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Seating a tire bead - The Kentucky Method


John Ranalletta

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Yep, seen that done aplenty when I was in the 'froadin' world.  Funny how you'll lose a bead when only running 8psi in your 37" tires with no beadlock wheels.  Starter fluid and a match'll handle that.

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Joe Frickin' Friday

My sister has a book: "Moments in Time: 60 Years of AP Press Photos" which contains some very dramatic shots, as you might expect.  John, your video reminded me of one photo from that book which showed the immediate aftermath of a tire change gone horribly wrong.  Pretty sure it was a split rim being changed, and during the refill it had come apart, launching the locking ring into the mechanic's head and killing him; the photo showed the body lying next to the rim and also captured a nearby woman who had witnessed the event, screaming in horror with her hands to her head.  Pretty sure it went down something like this OSHA safety video:

 

 

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John Ranalletta

As I remember my days at UPS as a night sorter, the mechanic would put the split ring truck tires in a cage of sorts.  Some told a story of the mechanic years before who eschewed the cage.  The ring slipped an put a big dent in the corrugated roof.  Could have been just a story, though.

 

I have heard true stories about guys catching a finger between the rim and tire bead.  Ouch!

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At my previous company, when the shop had to mess with a tire they had one to use, utilizing a 6' leader to keep them away.  For the most part, a tire vendor would R/R tires, including in the shop and a safety cage was available.

 

 

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I investigated a mishap in 2001 where a multi-piece wheel exploded and killed a Soldier. Ugly... and a graphic reminder that many OSHA standards are written in blood.  

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John Ranalletta
7 hours ago, MikeB60 said:

  Ugly... and a graphic reminder that many OSHA standards are written in blood.  

 

As a newly-minted graduate I was put in charge of worker safety and safety compliance at a company with 3 sawmills (one still steam powered with line shafts), a flooring mill, a children's furniture factory , a kitchen cabinet plant and more.

 

It was 1972 and the Williams Steiger Act that created OSHA became law.  What a time I had convincing a bunch of 8-fingered guys in the back woods of Laona, WI and Wakefield, MI to stop removing guards from saws, etc.  

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1 hour ago, John Ranalletta said:

 

As a newly-minted graduate I was put in charge of worker safety and safety compliance at a company with 3 sawmills (one still steam powered with line shafts), a flooring mill, a children's furniture factory , a kitchen cabinet plant and more.

 

It was 1972 and the Williams Steiger Act that created OSHA became law.  What a time I had convincing a bunch of 8-fingered guys in the back woods of Laona, WI and Wakefield, MI to stop removing guards from saws, etc.  

 

Haha, my table saw and both miters have the guards removed, that's the first thing that goes.

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Joe Frickin' Friday
On 10/11/2020 at 6:57 PM, John Ranalletta said:

I have heard true stories about guys catching a finger between the rim and tire bead.  Ouch!

 

This has always been a borderline phobia of mine when changing my motorcycle's tires.  It seems soooo easy to just wrap your fingers around the tread and casually have them land in the gap between the tire and the rim.  

 

12 hours ago, Rougarou said:

Haha, my table saw and both miters have the guards removed, that's the first thing that goes.

 

https://woodworkingformeremortals.com/why-do-so-many-people-remove-their-table-saw-blade-guards/

 

The guard does make things a hassle for certain cuts, but I try to put it in place when possible.  

 

I bought a SawStop table saw about four years ago.  Haven't triggered the brake (yet), and it's nice to have one more layer of protection for my fingers.  SawStop's patents start expiring next year, and it will be interesting to see what the rest of the industry does.  Will they adopt the tech, tacitly admitting that their budget-friendly saws (without the tech) are dangerous, or will they continue eschewing it and insisting that it's just not necessary?

 

I was a college student in Fargo when John Thompson got both arms ripped off by a PTO shaft on some farm equipment.  A shaft guard certainly would have saved him some trouble.  A friend of mine returned to school from a weekend at home during the harvest season with a series of deep gashes in one leg, each gash featuring maybe a dozen stitches; he had fallen against a moving grain auger.  It was like somebody had gone after him with a machete.

 

Was surprised to find that farming only ranks #7 on the list of most dangerous occupations.

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, Joe Frickin' Friday said:

 

This has always been a borderline phobia of mine when changing my motorcycle's tires.  It seems soooo easy to just wrap your fingers around the tread and casually have them land in the gap between the tire and the rim.  

 

 

https://woodworkingformeremortals.com/why-do-so-many-people-remove-their-table-saw-blade-guards/

 

The guard does make things a hassle for certain cuts, but I try to put it in place when possible.  

 

I bought a SawStop table saw about four years ago.  Haven't triggered the brake (yet), and it's nice to have one more layer of protection for my fingers.  SawStop's patents start expiring next year, and it will be interesting to see what the rest of the industry does.  Will they adopt the tech, tacitly admitting that their budget-friendly saws (without the tech) are dangerous, or will they continue eschewing it and insisting that it's just not necessary?

 

I was a college student in Fargo when John Thompson got both arms ripped off by a PTO shaft on some farm equipment.  A shaft guard certainly would have saved him some trouble.  A friend of mine returned to school from a weekend at home during the harvest season with a series of deep gashes in one leg, each gash featuring maybe a dozen stitches; he had fallen against a moving grain auger.  It was like somebody had gone after him with a machete.

 

Was surprised to find that farming only ranks #7 on the list of most dangerous occupations.

 

 

 

 

Saudi Arabia November 1990, fellow Marine was climbing onto an Amtrak when he slipped,......but his wedding ring didn't, it held on, along with a finger.  Camp LeJeune, 1992, helping another Marine move, stopped at Arby's, as he was walking out the door, ring caught on something on the door, ripped to the bone,....had to get the ring cut off.  When I started instructing cliff assault (rock climbing) in 1993, I remembered those scenes of a finger in the desert sand and blood spurting at Arby's, so, from 1993, I've been ringless, never know what it'll get caught on.  

 

I've known two people that have lost one and three fingers to saws, both radial arm saws where they were ripping wood and the saw decided to pull it through.

 

I just keep my old shop teacher's words in my mind when cutting, "fingers aligned and joined and two inches from the blade".

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Joe Frickin' Friday
1 hour ago, Rougarou said:

...from 1993, I've been ringless, never know what it'll get caught on.

 

Jimmy Fallon almost lost a finger due to a ring avulsion/degloving injury.  Also a concern of mine, I find myself wearing my wedding band less and less over the years.  I used to take it off before doing anything mechanical (had a snap bolt on my keychain to keep it from getting lost), but lately I find myself just leaving it off most of the time.  Part of it is also due to the fact that it's titanium.  Supposedly gold and platinum can be cut free with relative ease in event of emergency, and carbide rings can be safely cracked with a vice, but titanium requires a bolt cutter (which may or may not be available in the ER).  

 

 

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Many in the trades complain about OSHA and their "overreaching" safety mandates, but safety should always be number one on job sites. Luckily, my company is very safety driven. You should be able to go home in the same condition you started your work shift. Whenever a situation comes up where somebody is justifying an unsafe situation "for just a couple minutes", I always say, ok , your mom goes first. Or your daughter, get her up there on the top step with no tie-off, what could go wrong? They usually get it, but too many times the macho attitude is taken, a lack of respect inferred for mandating safety over saving time.

No rings for me. I wore one very early on, and had a few seemingly innocent situations where it might get caught between a couple pipes while climbing down a ladder, or similar. In my mind I just took that scenario further, what if I was not able to step back up and release it, or lost my balance? Took it off and rarely wear it for 30 years. My wife completely understands.

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Safety is a habit. As well as an attitude. That comes from the company and the workers. 

I have worked around sites that seem to take that a bit far. Try wearing fireproof overalls in 98 degrees with 70% humidity and see how much work you do. And you are not in a fire zone...but the company policy says they must be worn on site. 

Working in mining and  construction for well over 20 years shows both sides. 

"Safety slows you down, can't get any work done". Heard that from workers and bosses. But I don't think it is true. Part of the job, do it right. Besides, a company simply cannot afford to have traumatic injuries or a death on a job site today. 

 

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Joe Frickin' Friday

Many years ago I attended a first aid class at work.  The instructor started by asking what kinds of hazards we were exposed to during a typical work day.  I thought for a minute and rattled off everything I could think of in or around an engine test cell, and it was quite a list:

 

  • Trips (hoses and cords all over the floor)
  • Slips (there's always an oil or diesel leak somewhere in there)
  • rotating machinery
  • noise (somewhere between 105-110 dB in a heavy-duty engine test cell)
  • burns (exhaust manifold and aftertreatment components are out in the open, plus a good long run of pipe to carry the exhaust up to the dilution tunnel)
  • electrical shock/burn (everything up to 480/3-phase, if you go poking around in the dyno drive cabinets)
  • chemical (fuel + exhaust leaks, toxic calibration gases, CO2 fire suppression systems)
  • foot injury (no end to the heavy, clumsy items you could potentially drop)
  • low clearance (instrumentation boom and tons of other things for you to smack your head on)
  • hydraulic injection (diesel fuel injectors and other high-pressure hydraulic devices can squirt fuel/oil right through your skin, causing a surprisingly devastating injury if you don't get it treated promptly and properly)

We get a lot of training to help us avoid many of these hazards, and a lot of mandatory policies (e.g. shaft guards, secondary containment devices) and equipment (safety glasses, earplugs, hard-toed safety boots).  We do a two-man safety walk-through of our work area every month, noting and correcting observed hazards; since it's a regular thing, we usually only spot little stuff, e.g. a step ladder that's been stored improperly or some unlabeled liquid in a bucket.  There have been some interesting mechanical failures over the years, but not many serious injuries.  Probably the worst one I can think of is a guy using a belt sander in the machine shop, and he had his fingers under his workpiece holding it upward against the downward motion of the belt.  At some point it caught and drove the workpiece downward; his thumb got jammed into the T-slot on the table, and the self-energizing action of the workpiece angled upward against the belt severely crushed his thumb.  The hospital put it back together, but of course his sensation and function were never quite the same after that.

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3 hours ago, realshelby said:

 Try wearing fireproof overalls in 98 degrees with 70% humidity and see how much work you do.

 

 

Try being in MOPP-4 and running 3-5 miles WITH your battle load in the same temps, don't forget the rifle and flack jacket to go along with it.  Not a regular operation, but when you want hate and discontent, MOPP-4 and double time will work.

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I've done martial arts for a long time, including recreation of armed medieval combat.  During that time, I've helped or been witness to a bunch of mashed wedding rings being cut off fingers.  I'm less active now, but back when I had a pretty strict policy of removing all rings from fingers before sparring started, and the popularity of titanium rings made that guideline a hard and fast rule (for me).  A small set of bolt cutters was a must-have for my kit back when.

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