Finally was able to get the page to load on my slow ass satellite internet. I was not aware of the Stone brewer who died in the forklift accident. That’s terrible. So easy to see how that can happen though and the bigger the brewery, the more chances it can happen.
I have been nearly run over by a forklift twice while visiting our distributor. You get people on those things doing mindless tasks and they forget they are handling dangerous machinery.
The exploding plastic keg thing is still murky. I have heard of it happening at other breweries but we have not experienced it ourself. We have since moved away from buying plastic for other reasons (for instance, they suck) but I just have to wonder how high the pressure was turned up on the cleaner to cause one to fail.
Regarding safety: I always wear my Mechanix gloves so I don’t inadvertently touch anything hot and burn myself. The gloves give me that extra half second to pull my hand away and still allow for dexterity. When I’m going into hot liquid territory, I pull the Blichmann gloves over my Mechanix gloves. I might look silly, but who cares?
I have some rubber steel toes, but I go in and out of the house so often that I don’t where them. Plus that time I found a huge spider in the left boot. :o
Lemme start a discussion about it on the mod forum. I’d just go ahead and do it but we have a philosophy of trying not to add too many forums. But this may warrant it.
+1. I had a job a long time ago while going to college where steel toes weren’t allowed. The parts that this place sold could have crushed the steel toe. I remember paying quite a bit of attention there !
In the Army, Steel-toed boots were banned in the war-zone. My black boots just had an extra 2-3 layers of hardened leather in the toe. I have taken 70mph fastballs off my toe, and never felt it.
I guess I have a different take on QUALITY steel toed shoes. Being in the seed business over 30 years of my life, they’ve saved my right foot twice. Once while turning a 3500 lb. pallet of seed with a pallet jack and getting my foot between the pallet wood and the wall of the truck. The other time a heavy steel forklift bridge (put down between a truck and a loading dock to allow a forklift to load pallets on a truck) was dropped on it. My foot was sore both times but still intact. I’m sold on them and still wear them at work even though these days I have a lot less exposure to the warehouse. You’d have to drop something VERY heavy on them to crush the steel toed shoes I wear.
Fun fact: I can’t lift things that are that heavy.
I have wimpy little arms. The fiance has to lift kegs into the keezer for us. I have to bring in a bar stool, get it up there, lift it up, then get it the 14" up to the collar, then slowly down onto the top of another keg, then slowly down into the bottom of the keezer. It’s silly looking.
You need to rig up a chain fall. It would make your brewery look awesomely industrial.
The part about lowering kegs into a keezer makes me think I’ll just stick with my Sanyo mini-fridge. I don’t need the back problems and I already have shoulder problems.
I like my steel-toed boots and they’ve caught many sheets of drywall and plywood. I’ve broken enough toes to know I’d rather not do it again. But I’d also rather have them broken than have them amputated. Steel toes are great, but like most things you need the right tool for the right application. If they’re adding a risk factor they’re not worth it.
For sure, for the sake of brewing, steel toes are obviously gonna protect you well (and safely). When Jim mentioned it being possible to crush them, my own past experiences came to mind. But in the home, no worries I could imagine. Sorry for the grisly ER derail !
