Safety First

Anyone having safety related stories or ideas please send them to me so we can add them to this page. I am very safety oriented and would like to express this on my page by telling your stories.. Both good and bad.

THINK BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING WITH A LAWN MOWER AND BE SAFETY FIRST!!!!!!

Okie: I own a small repair shop. Lawnmowers, Chainsaws, Blower etc. Sharpen repair sell parts sometimes. Any way you give the DIYer some good advice, but one thing I have noticed, and it makes me very nervous. The first thing you should always do when working on a rotary lawnmower is to remove the spark plug or at least the plug wire and make sure it grounded to the engine someplace (no chance of fire getting to the plug) before doing anything around the blade. I do not even load one into my pickup untill I have taken the plug wire off and secured it.

I do enjoy your web page. I just stumbled across it. Keep up the good work, but please advise people of saftey.

Sincerely Jon Johnston T.J.'s Fix-It-Shop

Hi Thanks for the reminder. I am very safety oreinated because I have almost been hurt with lawn mowers. I guess I just assume most people realize how dangerous they are. I will post your letter and my reply so all can see that I haven't been doing my duty as far as reminding them of safety factors. Thanks for your letter and I hope it will remind us all to be Safty First.

My name is Angela and I live in East Texas. Last year, May 31, 2001 we had an accident at our lil' ranch. My hubby was mowing the back pasture with the riding lawn mower and I went to open the gate to let him out and i usually go check on the horse but, I went towards him. Anyway, I was about 35 to 40 feet away from the mower and the mower hit a piece of sheet metal and ripped part of it out and YEP! hit me on my right cheek split it open, sliced 2 of my teeth and split my bottom lip open. SCARED? YES! I am alright and THANK GOD! It could of been so... much worse. I am all healed up and I just have a little line - not even an inch long on my right cheek. Teeth are great! So, I was wondering if you could include a summer caution section on your website? We really don't think about the dangers till it is too late. But, I am still here by the grace of GOD and I would just like to worn everybody to please stay away from mowers (push and riding) when they are running - especially cutting. Keep kids out of the way and adults too! I am getting ready to do some kind of campaign on lawn mower safety - I faced the dangerous side of the lawn mower and Survived. If I can help someone else not get hurt - that's what I want to do! Thanks for reading this email. Pass it on! Since my accident I have heard some bad stories on mowers. With Summer upon us already - Everyone needs to be so... careful! Thanks Again, Angela

After several bad experiences I finally read on the Internet to not try and start a vertical shaft rotary mower engine without the blade tightly attached. The aluminum flywheel has insufficient momentum to get it over Top Dead Center and it WILL kick back and yank the cord violently. In my case I just ended up with a sore hand, elbow and wrist after several misfires. When I took the motor to the lawnmower shop the owner was as naive as I. When he pulled the cord, the handle was jerked from his hand and his fist hit his chest hard enough to knock the wind out of him. He was sitting on the floor in the corner for five minutes and then told me the engine was "unbalanced." I took it home and got on the Internet and discovered the true situation. I have a carb problem of "start and die" and your pages have excellent help. Thanks. Charles Crail

Send comments or suggestions to:

Jerry Combs, okie48@hotmail.com