Stupid mistakes you've made doing tree work

[Shane]

I took a really tight corner a bit too close to the apex.

The tipper went round OK but the 6 inch kerb, at about 4-6 mph was enough to roll the chipper!

 

Bit of a mess in the road but nobody hurt. 

I remember 4 of us frantically trying to right it before oil seeped through the rings and 'locked' the engine.

 

Cost me a new wheel arch and 2 hours with hydraulic spreader and welder to neat en everything up.

Twat of the week award. 

[Steve Bullman]

7 minutes ago, Shane said:

I took a really tight corner a bit too close to the apex.

The tipper went round OK but the 6 inch kerb, at about 4-6 mph was enough to roll the chipper!

 

Bit of a mess in the road but nobody hurt. 

I remember 4 of us frantically trying to right it before oil seeped through the rings and 'locked' the engine.

 

Cost me a new wheel arch and 2 hours with hydraulic spreader and welder to neat en everything up.

Twat of the week award. 

Possibly year Shane, sorry

[stewmo]

Done the small ones - leg loops not done up, ascending without main line attached to bridge, cutting close to rope only to realise not tied in twice, etc. But biggest one I/we got away with was.....

 

Couple of years back taking a big pine out, rigging out whole branches in one. Half the tree over a lane, the other over the property. 

Branch just above the one I was rigging out had a tear that I didn't see, and must have been resting on/grown in amongst the lower one. It just looked normal at the time. Anyway rigged out the lower one and the upper one ripped off about 1 metre behind my head and landed right across the lane. 

I can't imagine how it would have felt if someone had been walking past at that time. Very fortunate.

[devon TWiG]

Whenever there was jobs in or around water I was always the one in it .....once whilst working on a river bank there was no real option other than to fell leaning trees in to river , then I was the one who would wade in ( no trousers , old trainers ) and cut major limbs so they could be pulled out , on one as I stepped forward the water was a lot deeper and my mates ??? said  it was hilarious to see me disappear beneath the water but keep my saw above my head !!!!  another time whilst working next to a stream I accidently knocked my own saw ( still running ) in to the water , jumped in after it but made the water cloudy and could not see the saw so was crawling  / swimming around and eventually found it by feel !!     that was in winter ...Another time whilst working on an estuary bank we were burning up below the high tide line but the tide came in before all was burnt and tried to stop large lumps of charcoal from being washed away was messy to say the least .

[Spruce Pirate]

One day, a few years ago, we were having one of those mornings.  The sort of morning where nothing really goes disastrously wrong, just a series of little cock ups the end up ruining your day when they all add up, can't remember the exact details, but we ended up on a different job trying to make an afternoon out of it.  Full of enthusiasm for the afternoon's work having put the morning behind us I put two 346's down next to each other and fuel and oil them, blethering away.  The boy who was working for me picks his saw up starts it and gets on, I pick mine up and pull and pull and pull and pull and pull on it but it won't start.  By now I've lost all enthusiasm for the afternoon and am firmly back in, "what the Hell else can possibly go wrong today?" mode.  Call it quits for the day and head to the saw shop with the saw that won't start.  In I trot, explain what the problem is - won't bloody well start - and await them to work some magic on it.  The boy behind the counter gives it a couple of pulls (it still won't start) and says, "you did put petrol in it didn't you?".  "Of course I did", says I, feeling a lot more confident that I'd fuelled it at the start of that sentence than by the end of it..........  No, I hadn't fuelled it!  I had, in fact, taken a saw to the shop to get it fixed when it simply had no petrol in it! 

 

On the plus side the oil tank was at least full.

 

Not life threatening, but definitely the most STUPID thing I've ever done with saws. (so far)

[billpierce]

Some good honest owning up to stupid things here!

[TheHungrySquirrel]

Using the silky to knock off some epi on an ash and stuck it in my wrist. Severed a nerve and vein, blood shooting out like a comedy sketch but now have no feeling in my thumb [emoji19]

[sloth]

I was once in a big rush (pushed on job, getting late etc - I see a theme in this thread!) and clean forgot I had the chipper in tow. Reversed round a corner rather sharpish and jack knifed the bloody thing, in full view of about ten other blokes who rented a yard on that farm. Took a while to live that down!

[Will Heal]

One day, a few years ago, we were having one of those mornings.  The sort of morning where nothing really goes disastrously wrong, just a series of little cock ups the end up ruining your day when they all add up, can't remember the exact details, but we ended up on a different job trying to make an afternoon out of it.  Full of enthusiasm for the afternoon's work having put the morning behind us I put two 346's down next to each other and fuel and oil them, blethering away.  The boy who was working for me picks his saw up starts it and gets on, I pick mine up and pull and pull and pull and pull and pull on it but it won't start.  By now I've lost all enthusiasm for the afternoon and am firmly back in, "what the Hell else can possibly go wrong today?" mode.  Call it quits for the day and head to the saw shop with the saw that won't start.  In I trot, explain what the problem is - won't bloody well start - and await them to work some magic on it.  The boy behind the counter gives it a couple of pulls (it still won't start) and says, "you did put petrol in it didn't you?".  "Of course I did", says I, feeling a lot more confident that I'd fuelled it at the start of that sentence than by the end of it..........  No, I hadn't fuelled it!  I had, in fact, taken a saw to the shop to get it fixed when it simply had no petrol in it! 
 
On the plus side the oil tank was at least full. [emoji5]
 
Not life threatening, but definitely the most STUPID thing I've ever done with saws. (so far)

Ha!
That reminds of the time I asked my groundy to refill the combi can from the fuel can in the corner by the hedge.
He put 2 stroke in and mix it but I wasn’t watching.
After he had refuelled my 372 I had trouble starting it would fire, big cloud of smoke but wouldn’t run. Smelt a bit diesely but I use my cans for Both so may have had a drop in from before but I knew I’d filled it with petrol that morning. He lent me his 461 and I carried on chogging down with that.
It stank of diesel and was smokey but I carried on for a tank full and then came down.
‘Which can did you fill the combi from? I asked.
‘The big one’ he replied
It was a 5 gallon barrel with diesel in it.
No damage done to either saw. The 461 ran rather well on it!

[Gary Prentice]

1 hour ago, Shane said:

I took a really tight corner a bit too close to the apex.

The tipper went round OK but the 6 inch kerb, at about 4-6 mph was enough to roll the chipper!

 

Bit of a mess in the road but nobody hurt. 

I remember 4 of us frantically trying to right it before oil seeped through the rings and 'locked' the engine.

 

Cost me a new wheel arch and 2 hours with hydraulic spreader and welder to neat en everything up.

Twat of the week award. 

Bosses brother in law tipped a tracked chipper out of the trailer doing that. 

 

On on the plus side, there was no queuing traffic as there often is at the corner and 'only' the chipper was damaged.