# Favorite Safety Gear



## mjw56 (May 24, 2010)

Just wondering what everyone's favorite safety gear is (brand&model# if known)? I'm focusing particularly on fall protection/positioning and hard hats.

Do most people wear legit job site hardhats or just the rock climbing style?

Thanks!


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## What Rigger? (May 24, 2010)

Been a big fan of the Ropeworks harness for the last four years (probably 'cause that's what I use since getting my Rope Access certification)
Check out Skala Ropeworks at:
Ropeworks Industrial Group Inc.

As for hardhats/helmets:
Construction _hardhats_ are different in design and purpose than rock climbing _helmets_. Perform due diligence and find out what is the correct application for your situation. 

But uh, I'm pretty partial to anything Petzl makes. Then again, my application calls for the helmet and hardhats actually _aren't_ allowed.


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## MPowers (May 25, 2010)

Favorite safety gear...... your brain! Common Sense, Patience, Pay Attention, Follow the Rules. If you do that, you're way ahead of the game. An example of not doing the above is the 30 year experienced stage hand that fell to his death in Florida two years ago. 1. Got in a hurry - lost patience. 2. Decided not to clip in on the climb up - Didn't follow the rules. 3. missed a step - lost attention. 4. Didn't clip in on the way up - Common sense. If he had just done #4, all the other mistakes would not have mattered. 

As to gear, Standard hard hats are the rule. Climbing helmets, while more comfortable, have holes and openings in them. They are designed to protect the head from LARGE objects like boulders, canyon walls etc. They are very poor at stopping moderately small objects from hitting the head. Example, on a recent job site a worker from "another" trade, kicked over his storage box on the grid and several 3"x5/8" bolts (7.5cm x 1.6cm) made the trip 65 feet (20m) to the top of my (and other's) hard hats. 5/8" bolts are a serious bit of steel to drop on you head from 65' up, trust me. They are also about the same size as the vent holes on many climbing helmets. .... think about it. In our case, no harm, no foul. One guy did get a pretty good bruise on his shoulder where a bolt bounced off the helmet and hit him. The rest of us got by with just highly elevated heart rates for a couple of minutes. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not just an old foggy telling you to never dare to excel, I've learned from long experience. In 1962, I worked, as a teenager (before many child labor laws) as a topper in a lumber camp, climbing spikes, single loose climbing belt, no tie off, running chain saw, 60 to 80 feet up (18-24m) tree sways in the wind and _really _sways when you drop the top and the trunk acts like a sway pole act. Yeah, none of us would let a kid do that now, but then, well, some toppers were killed every year, kids or not. I survived because I followed those rules I noted at the first. Patience, common sense, pay attention, follow the rules. I had some good teachers/mentors and those were the lessons they pounded into me day after day. Those lessons have served me well in everything I've done since. That's one reason I'm still here to post on Control Booth today! 

Michael Powers, Project Manager
ETCP Certified Rigger - Theatre
Central Lighting & Equipment Inc.
675 NE 45th Place, Des Moines, Iowa, 50313


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## mjw56 (May 25, 2010)

Topping and felling trees was a bit of a thrill for me. i had a 40' pine to cut down (close to the house) at my grandfathers row home around Easter. we never let one cut hit the ground and im not gonna explain how because, while it was safe and i researched the process alot, it would definitely violate the TOS and im sure you already know how i did it.

Rigger, since MPowers points out some of the differences between hardhats and helmets and the hardhats look to be safer, what is the reason for wearing helmets to be mandatory at your job, just the chinstrap?


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## ruinexplorer (May 26, 2010)

Since "What Rigger" is a rigger who may need to work at height, securing a helmet is probably a necessity. Petzl, as he stated is a favorite brand, does make an industrial helmet that conforms to some standards (don't know the direct correlation of OSHA).


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