Sooooo... How's everyone's quarantine going?

[Welder Dave]

There was a guy that had a sand pit that let the bikes ride there. It was first place to be ridable after winter and he even groomed a track for an oldtimers race. Some idiot in a 4x4 drove around the top of the pit and off the bank. He tried to sue but I think he lost. There were lots of open pit and no trespassing signs. The bikes had permission as long as they didn't leave a mess and respected the rules. After that the guy shut the pit down for riding.

 

[suladas]

The shocking part is how easy some big companies get away without safeguarding sites. Back when I still lived at home a construction company dug up the road in front of the house to put sewer and water into a few lots, they were down easily 20' and all they had to block off the excavation was orange snow fencing and it was open for weeks. On top of that they were dug from one edge of the road to the other. Tons of neighbors were calling the city, province, everything trying to get them to come and look at the hazard, many simply said "no the road isn't dug up, there's no permits pulled" and that it was it. They never pulled permits for closing off the road, so if an emergency vehicle needed to get through it would take an extra few minutes to go around and could up with someone dying. In the end they got absolutely nothing in the way of fines.

But as a little guy, i've had someone complain about a bit of mud in an alley and bylaw shows up and will ticket if it's not cleaned up. And when I needed permission to close 1 lane on a road for an hour for a demo? Oh man that took weeks to get approval from the city, and it was during the time parking was allowed in that lane.

 

[cuttin edge]

We'll leave open areas on the street, but they park the Machinery all around it, snow fence, caution tape. Only overnight, always backfilled on weekends. We were hauling snow one night this winter. We haul everything you can get on. Around midnight the commercial vehicle enforcement guy landed in his pajamas. Said he got a call from his super that we were hauling unsafe loads. Said he followed one of us, and saw one small snowball on the side of the road. He said he had to come because he was called. Didn't care what we did, but if someone did get a snowball in the windshield, it was on us. He suggested keeping the loads down till the traffic died down. If you wanted them to come in a hurry, you'd never see them.

 

[old-iron-habit]

It always burnt my a## when I had to wear a hard hat under a ROPS canopy or cab when I was on dozer !
I got bi##hed at a few times when I was caught without it on.
I was very diligent about wearing a seat belt. Except on a slope that was so steep I would sit on the armrest of the seat.

Interesting enough OSHA does not require a hard hat per say. The regulation says to paraphrase, " head protection must be worn if there is an exposure to hitting ones head or if something could drop on or otherwise hit your head." That being said, it was a requirement of every project insurance policy I ever had to read. It is amazing how much of the BS part comes from insurance companies whom often have no clue.

 

[cuttin edge]

See now, here, New Brunswick Occupational Health and Safety, and New Brunswick Construction Safety, are the standardized regs for the province. A lot of companies policies exceed the minimum. When Weyerhauser had the OSB mill here, they were crazy. We did a safety orientation every couple of years to work on their site. They had a room for orientations in their warehouse. One of their rules, No walking in or out of an over head door. As you left the class, there was a man door right next to the overhead door. The overhead was open. Everyone walked out the overhead. Everybody back inside! Guess non of you were listening! Had to do the class over. Most of our regs meet or slightly exceed the provincial standard. we are supposed to have one First Aid provider for every ten guys. We have at least one for every crew. My crew has three, and I am the first aid guy. Now the work safe regs say that class E type 1 headwear must be worn on a project site. A project site being basicly defined as any where construction is being done. Eye wear is required if there is a risk. Your paper trail is the key I guess. Health and Safety meetings, tool box talks, incident and near miss reporting. Field level hazard assesments. Daily equipment inspection sheets. Every monday morning is an hour or more paper work before you can start.

 

[Bumpsteer]

A good friend is a UAW health and safety rep at a GM die build plant, he was a diemaker, knows his stuff. His GM counterpart is clueless, she came from a parts wharehouse.
Maintaniance was assembling something, no place to tie off. 3 story hi-bay, so the "steel" was out of the question as they were 12-15' off the floor.
What do we tie off to?
Go get the brody, boom up, tie off.
Cool.
She walks past.....has a cow. Wtf?
Lol, always overreacts without thinking.

It's so bad, guys put down their tools and go get coffee when she walks past.

Ed

 

[JD955SC]

A few years ago I went out to install a big log grapple on a 988 at a sawmillL the machine was parked in the open beside their shop well away from anything and anyone

They wouldn’t let us onsite. Their insurance company checked our companies insurance and found that we weren’t “reporting a standardized safety training program” so they had no way to grade if we were safe or not. We had to file for a waiver, wait a couple hours, then get a 45 minute safety briefing and video concerning absolutely nothing that we were doing. We finally got onsite after noon. The part that really irritates me is they knew we were coming it wasn’t a surprise but they made no effort to inform us or anything to get it settled beforehand

 

[JD955SC]

A good friend is a UAW health and safety rep at a GM die build plant, he was a diemaker, knows his stuff. His GM counterpart is clueless, she came from a parts wharehouse.
Maintaniance was assembling something, no place to tie off. 3 story hi-bay, so the "steel" was out of the question as they were 12-15' off the floor.
What do we tie off to?
Go get the brody, boom up, tie off.
Cool.
She walks past.....has a cow. Wtf?
Lol, always overreacts without thinking.

It's so bad, guys put down their tools and go get coffee when she walks past.

Ed

 

[colson04]

Aye, the oilfield safety Nazi. I can't stand them. Most of them are so over the top and full of themselves it's unreal. Our HSE gal is a royal PITA just to be one.

I don't mind working safe. I wear steel toes, hard hat, safety glasses and FRC clothing everyday to work. Thats just what we do. It's not difficult to work safely and efficiently at the same time, and it doesnt take a college degree to figure out something isnt safe.

I crushed my right hand when I was 17 and learned a hard lesson about safety. I recovered 95% or better, but it absolutely changed my mindset when approaching my work. If something doesn't look right, I stop and reassess. I don't take shortcuts that risk my safety or the safety of others. Just not worth it. As a guy I used to work with always said "slow down, you'll go faster".

 

[Nige]

A few years ago I went out to install a big log grapple on a 988 at a sawmillL the machine was parked in the open beside their shop well away from anything and anyone

They wouldn’t let us onsite. Their insurance company checked our companies insurance and found that we weren’t “reporting a standardized safety training program” so they had no way to grade if we were safe or not. We had to file for a waiver, wait a couple hours, then get a 45 minute safety briefing and video concerning absolutely nothing that we were doing. We finally got onsite after noon. The part that really irritates me is they knew we were coming it wasn’t a surprise but they made no effort to inform us or anything to get it settled beforehand

You've all seen the photos I’ve posted of fully assembled machines being moved in one piece on a lowboy. Well stories like JD’s were exactly the reason we started assembling at our place where we could work with our safety rules and then hauling to the customer. One of the major problems was that each of the major mining companies had slightly different requirements and trying to satisfy each of them was a total pain.

 

[wornout wrench]

Hey everyone.
Just checking in.
Not much new here. Still just hunkered down.

I popped in once or twice just to see what was happening, but other then that, have pretty much kept off the computer and any other kind of social media. I can honestly say that I haven't missed it.

It is a different world, but have learned how to live with it.
Shopping is almost pleasant now with everyone keeping their distance. I order what I can online and do the rest early in the morning when us seniors are allowed in.
Little things like walking the Pom are even different, you meet someone now and both parties give wide berths, walk on the other side of the street.
We have learned how to visit by standing at the end of the drive and talking to friends. Lots of the people in my subdivision that I have never met will have chairs set up by the front door and will engage in conversation now as you walk past. Kind of nice.
We have also learned how to use things like facetime to visit our grandson and other friends.
So really for me, it hasn't been all that bad.


The ebike, the real ebike not the little one from the other thread, has been getting a workout, have put close to 1000 km on it. Once this cloud cover burns off will get out for a 50 to 80 km ride today.

Hopefully the rest of you have been doing okay.

And I'm off again.
Take care all.

 

[Welder Dave]

When I worked at the mall we had toolbox meeting and the boss, who was a former ironworker, was always trying to push safety. Only thing is it didn't apply to him. They had a section of the skylights on the roof removed in the amusement park to install parts of the new spinning roller coaster. There was a storm coming and he wanted to put a tarp over the hole. He went up on the roof with a few others to put the tarp on. They were holding the tarp and needed to get it pulled across the hole. He figured it was a good idea to walk across a beam with the tarp spread out. A gust of wind came up grabbed the tarp and he fell off the beam being extremely lucky and landing on some scaffolding about 12' below. He came about 6" away from being impaled on the corner post of the scaffolding with a connector in the tube. I was the welding supervisor and he knew I would bring up safety issues when warranted. He was practically begging me not bring his incident up at the next toolbox meeting in a couple days. He was trying to say the scaffolding was only 6' below. A little while later he finally told me he scared himself pretty good. Another worker who had been there longer later told me the boss had broke his arm but never told anyone or reported it. If he would missed the scaffold he would have fell to his death at least 40' below in the middle of an amusement park. Ran into ironworker at my track who had worked with the boss when he was an ironworker and he asked if everyone working with the boss still had all their fingers. Guess he had quite the reputation for not following safe practices. He was also a mayor of a smaller city outside Edmonton. It wasn't hard to tell he was a politician. Tells you what you want to hear but doesn't mean a darn thing.

 

[crane operator]

Hey everyone.
Just checking in.
Not much new here. Still just hunkered down.

I popped in once or twice just to see what was happening, but other then that, have pretty much kept off the computer and any other kind of social media. I can honestly say that I haven't missed it.

It is a different world, but have learned how to live with it.
Shopping is almost pleasant now with everyone keeping their distance. I order what I can online and do the rest early in the morning when us seniors are allowed in.
Little things like walking the Pom are even different, you meet someone now and both parties give wide berths, walk on the other side of the street.
We have learned how to visit by standing at the end of the drive and talking to friends. Lots of the people in my subdivision that I have never met will have chairs set up by the front door and will engage in conversation now as you walk past. Kind of nice.
We have also learned how to use things like facetime to visit our grandson and other friends.
So really for me, it hasn't been all that bad.


The ebike, the real ebike not the little one from the other thread, has been getting a workout, have put close to 1000 km on it. Once this cloud cover burns off will get out for a 50 to 80 km ride today.

Hopefully the rest of you have been doing okay.

And I'm off again.
Take care all.

Glad you and the mrs. are doing well. Its a different world right now.

 

[Truck Shop]

When I worked Automotive Machine years ago the owner was do as I say not as I do type. One morning I'm working over a set of International 345 heads and the owner was setting a
Continental flat head 4 cylinder head up in the surfacing machine. It was a well used Van Norman surfacer and you had to take your time on set up to get a head locked in just right.
He flipped the switch and it made a few passes then I heard it change tone, I hit the floor. It shot that head out and landed on top of the added on restroom roof in the shop. It cut
a 3/8 deep half moon in the head deck and the stone in the surfacer exploded shooting pieces all over the shop at lightening speed. I crawled over and shut the machine down while
he was laying on the floor bleeding from the side of his shoulder where a piece of stone got him. Lucky he had a head left. No pun intended.

We had another cylinder head to replace the destroyed one and another stone for the surfacer, which I changed out and I surface ground the other cylinder head. The surfacer below
is a broach type not a stone type. Only photo I could find of a similar machine.

 

[Willie B]

Interesting enough OSHA does not require a hard hat per say. The regulation says to paraphrase, " head protection must be worn if there is an exposure to hitting ones head or if something could drop on or otherwise hit your head." That being said, it was a requirement of every project insurance policy I ever had to read. It is amazing how much of the BS part comes from insurance companies whom often have no clue.

I believe you failed to make a point. Insurance companies try to find rules you won't conform to. If they impose a rule you violate, they still collect premiums, but don't have to pay.
"Joe broke his leg."
"Was he wearing a hard hat?"
"No?"
"I'm afraid we can't pay."

If corporations called their bluff, said this operator is sitting behind safety glass, he doesn't need safety glasses, we will get our insurance from an insurer that doesn't impose ridiculous rules, they might reconsider.

I see mill operators, their job is to wait until a gauge reads an unacceptable level, then push a stop button. They are exposed to nothing worse than a bit of dust. They wear hard hats, and safety glasses & steel toed boots.

 

[Tinkerer]

As far as the quarantine going --- not too good for my daughter a couple of days ago.
She decided to make some hand sanitizer in her kitchen by mixing alcohol and aloe vera gel. That went ok. But, right after that she made some sanitizer out of bleach and water. The bleach fumes combined in the air with some lingering alcohol fumes.
She was immediately stricken with sever chest pains. A CT scan a little later revealed pneumonitis. It is an inflammation of the lung tissue.
She and her husband are both confined to their home for two weeks. No visitors !
The doctor said a virus would be a deadly serious thing to come in contact with for her.

 

[DMiller]

Between other things, received the clutch discs for the Spare tans, decided to see how the pack height was and assembled. KNEW it was not right as started to assemble, had taken it apart on a bench and NO dropped pieces so shocked me to see this. A .250 dowel slot, NO Dowel. This is the outboard Clutch pack stop for this speed, is supposed to be Locked to the

hub and wasn't. Know the discs are splined to collar and steels to clutch hub/gear but this could allow slippage to an extent. .200 length of quarter inch drill rod and all is back right.
​

hub

 

[Welder Dave]

There was talk earlier about safety precautions and I just came across this in my neck of the woods. Interesting when you read he had alcohol in his system and severe heart disease including an enlarged heart. Still very tragic. There was explosion at a shop in Nisku at Christmas in 2018 where another welder was killed but they never released what exactly happened or if the company was charged. There was talk of cylinders so I'd guess they had acetylene cylinders incorrectly stored with no ventilation.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/cessco-fined-for-2016-fall-that-killed-veteran-welder/

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/one-dead-two-injured-in-nisku-welding-shop-explosion/

 

[cuttin edge]

In the middle of all this, some nut job decided to pretend he was a cop, and go on a killing spree in Nova Scotia. 18 dead last I heard. The shooter is dead as well

 

[suladas]

In the middle of all this, some nut job decided to pretend he was a cop, and go on a killing spree in Nova Scotia. 18 dead last I heard. The shooter is dead as well

Are you seeing tons of conflicting reports too? Like some before said suspect in custody, etc. Seems really odd.