lone woodworkers, safety precautions...

[goldeneyedmonkey]

Righto, I was thinking the other day: If I have an accident and can't call anyone to help then who/ when will I be found? Is there anything we can do to minimize the risk?

Let me say that I've got very safe working practices, and I as well as the rest of you know that prevention is always better than a cure. Just interested to know if anyone has any advice? Are there such things as 'panic/ help' buttons, that can be worn around the neck, or on your person so that help can be called in the easiest of ways?

TIA, Cheers_Dan.

 

[Yetty]

Congratulations on the very safe working practices. My “just in case” solution is to always having a mobile phone in the pocket.

 

[mbartlett99]

Well this might just be a bit of an overkill but ... in a ships engine room we have to have a dead mans switch. Basically its an alarm with a timer; you turn it on as you enter the machinery space and have to remember to reset it every - in our case - 1/2 hour or the Engine Room Alarm sounds. As I said might be a bit zealous for a workshop, bloody irritating when you forget to reset it or switch it off.

Old folks use those little panic buttons around their necks don't they?

 

[Lons]

My “just in case” solution is to always having a mobile phone in the pocket.

Me too. Phone is ALWAYS in my pocket despite the risk of damaging it.

Doesn't matter how safe our practices are there will always be a risk but unless unconscious or the misfortune to cut both arms off (ouch) I should be able to reach my phone.

A damn good first aid kit and the basic knowledge to use it are almost as important IMO (having said that - the most used item in mine is a bottle of industrial superglue for glueing my flesh together again :? )

Bob

 

[9fingers]

Search for 'man down' lone worker alarms. These can be triggered by both a panic button and when the wearer falls over.

Bob

 

[Lons]

Search for 'man down' lone worker alarms. These can be triggered by both a panic button and when the wearer falls over.

Bob

Crikey :shock:

I've just done the search and I'm amazed at what's available.
Not for me personally but very interesting indeed

cheers

Bob

 

[goldeneyedmonkey]

This is exactly the type of device I was thinking about, cheers Bob (9fingers). I'll be looking into the subject further after New Year. I always have my phone on me, but if knocked unconscious/ phone breaks for some reason it'd be nice to know there was another way to either call help, or someone else to come to me. Thank you.

_Dan.

 

[9fingers]

Glad to have helped Dan,

When I was working, we used these alarms for guys in the machine shop when they were working overtime. It meant we could have just one guy working safely without having to pay someone else premium rates just to watch him. Soon paid for itself on those considerations alone.
It also kept the safety officer quiet too - worth it for that too!
The fact that the guys used to leave it propped up on the window sill was something else - at least we had provided the facility!
Horse - water- drink - lead etc
Bob

 

[jimi43]

I have only broken one mobile phone and that was in the workshop! I put it in my pocket...so I could answer calls out there and then went and walked straight into the corner of my bench...

The screen was facing outwards in the pocket and the corner of the bench smashed the LCD screen right across it!

From now on I use a belt clip!

Jim

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

I just carry my mobile.

 

[dickm]

Fine for all you guys who have a mobile signal in their workshop .
Fortunately, my shop is part of the house, and I'm guessing SWMBO might hear if I was able to bellow/scream.

 

[Tinbasher]

Back to basics?

Prior to Mobile Phones and even now I recommend a whistle on a string.

Tin

 

[wysong]

The last time I had a machine tip over on me
it was a Sunday night at 2am , working alone

it was a 1300 lb 36" bandsaw .

my phone and smokes were on the TS , 15 feet away

I was found when the guys came in on Monday morning
next door ,with lots of yelling
luckly I hadn't locked the door .
just dislocated my shoulder .

Now when I have to work at night , the phone is always
in my pocket .

 

[ondablade]

I guess it's another of those situations where (correctly I feel) you pays your money and takes your pick.

Truth be told it isn't ideal to work alone - even something like a drill press if it gets wound up in clothing or hair can be a serious issue. It wasn't regarded as kosher even when I spent a year or so as a machinist way back in the early 1970s. (before the bandwagon got going)

Most of us choose to do it though, so it's mostly about moderating that risk. Thanks for the info Bob, I didn't know that 'man down' alarms were an option.

To stir it a little. Funny isn't it how this one hasn't become an absolute element of the safety dogma - in that it's probably a greater risk than many of the other things we get excited about. Being just a little cynical about how stuff like this with potentially work stopping implications often gets treated in industry (blindness often tends to set in) I can think of a few reasons why it might be the case mind you.....

ps that must have been scary Wysong - plenty of time to ponder it all

 

[RogerS]

.... and I'm guessing SWMBO might hear if I was able to bellow/scream.

Umm....don't bank on it.

I was doing some plumbing in one of our lofts. Because the stepladder had lost its rubber feet and I didn't want to mark the oak floor, I stuck a bit of pine underneath the feet (rather than a bit of pipe insulation that I normally use). SWMBO was elsewhere washing her hair with the radio on.

As I climbed the ladder and had reached the point where my shoulders were just through the hatch, I felt the ladder start to slide. I managed to take the weight off of it by taking my body weight on my elbows on either side of the hatch and then with my feet tried hooking the ladder back into position. That worked but when I started to descend slowly, it started to slide again.

So I climbed back up to take the weight on my elbows again. I tried hooking the ladder back up but this time succeeded in making maters worse as the pine spun round leaving the ladder now with one leg on the pine and the other leg floating in mid-air.

I started yelling to SWMBO. No response. Trouble is that ever since I had the gliding accident, any shouts come out as a croak. Still, I kept on shouting but she didn't hear me....(well, actually we subsequently discovered that she did hear me shouting but thought I was cursing). I had a large spanner in my hand and started bashing the ceiling joists to try and get her attention. No response. I tried bashing out SOS......now that is truly a dumb idea. It presupposes that the intended audience actually recognises SOS.

Nothing for it, just heaved myself up into the loft, did my work and then waited until SWMBO hoved into view.

But it could have been a lot worse!

 

[RogerS]

Just had a quick peek at those man down alarms. Not too convinced about the type that needs resetting else it sounds an alarm. How short a time would you set it to? Every ten minutes? Way too short, I reckon. You'd get hacked off resetting it so often. Every 30 minutes? Trouble is it would be such a pain to keep remembering to reset it. Then you get false alarms and too many of those then the real one is in danger of being ignored.

It doesn't take that long to die from exsanguination - especially if you've cut an artery...and maybe are unconscious. But I guess that in that circumstance, it's farewell.

 

[jimi43]

exsanguination

WOW! Impressive word there Roger! 8)

Must remember that one!

Jim

 

[goldeneyedmonkey]

Well when I'm all set up in my new 'shop I'm going to be researching 'man-down alarms', and see what the actual sketch is. I couldn't find out who the alarm actually notifies, or if you can arrange who it notifies, or if it's just an audible alarm for people in the vicinity (But then I did just skim-read a few web pages). I'll definitely be getting myself a whistle, that's a clever idea me-thinks. The only other thing that I could think of was if one lone woodworker is another lone woodworkers 'man-down buddy', by this I mean that they ring each other every half an hour and get a "check" confirmation from the other party. If they don't then they know that they are in trouble. But this could get very tedious, and then once the other woodworker has realised his 'buddy' is in danger he has to either get to him, or notify the emergency services. This would not be very good if it had been a false alarm. And I imagine that there would be a fair-few false alarms, from people just forgetting, losing signal, leaving it 5 mins too late to call. Being on the phone etc etc.
But if there was a system that every lone woodworker was connected to, i.e a little mic/ radio thingy around their neck. And every 30 mins there came an audible prompt and you had to repeat "check" into it to not trigger an alarm then this would work, as long as the system had access to a webcam or similar to actually check the situation in the woodworkers workshop to physically see if anything was wrong. But this would all need a fair bit of infrastructure, an office, people to monitor the system, webcams and the neck mic's all working properly. But if there was a scheme like this then I would definitely pay a subscription every month for someone to check on me.

Sorry, been rambling _Dan.

 

[9fingers]

The lone worker alarms we used to have at work were designed to trigger if you fell over. Virtually every serious accident I can think of is going to cause the victim to fall and so that seems a pretty good and simple as well.
What actually happens then needs to be chosen to suit circumstances. Our system would alert the works police who could provide assistance. For truly lone working, then a device to make a phone call to a predetermined number with a pre recorded message should do the trick. Lidl are selling a phone for about £30 to do just that in the next few days triggered by a body worn pendant - all that is needed extra is a tilt sensor fitted to the pendant.

Bob

 

[sirjj]

how about a piece of clothing with a wire mesh sown in that has a low electric current running through, that is designed so that if the mesh is cut anyware the resistance in the wires change, this could then activate a timer that waits a minute or two. if the timer isnt switched off it sends an alarm possibly through a phone. put simply if anything pierces your clothing an alarm goes off. this could be coupled with a falling over sensor aswell

another thing to consider is a switch that can be worn possibly around the neck wich will cut of the shops power. that could be easily created by yourself.

edit: the first one is theoretical