dangb93

Thanks for the input. Just to clarify two things; 1.) I haven't used the machinery for the last 10 months, and I am unlikely to for another year or so, due to my injury. That was the reason for the reference to my stump grinder accident thread in my first post. So if something does happen to it, it's not like I need it the next day (unless someone else does of course!) 2.) To mitigate the abuse and damage of my kit, it would only be hired occasionally to people I know personally who I can trust.

So while I am sitting here recovering (see thread titled "To all stump grinder operators") I have had several requests from fellow tree surgeons to hire my machinery off me - chipper, loader, stump grinder, wood splitter, mewp. This is for non-operated hire. I have spoken to my insurers, and one or two hire companies I know, and they all say different things about what I need to have in place. What are my legal duties? Or what do I need to have in place so that if something goes wrong, so I don't end up in trouble? HSE says that I would be classed as a supplier if I hire out my machinery. So far I have got; Compliance with PUWER and LOLER - that's clear to me - making sure the machine is correctly guarded, fit for purpose, and keeping a record of this. Ensuring that the person hiring has a NPTC ticket for the machine that he/she is hiring. Getting the person whose hiring to sign a document to say that I have shown them how the machine works and the safety features etc. Making sure they have hired in plant insurance. Is there anything I am missing? Do I need insurance of any kind? TIA

This.

As bad as that Fred Dibnah guy

If it's over 75mm at 1.5m limit and in a conservation area, I would pop a notification in, wait six weeks and then go and do it. You can check if its got a TPO on the councils online TPO map.

I have asked but it’s a no. I’ve also asked them to film it for me, I particularly wanted to see them drilling through my leg so many times - super accurate as well as mental. But they won’t film it for me. And I’ve asked for souvenirs such as the drill bit, or bits of my TSF when it comes off. But they either re use parts or throw them away. And even the bits they throw away they won’t give me. The most I can get is my notes.

Haha! Not moving now, but they were between February and July. As the TSF was lengthened daily on the adjusters, sliding the bone section up the leg and stretching the leg out longer, the pins were slicing through the flesh. Blood, fluid, and gunk all running down my leg different places different times. Not to mention the pain.

It’s quite straightforward, I just shower it off. Occasionally I use some exfoliating scrub on the remaining original skin because the legs not being used, it keeps shedding the skin. As you can see looking at a selection of pin sites shown here at the top of the leg, they form a sort of dry and dead seal of skin around them which helps keep the otherwise open pin wounds closed. There’s 19 pins which go straight through. So that’s 38 pin sites (entries and exits) plus three further pins much thicker that go half way through. So total 41 pin sites for potential infections. They’re the same pins all the way through the process. The frame is attached to pins, which go through the leg from one side to the other. See the two red arrows below, they are both the same pin.( Each pin is loaded with 100kg before fixing!!) I’ve had 7 operations so far. All general anaesthetic. I’m expecting an absolute minimum of two more, but could be over 10 in total !

Thought I would pop an update on here, a recent CT scan has revealed that my tibia bone is being accepted at the docking site (under high compression in the TSF frame) and bone callous is starting to form (strikingly similar in fashion to the way a tree will produce callous tissue, leading to the formation of wound wood). The bone callous is forming between the end of the tibia bone and the bottom of my knee, and also my body is creating new bone in an onion shape, each side of the docking site, a bit like bracing. To explain the above, in the accident my tibia bone was ripped out of my leg (forget about the fibula bone - that was ripped out as well, but completely smashed to nothing), and a section at the top of the bone was destroyed, that along with the removal of a further splintered and muddy section in theatre, means that 71mm was missing. The TSF frame is the big black cage round my leg in the pics above. The frame was regularly adjusted (finished now) to slide the remaining section of bone to the top, compressing it against the knee - hence the term docking site. The tibia bone regenerated at the other end as it was being slid away from the ankle. And talking of the tibia regeneration, that is also starting to calcify - the recent x rays and CT scan show its getting denser. My surgeon says the TSF will need to stay on my leg well into 2024... BUT....though things are moving along ever ever so slowly, it is getting there. Almost 10 months since that horrific day. Remember! switch the cutter wheel off on your grinder before you walk away from the controls!

BS 8545:2014 has probably all the answers you need. Including; The planting pit should be no deeper than the rootball or container depth. The pit should have a diameter at least 75mm greater than that of the root system. Tree pit sides should not have compacted, glazed or smeared sides. Sides of the planting pit that have been smeared or smoothed during excavation should be scarified. The root flare of the newly planted tree should be clearly visible at the soil surface. It should not be buried by excess soil or mulch. The backfill medium used should be as close as possible in texture and structure to the soil excavated from the tree pit. Ideally the soil dug from the excavated pit should be used as the backfill medium. I was also taught to dig a square pit, rather than a round one - the roots will go round and round a circular pit and won't grow outwards. During the preparation of the tree pit, the soil is disturbed, but the base of the tree pit should remain undisturbed unless there are specific problems such as poor drainage, soil smearing or pans resulting from pit construction which need to be rectified.

Have you posted on the freelancer map on here? I could have given you plenty of work in Cambridgeshire if I hadn't had my accident. Might be opportunities next year if I get back on my feet.

I know I’m on high danger alert due to my accident (see thread To all stump grinder operators)… But, might be best to fix the threaded rod so it’s going to the right, away from you, as opposed to being pointing left across your body. My reason being if you get a bad saw kickback, assuming you are correctly positioned with the saw and it goes past your head safely, you will however get a face full of threaded rod.

Have a look at the Arbotec scaffell lite boots. If you would like to see how good the ankle support is, and if you are ok with gore and blood photos, have a look at the picture of my leg with the boot still on the foot, “To all stump grinders”

Ditto

I was, but rarely visited the site. The reason why I started this thread, is to raise awareness because I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through this, and if it happens to someone else it could be a lot worse. It’s not just stump grinders, and leaving the cutter wheel engaged and walking past the front - I also intend this thread to highlight in a more general way that it is not worth cutting corners. The basic principle here can be applied to using a chipper, climbing with or without a saw, using a saw on the ground - anything!! Take your time and think things through properly. Two seconds error has cost me at least two years out.

Remember that the growth being approx 100mm at the base and up to 5m in length, will be bigger and heavier than you may be expecting when cutting it and getting it onto the ground. Cut a little higher than desired and make a neat finishing cut where you want the final cut to be. Use an appropriate type of cut to remove each section. Research basic felling cut with a directional notch and a hinge, and also have a look at step cuts. Finishing cut should be straight across, at 90 degrees to the peice being cut, to minimise the area of wound. Above all, take your time and be safe.

(Above) Green arrows show position of lengthening adjustment at February, commencing limb lengthening. (Below) Green arrows show position of adjusters now that tibia lengthening is complete, 71mm total. Note toes are curled due to tendons pulling tight as limb is lengthened. July

Foot plate TSF fitted. To repair ankle and to keep foot in neutral position while TSF is lengthening. Operation number 7. April.

TSF frame is fitted, operation number 6. To align and regrow the tibia bone. February.

After three months the skin graft is healed over. Still very swollen. Early February.

One month and 5 operations later. The skin graft done. Taken from my right thigh. Note how swollen the wound and leg is. Metal work holding my leg together. Early December.

At the scene. Part of fibula bone dangling on my boot. If anyone is buying a new pair of boots, I would recommend giving the Arbotec Scaffell boots a try - look no further for a testimony to their endurance! Note how short my lower leg is. A limb will collapse as soon as the bones are ripped out of it. The tournequay is above my knee. At A + E. My knee is on the right. Note the way my lower leg is curved because their is no bone structure left. Fibula bone dangling down. My right leg is visible behind. Early November 2022.

WARNING! Graphic photos follow this post!

Regarding pictures of my leg - I will try and get some in the right format to upload (and probably put a warning in the thread title as well). Can't promise when!

No worries! The machine was quite clean, because i was only in contcat with it for a second - all the bits of leg tissue, flesh and bone were strewn over the garden, and the blood was a great pool around me - so no mess really on the machine. I was told that the pfanner type c trousers took some work to extract them from the cutter wheel on the machine. Not surprising. My boots were so soaked in blood that they were binned. In the days following that horrific day, I said I never wanted to see the machine again, and that I wanted to sell it. So my family tried to sell it multiple times for me, each person seemed really interested but let us down at the last minute, after this had happened, I thought perhaps there's a voice in this...by this time I had turned my thoughts round the correct way, and I was then taking full responsibility for my actions, and that the machine hadn't done anything wrong - after all, it was only doing what I told it to do!!! so I have kept it along with all my other kit - and who knows I could be grinding again in a year or two time! I recently started it up, engaged cutter wheel and ran full throttle for a minute or two, to reconcile my traumatised mind with the machine again. As soon as I am able, perhaps late 2024, I intend to take it out and grind a stump or two to complete the reconciliation and healing process in my mind... Even if I never do stump grinding again, I feel very strongly that embracing it again is part of a mental healing process - a bit like if a swimmer is caught in a rip tide and has traumatic experience of nearly drowning, gets rescued by lifeboat, and then faces up to it and gets back in the sea the next day - or motorbike crash, recover, get back on motorbike again.