# Stimulating Conversation



## Ranger44 (Jun 7, 2016)

One thing that safety discussions do, is to bring out many views. Everyone is entitled to think as individuals, but the area of safety has to have rules to protect others as well as the worker. Once you have been made aware of the danger of something, it is silly not to protect yourself from it. Maybe I've just heard of and seen too many "dumb"accidents, leaving people in pain for the rest of their life. Stay safe, have a good day Bill


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

But the answer is the most illusive of all things. Common Sense. It's becoming a dying art.


----------



## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

The young think they're invincible ... or that "it won't happen to me".

The masses just don't think about it. It's always a case of "hindsight is better than foresight".

A lot of people seem to believe they are doing every thing correctly, and that safety equipment is only for the workplace. It's inconvenient and uncomfortable, so it's not "really necessary".

I wear safety glasses because my eyesight is precious. I am not one of those who will continue with my life if I go blind. My very next step will be suicide. So, I protect my eyesight.
I wear hearing protection. I already have hearing loss from 12 years of military aircraft, and I have permanent tinnitus at a volume level of normal conversation. I am trying to keep both from getting worse.
I wear a PFD when I am on the water, because I sink like a rock.
There are many safety features I don't pay much attention to, but mostly because, like the masses, I just don't think about it.


----------



## Ranger44 (Jun 7, 2016)

You are absolutely correct. If a person stops for a few seconds, looks over the situation,and does what makes sense, it is unlikely he or she will get hurt. Have to remember you are working usually with powerful equipment (compared to your skin and bones) Seen a lot of people with missing fingers, bad limp, sore back you name it, most of the time, it could have been avoided. Stay safe, have a good day.


----------



## Pineknot_86 (Feb 19, 2016)

> Common Sense. It's becoming a dying art.


How true! One slip of concentration can have serious consequences. Power tools and hand tools are to be used with cautious respect.
Here are my two goofs- I cut the end of my thumb while making a salad. That was $310 for three stitches. Should have thought of super glue. A while back, I was trimming the thread on a rod I was building and dropped the Xacto knife. It landed point first on my leather slipper. OK....but when I took off the slipper, I had a nice pinhole in my foot. Hard time to get the bleeding to stop.
Along those lines and maybe a bit off topic but I marvel at all the cameras and gadgets that are being put on cars to take the place of good driving habits and common sense. Saw several car ads while watching the ball games yesterday. Take care and think.


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

While safety is very important most of the time it goes overboard. Companies which make tools put a lot of safety equipment on tools which are designed poorly and for those not accident prone tend to make the tools more dangerous than if the safety devices were left off. I know myself I'm far more prone to shoot myself with a nail gun with a safety than without one. I shot myself once which was my fault when I was 18 and didn't repeat the mistake. It's like the stupid handles they put on a lawn mower that turns itself off when you let go. How often do we try to pick up a stick to get it out of the way without turning the mower loose and end up pulling the mower toward your hand.


----------



## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

Safety equipment is cheap insurance and even cheaper protection. Goggles/full face, respirator, hearing protection, heavy apron +/- waterproof.
All you have to do is spend 10 minutes stone carving with a diamond blade in an angle grinder to get the whole message.

I've been hit with stone shrapnel that should have put my eye out. Never saw it coming at all.
Hit once in the forehead with a TC tooth from a 10" saw blade, I had to pick it out.

Proud to say that I have never, ever drilled a hole in metal without at least goggles.
Never see it coming but I can feel it.


----------



## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

Had a friend, a while back (stunning, I know) who was making his own throttle cable for his motorcycle. Using side cutters to trim the cable back before putting the end on it, he felt a sting in his left eye. The pain was minor, instantaneous and then gone. He figured something had "bounced" off his eye.
Two days later, his eye was hurting more than eh could stand, so he went to the emergency room. 
A small piece of wire had pierced the eye and stop in the Aqueous humour (fluid), which is a wonderful medium for growing bacteria. The infection had already done too much damage and they had to remove his eyeball.

I don't follow ALL safety "rules" ... but I do protect my eyes.


----------



## subroc (Jan 3, 2015)

The things that have an impact on us. More often than not we learn from our own mistakes. Sometimes we learn from watching others make mistakes. Sometimes a good story is enough. A guy I worked with told a story of a guy working under a dashboard installing a car radio. The speaker wires got hung up. He took a double ended scratch awl, the ones with a hook on the other end and hooked the wires and gave a little tug. That tug freed the wires and allowed him to drive the scratch awl right into his own eye. In the 35 years since I heard that story I never looked at such a simple tool without giving it the safety respect it deserved.


----------



## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

Any of you are gamblers? There isn't one chance in a hundred that you will survive a direct hit from metal or stone without some damage.
Idiots, dorks and fools don't use safety equipment.


----------



## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

Robson Valley said:


> There isn't one chance in a hundred that you will survive a direct hit from metal or stone ...


Good thing we're only working with wood, then! :wink2:


----------



## subroc (Jan 3, 2015)

Here is a weird one. Years ago, I went to visit a friend who was a city boy turned farmer. Anyone that knows farmers they just can't stop working. While we were having a couple beers, he decided a simple task that would fill some time while we had those few beer would be to put some handles on a few hammer heads that he had. While driving one of the hammer heads on the handle it became cocked. He took one of his completed hammers and hit hit the face with the other face in an attempt to straighten it. The face came apart with the power of a firearm. it literally shot him in the leg. He had to dig that hardened piece out of his leg with his pocket knife.

The moral of this story, don't strike a hardened surface with another hardened surface.

BTW, I am sure every one of us that has worked in the trades could tell safety stories all day long.


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

It's been ages since I've bought a new hammer. Even in back in the 1970's there were warning labels on hammers saying not to strike another hammer with the hammer. It works better anyway to hold the handle and hit the end of the handle on something solid.


----------



## subroc (Jan 3, 2015)

Steve Neul said:


> *It's been ages since I've bought a new hammer.* Even in back in the 1970's there were warning labels on hammers saying not to strike another hammer with the hammer. It works better anyway to hold the handle and hit the end of the handle on something solid.


I am new to all this woodworking stuff. As my hammer draw has probably 25 or 30 hammers in it from brass to bronze to leather to ball peen, to cross peen, to plastic to 3 pounders to etc, I only owned 2 carpenter/claw hammers. Over the years, I misplaced both. Last year I needed a hammer and just had to buy one. I picked an Eastwing straight claw. I have since found both of the other hammers.

With that drawer full of hammers, I too thought I would never buy another.

BTW, I have mulled the idea of buying a dead blow hammer for years.


----------



## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

Ooooooooo ... I LOVE my dead blow hammers. You could, just about, move a house off it's foundations with a 5 pound dead blow.

I know, I know. I've been told a million times, "stop exaggerating!"


----------



## subroc (Jan 3, 2015)

mikechell said:


> Ooooooooo ... I LOVE my dead blow hammers. You could, just about, move a house off it's foundations with a 5 pound dead blow.
> 
> I know, I know. I've been told a million times, "stop exaggerating!"


I believe you!

A guy named Archimedes once said:


> Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world


 http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/archimedes101761.html


----------



## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

At the end, I add metal, shell or stone accents to many of my wood carvings. Of course they need to be shaped for the purpose.
I have been hit in the face so many times that I just smile to hear the chunk bounce off my mask.
The hell of it is, that chunk may be the bit I wanted to keep. . . . start over.


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

subroc said:


> I am new to all this woodworking stuff. As my hammer draw has probably 25 or 30 hammers in it from brass to bronze to leather to ball peen, to cross peen, to plastic to 3 pounders to etc, I only owned 2 carpenter/claw hammers. Over the years, I misplaced both. Last year I needed a hammer and just had to buy one. I picked an Eastwing straight claw. I have since found both of the other hammers.
> 
> With that drawer full of hammers, I too thought I would never buy another.
> 
> BTW, I have mulled the idea of buying a dead blow hammer for years.


Unless you lose or have your hammer stolen there is no real reason to replace a hammer. If a hammer handle is broken it has been abused. I've seen people slip a pipe over the handle of a hammer when they are trying to pull a nail. In that situation it's the wrong tool for the job. It's why wrecking bars are made.


----------



## hwebb99 (Nov 27, 2012)

I have several hammers with bad or missing handles. In most cases they were just old and eventually came out.


----------



## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Bandsaw and a sander will make new handles. I recently made handles for two hammers someone gave me the heads.


----------



## hwebb99 (Nov 27, 2012)

I have handles laying around. I just haven't put them on yet. I have an old hatchet that cuts really good, but I can't keep a handle in it. I think the tang is too small. I'm thinking of just welding a piece of 1" pipe to it.


----------



## Brian T. (Dec 19, 2012)

I haft all my crooked knives and adze blades into handles I make up myself. Same for the bowdrill for firemaking.
The slickest method is to start with a bandsaw and finish with spoke shaves, if the carving is really simple.

That gives me control over all of it, handle diameter in particular.


----------



## subroc (Jan 3, 2015)

Are you all making your handles out of ash?


----------



## Jig_saw (May 17, 2015)

Steve Neul said:


> But the answer is the most illusive of all things. Common Sense. It's becoming a dying art.


Common sense is most uncommon in today's world. Maybe something to do with the internet and cell phones.


----------



## Jig_saw (May 17, 2015)

mikechell said:


> Had a friend, a while back (stunning, I know) who was making his own throttle cable for his motorcycle. Using side cutters to trim the cable back before putting the end on it, he felt a sting in his left eye. The pain was minor, instantaneous and then gone. He figured something had "bounced" off his eye.
> Two days later, his eye was hurting more than eh could stand, so he went to the emergency room.
> A small piece of wire had pierced the eye and stop in the Aqueous humour (fluid), which is a wonderful medium for growing bacteria. The infection had already done too much damage and they had to remove his eyeball.
> 
> I don't follow ALL safety "rules" ... but I do protect my eyes.


When I was much younger, I was once drilling into a mild steel frame above the eye level looking upward. I felt a little irritation that persisted in the right eye, and I washed it several times without much improvement. When I went to a doctor he found two tiny metal shards in my right eye embedded lightly in the dark portion near the pupil. He used a magnet to remove them. After that I have always worn safety glasses when drilling, cutting, or grinding metal.


----------

