Like I said chaps, it's not the tools but the users, for those sitations described above, I have no sympathy, there's a pic in the Express today of a father with his son sat in a pool on the very lip of Victoria falls, or should I say fools, UNBELIEVABLE, some people don't deserve kids.

regards,

Rich.

Just been to Vic Falls, Rich, and you see locals on the Zambian side actually fishing right on the edge! Some of them are only 2 or 3 metres form the 100 metre drop......incredible. The logic, though, is that the fish realise there is a drop, and turn around to swim back............so there are crowds of them at the edge. Lots of fish=lots of fishermen!

Years back, on a previous visit when the Zambezi water level was a lot lower, I walked out on the little islands on the Zimbabwe side about 20 or 30 metres from the edge. I hope I'm a bit more sensible now! 

Mike 

 I appreciate what you say Mike and agree that the fishermen know far more than I do, but was the little lad given a choice?

Rich.

I dont know about the falls but i bet the guys with the nails in there  heads were the H&S bods, No brains to worry about !

May have been a different outcome with someone who actually has some comon sense.

Chiselling by hand has given me those lumps in the palm-tendons, that develop into trigger-finger. (Where the fingers gradually curl in towards the palm). But I am told mine are ok, and shouldn't get any worse.

Never heard of that heart-attack thing before! So how come boxers don't fall down dead when they thump their opponent? Maybe one did!

John

I met a carpenter on a site once. The guy had a furious temper and if anything went wrong, he would throw his tools all over the place, cursing them and the material; and the job; anything or anyone but himself.

One morning, I was passing by one of the houses, to go up to the job, when I heard the familar cussing, and something whizzed past my ear, to land with a crash on a few bricks. This was pre-hardhat days btw.

Seconds later, the guy poked his head through the upstairs window opening and said, 'Hey John. Do me a favour and bring that plane up will you?'

I looked at the plane, a Stanley N0.5, then looked up and said, 'Which half d'you want?'

True! Honest!

Mike,

I was on site when my friend done the same thing with an Air Nailer - came down a ladder with his finger on the trigger and nailed my mates foot to the floor with a 90mm nail! ( ladder was sitting through a suspended wooden floor) I had to take him to hospital so they could pull the nail back out through 4 bones with a pair of pliers - Ouch!.

Rob

Speaking as someone who has had 3 employees who nailed there hands and fingers with paslode guns, the nail doesn't actualy penertrate the bone. All 3 injuries happened where they had one hand holding the timber and the other firing the gun, as the nail fires through the timber it hits a hard knot causing the softer nail to turn. Then the nail proceeds into your hand, finger etc and when it hits a bone it turns as before. Sometimes the nail looked like it had gone straight through but the xrays proved that the nail had indeed turned around it.

There was a programe on the tv here ( a bit like the Irish version of watchdog ). It was about a timber frame company going out of buisness because they had so many claims of lads nailing their fingers etc.

Aparentley in England you get about £500, a couple of weeks off and medical expenices paid for. In Ireland they were getting up to €20,000 and there were suggestions that given the number of injuries in that particlular company that some of the lads were shooting themseleves on purpose.

Well i worked for a kitchen manufactures and a girl who was nailing up frames put a 75mm through the frame and then through two of her fingers !

I didnt get on with her so i laughed a little, in fact several people did, still she missed the bone in both  of the fingers so not too bad for her, no insurance payout though, maybe she should go work in Irland ?

Well I don't know about the hand and I didn't hang around to see the xrays first hand but I was told that the nail split 4 bones in the foot (apparantly there are 26 bones) and it done this because these were small soft bones, the nail entered in front of the ankle at an angle that took it underneath the ankle the nail never came out of the other side. Whatever damage it did or did not do its still gotta hurt!!

I wonder if the pressure of an air nailer on max is greater than that of a gas one??

Incedently the guy never claimed but he was off for a while on full pay. 

Most of these Acidents are realy Negligence so should be re named.

I did a stupid trick this week I was safety testing a Shredder which failed so I cut the plug off so it could not be used. Woops I cut the plug off the tester by mistake. What a stupid Boy.

As a youngster I and some friends used to play in the local woods. We climbed the trees and the disused Quarry cliff faces. Today I expect they are fenced off  What harm did it do. I now suffer from a serious problem, I have a head for heights. Before my hip gave out I could climb a Yachts mast un aided. In fact even with a duff hip I can still do it but very much slower.

A tile came loose on our roof last week So I had little choice but to walk up the roof with a bucket of Mortar and fix it.

The next thing we will hear is the Parachute Regiment will be banned from using Parachutes because they can fail. What a cockeyed world we live in.  People are scared of their shadows. Kids rule the streets and the Teachers are unable to control their charges.  Now they want more money.  What can we do?

Robbie

I would imagine an air nailer would be more powerful because Senco make nails for their guns that can shoot in to concrete like a hilti gun. Altough there are gas guns that will do the same but only up to about 40mm nail where as the Senco's go up to 90mm + I think.

Having heard all these horror stories I think I had better put some guards on my nailers. From what has been sait a block of soft wood 150mm thich in frint of the gun should absorb any discharge.and a metal plate over the trigger will stop fingers from getting to the trigger.

Oh I might be easier to cut the Hose and remove the plug from the compressor.

I have found Hammers more dangerous than a gun. I have HURT my fingers with a Hammer. With good training with Bullet guns I carry over the same safety principals so far no incidents. Yes I have had Jamms etc. But it is easy to clear and repair if the tool is disconnected and the magazine cleared. You then have to deal with the one up the spout.

Roger,

I suppose we could issue the police with nail-guns.

On the other hand we can let things go on as they are, with our usual apathy.

Personally, I prefer my old-fashioned claw hammer and range of cross-peins any day. Thanks to the nail-gun, a lot of good timber goes to waste  in pallets, because the nails they use are 'ridged' and near impossible to get out by prying. So no more nice lengths of useable timber, 'like wot I med my gardin fence of!'

John

Woodchip wrote (see

Personally, I prefer my old-fashioned claw hammer and range of cross-peins any day. Thanks to the nail-gun, a lot of good timber goes to waste  in pallets, because the nails they use are 'ridged' and near impossible to get out by prying. So no more nice lengths of useable timber, 'like wot I med my gardin fence of!'

John

Woodchip

you can't blame the nail gun for this because you can get ring shanked nail that you use a hammer on it's the nails that are used not the tools

as for the majority of accidents it's the operator as i believe was mentioned earlier many a time i have been to a site to repair machines and been told that you can not look at it until tea break the tied this or that to keep it going to which i looked at the machine and stopped it from being used at the annoyance of the men in charge because i stopped work 

As I said, it's the nails they use. It's impossible to pull them out with a claw, or a  pry bar jaw. Doesn't matter how they put them in I suppose. They are Begrs to remove.

But I think they use nail-guns now for their speed. Maybe there should be a proper training course for nail-guns, just as they eventually bought in one for fork-lift trucks, after a death or two, or three! 

John

Derek

I think you will find the main difference is an explosive cartridge similar to a bullet or blank.

When a machinist ran his thumb through the spindle moulder, leaving a 10mm groove through it, the woman from HSE asked me who was going to operate the machine to finish the job. Me, I replied. Are you a machinist she asked , to which I replied no, I am a carpenter and joiner.

You can't operate the machine then,she said.

Oh yes I can, because I was taught my trade before the training was dumbed down to improve results and part of my training was the use of machines! So go away and let me do my job and pay the taxes that pay you your wages.

As has been said it is down to common sense, don't take silly risks, extra legislation only causes greater cost to us and that is passed on to the customer, eventually! It increases our tax burden to pay wages to the holier than thou egocentrics and lays blame on companies for the laziness or stupidity of staff!

In the above  case the machinist had all guards and power feed available and was under no pressure to finish the job to a time, just too lazy to implement them.

Have I said before I have no time for the HSE?

Rob

You are very corect in what you say. However it is a pity the Legislation has been brought on us because of a few bad employers.

I worked for a company for a short while about 10 years ago. After a few days with the company I informed the MD that there were some issues with equiptment.  For example the mains socket fitted to the wall behind where I sat was hanging off the wall exposing bare connections. This was something I considered Dangerous. So I let my Boss Know. His words were "Well if you dont like it you know what to do" I had already seen his unreasonable attitude so chose not to fix it myself ( I was of course not qualified to Play with the building wiring).

I did know what to do and had a word with HSE. who snaged the firm on 15 major items. The Compressor had not been tested in living memory. Dangerous wiring The list just went on and on.

He was lucky not to be closed down. He lied that all had been sorted and they did not come back.

It is empolyers like thatwhich have brought the HS legislation on us all. It is a pain totally over the Top. But because most employees will not rock the boat and upset the boss by telling him when things are wrong in case they dont get a pay rise. We only have ourselves to blame. So although I sympathise I find no alternatinve but to agree (reluctantly) with the Law.