And the number one shop safety tip is... don't work in the shop with a guy named Deathblade Eric. 
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Don't Make the Mistakes I made!
- Thread starter DigthemLows
- Start date
Triple check that the blade has stopped spinning. I watch, listen, and eventually started poking them with a push stick after a blade I was sure had stopped took a nice slice out of my fingertip as I reached past it for a cutting. There is a brief point in time where the rotational speed of the blade matches the flickering of flourescent lights just right and it looks like it has stopped. A strobe effect. This is why my own shops always have incandescent worklights at each workstation.
Don't trust safety switches. Verify that they work. Years ago I had the skin stripped off one fingertip because a hydraulic ram activated while I was cleaning a machine. I had the safety cover open, and the emergency stop pressed, but when my finger broke the sensor beam, it fired the solenoid anyway. Fancy electronics are only as good as the person who wrote the program.
Don't trust safety switches. Verify that they work. Years ago I had the skin stripped off one fingertip because a hydraulic ram activated while I was cleaning a machine. I had the safety cover open, and the emergency stop pressed, but when my finger broke the sensor beam, it fired the solenoid anyway. Fancy electronics are only as good as the person who wrote the program.
Here's a simple one - when drilling through a piece of metal, always make sure it's anchored to something or braced by something.
Drill bits can easily grab a sheet or piece of metal and turn it into a spinning knife edge.
Drill bits can easily grab a sheet or piece of metal and turn it into a spinning knife edge.
When reaching for something to the side of a power tool, think about the hand that you're not reaching with.
I know many people (including myself) who removed good portion of knuckle skin during one of their first times using a stationary disk or belt sander. I don't know anyone who's done it twice.
Flat blade screwdrivers can become implements from hell, with just a little too much force, and your other hand in the wrong place. There's a reason they call the tip a blade.
I know many people (including myself) who removed good portion of knuckle skin during one of their first times using a stationary disk or belt sander. I don't know anyone who's done it twice.
Flat blade screwdrivers can become implements from hell, with just a little too much force, and your other hand in the wrong place. There's a reason they call the tip a blade.
And this is sometimes followed by becoming a projectile. If it's a heavy piece, sometimes the drill can snap, sending the whole thing flying.
mikeyswood
Inactive
And the number one shop safety tip is... don't work in the shop with a guy named Deathblade Eric.
Agreed!
Rickett Customs
Commercial User
Safety glasses, respirator (working with exotics), regular dust mask (domestics), Unplug tools when changing out blades, bits, etc.... push blocks for table saws, bandsaws..etc..
A nice solid table or bench, when working with a router.
A nice solid table or bench, when working with a router.
This also applies to the planer. I have a piece of figured walnut shatter in the planer and was surprised how hard they hit the wall 20 feet away
Just saw a new rule in action at work today. Always check the direction of your shaper before you feed your stock into it. Yesterday a co-worker was running 3/4" window stops on the shaper. He came in first thing this morning and turned on the shaper to finish. He touched the first piece of wood to the cutter and it was immediately pulled from his hand and thrown the length of the shop. He had forgotten that the shaper was set in reverse and fed the stock with the direction of the rotation. This a macdaddy shaper set on a very high rpm and that piece of wood was gone the second it touched the cutter. Good thing it didn't hit anyone.
Fortunately my buddy was ok once the blood returned to his face but I bet he checks next time.
Fortunately my buddy was ok once the blood returned to his face but I bet he checks next time.
The real use of shop tools.
a. DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted part you were drying.
b. WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "Ouch...."
c. ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.
d. PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.
e. HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
f. VISE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
g. OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside a wheel hub you're trying to get the bearing race out of.
h. WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars, motorcycles, and (Vicounts), they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you've been searching for the last 15 minutes.
i. HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new disk brake pads, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
j. EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off a hydraulic jack handle.
k. TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.
l. PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbor to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.
m. SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-do off your boot.
n. E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit.
o. TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of bolts and fuel lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.
p. CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.
q. AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.
r. TROUBLE LIGHT: The home builder's own tanning booth. Sometimes called drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, it's main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.
s. PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads.
t. AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last tightened 70 years ago by someone at Ford, and rounds them off.
u. PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
v. HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses 1/2 inch too short.
w. HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.
x. MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing seats, chrome and plastic parts.
y. Shop Vacuum: A large noisy roll-around device used primarily for causing the permanent disappearance of very small exquisitely expensive parts.
z. Vinyl tape: a black linear flexible adhesive product used to bind little squares of paper towel over fresh cuts and/or abrasions (see: a., b., c., e., p., q., s., v., & x., above).
a. DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, splattering it against that freshly painted part you were drying.
b. WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprint whorls and hard-earned guitar calluses in about the time it takes you to say, "Ouch...."
c. ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.
d. PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads.
e. HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
f. VISE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
g. OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside a wheel hub you're trying to get the bearing race out of.
h. WHITWORTH SOCKETS: Once used for working on older British cars, motorcycles, and (Vicounts), they are now used mainly for impersonating that 9/16 or 1/2 socket you've been searching for the last 15 minutes.
i. HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new disk brake pads, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
j. EIGHT-FOOT LONG DOUGLAS FIR 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off a hydraulic jack handle.
k. TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters.
l. PHONE: Tool for calling your neighbor to see if he has another hydraulic floor jack.
m. SNAP-ON GASKET SCRAPER: Theoretically useful as a sandwich tool for spreading mayonnaise; used mainly for getting dog-do off your boot.
n. E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool that snaps off in bolt holes and is ten times harder than any known drill bit.
o. TWO-TON HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOIST: A handy tool for testing the tensile strength of bolts and fuel lines you may have forgotten to disconnect.
p. CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 16-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A large motor mount prying tool that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end without the handle.
q. AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.
r. TROUBLE LIGHT: The home builder's own tanning booth. Sometimes called drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, it's main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105-mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.
s. PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the lids of old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splash oil on your shirt; can also be used, as the name implies, to round off Phillips screw heads.
t. AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts last tightened 70 years ago by someone at Ford, and rounds them off.
u. PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.
v. HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to cut hoses 1/2 inch too short.
w. HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit.
x. MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on boxes containing seats, chrome and plastic parts.
y. Shop Vacuum: A large noisy roll-around device used primarily for causing the permanent disappearance of very small exquisitely expensive parts.
z. Vinyl tape: a black linear flexible adhesive product used to bind little squares of paper towel over fresh cuts and/or abrasions (see: a., b., c., e., p., q., s., v., & x., above).
OK, this thread is a bit old, but here are a couple of stories... Not directly related to bass-building, but woodworking in general.
First was a story from when I was young... Dad was out in garage with me, and he was feeding wood into the table saw. Many mistakes that day - had the guard removed, let his hand get too close to the blade, and he was wearing gloves... The glove caught, pulled his hand in, and nipped the tip of the thumb. Without the glove, it might have done less damage, but suffice it to say, three lessons in one.
Second was early in my woodworking days. Was using the table saw to trim the ends off some stiles. Probably no more than 3/16 was being taken off. Something you do every day, right? Well, this time, that remaining 1/16th sliver of cherry flew off like a bullet and slapped me in the face not an inch below my right eye. It made such a sickening sound when it hit that my dad heard it across the garage. Two lessons learned - didn't have the guard on the beast, and wasn't wearing eye protection (but I did have hearing protection). Could very easily have lost the eye, with the force that that sliver hit me with!
Notice the trend? No blade guard - And in many bass build photo journals I see posted online, I notice the table saws all have their guards removed. I have since stopped doing that unless I am machining pieces taller than the guard allows.
ALSO, I have become somewhat of a stickler for personal safety equipment - NIOSH respirator (not those paper masks), ear cans, and eye wear
Oh, and here's a tip - with all that safety gear and hearing protection and machinery running, it's sometimes difficult for your significant-other go get your attention. DISCUSS with them the dangers of various attention-grabbing techniques. The best is to simply let you notice them. They should NOT turn off-and-on the light, or bang the door, or whatever, since that may startle you out of your "zone" and may cause you to mess your work, or worse, mess up your health.
First was a story from when I was young... Dad was out in garage with me, and he was feeding wood into the table saw. Many mistakes that day - had the guard removed, let his hand get too close to the blade, and he was wearing gloves... The glove caught, pulled his hand in, and nipped the tip of the thumb. Without the glove, it might have done less damage, but suffice it to say, three lessons in one.
Second was early in my woodworking days. Was using the table saw to trim the ends off some stiles. Probably no more than 3/16 was being taken off. Something you do every day, right? Well, this time, that remaining 1/16th sliver of cherry flew off like a bullet and slapped me in the face not an inch below my right eye. It made such a sickening sound when it hit that my dad heard it across the garage. Two lessons learned - didn't have the guard on the beast, and wasn't wearing eye protection (but I did have hearing protection). Could very easily have lost the eye, with the force that that sliver hit me with!
Notice the trend? No blade guard - And in many bass build photo journals I see posted online, I notice the table saws all have their guards removed. I have since stopped doing that unless I am machining pieces taller than the guard allows.
ALSO, I have become somewhat of a stickler for personal safety equipment - NIOSH respirator (not those paper masks), ear cans, and eye wear
Oh, and here's a tip - with all that safety gear and hearing protection and machinery running, it's sometimes difficult for your significant-other go get your attention. DISCUSS with them the dangers of various attention-grabbing techniques. The best is to simply let you notice them. They should NOT turn off-and-on the light, or bang the door, or whatever, since that may startle you out of your "zone" and may cause you to mess your work, or worse, mess up your health.
Oh, and from a local story (well, local to me) that occurred a few years back
Source: http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/Local/article/99908
I learned the hard way why you should wear more protection that a t shirt when working with a table saw. I was fabricating Ghostbusters costumes for last Halloween.
Build thread:
Invalid Link Removed
While ripping a piece of styrene for the proton pack wands, I slightly turned the piece in the table saw. The piece rocketed back and slammed me in my chest. It was so shocking that I thought I eviscerated myself. It almost took of the tip of my thumb, and I was pretty shooken up.
Hours after the injury.
5 months later, and the mark on my abdomen is still there. I won't be using a table saw for anymore plastic cutting, ever. My dad told me that you have to feed the piece through quickly, or it will bind up and kick back.
My lesson: Besides eye protection, have something more substantial covering your core than a t shirt when working with a table saw.
Build thread:
Invalid Link Removed
While ripping a piece of styrene for the proton pack wands, I slightly turned the piece in the table saw. The piece rocketed back and slammed me in my chest. It was so shocking that I thought I eviscerated myself. It almost took of the tip of my thumb, and I was pretty shooken up.
Hours after the injury.
5 months later, and the mark on my abdomen is still there. I won't be using a table saw for anymore plastic cutting, ever. My dad told me that you have to feed the piece through quickly, or it will bind up and kick back.
My lesson: Besides eye protection, have something more substantial covering your core than a t shirt when working with a table saw.
Musiclogic
Commercial User
- Aug 6, 2005
- 6,505
- 73
- 60
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder: HJC Customs USA, The Cool Lute, C G O
This is something everyone with a tablesaw has experienced, and reminds me of why I have $250 worth of featherboards and set of anti-kickback wheels. I can remember similar pain from a kicked back piece of bubinga, unfortunately it took a second shot before I started using large push sticks, and a 3rd before I got the antikickback wheels and featherboards.
I learned the hard way why you should wear more protection that a t shirt when working with a table saw. I was fabricating Ghostbusters costumes for last Halloween.
Build thread:
Invalid Link Removed
While ripping a piece of styrene for the proton pack wands, I slightly turned the piece in the table saw. The piece rocketed back and slammed me in my chest. It was so shocking that I thought I eviscerated myself. It almost took of the tip of my thumb, and I was pretty shooken up.
Hours after the injury.
5 months later, and the mark on my abdomen is still there. I won't be using a table saw for anymore plastic cutting, ever. My dad told me that you have to feed the piece through quickly, or it will bind up and kick back.
My lesson: Besides eye protection, have something more substantial covering your core than a t shirt when working with a table saw.
Two of the ten or so instructions embossed on the front cover of the hugeass metalcutting bandsaws at work:
ALWAYS WEAR GLOVES WHEN CHANGING BLADES
NEVER WEAR GLOVES WHEN OPERATING SAW
ALWAYS WEAR GLOVES WHEN CHANGING BLADES
NEVER WEAR GLOVES WHEN OPERATING SAW
I learned the hard way why you should wear more protection that a t shirt when working with a table saw. I was fabricating Ghostbusters costumes for last Halloween.
Build thread:
Invalid Link Removed
While ripping a piece of styrene for the proton pack wands, I slightly turned the piece in the table saw. The piece rocketed back and slammed me in my chest. It was so shocking that I thought I eviscerated myself. It almost took of the tip of my thumb, and I was pretty shooken up.
Hours after the injury.
5 months later, and the mark on my abdomen is still there. I won't be using a table saw for anymore plastic cutting, ever. My dad told me that you have to feed the piece through quickly, or it will bind up and kick back.
My lesson: Besides eye protection, have something more substantial covering your core than a t shirt when working with a table saw.
Ouch! My dad and a few other cabinet makers I worked with always wore heavy denim shop aprons. Nice cest pocket for your pencil and if something did kick it really helped take the sting off as it hit you. I always wore a quilted flannel in the fall/winter as the shop was always cold...
A lot of this here is why I am buying bodies when building conventional shaped basses...let some other guy hack up his hands. I worked 14 years as a cabinet maker and another 8 in building maintenance. You can never be too safe and you will mess up your hands.
Well I am new to the whole building thing so I have made my share of mistakes already.
First, when making a hand made neck I didn't sand the but end of the neck completely square so when I was using my straightedge to align the neck before drilling the neck pocket, my measurements were off. I routed the neck pocket and saw my neck was titted 3/32nds to the bass side....Not then end of the world but still.
Here's a really bad one....I was routing a control cavity, and started to get impatient by making so many passes to get to thickness. I decided I wasn't going to measure anymore and just eyeball the depth of the router bit. I ended up with 40 thousandths of top wood left on my last pass. It sucks sanding off a whole top and putting a new one on...
And my latest blunder: routed a totally crooked truss rod slot for a flamed maple tele neck I was making....$45 dollar beautiful piece of wood now useless...
First, when making a hand made neck I didn't sand the but end of the neck completely square so when I was using my straightedge to align the neck before drilling the neck pocket, my measurements were off. I routed the neck pocket and saw my neck was titted 3/32nds to the bass side....Not then end of the world but still.
Here's a really bad one....I was routing a control cavity, and started to get impatient by making so many passes to get to thickness. I decided I wasn't going to measure anymore and just eyeball the depth of the router bit. I ended up with 40 thousandths of top wood left on my last pass. It sucks sanding off a whole top and putting a new one on...
And my latest blunder: routed a totally crooked truss rod slot for a flamed maple tele neck I was making....$45 dollar beautiful piece of wood now useless...
