Always be aware of the exhaust.

[Alex175 784]

So this is a pretty stupid one that happened to me last week.  Picked up a used walk behind leaf blower a few weeks ago and finally got it back up and running.  Unfamiliar with the unit, after I got it operational I was testing it out, blowing stuff around, and then I noticed the handle to switch the air direction was loose.  Didn't walk around to the front of the machine, but instead reached across it try and adjust it.....big mistake.  Now why they would run the exhaust out the same side of the motor that ALL of the controls are on is beyond me, air direction control...left side, throttle and carb....left side, engine kill switch button that is on the points.....you guessed it, left side.  But looking past all that it was still a simple mistake that I could have easily avoided.  Thankfully after a week it's looking as good as it can, pain is all but gone, now I am just trying to keep it clean and avoid infection.  
 

Picture of the unit, and the burn on my arm is below so if seeing burns is not your thing, you have been warned.

 

 

You can actually see there are two burns, one from the main body of the muffler, and the longer stripe is from the chime/ring around the muffler where the two pieces are connected. All in all a burn area of 2" x 2", relatively small, but still enough to really make it a bad day.

[Sparky-(Admin) 21,315]

Dang! That looks like it musta stung like heck !

[WHX?? 48,814]

Your not alone ... working around tractors most of our lives bet we all done the once on a hot exhaust pipe. That one would have had some french involved ! 

[SylvanLakeWH 25,535]

OUCH! 

 

Time for a fabricated shield or a muffler pipe re-route...

[WHNJ701 4,165]

just curious how did that leaf blower work? , I bought the same one but I wanted the engine off it,  and never got to try it

yeah that looks like it hurt

[Darb1964 1,042]

I hate when that happens.

[The Tuul Crib 7,336]

Yikes! Ill bet that smerts!!

[Alex175 784]

16 hours ago, jabelman said:

just curious how did that leaf blower work?

 

Not bad, not great.  I haven't had a chance yet to really put it through it's paces though.  It has decent airflow, but the power feels lacking, which is odd because with an 8hp motor it should be thumping.  I only tested it though with some lawn clippings, haven't really used it on leafs or the like yet, it may perform better on a leaf where there is a greater surface area.  The other thing I noticed is it moves super easily over asphalt with a push of 1 finger it will glide for feet, but as soon as it hits grass it's like trying to push a stubborn donkey.

 

17 hours ago, Sparky said:

Dang! That looks like it musta stung like heck !

 

Not right away, but after a few minutes once the sensation came back it was a tad uncomfortable haha.

[bc.gold 3,403]

The Blacksmiths son, Johnny wasn't doing well in school the teacher kept sending notes home to the father which were ignored, so one day the teacher goes to the shop to speak to the old man.

 

The smith was busy sizing a horse shoe when the teacher arrived, he listened to the teacher for a bit then asked him to hand him the shoe.

 

Teacher dropped the hot shoe and did a dance, finally when he had steeled down  the smith whistled for the kid who came a running. The old man instructed Johnny to hand him the shoe laying on the floor.

 

Johnny goes over and spits on the shoe it hisses, kid grabs a pair of tongs and hands the smith the hot shoe, the old man looks at the teacher and says see Johnny ain't so stupid.

 

All joking aside that burn looks nasty.