 Scaling. You know what it is. It's taking down loose material from the roof or back, face and ribs. If it's your job, or if you work in an area that needs to be scaled, you need to do the job the right way, the safe way. This videotape is to remind you of some of the safety procedures and common sense practices when working in areas where scaling is routine. Let's start with personal protective gear. Besides a hard hat, safety glasses must be worn to protect you from possible flying chips. And don't forget gloves. They help a lot. If you work on any type of reach machine, you must use a safety line. Inspect it and attach it properly. Boots are important. Steel toe shoes are a must, and rubber boots are best for wet conditions. If you are a hand scaler, inspect your pry bar for any damage or excessive wear and tear. And when working an area, hold the blunt end of the bar to the side of your body in such a way that unexpected movement of the rock will not cause the bar to strike you. When you're using the bar, push up rather than down. It's much safer. If you operate a mechanical scaler, a pre-operation inspection is required. You must ask yourself two important questions. One, are you qualified to do the inspection? And two, have you been properly trained? Always do a walk around, checking for worn hoses or bad couplings. Keep those lights as clean as possible. You need them. Check your tires and give the scaler a once over for good housekeeping. Complete your walk around and start your shift with a safe attitude. Keep your windows clean, and be sure emergency equipment is where it should be and in operating condition. Wind shield wipers and lights must function properly. First of all, when we examine the work area in the mornings before the shift starts, we start at the last intersection out by and work our way in examining the rooms. You may not be able to see any cracks that are prominent if you're actually looking at one direction. You must turn and look at different angles while you're examining the work area. I want to see what kind of area I have that I'm going to send my people into, and then it's a safe atmosphere. And as I'm examining, then I'm deciding what kind of equipment I need in there, whether I need hand scalers, or if it is a scale where I can haul it, or whether I need to use a grade on it. I come in every morning at five o'clock in the morning and I pull my pre-shift. What I'm looking for is I'm looking for any sensors that are down. I'm looking for any small loose stones in the roof, on the ribs, on the face, in the working areas of the people that I'm working, that are going to be working there that day. After I'm done with my pre-shift on the faces, then I'll check my runways, escape ways, and also your pre-shift never ends. Your pre-shift runs from the time you get to work until the time you go home. You're never done with your pre-shift. You're always checking a room because through the day people are going to be moving into other rooms or other face areas, so you must keep checking as the day goes on. As you work, always scale the roof, then the ribs, and then the face. This is the safest way to scale an area. The paint marks is to identify how far the roof has actually been scaled, whether it's mechanically or hand-scaling. It's a line drawn to the roof and ribs and it's dated. When we load out from the face, we're instructed the loader goes no further than the line that's painted on the ceiling or the rib. The monitors, any questions regarding roof control or scale-ins, immediately they call our supervisor. I mean, if it's a questionable stone, we have a staff of very experienced supervisors here. They come down and we'll personally get in the basket and investigate it. As you sound the roof, there's quite a noticeable difference between the solid ring of good roof and the drum-y thud of loose roof. There is no perfect method of judging stability of loose rock. Don't ever assume that a rock won't fall just because you can't pry it loose. And don't rely on guesswork to determine that loose rock will hold until a short job is finished. Instead, establish and follow a safe, systematic working procedure for every job you do. Your knowledge and ability to detect unstable conditions is important. As a matter of fact, your life may depend on it. So as you work each individual new area, do a visual inspection of the area. It's for your own safety. Well, to me with a mechanical scale, the best thing that I like about it, I keep my personnel out of harm's way. To be honest with you, if something comes down on the machine, I don't like it, but I can repair it. I can't repair it with my people. My people are very important to me. What I really like is where we used to mark it by hand, as I was telling you, and had to win a wedge and sledge it down. We mark it by hand now to stand and bring the grade all in and take it down. Talk to each other. Pass on information to the next shift. Tell your coworkers everything they might need to know about changing conditions. Hey, try to remember we're all working together. Yes, I have a scaling report that I fill out that shows that it was done. I have a mind log book that I keep it in that shows where we scaled it, who did it, and when we did it. And also, I have a cross shift report that I fill out so that the oncoming shift can see what I did, what machines I use, and whether those machines are located and what he needs to do if we're not finished to finish up whatever area we're working in. I can walk into this office and look at these books and not even been underground, and I can tell you basically what he did, who he did it with, how he did it, and what needs to be done. And that's a real help. And then like a week or so from now, if I want to refer back to see if there comes a question of what we did or who did it, or what needs to be done, I can tell you who did it, where we did it, when we did it, and why we did it. Two areas we should not neglect are unworked areas and sensor stations, which visually alert us to dangerous roof. Two block unsealed areas use either barriers, berms, or some clearly marked indicator to warn everyone. Okay, we put sensors in here, here, here. If there's any movement between the bottom of the hull where the pins are anchored and the anchors at the top, at four and a half feet to five feet, the flag will drop. Safety on the job is important to you, your family, and your coworkers. Be smart. Do all you can do to do your job safely.