log splitter accidents

[IVECOKID]

I have met quite a few Home oweners or Log Goblins last year with missing fingers etc through splitting loģs . Amazingly most are not put off by there injuries and still hunting for wood to save pennies .

 

Ste

[Khriss]

This is a pretty bad thread - all these either home-made or guard-removed-fr-speed instances , come on ! Serious injury or eye loss fr a sack of sticks K

[Haironyourchest]

I hat to modify my vertical splitter, removed the right arm/handle and cut the hand guard off the left handle. Just unusable the way it was, you'd be looking at repetitive strain syndrome the way you had to contort yourself. As power tools go, it's on the safer side of the spectrum, I feel... actually, just remembered - I did trap my wellied foot unloading it from the trailer last week. I'd put a longer axel on, and proper urathane sack trolly wheels, and my foot found itself between the inside wall of the wheel, and the body of the machine, with the axelrod pressing on the instep. Couldn't pull it out, as the heel of my welly was also wedged against the dropgate of the trailer...hard the describe, but take my word for it, I was well and truly stuck. The splitter is 110 kilo, and I just could not lift it, the way I was positioned. Really didn't want to call for help, as there is some bad blood between me and my neighbors, and I couldn't bare to afford them the pleasure of "rescuing" me....I did escape, luckily the ratchet tie-down strap was withing reach and I used it to gain mechanical advantage....so yeah, dangerous..

Edited January 3, 2018 by Haironyourchest

[david wood]

Sounds like a nasty accident, hope heals well.

 

I have to say unless under commercial pressure i do reckon speed is often not our friend with machines, mine is only able to operate one handed, set up so either solo operator feeding logs and working ram or a 2nd operator at far side feeding sticks and one using ram. The second method is much more productive yet not rushed, does depend on ram operator paying attention but also person on logs being aware of hand position, ie never on front or rear edge of log only outer edges so if in doubt just remove hands and all safe.

[bilke_user]

21yrs ago I lost an eye (and had the broken orbit bone pressing hard against cerebral membrane) when the hardy spicer blew apart at the tractor end of a cone splitter.  A 10" length of PTO shaft with a knuckle at the other end hit my eye and resulted in me losing an eye.  HSE at the time were satisfied that the machine was in good order and that the only thing that would have stopped this happening would have been a shear pin or slip clutch on the shaft. But as the splitter was less than 9 months old and was greased and worked according to the manual's instructions there was no case of liability.  However our estate's insurance paid out due to me not being supplied with a helmet with eye guard!!!  Wonder if the eye guard would have made any difference?  Ophthalmologist said after operating on me that any eye guarding could have made the injuries worse

Needless to say, the cone splitter was never fixed and was put in the scrap bin

 

[tony_t3d]

21yrs ago I lost an eye (and had the broken orbit bone pressing hard against cerebral membrane) when the hardy spicer blew apart at the tractor end of a cone splitter.  A 10" length of PTO shaft with a knuckle at the other end hit my eye and resulted in me losing an eye.  HSE at the time were satisfied that the machine was in good order and that the only thing that would have stopped this happening would have been a shear pin or slip clutch on the shaft. But as the splitter was less than 9 months old and was greased and worked according to the manual's instructions there was no case of liability.  However our estate's insurance paid out due to me not being supplied with a helmet with eye guard!!!  Wonder if the eye guard would have made any difference?  Ophthalmologist said after operating on me that any eye guarding could have made the injuries worse

Needless to say, the cone splitter was never fixed and was put in the scrap bin
 

Nasty story that I hate to hear of people Injured in work and thier employers washing thier hands of it.

I had an accident at work a few years ago cutting covers off saplings that had out grown them. I slipped with my knife and buried it into my leg. First aider was seeing too me and my boss turned up and didn't ask if I was OK only asked

1. Why I was using my own knife rather than company snips.
2. was i wearing gloves with good grip?

And then basically said I don't have grounds for a claim. Got back In his truck and went back to the office. I have never made a claim or even attempted too so I have no idea why he made these comments. So I looked I to making a claim [emoji23] [emoji23] mainly to wind him up. I got refused for the reasons he asked. 1 was I issued with the correct ppe 2. Was I issued with the correct tools.

[Stihl123]

this thread has to come up just after i've made mine so you can use it with 1 hand !!

[dig-dug-dan]

Years ago, i had a pickpine boscalio splitter, basically a lawnflite one. Those days, 1990's it was a one handed operation, and i remember crushing my fingers under a log as it was splittin. Painful, but not as bad as my dad who rolled a huge great round onto it, and as he held the lever back to split, the log pinned his hand against said lever, so not only could he not free his hand, but it continued to move the wood and crush it further. As luck would have it, the lever snapped and he only suffered minor bruising.

The story above about losing an eye worries me though, as i have a hycrack that could possibly do the same thing?

[bilke_user]

"The story above about losing an eye worries me though, as i have a hycrack that could possibly do the same thing?"

My advice to anyone having to use a Hycrack is to get a PTO shaft with a shear-pin fitted.  

Even after the shaft hitting the tractor shaft guard (and bending it) and a guard on the splitter (also bending it) it still had enough power to lift me off my feet and throw me back about 6ft.

The estate I work for (and still do) were great about the whole thing, the owner told me to make a claim against their insurance. Unfortunately the same could not be said for Hycrack, they simply stuck to the line that they had the safest splitter on the market that had a great safety record.  

[Andrew McEwan]

Sorry to read this Ken, Hope your guy is doing as well as possible.