50 - What If?
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One thing I do every time I approach a tool is think of the worst-case scenarios. Its a bit gruesome to let your imagination take you there, but there is a good reason for it. This simple mental exercise not only raises your awareness of the potential dangers, but essentially shows you exactly what you need to do to prevent injury.
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Well my Safety Tips are “Don;t work late at night”. And “Triple check your machine setups”.
Make sure your wide awake and alert and focused on what your doing before using a power tool.
Case in point, I was in the shop alone about 10:30 at night. I had
set up a router table to cut a dado. It was a blind cut to start the groove, and as I placed the board down on the cutter it came up through the board ( since I neglected to triple check the height setting) and gave me a manicure it took the emergency room to stitch up. I was lucky I ended up with a very minor deformation on a thumbnail.
I have since not worked with no one in the house or past 8:00 PM. A rule my wife strictly enforces.
Marc I hope this is what you were asking for in your recent safety Video.
Anybody ever see the Sam Maloof videos on the woodworking channel? Watching that guy use a bandsaw makes me cringe. It’s a miracle he sill has all his fingers. That would be a good “what not to do” video.
Sylvia is a fainter. If I ever hurt myself and I have on several occasions (always doing something mundane so I wasn’t giving the procedure my full attention). I tell Sylvia that I’m going into town to get something, because if she sees what I’ve done, she faints, possibly hurting herself. Then I’m transporting two people to the hospital.
Your discussion at the bandsaw reminded me of something really stupid that I used to do when I just started out in woodworking. While using my small benchtop TS, I would push the wood about 3/4 of the way thru the blade and then reach around to the back of the saw and pull the wood the rest of the way thru. Of course I had know splitter, I didn’t even know what that was. Fortunately I never got hurt or had any kickback.
Another way to make the bandsaw safer is to lower the guide arm. The less space there is between the guide and the table, the harder it will be to cut yourself.