But and the Good and Bad

[doc henderson]

I am sure with years of experience on the farm and doing potentially dangerous work, that you were prepared.  I bet you did not have anyone standing near the mill alongside the massive log and felt in your gut and brain that it could go south.  All the years of near misses help us survive the next near miss.  It is good for us to see the power and physics we deal with every day and good to not assume everything will be ok.  Lynn, you are no fool or careless.  This may save some of us sawing for a while from being too confident and getting ourselves or someone else hurt.

[TreefarmerNN]

I've only sawed one log that was about that size.  We didn't have anything that would lift it and I wasn't at all sure the legs on the mill would be stable enough.  In the end, I dug the trailer wheels down to lower the mill, blocked under the jacks and frame, put blocks under the ramps and used a combination of tractor FEL and winch to load the beast.  Turning was with the FEL and chains wrapped around the log.  With the manual mill, a tip over would only happen on the mill head side if the log rolled hard enough into the uprights to generate the energy to tip.  On the loading side the log doesn't have any leverage.  It's either over a jack or off the mill.

I never thought about how a hydraulic mill adds leverage to a heavy log off the mill rails.  It seems the foot should negate that but perhaps the momentum added enough energy to bend the foot and then the mill could flip.  It's hard to see any scenario where if the lift mechanism is intact the mill would flip and I understand why it would be a bad surprise when it happened. 

The original post is a great reminder that creating safe zones and keeping people out of the danger zones is necessary.  Thanks for posting.

[OlJarhead]

Holy smokes!  Glad you are ok!!!

[Jeff]

Of all the rattle cans I've shook, and all the stones we have, I have never managed to get a can to have a premature release like that. I had another line to add, but my selfcensor cut it.

[beenthere]

Lynn
You were smart to not have been in the seat which could have launched you like Bezos' Blue Origin rocketing the all-women crew into space for a brief moment, similar to a carnival ride. Maybe Howard can demonstrate that feat at the next Flea Market and give a subtle demo of sawing large logs. 
Thanks Lynn for the photo of what could happen, and did.   You handled it well, IMO

Interesting how the "safety" nerds find themselves having to come up with a follow-up explanation of nearly every incident.
Reminds me of being on the safety committee while at the USFS, one tech was searching for termites in a destroyed building and he stepped on a nail which came through his shoe sole and pricked the skin on his foot. Rules were it had to be reported, and the safety committee had to review it, and of course come up with a solution so it didn't happen again.
The solution was "step to the right or the left of the nail" to avoid the "accident".   

[barbender]

If I truly believed "Safety First", I'd never leave the house. However, I do believe that safety is important! Risk management is the name of the game, and everyone going home at night.

Beenthere, I wasn't drinking anything when I read your comment about Howard, if I had been it might've came out of my nose. The mental image of Howard launching off the seat of a mill at the flea market reminded me of the guy that gets shot out of the cannon at the circus😂😂

[Peter Drouin]

I don't think you're a fool. Old yes,
 See what can happen if you take your eye off the ball. In our working lives, a lot can happen. Scott has a good point. 

But, We Know Now what it takes to put a supper on its side.