Protective Maintenance – Wood Workers Safety Week 2012 – Part 3

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Jeremiah

In the Marines (and I assume the other branches of the military) there is a term that inspires true hate, sadness and wishing your EAS (End of Active Service) date was closer – PM or Preventive Maintenance. My shop has the same dread-inducing acronym, but with a little different meaning – Protective Maintenance. I’m not talking about sharpening chisels and plane blades (though I’m not a big fan of that activity either), I’m talking about the joys of sweeping, emptying the dust collection bags and vacuum bags and replacing filters – those pesky things that have to be done to keep tripping hazards out of the way, to keep our protective equipment running at peak efficiency.

Since I don’t use my shop full-time, it’s sometimes hard to know when certain maintenance tasks need to be done. A couple weeks ago I noticed the primary filter on my air cleaner looked like it had been hit with a fire extinguisher because it was covered with so much sawdust. That got me thinking that I needed to develop some process for remembering to clean or replace the filters on my shop vac, dust extractor, air cleaner and respirator. It’s easy to think these aren’t safety related tasks, and maybe they aren’t in the short-term, but in the long-term I think they are. Especially in regards to the air cleaner and respirator. If the filters can’t keep the air clean then we’re going to breathe that crap in which we all know (I hope), is bad for your lungs in the long-term.

To help me remember to stay on top of this, I made use of my Google calendar and created an event that repeats every six months that is set to send me a text message, an email, and an on-screen popup to remind me to go switch out these filters.

Now when it comes to keeping things orderly and clean, I think the risk is more obvious. It’s easy to trip and hit into things. I don’t use the calendar for this. Instead, I use a tip Tom Iovino had on Wood Talk Online a while back. He said every time he goes to the shop he puts away 5 things. I’ve tried to incorporate that same habit. At first it was difficult to do so I posted a reminder written in bright colors. That has seemed to help.

Just remember folks, the safer we are in the shop, the less chance we’ll have some sort of accident which might keep us out of the shop. So if we stay safe, we get more shop time and who doesn’t want more shop time?

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Ring the Bell, Please! – Woodworking Safety Week 2012 – Part 2

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Jeremiah

For those of us that use a lot of power tools we also generally (I hope) wear hearing protection. When we have our hearing protection on, we, of course, can’t hear as well – that’s the point. While that is a good thing in most ways, it can introduce certain dangers.

In my case, I’m one of those silly folks who it’s bad to try to startle. Not because I’ll have a heart attack or wet my drawers, but because my automatic reaction when startled, is to turn quickly with a balled up fist directed at whatever touched me. Not only would I rather not bop someone unintentionally, but what if I was routing the edge of a table top or pushing some awkward sized piece of lumber through the table saw. Try as I might, if I don’t know someone is there, fist and/or tools will fly. That’s just my reaction. I really hate surprises. Not cool.

Now I’m sure not everyone reacts in this way. You may not wig out and try to start a brawl when you’re startled, but startling someone using a power tool is a potentially VERY dangerous thing to do. So what do we do to reduce the chances of flying power tools?

1. Education & Communication. In my case, my shop is detached from the house and is next to the patio where my kids like to play. Periodically I make sure to explain to my children and my wife the dangers of power tools and what can happen if someone using a power tool is surprised or startled. This way they know not to rush in and give dad a hug, as much as dad likes hugs.

2. Raise the alarm! So now my family knows it’s dangerous to startle someone using power tools, but what if you need to get their attention for some reason? Time for dinner, the house is on fire, zombies are attacking – you know, the usual suspects. There needs to be a way to safely get my attention. Here’s what we did:

  • Depending on the time of year and the time of the day, I  close the garage door on the shop. One thing to do is just knock really loud and wait for me to respond. If I leave the shop door open they know to just stand at the opening of the shop and wave. That change in shadows from outside the shop usually gets my attention. Then I can shut down the tools and see what’s up.
  • The other thing we just started (I haven’t installed it yet, that’s for this weekend) is to use a door bell next to the shop door. The one I bought I found at Home Depot and besides just having an annoying buzzer, it also had a red light that blinks when the door bell is activated. I’m naturally a little hard of hearing but even more so when the planer is getting its fill of whatever I’m running. I think this will work out pretty well. The idea for the kids is ring the bell and then wait a minute or two. They understand that if I’m running something through the table saw that it may be a moment before I can respond. I’ve also told the kids that if they can’t hear a power tool running and the door is shut to just give a loud knock or (soon) ring the bell. I’ve told them in this scenario I’m probably in the middle of a glue up so I won’t be able to open the garage door, but I’ll yell back to give them the all clear to go ahead and open the door.

What do you do to make sure you don’t throw your router through the ceiling?

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