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Author Topic: The Importance of Shop Safety! Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-03-2004 06:16 PM                     Well gang, after close to 30 years of working with various forms of industrial machinery, one of the ole-time classics happened yesterday (but not to me )! Specific gossip details are unimportant, but the practical lesson is! Anyhow, an individual with extremely long hair, without having it properly secured, got it cought up in a rotating piece of industrial machinery. Luckily, another individual was in the immediate area and was able to hit the emerengcy stop button. Luckily, the machine was stopped before the victim was physically scalped, but none-the-less suffered a loss of hair, some scalp damage, and was lucky not to have had their face pulled entirely into the equipment. The person also suffered some good cuts and bruises to a arm, but was lucky that no bones were broken! Anyhow, since I was in Jr. High School, when I first started being around industrial machinery, shop safety was always stressed. Teachers would always lecture that machines were safe, as long as they are respected and all aspects of safety (from equipment operation to proper dress/attire) are observed. And their lectures were usually enhanced by gory pictures of those who refused to be safe. Anyhow, I asked a shop supervisor about the possibility of utilizing these pictures, still. The answer was a no-go, with the explaniation that "Psychologists" and "Psychiatrists" deem them too traumatic in todays "Politically Correct" society! The lesson folks, motion picture projection equipment has many parts that can be potentially hazzardous: Don't tinker with something if you don't have a clue! Be Careful with loose clothing, jewlery/rings and long hair around industrial equipment that can pose both mechanical and electrical hazzards! And always follow OSHA and equipment manufacturers safety procedures! Cheers! K. [ 12-04-2004, 01:37 AM: Message edited by: Will Kutler ]  |  IP: Logged Floyd Justin Newton Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 559 From: Phoenix, Arizona, USA Registered: Jun 2002 posted 12-03-2004 08:15 PM                     Good point, Will. And if the employer doesn't provide protective gear for handling Xenon bulbs give a call to the local OSHA Office...PRONTO.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-03-2004 08:17 PM                     Better idea...GET A FRIGGIN' HAIRCUT! Still, all the more reason not to wear ties and other loose fitting clothing in the booth.  |  IP: Logged Chase Hanson Expert Film Handler Posts: 172 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-03-2004 08:48 PM                     If you are going to wear a tie in the booth...wear a clip on tie.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-03-2004 10:40 PM                     Y'Know... When I was in High School, the shop teacher had a rule. Male or Female... If your hair went below your shirt collar you had to wear a hair net in the shop area at all times. There was a yellow line painted on the floor that seperated the shop area from the "classroom" area. If you set one toenail past that line and you weren't wearing safety goggles and a net you'd hear something like: STANKEY!! Get your ass over here!! If you gave him any lip your ass was grass!  |  IP: Logged Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 12-04-2004 01:34 AM                     Good points about neck-ties, especially since the last theatre chain I worked for was anal about dress and appearance standards; they wanted their projectionists to look "professional" when viewed from the booth, as well as when going downstairs for any reason. Business clothing was the norm (dark dress slacks, nice shirt and tie, dress shoes). Not really approperiate for the booth! Randy, good point about the yellow lines. That was pretty much standard way back when. Furthermore, yellow lines were also painted around each individual machine, with only the operator (student) and teacher being allowed within that barrier. Cheers K.  |  IP: Logged Ever Gonzalez Film Handler Posts: 29 From: San Diego, CA Registered: Oct 2004 posted 12-04-2004 02:33 AM                     Had a projectionist one time while she was rewiinding a print she went over next to the build-up table and bent over to get something that fell behind the table. On her way back up her hair got caught on the back of the spool that sticks out. She was in no position to reach for the emergency stop button. Lots of hair was pulled out and she had to call for help from the other projectionist just to get out of the situation. She was literally in a tug-of-war holding her hair from more being wound in.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-04-2004 02:36 AM                     quote: Will Kutler they wanted their projectionists to look "professional" when viewed from the booth That comment gives me mental images of projectionists running around the booth wearing a dress shirt, tie, possibly a coat, yet in their boxers. Hey, all that matters is what people can see through the window, right? (Just like how newsanchors frequently are wearing shorts or jeans during the broadcasts.)  |  IP: Logged Stephen Furley Film God Posts: 3059 From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England Registered: May 2002 posted 12-04-2004 05:09 AM                     The BBC used to insist that anybody who was being broadcast had to be correctly dressed; this was in the days before television, when the only broadcasts were radio. I remember a few horror stories in workshops when I worked in schools. There was a teacher who took the first joint of his finger off on a circular saw, other than that they were all no damage done, but could have been very nasty cases. One was a girl who was doing something with an old motorcycle frame. she was using a cutting torch. She stopped cutting, kept the goggles on, and turned round to talk to a friend, thereby putting the flame of the torch on the acetylene hose. I think that was the only one involving a girl, they tended to make better engineers than the boys did, and learned faster. I think it was partly because not many girls were doing metalwork at that time, so those that were tended to be the ones that were really interested in it, whereas most of the boys did it because they were expected to, even if they had no interest in it at all. Also, boys of that age seem to go through a really brainless stage for a few years; I don't know why, a few years younger, or a few years older, and they're fine. Other things I remember, included lathes being started with chuck keys left in them, a smallish lathe with a screw on chuck, rather than the more usual cam lock arrangement, being started at high speed in reverse, so that the chuck unscrewed itself, and fell off. How about a horizontal milling machine, cutter turns anti clockwise when viewed from the front, so the work should feed right to left (it wasn't the sort of machine to have been capable of safely doing climb milling) that doesn't stop one bright spark from feeding the work the way the cutter is turning, by sliding it along the table with his hand! Another time there was a model steam engine cylinder set up for boring on a large lathe faceplate with an angle plate and balance weights. The student was under strict instructions not to start the lathe until the set-up had been checked by a member of staff, but he couldn't be bothered to wait a few minutes for this to be done. He started the machine at far too high a speed, with few, if any, of the bolts properly tightened, no lock nuts on any of them, and he obviously hadn't understood the purpose of the balance weights, as they were on the wrong side of the faceplate, putting the set-up even further out of balance. We managed to hit the emergency stop before anything heavier than a couple of nuts went flying. I used to do strange experiments with electricity in my younger days, aged about 5-10. I've had 240V across me about ten times, and 415V once; unpleasant, but no harm done. I once caught my hair in a drilling machine when I was at school; I'd never had any problems with the machine before, but it had recently been fitted with a poorly-designed chuck guard, and to see what I was doing I had to lean round to the side, which I'd never done when the machine was ungarded. It was painful, but again, no real harm done. There have been a couple of machines which I've refused to use after new gards were fitted to them, as I considered it too dangerous to do so. One was a milling machine, the other a surface grinder. In one case it had become almost impossible to stop the machine quickly in an emergency, and in the other the only way to reach the stop button was to stand in a highly dangerous position. Who designs some of this 'safety' equipment? I still wear a lab coat when projecting; I no longer wear one for any other purpose. Nothing loose enough to get caught in the equipment, large pockets for things like radios, and the top pocket is very useful for holding a mini-Maglite torch that I use very frequently.  |  IP: Logged Richard May Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1057 From: Floral Park, NY USA Registered: Aug 2004 posted 12-04-2004 06:41 AM                     When I worked for a service company about 10 years ago, they started a new policy about wearing ties. That did'nt last too long. After a week, 2 guys almost strangled themselves working on a 5 star soundhead.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-04-2004 11:35 AM                     quote: In one case it had become almost impossible to stop the machine quickly in an emergency, Something that comes to mind: If you are working on the back side of the projector, fixing belts and pulleys or just doing maintainence and lubrication, TURN THE DAMN BREAKER OFF! If the projector motor starts up and you've got your hand in there or your sleeve gets caught, etc., you are toast! In the majority of the projector models I have worked with there are no E-Stop buttons on the back side of the projector. There is NO WAY you will be able to reach around to the front side of the machine to turn the power off! The only projectors I have ever seen that have stop buttons on the back side are the Norelco AA's at the Warner Theater in my town. But then, again, those machine were built "back in the day".  |  IP: Logged Dominic Espinosa Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1172 From: Boulder Creek, CA. Registered: Jan 2004 posted 12-04-2004 01:03 PM                     There's any interesting point...Why don't popular automation consoles like the TA-10 have a remote e-stop button? I'd imagine it'd be very useful in emergency situations. Could be mounted on the top of the projector, or on the wall or something. IMO projectionists should have their own uniform separate from floor staff if the floor uniform requires a neck tie and long sleeve shirt. If the company has a more casual uniform, such as the case with the company I'm with right now (black shoes, black pants, company polo shirt), then that's just fine. Otherwise projection should wear the same base uniform of black shoes and black pants, short sleeve shirt, whatever color the company uses is fine and no neck ties. No long sleeves, no large watches or bracelets, especially ones with dangling adornments. No necklaces, and your hair should be up and secured if it's long enough to get caught in something. No earings or piercings that hang longer than an inch, though most companies have a policy about jewlery already. Just my $0.2  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 12-04-2004 02:29 PM                     The CA21 has a safe mode that can be turned on, plus if you use a little bit of thought in your programming, you can tell the thing to beep a few times before the projector starts rolling.  |  IP: Logged Jon Miller Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 973 From: San Diego, CA, USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 12-04-2004 03:23 PM                     quote: Dominic Espinosa Why don't popular automation consoles like the TA-10 have a remote e-stop button? You could create one by wiring a mushroom-style emergency stop switch (McMaster-Carr and Grainger have them) in series with the film-presence sensor on the failsafe and mount the switch near the gear side of the projection console. Two problems, though...any automation with a "bobble delay" will not respond immediately to the switch. Also, the switch will do no good if the motor is turned on with the manual control on the automation.  |  IP: Logged Jason Miller Expert Film Handler Posts: 241 From: Little Rock, AR, Registered: Mar 2004 posted 12-04-2004 03:55 PM                    all of the TA-10 that I have worked on have a remote stop input on them. that is what the fire alarm stop is hooked to. just wire a button across that.  |  IP: Logged

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