Every year, Woodworkers Safety Week serves as a (sometimes painful) reminder to stay safe in our shops. But woodworker Jay Cox asked me on our Facebook Page if we could poll the general public to find out how lasting the effects are. That’s a very good question! So does this stuff stick with you all year long or do you tend to forget about it a week later and let old habits creep back in?
I know for me, safety is a constant concern. Really, it should be on all of our minds 100% of the time when we are in the shop. But in my case, I have the additional concerns of documenting everything I do and then sharing it with the public. If I do something that is unsafe, I could very well endanger thousands of other woodworkers. So the pressure is always on for me. And for that, my fingers are quite thankful!
I have a sense that many guys tend to “blank out” at safety messages because they seem so nannyish and finger-wagging. And that’s sad, because safety should be a concern.
I believe most woodworking accidents are, well, accidents. Contrary to common wisdom, accidents CAN’T be avoided. Mistakes can, though.
There seems to be a trend lately of posting graphic videos and photos of woodworking slip-ups and errors. “Let’s watch that router kickback AGAIN and again in super slo-mo this time!”
“I’ll one-up that nail-through-the-finger with an ax in the head.”
It seems like woodworkers’ porn. We don’t necessarily gain anything, but it’s cool to look at the pictures.
Hmm…I think I am going to round up some of my own. Couldn’t hurt viewership!
Oh, my God, Steve. I could imagine what kind of accidents you might come up with! :-/
I am definitely not Captain Safety. I frequently leave off my hearing or eye protection. Especially if I’ve gone inside for lunch or the restroom. I inevitably wear them into the house then take them off somewhere inside. When I’m back to work and I go to make a cut where are glasses and ear muff…inside of course. Then I justify to myself that it is one quick cut, and that it won’t effect my hearing that much. But, I do that quite frequently and all those quick cuts add up.
I know this is not good, yet I still do it all the time. :-(
I work in the aircraft maintenance world as my regular work and in our world, we don’t believe that there is such a thing as Captain Safety. We are all prone to make mistakes. We need to be reminded regularly about safety and why it is important to follow the steps in place, go over new policies that change (as they regularly do) and remind technicians the importance of following procedures. In addition, we constantly train the technicians to be reminded of skills they already know. In some cases, it’s a refresher on stuff they already know and in others it’s learning new ways of troubleshooting (for which there is not really a procedure in place).
So, as a new woodworker and an engineer overseeing aircraft maintenance, my view of safety week is that it’s a great idea. These reminders are essential, if only to re-calibrate our “danger-meter”. The careful woodworkers will reset themselves to avoid complacency by being reminded and the careless ones will continue to be careless but hopefully take a thing or two (maybe something like using push-sticks as opposed to fingers.
As a suggestion for future years, it may be a good idea to break out safety week into a new theme each year and go deeply into it, but starting at a level at which beginners can see the whole picture. As an example, you could talk about complacency and the psychological reasons for it and with examples (which is a grave concern in my world), then next year talk about dust safety, while exploring everything related to it, then table saw safety with examples and many other subjects. As well, these “themes” could become a great databank of information for the new guys in the hobby. They could look at these “themes” individually in a safety portion of the website and learn a good chunk of what there is to know about a subject.
Anyway, I just thought I could throw a few ideas.
Alex
I’m usually pretty good with safty in the shop , but this week I wasn’t thinking . I stuck 1/4 ” chisel into my finger while paring a dado . I know what I did wrong and most of it was do to being in hurry and being too lazy to clear my bench . Sad to say accidents makes use more safety minded , maybe we need more reminders concerning safety . Perhaps not just once a year with safety week maybe twice a year .
If it wasn’t for Marc’s advice on safety, I would probably have launched several boards from my table saw over this last year. Also, I wouldn’t wear a respirator or have dust collection. My shop would be a dirty and dangerous environment.
Just the other day my father-in-law was saying how much he liked my table saw. He minors in industrial arts and taught shop class for several years and has used all the equipment. I had no idea that he did such “not recommended” practices. He asked my why I couldn’t cross cut full sheets of plywood. I tool him why and he said “I just take the fence off and free hand it. When I get half way through I walk around the saw (while it is still running) and pull the work from the back to finish the cut.” Needless to say I don’t let him in my shop with out me there or without proper proceedure.
I know what you mean Sean.
I just finished working with a guy that thought helping me out was pulling sheets of plywood through the saw while I was on the other end. I just about freaked out on him. He didn’t “help me” after that. :)
I have noticed while working with many of the older generation, that they really have no clue when it comes to being safe with equipment. I think that is in part to lack of knowledge , but also part of their upbringing in the use of equipment. They never had safety equipment, they were trained that real men don’t wear ear, eye, lung protection, or worry about getting hurt. Because real men don’t need that wussy stuff.
don’t blaming the old guys. Let’s not make this an age issue. (and be careful we old guys get on the internet too.) I’ve seen just as many young guys do the stupid sh*&^%$ you’ve just mentioned. Kick one or two young bucks out of my shop in my time.
In the history of shop tools and woodworking the connection between wood dust and lung problems has only recent been made. Same with a lot of the procedures and gear youngin’s keep bringing in.
If we would have know in the 70′s (when I took shop classes) about the dangers of saw dust I might have bought a dust mask. But please remember your history – it’s only been in the last ten years that science and medicine have learned the extent of the dangers. It wasn’t that we weren’t taught in the 70′s – no one knew.
And our shop had a good dust collecting system. One that would rival anything built today. I was a cyclone system connected to 4″ duct work capable of sucking up small animals.
And my shop teachers never said real men don’t wear eye protection or learn safety. First rule in our shop was to go to the cabinet and get safety glasses – no glasses and you didn’t touch a power switch. If you didn’t like that you were out of the class. Simple, end of discussion.
Please be careful with how wide a brush you paint us “old guys.” Just like any group, some get it and some don’t.
And we were taught safety but times and tools change. My shop today has hearing protection, safety glasses, dust collection, push sticks, riving knives and I use all of them.
Personally I find your negative comments about us of the “older generation” to be down right offensive. None of the “older generation” among my woodworking friends would ever behave that way in a shop or say that, “real men don’t wear ear, eye, lung protection.”
We often have discussions on here to get the best price on safety rated prescription glasses.
you need to relax dude. everyone speaks from there own experiences, those were mine. I didn’t feel like writing an entire dissertation on my views on woodworking safety or my experiences, that was just a snap shot observation. I started woodworking in the 80′s you started in the 70′s , so really not as large of an age gap as you think.
when answering this question it is important to be fully honest. I almost put that I am Captain Safety. But, I chose to put that I think about it from time to time. I use my PPE all the time in the shop. But, if I have just a couple of cuts to make do I always use my feather board or my respirator, NO. Do I sand things without my respirator on sometimes, YES.
However, I always where hearing protection, that’s the classically trained musician in me I guess.
I know we all try to be safe, some more than others, but I would say none of us are 100% safe all the time. Sometimes it is unknowingly unsafe, but unsafe none the less.