Ok..last one. What do you use....

[sc_flametamer]

...to take out the windshield? A Sawzall or an ax? Why?

[cwl3gemt]

sawzall. my train of thiought is the axe takes a little bit longer, and can take a little more effort.

[Lucky 13]

Sumter teaches the use of the Glass Master (it also what's stocked on all of our service trucks; sawzalls are carried as well for whatever we might need them for) in the Basic Auto Extrication class. Sawzall of course is faster, but not by much. I've seen plenty of firefighters make short work of a winshield using the Glass Master.

[LdrClmr]

Taking a windshield....well I always seen to it that it was 1st taped to minimize sharding and then commenced to attack it with a reciprocal saw AKA SawzAll which by the way Milwaulkie (so what if I didnt spell it right... you all know wtf Im saying!) makes the best and they are the only ones to, have a lifetime warrenty on the tools motor!

[micky]

saw ... more control ... less disturbance ... less traumatic for patient

[FireWeb]

I gotta vote for the Glasmaster on this one. Instant deployment, small, highly effective. Way faster than an axe, and faster than a sawzall in the right hands. You can flip it around and take out side and rear windows as well, making it multi-purpose.

[94onair]

Sawzall around here. much easier and less physically demanding. Like fireweb said a glassmaster can be faster in the right hands. but good luck finding those right hands. i say just grab a sawzall and go for it. I can have other people get the other windows with a window punch while im getting the front.

[Lucky 13]

Originally Posted by FireWeb

I gotta vote for the Glasmaster on this one. Instant deployment, small, highly effective. Way faster than an axe, and faster than a sawzall in the right hands. You can flip it around and take out side and rear windows as well, making it multi-purpose.

That's why it's our primary tool for that job.

[sc_flametamer]

Originally Posted by FireWeb

Way faster than an axe, and faster than a sawzall in the right hands.

OOO..wanna race.

I use an ax. I let my guys choose whatever they feel the most comfortable with, but I'm going to use the ax every time.

1. No chance of the batteries dieing on the ax mid cut.

2. Far less fine glass particles in the passenger compartment. No matter what you use, or hw you do it there is always going to be some kind of particulate glass in the passenger compartment. I prefer my pieces of glass to be as large as possible so that you can sweep them out the way if needed.

3. It's just as fast as the Sawzall if you know what you are doing.


When we bought out extrication equipment we looked at and tried a Glass Master, but in our opinion it wasn't significantly fast enough than the flathead ax or Sawzall that we already has, so we spent the money elsewhere. That's not to say we didn't like it...we just felt that for the money we could use what we already had and get something else. We put that money towards a complete hand tool kit that we've used far more than we would have used the Glass Master.

[utfd701]

Choice 1 - Glass Master
Choice 2 - Axe
Choice 3 - Recip Saw

[Dorkfish]

Sawzall . DeWalt 18volt with carbon crusted rescue blades . If you stay on it , and keep the batteries hot ( checked at start of each shift ) , you can cut the whole top off a car without stopping . I am old school and learned with an axe in hand . In my FF1 class , we did it all with manual hand tools . As times change , so have our SOP's . Minimal impact to the Pt is the name of the game in my book .

[94onair]

Originally Posted by Dorkfish

Sawzall . DeWalt 18volt with carbon crusted rescue blades . If you stay on it , and keep the batteries hot ( checked at start of each shift ) , you can cut the whole top off a car without stopping . I am old school and learned with an axe in hand . In my FF1 class , we did it all with manual hand tools . As times change , so have our SOP's . Minimal impact to the Pt is the name of the game in my book .

Im with you on this one. I like a sawzall right nice. We just bought a whole new set of power hand tools. 24V sawzall as well as a few other goodies, with 3 batteries for each tool.

[Lucky 13]

Originally Posted by Dorkfish

Sawzall . DeWalt 18volt with carbon crusted rescue blades . If you stay on it , and keep the batteries hot ( checked at start of each shift ) , you can cut the whole top off a car without stopping.

I've seen that here too. A sawzall is definitley one of the best tools to have around for extrication. Hands down.

[hooknladder]

Sawzall would be what i'd pick up off of a table if i had everything laid out in front of me. In reality, get the glassmaster moving while the sawzall get's prepped - cause as we all know the blade's gonna have to be changed cause the last nimrod to use it left a dull blade on it or took the danged blade out and didn't put one back in . I have a good officer on that truck this year, though so the sawzall's been ready to roll -though the intelligence level of some people still astounnds me - it takes 2 fricking seconds to change the blade.

[Lucky 13]

Some tasks are simple Jen that anybody can screw them up.

[cwl3gemt]

im all for cutting the car up with a sawzall. a lot of people dont realize what you can do with a sawzall with a rescue and demolition blade.

then again, i used a sawzall a lot in my previous job, and wouldnt trade it for a circular saw with a metal cutting blade, or any other blade for that matter.

[94onair]

Yeah changing the blades are so simple. Some people try to make it to hard. I really like our new one. it is really quick just the flip of a switch and bam there ya go.

[res40cue]

Glassmaster all the way.....

Axe..Too much motion, too many chances of a miss causing sparks..Seen it trust me not fun or pretty.

Sawzall..It's ok but too noisy especially when communications is important with the crew using the tools, they cause enough noise already.

[GamecockFn2]

Sawzall, fast and easy without the chance of going through into the cab of the vehicle

[94onair]

My main thing with the sawzall is its fast easy and requires much less phsysical work to get the job done.