• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Do not assume...

Steve Maskery

Steve Maskery

Old Oak
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...that just becasue a machine has a green On button and a red Off button next to it, that it is a NVR switch.
Today I was feeding a board through my drum sander when it stopped. The feed continued but the rum stopped, The overload button had tripped. I was being a bit heavy handed. So I opened the drum to ensure that the loading hadn't done anything nasty, all was well. I reached to close the cover with one hand and pressed the overload button with the other and the whole thing started up, catching my thumb in the process.
It's not broken and it doesn't need a stitch, but it bloomin'-well hurts.

thumb (Medium).jpg
 
Tomorrow Im going to see how easy it is to replace the switch. I've recently done that on mybelt/disc sander -it was easy as I was able to find the exact same switch. But I don't want this to happen again, it could have been much, much worse.
 
Sorry if I sound like a know-it-all by saying this, but this is exactly the reason why I always remove the plug from its socket before working on any machine. I just don't trust switches to be safe and secure. I've seen what can happen if you don't in the workshop when I was studying at the university. Someone didn't pay the attention they should have and accidentally turned on a machine while someone else was working on it. The result made enough of an impression to serve me as a warning for the rest of my life. I have been in a factory in Germany where protocol dictated plugs were remove from their socket and actually were locked in a special safety cover before any work on a machine was allowed to start.

I hope your thumb recovers soon!
 
That’s rough Steve. Thanks for posting about this accident. It helps me understand and reinforces parts of my personal safety protocol. Various practices I follow are kind of slow and annoying, but I really don't want an injury. I unplug (and de-battery) tools often including when attaching or detaching dust hoses. I also try to be conscious of dedicating both hands to the same task to avoid unconsciously switching the order of two operations. Hope it’s going to be enough, but accidents happen. So far I’ve just had relatively minor chisel injuries. Hope you heal up quickly!
 
Ouch, I can feel that just looking at the photo. Glad it was not worse.
 
Thanks guys.
The stupid thing is that I would never dream of changing the blades on my table saw, bandsaw or P/T without isolating the machine first.
But this was just pushing a little button...

It's stopped throbbing but it looks a bit of a mess this morning.
 
I'm with HdV.

In industry, mucksheens had to be physically locked out with your very own.padlock. It was followed by the foreman's, then the repairing electrician....one job had six padlocks on it.
Can't do.that in a domestic workshop, but having been plugged in to 240V mains twice in my life, I am not going contest "third time the charm". So, plugs are OUT OF THE SOCKET and in line of sight.
 
Another thing that catches people out is when using a static convertor to convert three-phase machinery to single-phase power, you might be recommended to run more complicated starting systems (like a multi-motor combination machine) using single-phase and then the three-phase power direct from the convertor to start and run the motors. Because the single-phase power is separate from the three-phase power, you can push the buttons on the machine and the starter coils will click into place, closing the circuit for the three-phase power, however, if there's no three-phase power nothing will happen, but once three-phase power is applied the machine will start instantaneously.

This isn't too much of a safety issue if you're turning on the convertor or working from an independant isolator, but I have in the past while working on other people's machines isolated the machine using the on-board isolators, then pressed the on button to ensure that the machine was isolated but was not aware that the control gear was still active because it was running from a seperate single-phase supply and so the starter coil clicked on, and after undertaking changing the blades I unisolated the machine using the on-board controls and it unexpectedly fired up.

It's quite frightening when you're not expecting it.
 
Same can apply to houses. In our utility cupboard upstairs there’s the power for the immersion, hot water pump etc but also the wiring for the valves etc on the CH. But the power to the CH comes from downstairs…hence a warning label.
 
SamQ aka Ah! Q! said:
In industry, mucksheens had to be physically locked out with your very own.padlock. It was followed by the foreman's, then the repairing electrician....one job had six padlocks on it.
Can't do.that in a domestic workshop, but having been plugged in to 240V mains twice in my life, I am not going contest "third time the charm". So, plugs are OUT OF THE SOCKET and in line of sight.
Click to expand...

It was standard practice at all the factories where I worked.
All staff, MD to Cleaner had to sign off that they had received, read and understood.

Not sure who has worked at a paper mill.
There is the 'wire' wet end where the pulp flows on at about 98% water.
The moving wire lets the water drain.
At the end of the wire the drying cylinders start.
The water-less pulp then starts the drying process (read lots of cylinders) when it eventually reaches the end of drying and rolls onto the 'pope-reel'.
Big round jumbo roll which when it reaches a certain diameter is replaced, moves to slitting section and a new jumbo started.
Note that this is a continuous process. You do not stop a paper mill, very expensive exercise.

One day there was a blockage at the pope.
The machine was running.
Machine minder climbed up and tried to remove the block.
The moving paper grabbed his arm, drew him into the winding.
By the time the operator realised what had happened and stopped the machine, the poor chap was already flattened.

Mill shuts down, factory inspector called, big investigation.

This was the second death at that mill, a worker was electrocuted through bad wiring and testing.
 
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