wheres your money

[lone wolf]

With the value of the Dollar now a day I can tell you all my money is spent on Insurance ,Taxes, Gas, Diesel and food!If you think things are hard to afford now wait a couple years!Better buy some new trucks or saws or whatever you need soon or the prices will be out of reach.:msp_angry::msp_sad::msp_ohmy:

 

[David (saltas)]

Queensland fire and rescue were steel caps.

Those big yellow suits you see on the television every time some one says anthraxs are made by trelleborg the boot s in them have steel caps.

 

[teatersroad]

\I'm not 100% up on the US healthcare system but it seems to me that employees either get a job with health insurance or have to pay for health insurance (or get neither and run the risk). From what I gather if you hurt yourself badly in the US you foot the bills otherwise?

Most 'employees' are covered by workers comp. for on the job injuries. Likely similiar to your system. However, workarounds exist and likely prevail in certain industries..

 

[sachsmo]

Com'on Evan,

You aint that old are you?

 

[slowp]

MCW, the employer is supposed to pay into an insurance system we call Workman's Compensation or Workman's Comp. It goes into a fund and when hurt on the job, the worker can collect some money and the medical bills related to that accident are paid. That is what I was talking about when I said the rates now almost equal the hourly wage. The rate for a rigging crew member went up to $16/hour. The wages paid average around $19/hr for that job. One guy said he was not going to run his yarder and crew in this state. He would move it to Oregon.

There are always operators who pay "under the table" and do not pay into the system. I think I had one outfit who was doing that here. They paid better wage wise, but if somebody had been hurt or killed on the job, they would have been in big trouble.

 

[gallegosmike]

I wear steel toed boots because I want to. Not because I have too! For me, it is a pure common sense thing. I do not get to run my saws all that much other then firewood season.

For pro fallers, it might be okay to use soft toe boots and no saw chaps.

But for "Johnny Weekend Firewood Warrior" who uses a saw infrequently.

It makes a lot sense to wear steel toed boots, saw chaps and a saw helmet or hard hat for the "rest of us".

My .02

Mike

 

[gwiley]

After breaking my toes TWICE, once from a splitting maul that deflected off a round and smashed my little toe, I decided that every boot I wear will have a steel toe. Once I got used to it I don't even notice they are there.

I had a few large rounds roll back to my boot and stop against the ST. I even use them for that purpose - something I wouldn't do with the non-steel toe boots.

I do a fair bit of welding and metal work - can't tell you how handy it is to have that steel toe when wrangling large steel plates. Have had a few chunks fall after an OA torch cut and swing in a weird angle and land on my foot (which was not in the direct line of fall).

After a few breaks I will never wear anything else than steel toe when I am working with equipment or in the shop. I have even bought my son's ST boots for when they run the SS.

 

[Hddnis]

The downside to a true steel toe boot is cold toes in the winter and weight. The getting toes pinched off thing is often told, but never backed up. I could see it happening with the old design. Modern steel toe boots only have steel on top anyway.

Safety toe boots that use fiberglass or some variation of it like carbon fiber or kevlar will turn to powder if overloaded, this is supposed to be better than steel.

The fiber glass/kevlar toes do work well, I've seen them protect from a running chainsaw, although the leather didn't look like much after the chain hit it.



Mr. HE

 

[mdavlee]

Steel toe boots are super cold when its -15 out and you're standing on grating with the wind blowing. I only wear steel toes when forced to.

 

[Justsaws]

I have heard the toe chop excuse often. Never seen any documentation, had one motavated jack hole bring in a story he found on the interweb about a pipe worker that had his toes amputated after having a 40' long pipe dropped on them.

I offered to drop a 40' long 2" 40 on this particular hippies toes to test his theory that without the steel toes they would not have to be amputated. He declined, he also told the employer that I threatened him with a pipe.

It not so much about protecting against cutting them off as it is about reducing the number of minor injuries, downtime and pain and suffering. Stubbed toes get infected, having toe nails cut out gets expensive and then they get infected, etc. etc. etc.

Steel toe and steel sole I could see being a bit tricky to pull off after a severe squish, but again squish it hard enough to collaspe a steel toe onto a steel sole and there probably not much to work with left anyway.

Cold and weight is a person to person and product variety issue. Summer toes, winter toes and $$$$$$$$$$$$.

 

[teatersroad]

hells bells.. wear what suits you.

Nice line-up Evan. What's a White's custom boot like that - close to five bills? I'm not in mine everyday, but I don't have a single complaint about a pair of wesco's I have. I think it's easier to find a good woods boot than it is to find something that'll keep you comfortable on concrete floors all day. (in my experience working a few years in a print shop).

 

[Slamm]

I would work in the woods any day and all day before I would "want" to work on concrete floors again. Those are murder on your feet and knees.

Sam

 

[teatersroad]

I would work in the woods any day and all day before I would "want" to work on concrete floors again. Those are murder on your feet and knees.

Sam

Yeah.. I'd hope to not go back to that.

 

[mdavlee]

I've tried a lot of boots and red wings are the most tolerable for concrete. Hoffmans are too hard for me to wear 10-12 hours a day.

 

[slowp]

I broke a toe in karate class. They wouldn't even let you wear shoes there. It hurt. I quit karate because they said more toes would be broken.

I hobbled around all that season in the woods. Owie. That's the only broken toe I've had so far.

 

[Rounder]

Never done steel toe boots, just stihl saws.....But #### happens. Don't need the weight.

Sometimes when you get to feeling pushed, you do stupid #### trying to strip out. The pic kind of speaks for itself. Only pulled one thread off my nice new socks. That was a first, and a last time sort of deal. - Sam

View attachment 198988

 

[paccity]

i don't worry to much about destroying my feet fast i worry about doing it slowly with crapy boots that never feel right.

 

[tdi-rick]

The agency I worked for is ultra safety. There is no requirement for steel toes when running chainsaw. I believe this is because most saw work is done on the fireline, and steel toes do not belong there. Feet can get hot enough without having steel to radiate heat through. We westsiders wore calks on our normal jobs, but had a pair of lug sole boots for fire duty. We all would get blisters on the first fire too, because we weren't used to our fire boots. I wore Whites for fire work.

[snip]



The steel toe boot and fire aspect is something I wouldn't have even thought of and a good point.

[snip]

FWIW our issue fire boots are steel toe

 

[tdi-rick]

I think you will find that cotracters come under the same rules. The person that they are contracting for pay the workcover. So they are under the same rules regarding safety.

http://www.claimsmart.com.au/upload/contractor_guidelines.pdf?PHPSESSID=58aks3pvr8p8cpq9l2kd42vag7

That is the PDF that I found..can't get it live. you will have to copy and past into your browser.

I know we were responible for contracters working at the hospital I worked at.
Peter

Interesting mate. I know that some of the subcontractors here are simply not covered if they have an accident - they have to organise their own cover/insurance. There may be varying degrees of it or maybe even Victoria is different to South Australia? I know a number of tradies that don't pay anything but run the risk of not making any money if they injure themselves. My uncle was one of them working as a fridgey.

Here in NSW, unless you are a subcontractor to a prime contractor I have to provide my own cover of Public Liability and Personal Accident insurance.

I'm not allowed on any council, State or Federal govt site without the personal accident insurance and most all private (commercial) operations demand it too. The local nursing home asks for a copy of my insurance forms every year.
Hell, I've even had graziers ask before I stepped on their farm.

 

[tdi-rick]

[snip]
Steel toes? Nobody I know wears them in the summer. They add weight. We seem to keep track of where our feet are. I don't know anybody who has cut their toes off with a saw. I had a log try to roll onto my feet, but because I was wearing some ill-fitting Wescos, the log didn't get to my toes.

[snip]

I wear steel toes all year round, don't notice the heat on my feet in summer but the boots you seem to wear over there are much, much bigger (taller) and bulkier than we generally use here.

I have a pair of Danners and when i bought them i couldn't believe the weight :msp_ohmy:

Although I don't wear them often they are the best boots I've ever had.