SAFETY PLEASE PARTICIPATE

[tippie53]

In another thread we were talking about tool quality . I agree that price may reflect but is no guarantee about quality . I want all members here to know that we all wish the best for everyone . So I hope we can all offer some real safety tips. If you want to post about your procedure and see if anyone had done the same thing and has a good or bad result , I hope you share . This is not to damn any product , person or thing but to offer real experience . I will start with my discovered tip
PUSH STICKS :::
Please , on a table saw do not use them . I have a friend that did , the stick caught the blade and he filleted his fingers . He was lucky that he kept his fingers but the injury was sever. I use push blocks. They are safer but they to are only as safe as the person using them . Replace them whey they are worn. I didn't and I split my thumb last year. 23 stitches to close the 7/8 inch deep gash. I didn't hit any nerves or anything important . I was very lucky. So from me please when using a table saw, look and think about what you are doing . Do not take a chance . That saw blade is turning about 60 MPH and the energy there is impressive .
Learn from my error . If you are not paying attention you may be paying for something much worse . Please learn from my mistake .

[Tarhead]

If you use a shop-vac style vacumn get a HEPA cartridge filter. The shop-vacs are great for spraying ultra fine dust everywhere. We work with woods that can cause some serious lung problems. I use a ~$35 Cleanstream by Gore (same company that makes Goretex) from Lowe's. Lasts a lifetime, use a hose to clean it. If you can't swing it, find a good fitting N-95 mask. If you have a beard you'll need to decide lungs or beard.

[David L]

I also had a table saw incident. I was re-sawing a smallish (narrow, too narrow) piece of satinwood on the table saw (my band saw is not good for re-saws), the week before Christmas, I was going to cut to the half-way point of the length, pull it out, turn it around and cut the other half. at some point the thin material got sucked down into the throat of the saw and my left hand followed right behind it. I wasn't using push sticks or push blocks as I wasn't going to run the material all the way through the saw. Damage to all five fingers, the worse being the thumb, 14 stitches. Like John, I was lucky not to lose any fingers or suffer any permanent damage, although my thumb is kinda deformed now and I'm just now getting feeling back in it. I know I probably look like a real big dumb@$$ for operating a piece of equiptment like that in such an unsafe manner but if someone can learn from my mistake then that's a hit I'm willing to take.

David L

[Tony_in_NYC]

This is just a warning about being safe with a hammer. One time when I was younger and much less intelligent than I am now, my wife asked me if her behind looked fat in a certain pair of pants. I said yes and suddenly a hammer, that I was not even using mind you, came flying at my head.
Be aware people. Craftsman hammers can fly, AND they can do it spontaneously!! Always keep your hammers in locked tool chests when not in use to prevent this from happening.

Oh, and if you never cut towards yourself, you will never get cut with your chisels or other sharp tools. Learned that the hard way too.

[Ken Hundley]

My Dad always said there is nothing more useless or dangerous than a dull tool. Think about that a minute. If the tool is dull, you have to put more effort into using it. Putting more effort into something inevitably leads to poor body mechanics as you try to give it that extra "oomph" to get it to go through the wood you are using. That extra oomph is usally the difference between going through the wood or slipping across it and either damaging you or somethign else.

Keep your tools sharp. They are a pleasure to use that way, and make the work efficient instead of a workout.

Also: with power planers, use safety glasses and pay attention to grain runout. I was planing down a very nice peice of zebrawood, which really has three grain directions, one of them at an angle to the surface no matter how straight the grain is. I sent it through the planer, and the blades (probably dull, mind you) grabbed the grain, and proceeded to fold the 1/4" thick peice in half, where it went off like a bomb literally. There was a huge bang, I felt a compression wave against my chest (or so I thought) and fell over. I stood up, and spent the next 20 minutes pulling needles of zebrawood from my chest, arms, and stomach. They stopped just below my neck. Some peices were almost 1/4" deep! Very painful, very dangerous, and lucky they didn't go any higher. Be safe. Be careful.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Oh my gosh Ken,
That would have been major scary.
I was Safety Manager in an olive cannery for 7 years, I ought to be able to come up with something to add.
Oh yeah, when using a belt sander, make sure you keep your fingers away from the running belt.....you can shorten a finger in a hurry.

Kevin

[deadedith]

I've stopped having little accidents (haven't had a big one thankfully) as I remember and try daily to apply the lesson in this little joke:

Two bulls, one young and one old, are standing on a grassy hill looking down at some delightful cows grazing in a lovely little valley.
The young bull says: "Hey, let's run down this hill and get us a cow!!"
The old bull looks at him and says: "Why don't we walk down the hill and get us ALL of them?"

Be like the old bull, for safety. If you are in a hurry, drop everything and breathe. For me, I ask myself: What exactly am I trying to do? Is this action going to do it or am I just guessing? At what point do I stop if something does not look right? The questions slow me down, get me breathing, and stop me from doing what I would do by nature, which is to just do it and pay the consequences.

There are also other applications of the moral of that story :-)

DaveB

If anyone can find the Far Side cartoon of a group of old cowboys on a race track, with a caption something like "Jed came in last in the 100 yard mosey" please send it to me. I want to be like Jed :-)

[Mike Lindstrom]

Don't get in a hurry, don't work frustrated, and be thoughtful and intentional about everything you do.

When I put my hand through the table saw, I was wrestling with something that wasn't doing what I wanted it to. Things weren't squaring up right. My rubber footed push blocks weren't gripping. I got frustrated and set the blocks aside to just use my fingers so I could make it do what I wanted.

I should have stopped and thought about why things weren't working. Later found out the blade was set at a slight bevel. If I had checked it out and figured it out, I could have avoided some pain and suffering.

Mike

[JRHall]

Every time you turn on a power tool, remember this exchange from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy":

"Some factual information for you. Have you any idea how much damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight over you?"
"How much?" said Arthur.
"None at all," said Mr Prosser.

Same with the average table saw. your finger won't even dull the blade.

Take the end fence off your belt sander, serves no practical purpose. I caught my little finger in the gap on one in junior high, still doesn't match the other one.

[tippie53]

Ask JR about that LOL