Posted: 10/5/2013 7:24:07 AM EDT
| I'll be buying a gas chainsaw soon (probably an echo cs400). Do I need the mesh face screen, hardhat, ear muffs and chaps? Seems overkill for anyone who isn't on a saw 24/7 |
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Buy a good pair of chaps that will go over the tops of your boots. Also get a good pair of safety glasses and gloves. Other than that you will be fine. Go slow and pay attention. Of you get tired, put the saw down and take a break. You will also need some kind of hearing protection unless you want damage you hearing |
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You will also need some kind of hearing protection unless you want damage you hearing Quoted:
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Buy a good pair of chaps that will go over the tops of your boots. Also get a good pair of safety glasses and gloves. Other than that you will be fine. Go slow and pay attention. Of you get tired, put the saw down and take a break. You will also need some kind of hearing protection unless you want damage you hearing Hard hats and ear plugs are dirt cheap. |
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Don't cut above your head "and keep the cutting area clear of brush and debris you can trip or stumble over" . Above all else, use common sense and keep pets and people [especially children] clear of the cutting area. All of the recommendations have been great but most importantly remember the red text. |
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I'll be buying a gas chainsaw soon (probably an echo cs400). Do I need the mesh face screen, hardhat, ear muffs and chaps? Seems overkill for anyone who isn't on a saw 24/7 The mesh screen does a real nice job of keeping wood chips out of your face. Safety glasses under that for the fine dust. The hardhat is not just for stuff falling, if the saw kicks wrong the brim can keep the blade off your face. Earpro is an absolute; a saw runs at 12-15,000rpm and is damn loud. Ear damage is permanent. Chaps are a must; you may still get a cut but it won't go down to the bone. Spend the money (baileysonline.com is a great source) for a set of Labonville full-wrap chaps. A chainsaw has ZERO forgiveness for a momentary lapse in attention or that seventy-year-old nail that was holding a fence to that tree in the 1940s. |
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You will also need some kind of hearing protection unless you want damage you hearing Quoted:
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Buy a good pair of chaps that will go over the tops of your boots. Also get a good pair of safety glasses and gloves. Other than that you will be fine. Go slow and pay attention. Of you get tired, put the saw down and take a break. You will also need some kind of hearing protection unless you want damage you hearing WHAT??? Good suggestion. I forgot about this |
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Get the chaps. If you get cut by a chain saw, a doctor can't just stitch you back up. Saw will cause major damage that might not be repairable. Bailey's is running a sale on some chaps, as cheap as $56.99. Cheap insurance. ^^^ this! avg chainsaw injury is 250 stitches! ar-jedi |
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Buy a good pair of chaps that will go over the tops of your boots. Also get a good pair of safety glasses and gloves. Other than that you will be fine. Go slow and pay attention. Of you get tired, put the saw down and take a break. Agreed. Pay particular attention to fatigue. The saw will fall by your leg when your arms get tired. |
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Depends on what you're doing. One or two quick cuts on a log, ear and eye protection are sufficient. Limbing and bucking a couple trees, add chaps. Falling or other work with overhead hazards, add hard hat.
If you're new to serious chainsaw work, study up on kickback. Lots of Youtube videos, instructional websites, etc. Stihl manuals have good info, too. |
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A helmet with built-in hearing protection is nice. That way you don't have 3 pieces of gear all competing for skull space and possibly messing up at the wrong time. Like this one:  |
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Eyes, ears, gloves, chaps. Hardhat for felling.
Remember that saw is cutting kerf, not slicing. Chainsaw injuries are usually horrific, you'll have wood, dirt, and oil in the wound. For someone who doesn't have much experience with a saw you should REALLY get the PPE. |
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I'll second all the above advice. I use the ear/eye pro but haven't invested in the chaps. They are on my list before I start the cool season trimming efforts though. Had a friend get barely nicked on the knee by a saw that was coasting to a stop. 30 stitches and a nasty scar. It took no time for it to happen.
You may feel like a goof wearing all the protective gear but the first time you have a close call ( if your very lucky),the gear won't seem so goofy. |
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I'll be buying a gas chainsaw soon (probably an echo cs400). Do I need the mesh face screen, hardhat, ear muffs and chaps? Seems overkill for anyone who isn't on a saw 24/7 Nah, safety gear is for professionals only. Since you are new to running a chainsaw, I would say you need even less safety gear. Don't even wear pants or boots when cutting with it. |
| I live on an eight acre hobby farm with a good portion of my land being thick timber. We also have a wood burning stove so my chainsaw (Stihl Farmboss MS290 with 18" bar) gets used weekly. I typically wear heavy Carhart pants, a heavy button down long sleeve shirt, a hat, heavy leather gloves, steel toe boots, and some eye and ear pro (old shooting glasses and muffs). I'm a pretty careful person, but on occasion things happen, typically when you are getting fatigued from working the saw for hours. I had just finished cutting and was holding the powersaw in one hand pulling a small branch in the other, I thought the saw chain had come to a stop, but it was idling high and was still slightly moving. As I moved the saw to set it down, the chain nipped my knee. Cut through my pants like a hot knife through butter. I probably should have gone and got stitches (probably would have only need half a dozen or so), but I bandaged myself up and went back to work. I now have a nice 1" scar on my knee today as a reminder of my careless act. I'm probably going to invest in some chaps shortly since I use my saw enough to warrant it. The (small) price you pay for safety equipment far outweighs the heavy price (financially, emotionally, physically) you may pay when a power tool hurts you. |
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I never used to wear all the PPE and never got hurt, but that was when I was young, dumb and LUCKY.
I invested in the hardhat/ mesh faceguard/ earmuff combination and Kevlar chaps. And I always wear leather gauntlets and steel toes anymore as well. Feels good to know that I'm at least a little smarter than I used to be. Spend the money now. Just do it. |
| At the least gloves, safety glasses, boots, and thick pants (chaps are much better). A few weeks ago I was trimming a lot of hedges around the house with my gas powered hedge cutters...I was getting tired and got careless = I accidently let the reciprocating blades hit my thigh while the blades were returning to idle after I let off the trigger...even at that slow blade speed it went through my jeans like nothing and left me with a couple of shark teeth looking scars. |
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Don't cut above your head and keep the cutting area clear of brush and debris you can trip or stumble over. Above all else, use common sense and keep pets and people [especially children] clear of the cutting area. +1 Also make sure to have both feet planted before cutting. |
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Realistically the hard-hat, in some cases can be traded for more comfort & better situational awareness. The cases where you do NOT want to give up the hardhat is when felling trees (branches can fall out), or limbing where limbs are crashing around above your head. If you are cutting up downed trees the hard-hat is really more of a hinder than a help IMHO.
Also, I found that safety glasses can be a hindrance too. In warm weather they are always fogging up and making it hard to see. In more recent years I've stopped wearing them. That is a personal choice, I recommend you wear them. Hearing protection ALWAYS, my hearing is special to me... Chaps, ALWAYS.... I cannot say enough about chaps... Visit to the hospital (and resulting reconstructive surgery if needed) for chainsaw cut $500-100,000.00; living the rest of your life with a life-changing injury that could have been prevented with chainsaw chaps = no monetary value but I had to put a value on it I would say more than $10M... All that vs the cost of quality chainsaw chaps $60-120 plus a little bit of discomfort while wearing them... that's a pretty easy decision in my book. It doesn't matter if they only get used 1 hour a year, it's worth it. I can still recall a story posted of arboristsite (arfcom of chainsaws) a few years ago. Well seasoned profession that had chaps for his day-job was driving home, noticed a log partially blocking the roadway and decided to cut it up and move it out of the way. Decided to forego the chaps that were in his truck because it would take just as much time to put them on as it would to cut the log. Nearing the end of the cutting the log shifted, the saw made contact with his knee and severe damage was done. When it was all said and done IIRC he had nearly $35,000 in medical bills plus several months of physical therapy... That was a seasoned professional that wears chaps 99% of the time he is in the woods but the 5 minute he decided not to it changed his life... Are you going to let it change yours? Just get the chaps... Labonville makes good ones... STEEL-toe boots are a must... there are composite toe safety boots/shoes out there that are approved for many industries... Chainsaw LOVE to eat composite toes (and the human toes underneath them)... get some real boots with real steel in the toes... That brings me to my final point: Work-site safety is more important than all the gear you can put on. Make sure the area it clear of tripping hazards. Make sure your body position #1 allows quick escape if needed and #2 keeps your body parts out of the cross-fire of kick-back, thrown debri, or other hazards. The latter seems like common sense, but most people don't observe it when they get on the handle of a saw. They stick their noggin right over the bar so they can watch the chain sink into the wood. GET YOUR BODY OFF TO THE SIDE of the saw... Last but not least, survey every single cut you make and make every cut decisively with carefully thought-out planning. Does it take longer that way? Yes But it saves a lot of hassle (pinched bar etc) but it can also save injury. Watch a professional cut down a tree. He takes 2-3 minutes surveying the tree before he makes a cut and he stops several times in the cut to make sure it is all happening according to the plan. You need to take that precaution even when cutting down a 6' tree or cutting up a log on the ground. Survey the job, make a plan, think of ways it could go wrong, or ways the log could shift, and adjust your plan as necessary. I can personally attest to the last one. Cutting up firewood I safely felled a tree about 28" DBH and was working on cutting up the top. Going to town just cutting what I saw needed cutitng, I let my guard down. My escape route was partially blocked by a dirt-pile (construction site) and I didn't completely think about the ways it could go wrong. The branch I was cutting was about 6-8" dia. and 20+ feet long. I attempted to cut it just like a normal branch that would fall straight down. But it wasn't a normal branch; it had a significant bend in it about 8 feet from my cut and the weight was fairly balanced about that bend. What happened next? When that branch fell is sheared off the rest of what I was cutting and launched several feet into the air as it rotated about the bend that was now resting on the ground (like a fulcrum). I threw the saw away, but the branch was still coming at me and the dirt-pile blocked my only escape. The branch hit the side of my lower leg so hard and with so much force I had to crawl to the truck (all the way around the other side of the tree) and drive home with my left foot/leg on the brake... luckily no major injury but it put me down for a couple days. All because I got careless and didn't think long enough about what could go wrong when cutting that one... |
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I would recommend a face shield over safety glasses. That way your entire face is covered. Steel-toed boots are also encouraged, as is hearing protection. You don't realize how loud these machines are until you've been cutting for a while and your ears are ringing. The best equipment to use, though, is your head. Knowing how to safely use a saw is the most important part. Try to keep your posture so that, in the event of a kickback, the saw will not go straight for your face. Always keep your left thumb wrapped around the handle (touching your fingertips), not inline with it (i.e. as if you were hitching a ride). Keep the tip away from the material you're cutting unless you have enough experience to safely pull off a plunge cut.
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Yep. Keep your body out of the line with the saw!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQprZevgbxU |
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Yep. Keep your body out of the line with the saw! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQprZevgbxU Some scary stuff right there. Looks like the guy was working on a tree that was snug up against a chain link fence and the tip of his saw hit the metal fence which caused the kickback. If the guy was any shorter he might have decapitated himself, or at minimum died rather quickly from a severe wound to his neck severing his carotid artery and trachea. Instead, he probably suffered some massive damage to his left shoulder, arm, and chest. I've experienced kickback before, but I was fortunately working in a position that I was able to counter the kickback force with my body weight and muscle strength so the bar didn't snap up and hit me. After that incident I became much, much more cognizant of the forces a chainsaw can generate and what angles and heights not to cut at since I would lack the opposing forces needed to adequately counter kick back. Also, even in the heat of the summer I still wear a heavy button down shirt (versus just a t-shirt) when operating the chainsaw. |
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treat your saw like you treat a gun.
ALWAYS wear chaps. i have one nick mark on mine, its a sobering moment when your saw is filled with fibers because it ever so slightly came into contact with your chaps/legs. treat the trigger of the saw like that of a gun. FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER when moving, and until you are on target ready to cut. even better, turn the saw off then moving around never cut on a ladder. thats dangerous and best for professionals or those who dont much value their life |
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Yep. Keep your body out of the line with the saw! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQprZevgbxU 
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I'll be buying a gas chainsaw soon (probably an echo cs400). Do I need the mesh face screen, hardhat, ear muffs and chaps? Seems overkill for anyone who isn't on a saw 24/7 Are you implying that somehow you are less likely to get injured, or that your injuries will be less severe, since you don't operate a chainsaw 24/7? Wear your PPE. |
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Are you implying that somehow you are less likely to get injured, or that your injuries will be less severe, since you don't operate a chainsaw 24/7? Wear your PPE. Quoted:
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I'll be buying a gas chainsaw soon (probably an echo cs400). Do I need the mesh face screen, hardhat, ear muffs and chaps? Seems overkill for anyone who isn't on a saw 24/7 Are you implying that somehow you are less likely to get injured, or that your injuries will be less severe, since you don't operate a chainsaw 24/7? Wear your PPE. I know the point you are trying to make here but yes, it actually is less likely to be injured by a chainsaw if you are an occasional use operator... Lets put that in perspective... Compared to a travelling sale-person that travels 3,000 miles a week, I'm less likely to be in a car accident if I only drive my car 1 day/wk and that trip is only 1 mile round-trip. Likewise, an operator in the woods that runs a saw 5-6 days/wk for a full 8+ hr workshift is more likely to be injured than a guy that uses his saw 3-4 hrs per YEAR, all else (like PPE usage etc) being equal. Now there is a caveat to that. The rate of injury per hour usage will be MUCH higher for an occasional use operator vs a professional. I still recommend wearing full PPE... |