Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

[kryley]

Hey guys!

I haven't been on recently - otherwise I would've told you all sooner....

A fortnight ago (Saturday) the Head Mechanic at Garden City Lanes in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia was seriously injured in an 82/70 machine. He leant in through the pin wheel to reach down and push a ball into the ball lift when the roll pin joining the universal joint to the dissy drive shaft caught on the back of his collar wrapping his collar around the drive shaft. Luckily someone was down the back to turn the machine off, but he was taken to Intensive Care Unit with lack of oxygen to the brain and brain damage was a possibility.

Since then he has been released from hospital and is well on the road to recovery - he will be back at work within the next month, but I worked with him for almost a year before I changed centres and it was a shock to hear. Workplace Health and Safety are investigating the accident.

Basically I just wanted to make you guys aware of the accident and to TURN OFF THE MACHINES BEFORE EVEN TOUCHING THEM!!! If he had turned the machine off before he went for the ball this wouldn't have happened!!

Let's keep it safe gang!

Have fun!!

[8270king]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

I was going through some pit motors on the bench when last march I cut the end of my left middle finger off in the dist. drive. I had the motor running with a cheater cord and I needed to move it - I grabbed the motor with both hands & I got my finger in between the stator and the dist. drive. Man did it hurt. It crushed the end of the bone in my finger. The end of my finger was laying on the workbench. I ran up front and washed off what was left of my finger. I put my finger nail and the skin in a bag and drove myself to the emergency room. They sewed the end back on in about two hours. It has been about 10 months now and I have no pain, just a little numb. If you ever cut any thing off (shut up ed,ha) ice it down and take it with you - if I hadn't they would of had to shave my bone down to make my finger heal right. If you are running BE motors on the workbench - take off the dist. drive please.

king

[Ed Fox]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

Quote:]<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2"> If you ever cut any thing off ice it down and take it with you</font>[/QUOTE]

Origially posted by John Wayne Bobit.

Ed

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[Kat]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

King:

I must say I agree with you 110% here!

It is most unfortunate when someone gets injured on the job. I am happy to hear that you were able to keep you finger.

Great advice about the dist drive. One should also think about removing the carpet drive pulley as the speed of rotation and the sharp "V" can cause quite a gash if bumped into on the bench.

Kat

[Jimmy Jam]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

Sorry to here about that King. Same thing happened here in town years ago.


In another thread I flamed somebody for using a cotter pin instead of a rollpin on the end of there dist. joints. They are using the BIG cotterpin that holds the lower pulley on on the surepiks. Its about as long as a dist. drive housing. I hope they read this topic and remove them before someone gets hurt.

Jonas

[Guest]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

Hey King, The same thing happened to me, but luckily i only lost a fingernail. Man did that hurt!

[BowlEquip]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

In Chicago, there are at least a dozen cases of drive housing-smashed fingers. None of my spares have housings or pulleys on them.Another finger story, though: a ccolleague of mine was on the conccourse when a ball call made it necessary to go to the back. This guy tend to run to calls. This time it caused a casualty. As he reached the walkway along side the last lane, he grabbed the end spectator seat to help him round the corner. His wedding band got caught on a screw protruding out of the side of that mod IV seat and ripped his finger right off at the second knuckle, flipping him over as it did. He still runs, but does not wear a ring.
PS: They could nnot reattach his finger because he packed it in ice and it died. Thay said he should have just kept it cold and moist.

[felix]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

King - dittos-- except your lucky my band aid station wouldn t even look at mine hardly,and no stitches either. just cleaned it wrapped it and off you go. p. s. but the pain pills were a life saver.

[Steve Stafford (JBEES)]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

When training my pinchasers, I let them know that running in the building is not allowed. One of them questioned me about customer service and getting to calls as quickly as possible. I told them that if you walk to get a call, you may take an extra 30 seconds to get there. If you run, you may never get there. Safety first.

Steve

[Tod hiles]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

I know of two mach. that have gotten ther fingers in the weldement. One about six years ago the other one about two weeks ago, ouch!!!!!!!!
Tod Hiles

[Guest]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

I had my left index finger whacked-off by an 8230 spotting cam. I was tightening all the cams in the house during leagues - you know the allen screw that comes loose and allows the cam to develop play on the table shaft. Well, I had finished the whole house and decided to apply a light coat of grease to the cams' surface by holding my greased-up finger to the rolling surface while the table shaft was turning. I was overtired and I lost my balance and my finger slipped between the cam and the angle-iron of the A-frame. WHack!!!!! What a mangled mess. They spent 5hrs re-attaching it. Although it's about 1/4" short, it's there. Never do anything stupid like working on a machine during league play when it could wait. Also, don't do anything around moving parts when your tired. A hard-learned lesson indeed!

[BowlEquip]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

Here's one I heard from one of the former tech support guys at AMF (Chuck): A porter or pinchaser (obviously undertrained) went to a machine that was going into "false strikes" due to a respot wire off the cell. It was the end machine, and instead of going all the way into the back, since he was skinny, he reached in through the side of the machine to re-attach the wire. While in, someone cycled the machine. The virtually unstoppable sweep link broke his shoulders and he also sustained head damage before the sweep motor overloaded. Last he heard, the guy was alive but somewhat messed up.

[jim willing]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

Quote:]Originally posted by BowlEquip:
Here's one I heard from one of the former tech support guys at AMF (Chuck): A porter or pinchaser (obviously undertrained) went to a machine that was going into "false strikes" ...
...he reached in through the side of the machine to re-attach the wire. While in, someone cycled the machine. The virtually unstoppable sweep link broke his shoulders and he also sustained head damage before the sweep motor overloaded...[/QUOTE]

Yet another good reason to spend the extra few $$ for a sheet of 3/4 ply to close up the side frames on the end machines.

Even if you've got the training, it only takes one brain-fart when you are in a hurry to invite Murphy in for a disaster party!

-jim

[rrev]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

Wow, this discussion sure takes me back. I am remembering some of the stupid, stupid things I used to do on 82-70s during league play. You know, I think some of us may be lucky to be alive. I'm not in Bowling Centres very often these days, but when I do visit (delivering parts or taking measurements etc), I'm always on the lookout for safety issues.

Kehan, I hope the guy from Garden City comes out ok.

Ray

[rrev]

Re: Mechanic seriously injured by 82/70 in Australia

Wow, this discussion sure takes me back. I am remembering some of the stupid, stupid things I used to do on 82-70s during league play. You know, I think some of us may be lucky to be alive. I'm not in Bowling Centres very often these days, but when I do visit (delivering parts or taking measurements etc), I'm always on the lookout for safety issues.

Kehan, I hope the guy from Garden City comes out ok.

Ray