Shop safety changes you have made in 2020?

[Scott Winners]

I have been reading up since I just bought a lathe about a month ago. Our most recent safety thread is about a year old.

What have you changed or upgraded or noticed this year?

My biggest change is wearing KN95s more often for dust protection. My family sent a blue million of them back in March since I am frontline healthcare, I have hundreds of them; but the hospital I work for does not currently let employees wear PPE not provided by the hospital.

My biggest upgrade was safety glasses. As above, bedside personell have to wear "safety glasses" for all patient care now. I already have bifocals and a bluetooth headset for my two phones, plus the medical N95 for all patient care, jeez Louise I moved stuff off and on my head all day all summer, now that it's winter I am also dealing with warm hats and surgical caps. I ended up at Occupational Health with a stage one pressure sore behind my left ear and got permission to use prescription safety glasses. The charge nurse at Occ Health and I went accross the hall to Infection Control and got clearance from the charge nurse over there too, and I got emailed permission from my boss's boss to use personally owned prescription "safety glasses" that meet or exceed the safety glasses provided by the hospital, as long as I was using a disinfectant.. blah blah Occ Health blah blah Infection Control blah blah blah.

The key parameter on my employer provided safety glasses proved to be "Z87+". So I read up on Z87, and then called around. The first two glasses shops I talked to said the plus signs don't mean anyting, so I kept calling. The third shop I called, the person on the phone knew more about Z87, Z87+ and and Z87++ than I did, so I went there. She looked at my head, I was wearing the N95 I use for work, we found the tightest possible fitting frames for me that don't interfere with my employer issued N95s, and they are awesome. I have wraparounds with like zilch for peripheral vision, I don't drive in them, but I use them in my shop constantly. I only saw one or two frames rated Z87 without any plus signs on them, most of what was out there this summer for frames was Z87+ or Z87 ++.

I notice I should go ahead and get a dust collector and hook it up. Besides the lathe, my band saw and belt/disc sander all could use DC, and my next power tool will likely be a lunch box planer. Pretty much out of denial on needing a DC this year, no idea where to put it. Probably I will start with a cyclone on my existing shop vac to see if my wife notices.

[Marc Fenneuff]

Went from no dust collection to a 2HP Delta + cyclone + Wynn filters. Bought a Dylos to monitor fine dust. I’ve always worn a respirator when I felt I needed it, the Dylos takes the guesswork out. Respirator stays on until the Dylos reads <300.

Bought a Shark Guard for my new-to-me table saw.

Got a new pair of safety glasses. They’re the same as the old ones but since they’re not all scratched up I can leave them on now.

Sat down together with my family members and explained to them it was unsafe to ever try to disturb me / get my attention when in the shop using a power tool.

[Lee Schierer]

Sat down together with my family members and explained to them it was unsafe to ever try to disturb me / get my attention when in the shop using a power tool.

My family was instructed that if any machines are running, just to stand in the door and wait until I turn the machine off.

[Jim Becker]

I work slower and more methodically as much as possible to reduce the errors that can lead to injury. I'm also wearing hearing protection a lot more...having aids for nearly a year now has emphasized to me what the real noise levels can be in my shop.

I'm also ripping thick stock more often with the bandsaw so that the effects of tension release are less likely to cause an increased potential for injury through forcing a cut.

[Phillip Mitchell]

My biggest safety upgrade was replacing my modified Harbor Freight DC system with single 4” flex hose drug around from machine to machine with a new (to me) 3 HP 220V collector. I ditched the bags for the best canister filters that Wynn sells, added a Oneida SDD XL on top of a 55 gal drum, and put up 6” S&D PVC pipe to all the machines with blast gates at every machine...I knew it was overdue, but what a difference both in convenience as well as safety/health!

I also added an older, but unused Delta air cleaner that came with the new/used dust collector and I feel like it makes a difference, though I don’t have a reliable way to measure air particulate matter to be certain.

[Bernie Kopfer]

I'm also ripping thick stock more often with the bandsaw so that the effects of tension release are less likely to cause an increased potential for injury through forcing a cut.

Before I bought a new bandsaw with quick blade release I would hesitate to use the BS because tensioning was a pain. Now it so easy that I am using the saw a lot more for cuts that were not always the most safe to do on the table saw. I never would have thought that a quick tension release on the bandsaw could actually be a safety feature.

[Jim Becker]

Bernie, I was referring to the tension release that's sometimes in the wood, not the saw blade, but yes, bandsaws that have a quick release are very convenient for sure.

[Bruce King]

I replaced the prefilter on my ceiling mounted air cleaner with a pleated house type filter. I use push sticks more often. Using my TS sled more and ripping more on the bandsaw. Added a stationary splitter device on my old TS. Taking breaks when tired. Also added a shut off bar on the table saw.

[Paul F Franklin]

Getting a sawstop PCS and adding the jessum guides to it was probably the biggest thing. I've been pretty consistent about wearing PPE in the shop for a long time, using push sticks, that sort of thing.

[Kevin Jenness]

DSC_0575[1].jpgDSC_0576[1].jpgI just added a foot-operated kill switch on my lathe, with a hinged bar over the push button so I can kick it from either the front or back side. Also made a new Fritz and Frans with measuring tapes and flip stops for the slider, much more useful and more likely to be used.

[Myles Moran]

My family was instructed that if any machines are running, just to stand in the door and wait until I turn the machine off.

My wife loves to run in while I'm planing wood (dw735), and she'll be trying to both get my attention and cover her ears. I've said multiple times that I have the Bluetooth headphones and she can text me, but apparently that's not as fun. Luckily she waits on any other tool, it's just the planer that'll be running for long periods at a time.

My big safety upgrades this year was my sawstop PCS and bluetooth hearing protection. Turns out those worktunes have a way better NRR than the old pair I was using and listening to podcasts means they're on pretty much all the time.

Edit- and one I completely forgot about - I bought a cordless jigsaw for rough cutting lumber before bringing it into the shop (I'm limited to around 6' and usually buy 10 or 12' lumber). I was using my worm drive saw, but I had a piece move and the saw kicked back. Luckily with the weight of the saw it really didn't do much, but I realized that for lumber that's not flat (and hard to properly support) and might start moving when I cut it I need something where a kickback won't send the saw flying back at me.

[Frederick Skelly]

I have become less likely to perform a risky sawing operation than previously and think about the coming operation more before I do it.

For example, more and more, I remind myself to install the sharkguard, even for one cut. Or I shy away from a cut, like last weekend, when I needed to put a 60* campher on a 4/4 board. The fast and obvious way was to use the tablesaw. But I couldn't get comfortable doing that - the board was just too narrow (unless I built a jig). So I ended up doing it with a spokeshave and a handplane.

[Tom Bender]

Bought a new box of band aids, was running low.

[Justin Rapp]

I ordered a new dust collector - going from 30micron to 1 micron filtering, not to mention I will have be putting in all the ducts to each machine. So I won't be 'lazy' to hook up the dust collector for one quick cut. I need to keep this stuff out of my lungs. I already notice I cough to much when woodworking.

[Charlie Jones]

I am continuing to lean out the shop by making sure tools are in their place within reach of the work. Adding task lighting, improving the dust collection. I am improving storage and have added a small addition to make the shop a little longer. The hardest part is getting rid of the lumber shorts leaning against the corners. I have already made a lot of kindling. All of this improves safety.