What safety equipment do you have when running chainsaw?

[paulsharvey]

What safety equipment? some old worn out camo croocs. Sometimes a pair of pants and/or a shirt; but let's not kid ourselves, I've ran a chainsaw in flip flops and boxers...

 

[LHF2019]

Ear protection. Gloves if cold. Otherwise nothing. Wife wants me to get protective pants. She didn’t think it was funny when my carhartt got knicked and the red lining showed.

 

[NC Rick]

Ear protection. Gloves if cold. Otherwise nothing. Wife wants me to get protective pants. She didn’t think it was funny when my carhartt got knicked and the red lining showed.

Seems wouldn’t be a bad addition…. I have been thinking of having some. No injuries yet but casual use over the years. Complacent or me just making a mistake would happen I’m sure.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Gloves and always a hard hat with full face protection and ear protection. Own chaps, never put them on, but have a friend with a permanent limp that chaps would have prevented.

One basic safety rule is to quit when I'm tired. That's when the accident risk dramatically increases.

I agree whole heartedly with the resting when tired statement!

I've aged to the point where I take a 15 minute break when the saw runs out of gas.
Then refill and go at it again.
Edit: sometimes there is a long nap when I run out of gas!

 

[Rockbadchild]

So far the consensus is that the most important PPE is right between your ears!

I work alone 95+% of the time so it pays to be diligent. As at least one person has suggested, there are times when you need to lay down the saw.

I am considering a retirement contract maintaining about 20 miles of property lines/ year. They want everything done with a chainsaw, including spotting the trees. At times I would be a mile into the woods and several miles from help. I've done it before but was much younger then.

20 miles that’s 600 feet every second day to maintained …a part time job … joke aside that’s (32km) and it dose sound a lot for has a retirement job! but if you are still in good shape and you see it as 600’ every second day and you want to stay that way (you will if you do that) if the property lines are not too bad of a shape to begin with or/and you can get help at first and have all year to do it, it’s doable …

i do lots of chainsaws during the winter (some fire wood and some trails) and during the summer I often do construction wood project with trees logs like I did a water tower, and i also did a camper shelter …. these are the two most dangerous jobs you can do with the chainsaw … plus always by myself … but it’s a hobby and it’s for fun, the moment it’s not fun and it become work I drop the chainsaw I crack a beer and I make a fire and cook food.

To be honest myself as long as I don’t burn more than one chainsaw fuel tank a day it’s not work …. (that would means cleaning / picking up what I have cut as well) after that it start to become work…

walking ?
do you have cell service everywhere out there ?

if with a quad it nice to have a come along and a chaîne + sling for hang ups it can make a bad situation a lot safer.
my dad when he was a lumber jack he also had some powder to extinguish fires that stuff works very well and it was light and small.

then it’s lots of water too i always carry a gallon

 

[ponytug]

Not just gloves, hard hat, eye/ear protection, chaps, steel toed boots with ballistic nylon tongues.

What first aid do you carry, while hoping that you never need it? I have a blood clot sponge and a military tourniquet, all in the pocket of my chaps. I'm thinking about moving them to someplace more accessible.

So far the consensus is that the most important PPE is right between your ears!

I work alone 95+% of the time so it pays to be diligent. As at least one person has suggested, there are times when you need to lay down the saw.

I am considering a retirement contract maintaining about 20 miles of property lines/ year. They want everything done with a chainsaw, including spotting the trees. At times I would be a mile into the woods and several miles from help. I've done it before but was much younger then.

For what you are planning, that sounds good, but you might consider something like these satellite SOS / ACR / EPIRB devices as well;
https://amzn.to/3SLu4zv (no monthly fee)
https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/ (monthly fee, we used it for years, had it programmed for 911 / "need help, not an emergency" / "I'm fine" BP/ "bread crumb")

There are others as well.

I'm told that Pampers are a great addition for catastrophic injuries. The rapid absorption supposedly drives rapid clotting, and they are large area bandages. You probably are already advanced life saving certified, but if you aren't a refresher course might help. It took one with a bunch of hospital nurses recertifying, and learned tons from the student and the instructor. The instructor handed out kiddie backpacks filled with 12" rolls of cotton batting and yards of several foot wide muslin. His comments, as I recall, were along the lines of in case of accident "first aid" kits don't have what you need. His focus was car crashes and post earthquake trauma. He said the backpacks were dirt cheap, and the rest was non-sterile bulk packages because what would matter was arresting the blood loss, not sterility. If you live long enough, someone else will take care of any sterility issues. Seemed sensible to me at the time and still does, but I'm not a trained healthmprofessional.

All the best,

Peter

 

[oosik]

I've had over 60 years experience using and being around chains saws. An accident usually will require one of two things. A band aide or a Para Medic squad and a surgical team.

Take your pick.

 

[old and tired]

Nothing... No glasses, no hearing protection, mainly wear shorts and sneakers.

I have cut so many trees in my lifetime. My worst time (unsafe) was cutting logs from a canoe, put a good nick into the side rail when a log started to go under water with my saw - it was not a stable platform to work out of.

Had cut a 28" Popular tree on the edge of the pond, one foot in a jon boat and one foot out of it. It was tied off and pretty stable...

I once had to open a gate in a fence and dropped 4 trees through the opening of the gate without any damage to the fence...

Got so many good stories and memories with a chainsaw in hand but never an accident.

Got my used chainsaw from my uncle that owned Cortland chainsaw shop, it was a wedding gift which had fallen out of a truck and broke the chain brake handle off. Never was fixed and is still missing!!

I just treat that saw with respect and believe that the saw will kill me if I don't... (just like my tractor's PTO...)

 

[John_Mc]

Chainsaw helmet with face shield and hearing protection and full wrap chaps any time I'm running the saw. Most times I also wear cut resistant chainsaw boots. I never used to wear chainsaw boots, but my wife got me a pair of Haix XR200 boots for Christmas several years ago. They turned out to be so comfortable, I prefer them to the work boots I used to wear.

 

[CliffordK]

I went mostly to electric several years ago. Much quieter than the gas. I fired up a couple of gas saws this year, including an old McCulloch 10-10, from the days when safety was a figment of the imagination. Boy those things are LOUD. I got a more powerful electric that'll put the old McCulloch to shame.

Anyway, no hearing protection with electrics, but I did wear it with the gas saws.
I do believe the electrics are safer than the gas saws with quick response to no throttle.
Mom wanted me to get chaps for working around her place, and I've worn them some. But, they just feel odd when wearing them.
I have boots on, but they don't have steel toes. The steel toes might help a bit if one dropped a saw right on a toe.

The most important thing is to watch where one's saw is. PAY ATTENTION.