# I never knew wood chippers were this dangerous. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 10, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409 "2012-04-10T21:34:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/21 "2012-04-11T00:00:41Z")
> [@eldowan](#): > > I agree with the above link talking about sawstop, it uses the inherent electrical charge of skin to immediately stop cutting. > If you hadn’t seen, here’s a video in action: > [YouTube](http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dq9OLIzMa4Oo&v=q9OLIzMa4Oo&gl=US) That youtube link didn’t work for me, but this one did: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9OLIzMa4Oo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9OLIzMa4Oo) ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/22 "2012-04-11T00:07:54Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Perhaps an infrared sensor that shuts the machine off if anything as hot as a living body starts to enter it. That would protect children and animals as well as the user. But the machinery presumably heats up as it’s running, which would make this less useful. I should bookmark this thread, so that I can show it to Mr. Neville if he asks why he can’t have a wood chipper or a chainsaw, or if he complains about the cost of paying someone else to do stuff like this instead of doing it ourselves. I bet that father wishes more than anything that he had paid a professional to do that job, no matter what they might have charged. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/23 "2012-04-11T00:08:28Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > That youtube link didn’t work for me, but this one did: > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9OLIzMa4Oo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9OLIzMa4Oo) Even better, he does it with his own finger: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6X-tj3lk0E8/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-CYAC0AWKAgwIABABGGUgWyhFMA8=&rs=AOn4CLBe_g1zJJaNJp6hQB1oWvJdLbi0JA "Time Warp - Table saw") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X-tj3lk0E8) ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/24 "2012-04-11T00:52:08Z")
A professional brush chipper is a device I call “the ugly machine”. The pro ones use a car-sized engine and turn a heavy flywheel which provides momentum to prevent the unit from stalling under load. They are super super loud, obnoxious, and one needs to be careful not to get snagged on material while feeding the unit. I hate using them. But they do get rid of branches in a hurry. The unit in Fargo was not an industrial type but rather a “home owner” style chipper, one which you have to hang onto the piece of wood you’re chipping, place pressure on the grinder; rather than the kind that yanks the material violently from hand. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/25 "2012-04-11T01:29:15Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > I bet that father wishes more than anything that he had paid a professional to do that job, no matter what they might have charged. Erm, he **was** the professional, working on site for someone else. Took his kids to work with him. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/26 "2012-04-11T01:32:53Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > I bet that father wishes more than anything that he had paid a professional to do that job, no matter what they might have charged. The father \*is \*a professional. From the article I read, he runs a landscaping/tree surgery business, and was on a job at a client’s house when the accident happened. I don’t know why his children were there too - school holidays, I presume. Edit: beaten to it. Pretty grim for the client, too. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Shamozzle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shamozzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shamozzle)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/27 "2012-04-11T02:45:42Z")
Check out this [thing](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWxcJDONE_U&feature=related). It eats engines blocks like they’re pieces of peanut brittle. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/28 "2012-04-11T03:46:24Z")
A little off topic, but safety is always worth mentioning. If you use a chainsaw buy a pair of safety chaps with Kevlar. They are made by several manufacturers at various price points. There’s demonstrations of them on youtube using a ham instead of a person’s leg. The Kevlar threads offer a few milli-seconds of protection and then they get wrapped up in the chainsaw chain. Shutting it down almost instantly. You still need to practice extreme caution with a chainsaw. But at least these safety chaps or aprons give you a chance to survive a quick glancing blow from the chain. I wouldn’t even start my chainsaw without wearing my chaps. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/r5MtOWXrJBM/hqdefault.jpg "Don't laugh at chaps!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5MtOWXrJBM) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/pilcLXpdJK0/hqdefault.jpg "Chainsaw Leg Protection") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pilcLXpdJK0) ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/29 "2012-04-11T03:57:41Z")
Wood chippers are incredibly useful tools. They are also incredibly dangerous. My father-in-law, who spent 30 years as the guy giving the safety lectures in the shop, was wearing gloves while feeding manzanita branches into a chipper. A thorn caught the glove and he lost two fingers before he got his hand out. ---
**Author:** ![wheresmymind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@wheresmymind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wheresmymind)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/30 "2012-04-11T04:02:56Z")
“I never knew wood chippers were this dangerous.” Really? What part of a wood chipper DOESN’T suggest “this thing is so dangerous it will kill you for looking at it wrong?” Is it how they emit the screams of a thousand murdered souls as they grind wood into dust? The vicious spinning metal blades? The supporting role one played in Fargo? After having seen and used a wood chipper, I’m amazed anyone might consider them even remotely safe. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/31 "2012-04-11T04:11:00Z")
OSHA makes sure the machinery sold and used in the US can be used safety. Assuming of course the right training is given and the operator follows all the recommend rules. I’ve used a lot of farm equipment growing up. Brush hogs are notorious for chewing up people that get knocked off tractors. I couldn’t tell you how many acres I brush hogged as a sixteen year old. I used to contract with people and do their pastures & fields for them. You have to be careful with any dangerous machinery. I knew wood chippers could be dangerous & lethal if you placed your hands or other body parts anywhere near the feed chute. I didn’t know it could jerk a person off their feet and suck them into the machine. That kind of power is pretty frightening. I had considered buying a wood chipper to make my own mulch. Not anymore. I’ll buy my mulch at the nursery. ---
**Author:** ![Bemused](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/46a35a/32.png) [@Bemused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bemused)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/32 "2012-04-11T04:16:59Z")
A chipper _will_ drag you in. It is designed to do that; it pulls the branch in as it chips it. If it didn’t do that, you’d be forced to keep pushing it in. This was indeed a terrible accident; no child that small should be working around a chipper, helping Daddy or not. I didn’t see it; I wasn’t there. But I can tell you what the kid did. There was this branch, or twig, or something that had not fed in properly. So the kid made a long arm and pushed the thing in. And he pushed it a bit too far. And the machine grabbed him. I don’t know if anyone here has seen that show on Spike called 101 ways to die or some such. I was sitting in a bar one evening, and this show was on the TV that was on the back of the bar. Seems this fellow had this large chipper, and it jammed up a bit. So he climbed into the hopper (it was a big chipper) and was kicking and pushing the logs with his leg. Well, you know what happened. It grabbed his leg, and he went through the chipper. Those machines are extremely dangerous. They WILL grab you and pull you in. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/33 "2012-04-11T07:02:42Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I once saw a one armed man feeding branches into a wood chipper. It’s sad, and it’s cruel that I can’t help but grin a little thinking about it. That’s just wrong. 😛 Wanna come sit by me? ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/34 "2012-04-11T07:44:58Z")
Never mind. The world would despise me for it. Please allow this post to act as a placeholder for a truly abhorrent pun. And try not to think much less of me for thinking it than you already do. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/35 "2012-04-11T08:00:36Z")
I see I should have invited **Reply** over, too. Anybody’s who’s worked on/grown up on a farm knows that this kind of thing can happen if you’re not super careful. What happened to that child is horrible. I agree that he may have been giving “an extra push” to be helpful. I agree that no punishment society could want to extract can ever be as bad as what the father is dealing with now. In my school we watched films on how to drive a tractor correctly around hills etc. Even so, (mostly) men are still crushed underneath over-turned machinery. My stepfather was cutting hay one day when I visited. My young son eventually wandered away from the kitchen table talk of women and went outside to play. I looked out every now and then to check on him. Then I saw that he’d crossed the fence. (Between the yard and the field.) I went flying out of the house and tore thru the barb (bob) wire (having crosssed the two acre house-site in the blink of an eye) without noticing it. The family dog was loping ahead of me. I was running/stumbling thru dry growth that “poofed” as I pounded by, screaming all the way. I could see my son’s bobbing head. A strangled yelp cut thru the din and my stepfather killed the engine. Finally I caught up, behind my son. The dog’s left hind leg had been sliced off. We all panted in the sudden silence and the heat. We drove the dog up to the vet, who fixed him up. (Later he was fine, as if he hadn’t lost a limb.) It wasn’t my son, that time. Terrible, awful things can happen while we just pursue life. The survivors tell the next one, “…and be careful about…” ---
**Author:** ![NorthernBiker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/50afbb/32.png) [@NorthernBiker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NorthernBiker)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/36 "2012-04-11T08:39:23Z")
Like others have stated wood chippers can be deadly. I used to spend many a summer working landscaping and the cheapest way to get rid of logs and branches is to chop than up into mulch. The reason why wood chippers are so dangerous is not just the fact they chop the wood (an possibly humans) into little bits, but because they drag the wood into the machine. IF you get caught, you can’t escape. Some machines have a dead man lever which removes much of the danger, but makes one man operation impractical. Never use your arm inside the hopper, always uses a branch to push. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/37 "2012-04-11T12:05:40Z")
Damn. As a father of a six year old and a ten year old, I cannot imagine what witnessing your child die in such a way would be like. I feel terrible for having opened this thread. RIP little boy. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/38 "2012-04-11T13:13:47Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > The father \*is \*a professional. From the article I read, he runs a landscaping/tree surgery business, and was on a job at a client’s house when the accident happened. I don’t know why his children were there too - school holidays, I presume. > > Edit: beaten to it. Pretty grim for the client, too. ☹ I think the moral of this story is: Take Your Kids To Work Day is for office workers, not for people who work around dangerous machinery. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/39 "2012-04-11T13:27:59Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Never mind. The world would despise me for it. Please allow this post to act as a placeholder for a truly abhorrent pun. And try not to think much less of me for thinking it than you already do. Did it involve “chip off the old block” by any chance? ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409/40 "2012-04-11T14:46:31Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > Erm, he **was** the professional, working on site for someone else. Took his kids to work with him. All the more reason he should have known better. A professional _especially_ should realize the dangers of a wood chipper and practice appropriate safety measures. I don’t want to pile on to a guy who’s suffered a horrible loss, but Christ, this just never should have happened. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-knew-wood-chippers-were-this-dangerous/618409.md?page=3)