Danger, don't do this Part II

[LostOnTheLlano]

Reading the thread below caused me to want to share my own experience. There aren't many ways to hurt yourself in the pursuit of pizza. Okay, fire is always a threat. Stretching this to its limit, maybe, just maybe food poisoning. Or, how about hand amputation?

My oven first became operational in November. After firing it twice, it was time to think about laying up a supply of wood. Naturally, I can't just buy the wood. If that was an option, I would buy my pizza at Pizza Hut. No. Got to cut it, split it, haul it and stack it. What? Buy a log splitter? No way in hell! I'll just build one.

And so I did. The thing actually worked, and worked well. After some tweaking, it was ready to be deployed into production late in December. My brother-in-law insisted on helping. He has no experience with machinery, or with processes of any kind for that matter. I should have written an operator's manual for the dufus, but I didn't to my regret. Before long, he became mesmerized with the machine. You see, it cuts on the push and the pull strokes, and it has an oversized engine and pump which makes it cycle fast. Pretty soon, it turned into a game to him: under no circumstances is the wedge to ever stop and under no circumstances is the wedge not to be in contact with a log. Slam a log down fast. Remove the splits. Repeat. Fast. Faster. We're moving along at a torrid pace like this until.....

Until he opens the valve to the cylinder with my hand caught between the wedge and a log. Quicker than you can say "Pepperoni", he retracts the cylinder and I retract my hand. What was left of it, anyway.

I won't bore you with the medical details. The doctors are doing what they can to save my hand. I don't know if they'll be successful or not. Lots of complications. I'm trying to adapt. I'm even using vouce recognition software to write this if you can believe it. I even fired my oven last night.

The worst thing is the rift it's caused in our family. My brother in law and I were alone when this happened. The chicken-XXXX drove me back to the house and handed me off to my sister (his wife, I'm sorry to say) who took me to the ER. All he could say was, "I told him to slow down. He was being careless, blah, blah, blah." I wish he would crawl in his viper pit and just die.

Well, all that is besides the point. For that matter, I don't even know what the point of all this is except to. Oh, nevermind.

I'm making a stab at posting some pics and a video of the demon splitter. Not sure if I can do it with my voice software though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzuumwxExAY[/URL]

[dmun]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

Oh my. The more I hear, the more I like my slow, hand cranked log splitter from HF.

I'm sorry about your hand. Seriously. I'm sitting here in pain thinking about it.

Your youtube link has one too many "http://"s. Try this:

[brickie in oz]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

Hydraulics and body parts dont mix, Ive seen similar results from too many accidents before, the hydraulics dont stop to apologise.

[RTflorida]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

wounded or not, thats a great log splitter - IF YOU KEEP YOUR HANDS OUT. Want to sell it? or post the plans if this is home built?
I really like the cutting action on each stroke. Sure beats the heck out of my twin hand pump from northern tool.

RT

[roobqn]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

That is a very cool log splitter indeed. Unfortunetly you learned alot in this accident, one of which is the true nature of your brother in law. Good to hear you are finding work arounds and can still enjoy this forum and your oven.
I really hope the docs can save your hand, and that the family rift can be healed as well.

[dmun]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

There's a reason why punch presses need to have two buttons pressed at the same time to operate. Maybe something like this would help with this design.

[Grimaldi]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

Sorry to hear about your accident. Everything to do with wood is dangerous...using a chainsaw, felling the trees, splitting (also from a woodworker's pov...sawmilling, ripping, shaping, etc are all steps fraught with danger to the digits).

I got my index finger pulled into a bandsaw while cutting some heavy table legs...still got the finger, but it was cut to the bone.

When working with machinery, safety is the 1st and last thought. Competition is for the non-machining steps, like loading the trailer with split logs ;]

Take care of yourself and I pray you heal with full use of your hand.

[LostOnTheLlano]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

wounded or not, thats a great log splitter - IF YOU KEEP YOUR HANDS OUT. Want to sell it? or post the plans if this is home built?
I really like the cutting action on each stroke. Sure beats the heck out of my twin hand pump from northern tool.

RT

Sell it? Would love to since it is no longer practical for me to use it. The problem is that my brother in law has it. He took it home off the mountain after the accident. Call it pride, I guess, but I don't want to give him the satisfaction. Selling it would just affirn his assertion that I was in over my head with this thing. Besides, maybe he'll run it himself and. Nevermind. I shouldn't think evil thoughts like that.

[azatty]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

There's a reason why punch presses need to have two buttons pressed at the same time to operate. Maybe something like this would help with this design.

Just what I was thinking. I used to work in my grandpa's press shop. It didn't take much imagination to visualize what would happen to a body part when the ram came down on a 100 ton press.

Sorry about the hand. It looks like they've done a good job putting it back together, so I hope you heal up nicely.

[Wiley]

Re: Danger, don't do this Part II

Wow, what a scary video, did I count wrong or are there four people working a machine that is designed to be run by one person. That's eight hands to watch out for and three brains that aren't connected to the operator's. An accident just waiting for the first inattention or mistake. Buttons for the operator to push (so his hands aren't in harms way) aren't going to help this.

Placing the log in to be split and taking the splits out is the job of the operator and splitters are single operator machines...the downside is way too big as you have found out. Helpers place the log within reach of the operator and take the split pieces from the pile where the operator pitches them.

And as a part owner of a more traditional hydraulic 22 ton log splitter I have never figured out why anyone would run a machine in the horizontal position, (nor have the other owners). Just thinking about the bending down and lifting up a heavy round over and over gives me a backache. And what does one do when they have a a round from a large tree? Something over 24 inches in diameter. And when a large round is split and half goes on one side of the ram and the other to the operator's side you have to walk around and pick it up yet again? What's with that?

Truly sorry that you got hurt, but IMHO that machine encourages unsafe behavior.

Wiley