what unsafe and or bad habits do you see at work?

[kmaysob]

lets hear them.

1. people welding diesel tanks with not purge or anything. (just drained)
2. using excaliber on rusty,dirty,oily metal
3.running a torch with the act. set to over 30psi
and more when i think of them

[Donald Branscom]

Almost do not know where to start.

One day in the near future you will not be able to just walk into a store and buy a A/O welding rig without any training.

Some of my pet peeves:

People using a 4 inch handgrinder with no guard. Their fingers are literally within 1/4 inch of the wheel.
People welding in the rain.
People welding without gloves.
People using fire extinguishers to hang jackets on.
If the jacket is over the extinguisher you cannot see it.
Not turning off tanks and bleeding them properly.

[Burnit]

After working in a Heavy fab shop (50+ ton parts) morons with overhead cranes really get me. When a very large assembly was moved everything was by the book and it was as safe as we could get it. It was when the "smaller" things were moved that the accidents happened.

The parts still weighs thousands of pounds and these people just didn't know any better.

That was a real problem there. That and forklifts.

I have never walked off of a job except for that place. Back in January I was welding in my area on on assembly that was on a large positioner. The table of the positioner was about 6' off the ground when it was level. I had the assembly on the positioner and it was turned 90 degrees, so the table is now perpendicular to the ground.

I am standing on a stepladder about 6' off the ground, welding. I feel something hit the ladder so I stop and look down. A material handler on a forklift has backed into the ladder I am standing on, He stops, looks over his shoulder at the ladder and continues to back up, pulling the ladder out from under me. I held onto the part I was welding and let the ladder fall.

I jumped down and was just in shock, this moron smiles at me, no big deal.

Now, this company is in the middle of being sued because of some racial type stuff that happened at another plant in New York so they are very touchy about the PC thing.

I am informed by my supervisor that they are looking into what happened but now they have an even bigger problem because when I jumped off of the positioner I
yelled "Im gonna f-ing kill you" This wasn't racial, we're both white but they have to take it seriously.

Now they are concerned about "The threat I made to his life" they tell me. So I packed my box up and left.



Did I over react?

[patrickp]

At my last job we had 9 inch grinders with no guards on them. Somebody was always getting cut. One guy got a 4 inch grinder caught in his bottom lip. of course all of the drugs sure didn't help. Stayed like that until OSHA came through and made them put the guards on. And guess what............. all of the grinder accidents dropped off. 75 percent of the people working there was on drugs. Working while higher than a kite. And the kicker is we made shields for longwall coal mines.... Scary thought huh.... bunch of crackheads welding on something that protects miners from being crushed.

[Mondo]

Originally Posted by Burnit

...I packed my box up and left. Did I over react?

Not in the least. You are alive and uninjured. You know how Darwinism works: Survival of the Fittest. You have demonstrated you are the fittest by stepping away from a very compromising situation!

A shop like that should have portable railings that can be set up to create "Safety Zones" around places like where you were working. At least a three-foot buffer. Oh sure, this would not be like a bollard that would stop the forklift, but it would at least establish a "no entry" zone. The lift operator should have both the training and the concern for your safety to not enter, or even touch, the safety zone railings. It is obvious that the company's safety officer or committee are unconcerned. You did the right thing by leaving.

-Mondo

[Matthew]

something people do and dont see as dangerous is tack welding all day long with no mask, welding with no gloves, tshirt what not...

people dont realize that constant exposure to UV and IR light Can and probally will give you skin cancer. guys laugh, "look how red my face is haha" you wont be laughing when you look in the mirror and find a tomour on your cheek

matt

[patrickp]

yeah we used 1/16 dual shield wire. I would see people tacking parts all day but just shutting their eyes. next day they would call in with burnt eyes. two days later would be doing the same thing again. And i have seen a person put the trigger lock on with a 9 inch grinder and set it on a table with it still running just to grab a new part.

[mrmikey]

....I would see people tacking parts all day but just shutting their eyes

Not pround of it but I do that constantly, I'm not condoning it at all.
One of the boses at work has his own shop. He's forever taking a 4 1/2" mini grinder and putting a small wood blade on it (made for a biscuit joiner I think) with no guard and cutting aluminum. As if that isn't bad enought the center hole is not quite big enought so he reams it out with a die grinder.
Seen him doing the same thing with a 7 1/4" wood blade and put it on a 7" grinder I kid you not. That's when I decided my visit was over....Mike

[Burnit]

Originally Posted by mrmikey

Seen him doing the same thing with a 7 1/4" wood blade and put it on a 7" grinder I kid you not. That's when I decided my visit was over....Mike

Holy ****!!

[mrmikey]

Yeah, couldn't believe it. He kept telling me he uses it all the time but I didn't believe it 'till I seen it myself.....Mike

[drivethruboy54]

i dont have guards on my 4.5" grinders, personally, i think its safer to be able to see the entire wheel and exactly where im cutting than to have the guard obstructing my view of whats going on (especially with cutting wheels, ive had hem bind and break because i couldnt see what was happening because the guard was in my way)

9" grinders i leave the gaurds on, those things are gnarly and normally im laying into something with it, my hands have slipped and gloves and the guard has saved me.

[Donald Branscom]

I just remembered reading an article that said most DEATHS in industry were from forklift accidents.

[Donald Branscom]

Originally Posted by Burnit

After working in a Heavy fab shop (50+ ton parts) morons with overhead cranes really get me. When a very large assembly was moved everything was by the book and it was as safe as we could get it. It was when the "smaller" things were moved that the accidents happened.

The parts still weighs thousands of pounds and these people just didn't know any better.

That was a real problem there. That and forklifts.

I have never walked off of a job except for that place. Back in January I was welding in my area on on assembly that was on a large positioner. The table of the positioner was about 6' off the ground when it was level. I had the assembly on the positioner and it was turned 90 degrees, so the table is now perpendicular to the ground.

I am standing on a stepladder about 6' off the ground, welding. I feel something hit the ladder so I stop and look down. A material handler on a forklift has backed into the ladder I am standing on, He stops, looks over his shoulder at the ladder and continues to back up, pulling the ladder out from under me. I held onto the part I was welding and let the ladder fall.

I jumped down and was just in shock, this moron smiles at me, no big deal.

Now, this company is in the middle of being sued because of some racial type stuff that happened at another plant in New York so they are very touchy about the PC thing.

I am informed by my supervisor that they are looking into what happened but now they have an even bigger problem because when I jumped off of the positioner I
yelled "Im gonna f-ing kill you" This wasn't racial, we're both white but they have to take it seriously.

Now they are concerned about "The threat I made to his life" they tell me. So I packed my box up and left.



Did I over react?

Burnit - I agree with what you say. It is good that you left that place.
I was moving a jet engine on a bridge crane in the Air Force when another airman walked under the engine! I told him to NEVER walk under a load and he told me the chains and slings had been tested.
About a week later one of the chains broke and a $300,000 dollar engine was ruined.
Luckily no one was under it.

I knew another guy that red tagged a forklift because it was operating erratically. Later that day a guy tore the tag off of it and used it to lift a molten crucible of bronze. The bronze hit the floor and got into the boots of a fellow worker and severely burned his feet.

[Donald Branscom]

Originally Posted by drivethruboy54

i dont have guards on my 4.5" grinders, personally, i think its safer to be able to see the entire wheel and exactly where im cutting than to have the guard obstructing my view of whats going on (especially with cutting wheels, ive had hem bind and break because i couldnt see what was happening because the guard was in my way)

9" grinders i leave the gaurds on, those things are gnarly and normally im laying into something with it, my hands have slipped and gloves and the guard has saved me.

You can rotate the guard to have the best view.
I know you probably already know that.

[Rojodiablo]

Some bad habits I see: Tools left up on ladders. You move the ladder, and I get a razor knife stuck in my arm, buried into the bone. Nice. All kinds of ladder scandals. I am as guilty as the rest, so I will just say many, many sketchy ladder adventures.Too many guys painting/ grinding/ whatever without masks, or respirators. A mask is nice, but when you spray LP boat paint, you really need a respirator, not a dust mask. Laquer is the same. Wathced a guy crack some stubborn concrete by getting it wet, and then hitting it with a cutting torch down into a hole. Yes, concrete breaks when you do this. It also causes a steam explosion. Good stuff if you are 30ft away...And finally, stuff not tied down to ladder racks. Hit the brakes, watch the steel fly off the truck into traffic. And onto the hood of the truck.

[tanglediver]

I really don't want to get started. A former coworker of mine took a hammer to the skull from it being left up on top of a ladder, had a nice staple put in his scalp to close it up. Air hoses are always being pulled tight with twists and kinks and knots making trip hazards. One guy was riding shotgun on a forklift once when it turned sharply, he was tossed under a wheel, screwed up his knee pretty bad. I watched my brother shoot a nail into his steel toed boot, luckily hit the steel and turned back. I got thrown backwards trying to help an impatient young pup once while trying to carry long peices of steel stock. Landed flat on my back still wearing a full carpenters tool belt and suffered a whiplash because of it. Demolition rubble is virtually never handled well, I've stepped on at least one nail that found my foot.
Rarely do we ever have time to take time to be safe and sane, but there is plenty of time for jobs to be done over again and for doctor visits. But I don't want to get started!

Time to hit the rack.

[Supe]

The water from the tap on the coffee maker is REALLY hot!

[kmaysob]

heres some more.

the same guy welding on the diesel tank welded d-rings on a forklift to chain down with, using the millermatic 180 at about 1/2 heat. another time he was welding a bracket to hold the hoses on a backhoe, he didnt tack it. so he welds one full side and then tries to get rid of the 1/4'' gap with a bfh and when that doesnt work he just lets it go.

im constantly rewelding the jack stands on out towables because somone in the company(different yard) doesnt know how to weld and is lucky to get a 1/4'' of the bead that actully fused both pieces together.

i honestly think there should be a simple weld test when you start with the company if you want to weld.

[TSOR]

Originally Posted by mrmikey

Not pround of it but I do that constantly, I'm not condoning it at all.
One of the boses at work has his own shop. He's forever taking a 4 1/2" mini grinder and putting a small wood blade on it (made for a biscuit joiner I think) with no guard and cutting aluminum. As if that isn't bad enought the center hole is not quite big enought so he reams it out with a die grinder.
Seen him doing the same thing with a 7 1/4" wood blade and put it on a 7" grinder I kid you not. That's when I decided my visit was over....Mike

That's just nuts!

These blades are crazy too. http://www.katools.com/lancelot.html

Guard or not, that's just a injury waiting to happen!

[drivethruboy54]

Originally Posted by Donald Branscom

You can rotate the guard to have the best view.
I know you probably already know that.

yup, regarding the guards on grinders people are either one way or the other. as i said with the little guys i dont like them for most instances. Anything bigger than a 4 1/2" doesnt get messed with

and yes, i have whacked myself a couple times with a grinder, mostly because i wasnt paying attention to what i was doing and rushing to get something done.

i think most injuries with grinders come from improper use, wheels dont normally bind and explode if you are using them correctly.

[Joe H]

Originally Posted by Burnit

Did I over react?

Let's see. I, in all likelyhood, wouldn't have said a word.

I would have just jerked him off the forklift by his ears and slapped him silly.

The REALLY sad part is that the guy who knocked your ladder over with a forklift told on you for threatening him. He should have been thankful that you didn't just club his ***.

[Burnit]

Originally Posted by drivethruboy54

wheels dont normally bind and explode if you are using them correctly.

Now ya tell me!

[lotechman]

Originally Posted by mrmikey

Not pround of it but I do that constantly, I'm not condoning it at all.
One of the boses at work has his own shop. He's forever taking a 4 1/2" mini grinder and putting a small wood blade on it (made for a biscuit joiner I think) with no guard and cutting aluminum. As if that isn't bad enought the center hole is not quite big enought so he reams it out with a die grinder.
Seen him doing the same thing with a 7 1/4" wood blade and put it on a 7" grinder I kid you not. That's when I decided my visit was over....Mike

For those that have never seen this it is standard operating procedure for aluminum cutting and backgouging however there are specifically designed carbide tipped wheels for this job that improve cutting and limit grabbing.
Still it is a very dangerous operation and requires full face shield. gloves and hearing protection. I have worked in a large operation with hundreds of men using these tools. Proper training was essential and there were accidents. Some old hands that amazingly have all their digits use a regular skill saw with the base plate removed!!!!!!

[chenry]

last time i saw the osha list forklifts are the number 1 injury and death cause, falling loads are second on death and grinders and the like are second on the injury list.


i had a wire brush on a 9 inch grinder doing some paint removal, no gaurd. it grabbed my un tucked t-shirt and proceeded to make its way to my innards. sheer will and fear kept that thing out of my stomach. you would have though a complete t-shirt would have bogged it down.

last time i used any grinder without a guard.

[duaneb55]

In reading some of the earlier posts I think the most unsafe action some of those individuals have done was to punch the time clock in the morning. Some pretty crazy stuff there.