Who Turned Out the Lights?

Glenn sent in this great tip about emergency lighting in the shop.

With Safety Week here again I wanted to give everyone something to think about. Here is the scenario that I think we can all relate toâ?¦. You get to have some shop time and evening is approaching. Your shop doesn’t have as much natural light as you would like but you work with what you have. The project you are working on has parts in all different locations including the stock you have on the floor. You even needed to rearrange equipment to make everything fit, thank god for mobile bases. You have all your tools at the ready, router, sander, chisels, and dust collection hose.

Everything is going great, you are putting a nice decorative edge on your piece and suddenly the power goes out. There are no lights and it is dark outside so you have no light to see. You can probably set the router down safely after it stops but can you remember where everything is to get out of the shop or to a flashlight without falling or hitting something sharp? You could just stand there and wait for the power to come back on and hope it won’t take hours.

If you really had your safety in mind you would have put up an emergency light. If you look around in commercial buildings you will see them on the walls or ceiling. They are a battery-operated light that will turn on when they lose AC power. The prices of these lights are very low and make a good investment. You can even support TWW by shopping on Amazon.com. I recommend the mounted style, as the plug-in flashlight units tend to walk away and end up in the kids bedroom or kitchen when you need them in the shop. Remember to stay safe and plan ahead to stay that way all year long.
Glenn (Retired F.D. Captain)