10 Full Fingers!

My brother had an interesting post on his blog the other day about a revolutionary safety device for table saws, called SawStop.  It's kind of amazing - this gizmo stops the saw blade almost immediately when it contacts your body.  I suspect you'd get a nasty cut and need some stitches, but that's a far cry from an amputation.  As I said on my comment on his post, it doesn't surprise me at all that it's not been widely adopted - many guys seem to feel that being inordinately concerned with their health or safety is a sign of weakness.

In the past, I've worked with a lot of equipment that could cause a lot of damage to your body - press brakes, shears, lathes, drill presses, forklifts, saws, and more.  Fortunately, I've still got all my assigned body parts - I've really never had a close call.  I have, however, had to make a few decisions.

When I was 17, my buddy and I went to a local factory, told them we were 18, and got hired to work in the plant.  We started on the paint line, then got moved to more demanding jobs as the summer went on.  One night, I was sent to the fabrication department.  They first had me help the set-up guy install a die (this mainly consisted of me standing around and handing him tools when he asked for it).

After the die was installed, they had me run  the machine.  My job was to put the metal blank in the die, hit the foot pedal, and remove the stamped part.  The die area was approximately 24" square, and it required both hands to remove the part, since it tended to stick in the machine.  This press had been originally designed to trip only when the foot pedal and palm button were depressed at the same time.  Someone had wired around the palm button, so the machine cycled whenever you hit the (unguarded) foot pedal.  The cycle time for each trip was about 2 seconds - fast enough to make me think I'd never get my hands out of there if I tripped it at the wrong time.

I ran this machine for one whole shift, and part of the next.  At that time, I was convinced it was only a matter of time before I tripped and hit the foot pedal, causing me to lose both hands.  At lunch time, I went to my boss and told him I wouldn't run that thing any more - if he wanted to fire me, that would be OK.  I was kind of surprised when he sent me over to a different job.  I noticed another guy running the equipment for the rest of that night (and they never sent me to fabrication again).

Think about this - they had an underage employee running a machine that had been modified to bypass its already marginal safety circuit.  Had I been seriously hurt, they'd have been in big trouble.  Of course, I lied about my age - I wasn't innocent in this whole deal - but I'd put most of the responsibility on the company management.  They knew, or should have known, that the equipment had been modified - certainly my supervisor knew.  I'm certain if my father would have known about it, he'd have gone ballistic.

Years later, I was in charge of the sheet metal shop in a manufacturing plant.  An employee who worked for me on the punch presses had lost parts of several fingers in a horrible punch press accident a few years before I started working there.  This same guy would point out things to me by sticking his hand in a RUNNING PUNCH PRESS!  When I'd yell at him for that, he'd say, "It can't trip unless the palm buttons are both pushed."  This is technically true, but any mechanical device is subject to the possibility of failure.  I was never willing to trust my safety to the ability of a safety device to work perfectly.  I once ran a press brake - a big metal press with "V" dies used to bend long pieces of metal.  One brake I ran developed 150 TONS of force, and it was completely unguarded (it cycled when the operator hit a foot pedal).  One day, I was about ready to hit the pedal, when it just started cycling!  Something had broken in the linkage, and it was just running wild - no safety device would have helped in this circumstance.

Old equipment didn't tend to have safety guards.  The first table saw I ever ran was simply a table with a saw blade sticking up through a slot.  Modern saws - even cheap ones like I own - have a spring loaded guard that rotates out of the way when the material hits it, as well as an anti-kickback guard designed to grab the wood if it gets caught in the blade.  The next generation of saws will have SawStop, or something we haven't even thought of yet.  If I ran a table saw with SawStop, what would I do differently?  NOTHING!  I'd still have the other guards in place, adjust the blade so it barely clears the work piece, and use a push stick to push narrow pieces by the blade.  If I do all that, I should never have to depend on the hotshot safety device to protect me.  The device is there to save you if you have a momentary lapse of concentration - not to allow you to be careless.  If all that is stopping you from being hurt is the safety device, sooner or later you'll be hurt.

 In about 30 years of working in industry, my experience has convinced me that I have the primary responsibility for protecting myself.  With that in mind, here are a few general guidelines I try to follow that have helped me avoid serious injury at work and at home:

• Never operate equipment without safety guards in place.  This seems obvious, but I can't tell you how many times I've seen people run power saws or other equipment with safety equipment missing, modified, or disabled.
• Even when safety devices are installed, operate the equipment as though they weren't there.  Don't reach into the mower to clear a clog with it running.  Don't put your hands by the saw blade - no matter what, don't do it!
• Always assume the machine will cycle unexpectedly.  If your saw is unplugged, and you've got control of the cord, it won't start.  If it's plugged in, it may turn on, even if you don't intend it.
• Always assume the car will fall off the jack.  Use blocks to make sure it won't fall on you, and stay out from under it, if possible.
• Unplug it before you work on it!  Lock out circuit breakers, if necessary - don't depend on someone knowing you're doing some work - make sure they can't turn the power back on.
• Use the right ladder, and don't stand on the top rung.  Buy or rent a taller ladder, if necessary - it's cheaper than rehab.
• Don't reach when you're on a ladder.
• Test to see if the power is still on before messing with the wiring.  Invest in a circuit tester.  Did you know you can get shocked on some equipment even with the power off?  If you don't know how, don't mess with it!
• Use the right saw for the job.  Use the proper blade, and adjust the blade so it cuts just barely deep enough.  No, Kari, your new circular saw is not the right choice to cut tree branches!
• Wear eye protection.
• Keep your hands,body parts, or clothing away from rotating equipment.  Gloves can be a real danger around drill presses and lathes - short sleeves and bare hands are better.
• Jewelry doesn't belong in the shop.  Don't want to take your ring off?  You'll need to put it on a different finger after your finger is ripped off!
• If your boss tells you to do something unsafe, say no.  It wasn't easy for me to do that at 17, when I didn't need the job to support my family, and it will be harder for your to do it as an adult.  Do it anyway - if you get fired for not risking your safety, you don't want to work for that company.
• Lift with your legs, not your back.  Most back injuries are self-inflicted.
• If you don't have the necessary skills, tools, and know-how to do a job safely and correctly, hire a professional.  My son and daughter-in-law had a serious roof problem brought to their attention on a rainy, snowy weekend.  Their roof is steep and high - I don't even own a ladder tall enough to get up on top.  They called a pro who crawled up there at night in the rain and controlled the issue - money well-spent, in my opinion.   Sometimes the cheapest solution is to pay someone to do it right.

Do I always follow all of these rules?  No, of course not, but I'm pretty good about most of them.  It's amazing how often you can get by with doing something stupid.  I once watched my neighbor stand on the top rung of a ladder sitting on top of a scaffold in his back yard.  He was reaching out with a chain saw at the end of a long pole, trimming a tree in his back yard - he must have been 30 feet above ground.  When the saw cut through the branch, he almost fell when the branch hit the ladder.  The fact that he was able to get by with this one time doesn't mean he won't be seriously injured if he keeps it up - in fact, it's very nearly a guarantee that he'll hurt himself at some point.

I've been fortunate - I've never been seriously hurt at work.  I've been careful AND lucky - I've seen careful guys get hurt on occasion.  If you're careless, you're almost dead certain to get hurt.  One second of carelessness could result in a lifetime of disability or worse.  Don't depend on luck - take responsibility for your own safety.