Using your Foot/Leg to clear an obstruction in a chipper

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This is in some ways a confusing topic...

I think we need to get our terminology straight. Newer style chippers with a set of feed rollers are totally different from older style chuck n ducks. Newer chippers also have a lot more safety features. In australia, OHS specifies that there be a minimum distance of 1m from the feed rollers to the end of the "no entrace' area, then a further 1m chute beyond that adding up to 2m, or nearly 7'.

We run a bandit 18, it could chew me up no problem but I feel it's a fairly safe machine when operated correctly. The most common injuries when chipping have nothing to do with the operator going through the chipper which is very rare (but does happen). Most injuries are related to crushes - operator getting squashed by a log as the feed rollers take it up, bruises/fractures when logs suddenly swing sideways, and then lesser injuries like chunks spitting out at you when someone lifted the rollers up or you ended up with crap in your eye.

Using your foot is not a complete no no. There are times when it is safer.... most often when feeding logs that are over 3' long, but large and heavy. I'd rather have 2 hands on the over bar, one foot on the ground and one foot pushing the log then have 2 feet on the ground and trying to push by hand. You can generate a lot more push with your feet, and in a safer way too. Good luck trying to push a 4 or 5' 18" log by hand into the chute. Especially if it's a wet heavy hardwood. I'd love to have a vide of someone trying to push same into chute by means of a push paddle.

To me, safe chipper operation starts at limbing time. Cutting pieces in a way that they will feed through the chipper easily and have no forks for at least the first 2' is a great start. Proper stacking is the next step. Beyond that, proper 'sequencing' of feeding the chipper - ie. as you feed, peel off to the outside. Never feed from the middle. The next man in line feeds from the inside, never trapping the previous man. Running big chippers, we sometimes have 6 men feeding and can punch out 40 yards in an hour if it is well cut and stacked. Keeping the area in front of the chipper clear is important.

Then after that is not ever putting any part of your body past the 'fold line' of the chipper - the part of the chute that folds, about 1m away from the rollers. We use push paddles on short pieces, or more commonly other branches. Then after that, is using hands vs feet. There are plently of times when using a foot is appropriate, and safer.



M
Shmaun

Have to see to believe it. Yet to all his own. Coming from you I give it more merit. (Foot in the chipper)

The story go's
two climbers hear the chipper not being loaded as its running. They find Jose has been precessed. A car drove by and noticed him, I believe, standing on the loading chute and kicking brush in.:msp_ohmy:

Foot in the chipper?? 12" chuck and duck man eater will get that habit cured. Still the fastest thing out there
 
I quit a Job because of that, and at a school too. It was the owner's friend. He use to drink vodka on the job, by the end of the day he would be smashed. One morning at a middle school I had them close off a fenced in area, but you know how kids are, They were hanging on the fence watching when ever they could. I am up in a big ash tree, I have to keep an eye out for this guy constantly. I look down and he's using his leg to push in brush on the BC 1800, it about 9 AM he already drunk. I came down said clean up, and pack the truck were going back to the yard. I never said anything to him. I never went back to work there either. I came out the bad guy there, can't use that place as a reference. But may of saved that dummys life.

beastmaster, thank you so very much for looking out for this drunk!! God already has His hands full watching over kids and idiots. Rep for you!! Islero :msp_smile:
 
Have to see to believe it. Yet to all his own. Coming from you I give it more merit. (Foot in the chipper)

The story go's
two climbers hear the chipper not being loaded as its running. They find Jose has been precessed. A car drove by and noticed him, I believe, standing on the loading chute and kicking brush in.:msp_ohmy:

Foot in the chipper?? 12" chuck and duck man eater will get that habit cured. Still the fastest thing out there

There's been some good points made about safety, thats for sure. Especially feeding from the side. Feeding from the side can really torque your back because you have to twist to get the branch in, but we often feed in pairs which works out good. From the stack, one guy is on the left and one on the right, you pick up a bundle together and drag to the chipper. Two guys together can carry more than the sum of their individual efforts. As you get to the machine you are both feeding from the outside, and you don't have to twist so much because the guy opposite is balancing your input.

We always have one guy on the controls, the truck driver. He's operating the lift/crush, keeping an eye out for pedestrians (we put cones and signs out, but people love to get close), shutting the machine down as needed for people walking by and stops or reverses the rollers should anything go wrong. If we've got 6 guys feeding, that's 3 'pairs' and usually 2 pairs are on branches while 1 pair is on logs. We stack logs on the road and logs to the side on the nature strip, so they're all getting fed at the same time. Often times you can throw a few branches in, let the rollers take them up then the driver stops the rollers. The log guys throw a log on top, and the log gets a free ride into the rollers. We use the same trick for raked leaves, twigs etc that we pile onto a tarp at cleanup. Put a branch in first, stop the rollers and pile all the crap on top. Goes through real easy.

Log duty rotates in an unspoken way. It's hard work. When the log pair have had enough, they start grabbing branches and the next pair will start grabbing logs without any communication needed. We keep our logs over 3', because they're safer to feed and short sections won't go through the chipper 'end on'. Rounds roll side ways and splinter instead of chipping. People complain about the resulting 18" splinters (we call them surf boards) and we have a hard time getting rid of splintered chip so we try to do the longer logs.

If the logs don't want to 'ride' on the branches, we try to feed them one after the other. There's some advantages to this. The first one is that you can use them to push each other, keeping you further from the rollers. Secondly, if you just feed one log, as the roller gets to the end of the log and starts to close.... the autofeed cant really stop. Even if the roller isnt rolling, the automatic 'crush' keeps pushing the last of the stub in which occasionally stalls the chipper on hard woods if the blades are getting to sharpening time. Feeding them end to end means that the rollers never close, they take up the next log before the first one gets crushed. This is a great trick on chippers without lift/crush like vermeer BC1000XL's. The last benefit is that if you were feeding the logs one by one, you have to lift the rollers, and there will be a big chunk of unchipped log sitting between the roller and the drum/disk just waiting to spit out at you if vibration nudges it onto the blades. By feeding end to end you reduce your exposure to that risk. I really hate having to feed a log into the chute while there's a chuck sitting there and the rollers are lifted! If we get to the end of the log before the next one is ready, the driver stops the rollers while there's still 6" of log sticking out.

I still do give things a kick sometimes, only logs though. And I still do push logs with my foot sometimes too. When I'm doing this, someone is on the controls, and my foot never gets closer than 4' away from the rollers. My hands are gripping the top bar ready to shift it. I feel more stable in this position than if my hands had nothing to grab. I guess the real truth about it though is that it's not the right thing to do. I don't let any of my workers do it. But as the business owner I feel if there's anything that's going to be a risk I'll be the one taking it. There are some risky things in every part of this job... someone above mentioned about cutting one handed with a climbing saw etc... Using your foot isn't allowed by OHS in australia (which may well be enough reason not to do it) but neither is using a climbing saw on the ground, cutting without chaps, drop starting, one handing, cutting in a tree without 2 tie in points, not wearing eye protection, cutting above shoulder height, didnt have signage, didn't have a written induction/training process for your chipper & stump grinder, didn't have a written hazard assesment before starting the job or any of the other hundred things we all do every day. Informal risk assesment is an ongoing process for me... Every second of the day you're looking out for danger and asking yourself how much safety you need, and making the decision to go ahead or do it different.

There was one guy who lost both his legs in a chipper in aus last year. I didn't know him, but I know the guy who owns the company. The guy was chipping with a BC1000XL, and was alone. The chipper jammed, and the guy climbed into the chute with the machine running. With both legs standing in the chute, he started kicking the log. The log went, he slipped and landed on his ass which took the wind out of him. By the time he grabbed the nudge bar, he was gone up to the knees.

Shaun
 
I just saw a tree company - won't list the name here - cutting down a tree at a private school. Has the bucket truck and chipper, helmets, boots. No problems, on the way back from dropping my son off at school, I see the ground guy using his WHOLE LEG inside the feed tray to clear an obstruction (I assume as the discharge was pointed my way).

The machine appeared running, but nothing was coming out of the chute. I called campus security and let them know - they are responsible for issues on campus - besides they don't know me from Adam - and probably would get pissed that some 'guy off the street' was busting their chops.

I have never seen anything so dumb in my life, the way he was hanging onto the top of the chute, leads me to believe that the machine was actively feeding, just jammed. I had flashbacks of the story of the kid in CT.

Just a really disturbing thing, and at this time of year, it could have been a high school grad with his first job and minimal training.

The machine "appeared running but nothing was coming out the chute".
If the machine was running the feed rollers would be turning and the blades would be spinning and material would be coming out the chute. It was probably on low idle and he was pushing something to line up to the feed roller. Can't imagine anybody being so stupid as to push material into a shoot with a machine running with their leg. Then again you never know.:msp_sad:
 
[video=youtube;-oB6DN5dYWo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oB6DN5dYWo&feature=related[/video]

here's one of my favorites... a german forklift safety training vid. It's slow to start, doesnt start getting funny until about 5 minutes in. Around 7:45 may well be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. There's some chainsaw safety in there just to keep it on topic. A stihl too!

Shaun
 
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