What are your UNIQUE TO YOU safety rules in the shop?

[Rob Luter]

To keep things in context, I have a small basement shop where I work alone.

Unique to me?

- Table Saw and other corded tools unplugged except when using to avoid accidental activation.

Not unique to me:

- Eye protection.
- Hearing protection.
- Always use feather boards, push sticks, etc.
- Keep things tidy.
- Try not to do anything stupid.

[Brian Holcombe]

Anyone who works in manufacturing carries a similar attitude.

I used to spook easily being that I worked almost solely alone for so long. Now I'm semi impervious to it, but if I think I'm alone I'll still jump.

Which just reminded me of a landlord coming up behind me at the old shop and yelling something and scaring the snot out of me. Had something gone wrong, he wouldn't have fared well. I'm pretty sure that doofus had a missing chromosome.

Thats the case for me as well, when I worked with other people around it was more expected and I wouldn't jump, but now I'm working by myself so I don't expect anyone arriving without notice. When they do it scares me.

My wife suggested putting a light on the wall, I might do that. I have a three year old though, so once he realizes that a switch inside the house gets my attention it will be flashing constantly.

[Jessica de Boer]

It's not a safety rule but I have a life size cut out of myself next to the door of my shop where everyone who wants to enter has to pay homage to me.

[Jim Becker]

It's not a safety rule but I have a life size cut out of myself next to the door of my shop where everyone who wants to enter has to pay homage to me.

I don't think I'll emulate that...it would scare people away. Then again, given the theme of this thread, that might be a good thing if I'm running machinery. LOL

[John K Jordan]

It's not a safety rule but I have a life size cut out of myself next to the door of my shop where everyone who wants to enter has to pay homage to me.

Yikes, I've never thought of that! I have a life-sized cardboard cutout of me from my retirement event but I'm wearing a tux. That doesn't seem appropriate for the shop. Maybe I'll put it by the chicken house instead.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

It might scare the llamas, John...

[John K Jordan]

It might scare the llamas, John...

Heck no, the dress code is tough around here so they're used to it. Here we are getting ready to take the 4-wheeler down to the barn to muck out the stalls.

dress_up2_r.jpg

It's the shop visitors I'm worried about.

JKJ

[Mel Fulks]

what a nice shot ,John !

[John K Jordan]

what a nice shot ,John !

Thanks!

Um, confession time. I know everyone was fooled but I was actually untruthful about wearing the tux around the farm. [head low in shame]

In 2006 some of us at ORNL were dragged, kicking and screaming, to a tux rental service. Five of our R&D team went to a lah-di-dah gala in Chicago for an R&D 100 award: https://www.rd100conference.com/awar...ilding-please/ We developed a way to collect sunlight with a large parabolic collector on a roof and pipe it into a building with a fiber optic about 1/2" in diameter. There was so much energy in the fiber that something combustible held near the end would burst into flame! Good clean fun.

[Nick Decker]

Good clean fun, indeed, John. Cool!

[Gary Radice]

Three things that I do not mentioned yet. I work alone in a home garage shop. First, I keep a Dylos particle meter on when I'm working to let me know when fine dust levels are unhealthy. If they are, I open the garage door for a few minutes and air the place out. The meter is great since you can't see the fine dust. Second, I keep two ear muff style sound attenuators in the shop hanging in easy reach by the noisiest machines (table saw, jointer, router, planer, bandsaw). Having two means I'm never more than a step away from hearing protection when I need it. Third: I wear glasses and I bought shop safety trifocals to replace my regular progressive lenses. The safety glasses are trifocals that have near vision correction at top and bottom. The near vision correction at the top is great for those times when you have to look up from under a machine to adjust it.

[Scott Winners]

I unplug all my tools at the end of the day. I got into the habit when I had kids at home and it makes sense to me to keep the habit so I am in it when the grandkids come along. I use one extension cord around the shop (usually) and drag it around to plug in whatever tool I need now, and then unplug it and head to the next one. When I am in the thick of planking up a boat I might have two or three tools (jigsaw, circular saw and drill most likely) on one power strip under the boat so when I am at the hull all three are available one at a time, but if I need the band saw I take the power with me.

I think the tools are perfectly safe plugged in, it is little ones in the shop unsupervised I am more concerned about, and I can't be everywhere all the time.

Good thread.

I also use my forestry helmet in the shop. Mine's Husqvarna, I think the Stihl one is pretty identical, flip down face visor, hard hat and hearing protection all in one. The point is I use it, and it is bright orange so easy to find.

[Roger Nair]

The one thing I stress is to understand the reaction forces generated by power tools and all the ways that off-cuts and workpieces can be air-borne. Know what are the risks of seizure and pinching of blades and the direction of ejected pieces and the circumstances of hand held tools to seize, go air-borne or twist and wrench the operator or even knock the operator off their feet. My shop was for working heavy timber and the hand held tools are very large and the forces beyond ordinary tools but the potential remains the same in the type of risk but at a different scale.

[Norman Pirollo]

It's not a safety rule but I have a life size cut out of myself next to the door of my shop where everyone who wants to enter has to pay homage to me.

Ha,ha.. Good one!

[Russell Barnes]

We all know the basics- wear a dust mask, don't wear long clothing around moving parts, never reach behind the saw blade... but that's not what this post is about. This post is about your own personal safety rules for your shop based on what your own past experience. I figure we can all gain from sharing this.

For example, here's mine:

• I never bring any drinks into the shop on epoxy or varnish day, thanks to a past experience where I didn't, but almost did, take a swig of varnish instead of my water.
• I always unlock the door when I'm in the shop alone, just in case something happens where I need to yell for help.
• Always have some vinegar handy when using epoxy- it is the only thing I've found that takes it off skin. (That one probably isn't unique to me, except for the always having it part- it's part of my pre-epoxy checklist.)
• Not exactly a safety tip, but I always make a little back scratcher out of scrap wood whenever I'm using epoxy, varnish, or other stuff that contaminates my gloves. I will ALWAYS get an itch right at the moment I'm wearing epoxy covered gloves. I also wear 3 or 4 layers of gloves so I can strip one off and have a fresh glove underneath.

Your turn.

1) I have a separate electrical quick disconnect off/on box for my 220 circuits. It has a larger red dome light on the top that I found and adapted to the top of the box. The box is mounted externally on the inside wall in plain view. The light is on when the power is on. Whenever I am changing blades on the table saw, band saw etc, not only do I cut of the power at the quick disconnect box, but right before I am doing it, I look over to make sure the red dome light is not on just in case I forgot to switch off power. The red light may be a little over kill since these boxes have a large lever that you can also look at to see if it is on or off. Still have all my fingers and no close calls...