log splitter accidents

[wicklamulla]

Hello all,   I do not deal in fire wood and i only manually process enough for our own household every year.

 

In the last 2 weeks 2 of my friends have had accidents with hydraulic ram type splitters.  The first guy is a log merchant and has a very powerful homemade log splitter and he pinched his finger and it needed stitches,  he was lucky it was not worse.

 

The second guy is my main groundie and a budding climber,  he however was subbing to another Tree Surgeon and the log splitter in question was fabricated by a farmer and may or may not be CE approved or pass a PUWER inspection.  Alas these splitters in my opinion should only be operated by 1 person and in this case my mate was loading the log onto the splitter while another chap was manning the control levers,  said chap was a either 'a bit stupid or too keen' and pushed the levers too soon trapping my mates hand. The result was 2 damaged fingers on his right hand,  the middle finger had a piece 'lopped off' and was 'tidied up' by the surgeons but will always look terrible, however the index on the same hand was cut off completely at the centre joint which resulted in 2 rounds of surgery to try and sew it back on and establish a blood supply.  The surgery failed due to the severity of the injury to that finger so it had to be amputated.  

This guy only got into this line of work in October of 2016 and started out with me and was proving to be a useful climber and an excellent saw man,  he had invested heavily in himself with training, climbing kit, 3 saws etc.  He had a bright future ahead of him but whether he will use a saw or climb again remains to be seen.

 

Please be careful out there folks.

[Mick Dempsey]

Bad story, poor guy.

 

we were log splitting on a wet day for my personal use, I was bringing the rings to the splitter and dropping them next to the tractor, my hired man lifted the rings on and the pulled the lever, we agreed that for safety reasons it’s a one man job.

 

If one puts it on and the other one operates the lever hundreds of times a day, sooner or later timings will go wrong.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by Mick Dempsey

[felixthelogchopper]

Sounds nasty. My splitter can only be used with 2 hands on the controls which isn't the most convenient but is a lot safer, given that other members of the family use it as well as me. Hope your bloke makes a full recovery.

[Woodworks]

Poor chap hope he can get back into climbing 

 

I have had my frights with splitters (Hycrack) and gone to a modern vertical splitter which requires two handed operation. One thing that can help keep things safer is a large splitting table. I have added a large table to ours which allows a helper to get logs up off the floor but nowhere near the splitting blade but one person operation is bound to be the safest approach.

[Cheesy pete]

I have the first knuckle of my middle finger on my  right hand missing  did it 15 years ago at the time i was a self employed gardener , and wasn't concentrating while mowing long grass so i had the box off ,it clogged up so i released brake chain (as it was a honda ) but hadn't realised that the cable was faulty and the blades where still going  it took the top off my finger which after one lot of surgery  got a massive infection  and it had to come off   !

the 2 biggest problems i found  with recovery  was not would i be able to  hold and use equipment  but weather i could stand the  vibrations  on a daily basis and if i could continue to work out side as my circulation in my whole hand was just awful !

Both were difficult to deal with but over time these issues got better the vibrations issues went well within a year and year by year my circulation is no longer a problem  ,it's still not as good as it was but it is easily managed by have lots of thermal gloves so when one gets wet and cold you can swap them for a dry pair 

[peatff]

A friend of mine lost his right index finger at the first knuckle using a farm splitter which is basically a JCB leg ram fastened to a girder. It needs two to operate as the controls are too far to reach from the splitting end. An odd shaped piece of wood spun round and took his finger end with it while his wife was operating the controls. I've been down to the farm and split some wood with him and he is like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs now. We will have to look at modifying it for future use I think.

[Peasgood]

Only accident I know of was when a log flew out and broke the operators tooth. I can understand that one as I have had logs fly out.

They almost always fly to the side though so the operator is safe enough, bystanders are the ones that would get hit.

 

One man job and having someone else operate the lever(s) is asking for trouble IMO. Anyone that allows dangerous operations might think themselves lucky if all they lose is a finger or two. I hate the thought of anybody getting hurt but watching some people work it's obvious it is just a matter of time.

[Vespasian]

Nearly had an accident with mine some years back..  tractor driven hydraulic affair.. pushing in the lever with one hand, guiding the log with the other hand..

 

I miscalculated the time to get my hand out the way and found my hand trapped betwixt the log and the chopper/knife or what ever it is they're called.... my hand was trapped just enough I couldn't pull it free..  

 

Trouble is I'm now in something of a panic and have forgotten which way the lever went to bring the ram backwards...  I think I was stood there a minute or two before I could calm myself down and think straight on the subject... luckily I chose the right way to get the ram back...

 

I never used the thing after that, sold it soon after and now use an axe....   but I only chop my own firewood...

 

When I saw those two handed affairs they have these days, my immediate reaction was along the lines of contempt for H/S, but then I reflected and went a bit quiet...

[Gray git]

Split my ring finger along its length in a old single lever splitter when a lot turned and pulled my finger against the blade which just sliced through it, now I have hardly any feeling in it apart from when it's cold it hurts and a bit of plastic in the end as the bone was shattered, also got a bad infection in it and they thought the blood flow was lost so was booked in to have it amputated but luckily a nurse decided it have a poke at it and found under the dead skin layer it was actually healing not to bad so she saved my finger and got a nice bunch of flowers off me.
Dplitters should only ever be operated by 1 person no matter how they are configured, heard the same story as the op so many times.

Hope the lad recovers OK and managed to keep working and his career going nd gets a bit of compo from the operator to see him through.

[arbogrunt]

we were using a Stanley PTO splitter years ago, I was cutting and my mate was splitting. One log popped and hit my mate in the face, breaking his cheek. On monday morning, we turned up to work to see the guard fitted back on...we didnt know it had one!. Another fella I worked with lost the tip of his finger using a splitter one handed. He turned back up for work the next week and found the missing tip of his finger in his glove!!

Use two hands!