town then the street had an extremely high crown. There were cars parked on both sides of the street and about a lane and a half in the middle. A guy about 25 or so had his car parked at the curb and the level of the car reflected the crown of the street. He had the back end jacked completely off of the ground with the silly string bean bumper jack that came with the car sitting in the middle of the back bumper. He had removed both rear wheels and was laying "under" the rear axle jerking on a big wrench on something under there... I just pulled over as far away from him as I could and drove on gently past him and didn't look back...

My first car that was all mine (I learned to drive on tractors and in a Model A Ford truck)  was a 1952 Plymouth. I bought it from the widow of the guy that drove it half way on his concrete carport, pulled on the parking brake and crawled under it to remove the drive shaft to put in a new universal joint. Apparently he was unaware that those Chrysler product cars parking brake was mounted on the rear of the transmission. When he took the drive shaft out the car rolled back off of the carport. The situation was likely compounded by the fact that as was the fad back then the car had been seriously lowered... They said it killed him instantly. I never worked under that car (and I did often) or any car without thinking about him. I'm sure his goof made me work safer.
I have seen this kind of stuff going on all of my life...


 

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[Jeff]

Maybe that's a photo of Weisyboy. We've not heard from him in quite some time.  Looks like one of those "bench saws" he talked about.

[Slingshot]

Here is one of my favorite:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E4GmFX3Puo&feature=related



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[Satamax]

Whoah Slingshot!

This makes the first one look safer! :D

[Indiana Robinson]

We set up and do demo's and other activities at an event each fall at the Conner Prairie living history museum just north of Indy. We have done that for many years.
We used to take quite a bit of equipment up there but as we get older and gas got higher we started cutting back on the larger stuff. It is about a 100 mile round trip and we have evolved more into stuff we can get there in just a couple of trips. I used to haul at least 3 tractors, a large tractor corn sheller (MM), a buzz-saw and a lot of other stuff including a hand cranked sheller.
They provided the corn for us to feed the shellers and someone running a sawmill would provide the slab-wood for us to cut up into firewood with the buzz-saw.
We always roped our area off to keep folks away from the machinery when it was running.
For the last several years they have not been able to get anyone to bring in a mill so I was at one point hauling long limbwood as well to buzz up. I finally just quit taking the buzz-saw because guys kept wanting in jump in and help and frankly some of them scared me to death. Absolutely zero common sense around the machinery at all. Some of them I would not have trusted with a sharp pocket knife. I grew up using this kind of stuff. I guess they grew up playing basketball or something.
It was also becoming more of a fight as time passed keeping kids and parents both from crossing the safety ropes and walking carelessly right up against spinning machinery as if it were made of Tinker Toys...    These days we take more hand tools and let the kids do stuff like drive nails, plane boards and hand shell an ear of corn. They might bleed a little but won't get mangled or killed.
Here is a picture of me belting my Allis Chalmers C up to the buzz-saw shortly after arrival one year.


 



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[Buck]

Maybe that's a photo of Weisyboy. We've not heard from him in quite some time.  Looks like one of those "bench saws" he talked about.

Nope, not Carl(weisyboy). He's still around. He Facebooks too but he's not as active online these days