This is topic The Importance of Shop Safety! in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 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 ]
 

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Posted by Floyd Justin Newton (Member # 1316) on 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.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 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.
 

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Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 12-03-2004, 08:48 PM:
 
If you are going to wear a tie in the booth...wear a clip on tie.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 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!
 

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Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 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.
 

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Posted by Ever Gonzalez (Member # 2794) on 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.
 

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-04-2004, 02:36 AM:
 

quote: Will Kutler

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they wanted their projectionists to look "professional" when viewed from the booth

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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.)
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 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.
 

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Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 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.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-04-2004, 11:35 AM:
 

quote:

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In one case it had become almost impossible to stop the machine quickly in an emergency,

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quote: Dominic Espinosa

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Why don't popular automation consoles like the TA-10 have a remote e-stop button?

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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.
 

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Posted by Jason Miller (Member # 2341) on 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.
 

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 12-04-2004, 04:01 PM:
 
Three consecutive posts by three different 'Millers'. Has that ever happened before?
 

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Posted by Jon Miller (Member # 163) on 12-04-2004, 04:21 PM:
 
Umm, not sure. Maybe Brad knows. According to the US Census Bureau, "Miller" is the seventh-most common surname in the States, behind Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown, and Davis. Other than by surname, us three Millers are otherwise not related to each other (I think). Further discussion of this is best carried over to a new Film-Yak thread to keep our fearless leader B. Miller and his crew happy.

Getting back to safety practices and emergency stop switches, I did a little test with the film tension circuit on a Strong CNA-100 automation I recently bought on the cheap for my home setup. Seems the tension circuit has the same bobble delay as the film presence circuit. While an emergency stop could be wired into the tension circuit, there is nothing to be gained in terms of response unless the bobble delay can be eliminated using the (very expensive) PC interface and software.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-05-2004, 12:38 AM:
 
Any E-Stop button or interlock device must be hooked up so that it interrupts the power to the motor because there's often a switch in parallel with the relay/contactor that powers the motor via the automation.

Simply not allowing the automation to energize the motor relay/contactor or making the automation de-energize the motor relay/contactor won't cut it. The motor can still be powered up:

1) If the manual motor switch is closed.
2) The relay/contactor closes due to malfunction.
3) Something shorts out either the relay or the switch.

The only way to prevent the motor from starting is to ensure that it never gets power. The chances of these things happening is small but the consequences of these things happening is great.

Even a 1/4 HP motor can snap off a finger. If things happen just right (wrong) it could even break your arm. The worst scenarios could happen when you are alone in the booth at night... which is often the case for projector technicians. Let's just imagine that the worst DOESN'T happen and you only get your shirt sleve wrapped up in a gear or a shaft. You could STILL end up being held prisoner by your shirt sleve, fouled in the machine. Nobody would ever know you were in trouble until the next day when the first person came in to open the theater the next day.

The least that would happen to you would be severe embarassment. You might end up damaging equipment, "ala Flying Chuck-Key", as mentioned by Stephen. Or, you could end up caught by the arm with a severed artery, bleeding all over the place, being cinched-up by the arm, unable to escape as you watch your life blood trickle across the floor, slowly losing consciousness.

Yes, I'm being over dramatic but, as I said, the chances may be small but the consequences are great... all for the lack of flipping off a circuit breaker.

It's something that's so easy to do.
 

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Posted by Allison Parsons (Member # 2728) on 12-05-2004, 02:36 AM:
 
Also...

Remember Kids: DO NOT manually turn on the motor when someone is lubeing up the gears in the projector!

Please ask "Hey, what are you doing?" BEFORE turning the motor on for any reason.
Thanks,
Yours truly
Allison
 

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 12-05-2004, 11:35 AM:
 

quote: Jason Miller

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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.

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That's more along the lines of what I was thinking.
Though there is a good point above...Turn off the breaker. That makes more sence.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-05-2004, 12:40 PM:
 
Still, a remote stop doesn't remove all power to the motor. Pressing the manual motor switch will power it on.
E-Stops are good but the only way to ensure the motor won't start unless you WANT it to is to kill the power.

If I'm alone in the booth, I simply turn off the breaker. If there is somebody else there with me I turn off the breaker, shut the door to the panel/box and put a piece of duct tape over the latch. In extreme cases I put a sign on the door, "Keep OUT!"

If somebody tries to open the door while you aren't looking you'll be able to hear, "Rrr-iiiip!!", as the duct tape is peeled off. You'll have plenty of time to get your hands out of the way and shout obsceneties at them.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-05-2004, 01:40 PM:
 
A rather grisly story about 'shop safety' was told to me recently by a friend. Apparently there was a very nasty nitrate fire at the US National Archives' film store in Maryland in the late '70s. It was started because power to the vault area had been switched off for maintenance. In the middle of working on some wiring in the vault, the battery in an electrician's torch conked out. Not having the faintest idea that the films being stored there were inflammable he returned a few minutes later with an alternative light source - a gas-powered blow lamp!

The resulting kaboom got him an appointment with the undertaker and destroyed nearly 13 million feet of film (mainly Universal Newsreel out-takes), most of which had not been duped to safety. The moral of the story: don't let anyone into a work area which has a 'non-obvious' health and safety risk without making sure they're properly briefed first, I guess.
 

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Posted by Pete Wolla (Member # 1581) on 12-05-2004, 02:32 PM:
 
just wait til safety catches up to the film industry , duct tape won't be enough you'll need your lock out padlock and tag along with your job safety checklist and your job safety analisys. this is after you reviewed the standard operating procedure manual. then you might be able to proceed if you don't need to get a hot work permit approved safety is a wonderful source of paper work to file away
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-05-2004, 05:25 PM:
 
Most breaker panel doors have locks built-in. That ought to be quite enough for any purpose I'd need. However, I never leave breaker panel doors locked unless they are in an area where the public can get to.

AFAIC, it's a hazard to lock a panel that you might need to get to in a hurry. Let's say I've got my arm caught in the above-mentioned projector. Whoever is coming to rescue me shouldn't have to hunt for a key in order to shut off the power.

They do make little lock-out brackets to fit over circuit breaker handles that need a small padlock key to remove them. I've often thought of getting myself one or two of them but 1)Nobody else but me ever goes into electrical panels around here. 2) Duct tape is a heck of a lot cheaper.
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 12-06-2004, 08:46 AM:
 
In the USA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has very specific rules for "Lock Out, Tag Out" of equipment:

http://www.osha.gov/dts/osta/lototraining/std/std-147.htm

quote:

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This standard covers the servicing and maintenance of machines and equipment in which the "unexpected" energization or start up of the machines or equipment, or release of stored energy could cause injury to employees. This standard establishes minimum performance requirements for the control of such hazardous energy...

"Energy control program." The employer shall establish a program consisting of energy control procedures, employee training and to periodic inspections to ensure that before any employee performs any servicing or maintenance on a machine or equipment where the unexpected energizing, startup or release of stored energy could occur and cause injury, the machine or equipment shall be isolated from the energy source and rendered inoperative.

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Your employer needs to provide the proper safety equipment and training.
 

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Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 12-06-2004, 06:34 PM:
 
Thanks for mentioning the Lock-Out, Tag-Out procedures, John!

Many major corporations, schools and the military/government, that have employees involved with industrial machinery, or possible hazzardous conditions include extensive OSHA safety seminars/training as part of new employee orientation. Furthermore, employees are usually given refresher training either semi-annualy, or annualy. Also, training is documented and stored in the empolyee's personnel file.

Each movie theatre should have the appropriate OSHA safety books at least in the GM office, and they should cover every piece of equipment in the theatre that could pose a potential health/safety risk. There should also be a set of books in the projection booth. These books also give guidelines on how to cope with specific emerengcies.

Regardless if your employeer supplies OSHA safety training, it is the employee's responsibility to be familiar with how to safely operate all applicable equipment, and how to cope with an emerengcy, should one arise.

Cheers

K.
 

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Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 12-07-2004, 01:24 AM:
 

quote:

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Each movie theatre should have the appropriate OSHA safety books at least in the GM office, and they should cover every piece of equipment in the theatre that could pose a potential health/safety risk. There should also be a set of books in the projection booth. These books also give guidelines on how to cope with specific emergencies

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Gee, if someone studied all the books relevant to projector safety and operation as well as all the manuals of all the other equipment in the booth and read all the OSHA guidelines and familiarized themselves with booth operations, wouldn't that pretty much be a trained projectionist -- the very persona non grata that the chains want to ELIMINATE from the booth?

Tell me: how many theatre's have instituted as part of their corporate SOP...their corporate culture, OSHA's laudable but nearly never instituted mandate for comprehensive training and safety indoctrination of employees to the proper safety protocols of booth equipment? Not anywhere I've ever worked. How many of those assistant managers who they send up to "operate" the booth equipment have ever had any training at all, other than how to "turn it on and make it run"? To bad OSHA is nothing but the equivalent of an old man who's lived way past his potency -- yah, he can still spout some wizened truths, but he can barely muster a growl and worse, has lost all his TEETH.

As for hair getting caught in machinery, my friends, I can attest that 1) yes, it is very, VERY painful, but surprisingly, it will 2) NOT rip your scalp off -- Nature wisely lets the hair come loose at the root; thankfully, the scalp stays attached to your head. 3) It is a better instructor than a million warning signs or a million safety passages in books. You only let that happen to you once. If you let it happen twice, well, let's say it's just Natural Selection at work, trying to eliminate stupidity from the genepool.

One of the booths where I work has a glass front wall. You want to be a bit more dressy in these fishbowls. I have tried slacks and a jacket; WAY to hot and constrictive to be conducive to safety or productivity (basically, I don't work well when I am sweating like a pig). I've thought about Stephen's Labcoat idea, and actually I was about to go with that, but then I realized that I couldn't find any labcoats in black. One of the really negative characteristics of this booth is that EVERYTHING reflects off the front wall of glass. You have to practically work in the dark, and that includes your cloths. If you have any light colored shirt (forget about white), it really interferes with your ability to see the image on the screen, i.e., the change-over cues. So black is the order of the day. But what garment can you find that is 1)off-the-shelf (not custom-made), 2) dressy enough for the museum hoy-dee-toy, 3) REALLY lightweight (very essential if you don't want to be constantly dripping sweat all over the prints), and 4) fairly cheap that your miser-of-an-employer will buy them for the staff?

First I tried one of those tee-shirts that has a tuxedo printed on it -- that, my friends, is ANTI-hoy-dee-toy; the curators slapped that down that in the blink of an eye. Then I hit upon it: A French Chef's Jacket. He's got the same problem; he needs to look dressy, but he's in what amounts to a boiler room his entire work day and he needs something that he barely notices he's got on. Best thing, these jackets come in black, are made of this material that has thousands of small holes in, it much the same principle as a perf screen, and they have nice wide, formal looking, button-down lapels with brass buttons in the front and a back that is pretty much this perf type material, plus, get this, the sides are a stretchable fabric which gives when you move or better yet, when you've packed on a few extra pounds over the holiday.

I'll scan a pic of it and show you; I'd like to know if anyone here has the balls to wear one of these French inspired foo-foo things. You know the saying, "Real men don't say anything French" And I'll add, "...let alone WEAR anything French." But SMART men figure out a way to look hot while they STAY cool....heh heh.
 

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Posted by Floyd Justin Newton (Member # 1316) on 12-07-2004, 04:57 PM:
 
Well said, Frank. In my booth at the Cine Capri (now closed) in
Phoenix the entire front wall was glass, and therefore we had to
keep ALL lights off so as to not light up the audience area. We
did have a 40 watt lght for the beach. As to cooling the booth
we had 20 tons of AC and that kept the booth so cold you could
hang meat in there. Even with Ashcraft Cine's (180 Amps) running it kept the booth quite cold. Didn't wear shorts there.

fjn
Local 294 Ret.
 

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Posted by Will Kutler (Member # 770) on 12-07-2004, 06:46 PM:
 
Hi Frank

Gotta respectfully disagree with you on a couple points:

First, I have personally worked for companies that go bonkers off of following those OSHA guidelines! I guess they are just protecting themselves libally, as I have worked under industrial HAZMAT situations.

John Pytlak should be able to answer this, but I will safely assume that Kodak institutes these procedures...especially for those people working in a chemical enviornment!

As for scalping via machinery, did actually see a pic of this many years ago...

cheers

K.
 

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Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 12-08-2004, 07:33 AM:
 

quote:

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John Pytlak should be able to answer this, but I will safely assume that Kodak institutes these procedures...especially for those people working in a chemical enviornment!

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Yes, Kodak has a wide variety of training programs (some with "refresher courses" on an annual basis) to help employees work safely and protect the environment. Most employees have at least 40 hours of training annually, on company time.
 

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Posted by Alan Dallas (Member # 2537) on 12-13-2004, 06:20 AM:
 

quote:

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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!

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