How many times do we hear – especially during Wood Workers Safety Week – that safety is job number one? The primo position. Right there on the top of the list.

But, what are jobs number two, three, four and five? How about job number 12? Those are mill, joint, cut joinery, assemble, sand and finish, right?

Not so fast, chief.

True, it’s only fitting and appropriate that before we start working in the shop, we take the time to do the right stuff.  Splitter or riving knife on the table saw? Check. Push sticks handy? You got it. Loose stuff off the floor so you can’t trip on it? Oh yeah.

After that, though, do we continue to put safety on our list? I mean, it’s easy to fall into a pattern when we’re working. We’ll get on a roll and allow offcuts to build up on the table saw top. Or, we’ll maybe forget to grab those safety glasses sitting on the workbench across the room. Maybe that cut we swear up and down is too risky to make while we’re out of the shop doesn’t look too challenging while we’re at the workbench. Or, we’ll work until we are well past tired and want to make that proverbial “One Last Cut.”  You know the one that leads to many injuries.

It’s easy to become lax as we work… making the safety at the top of the list argument an afterthought before we make the boneheaded move that requires us to reach for the first aid kit or – heavens forbid – the phone to dial 9-1-1.

I can’t take credit for this outlook. I’m an advocate of Mike Rowe’s argument that safety is indeed job three… and many other slots on that list. Maybe I didn’t make the point clearly enough, but perhaps Mike can convince you. Check out this link to hear his explanation for yourself.

As we work our way through Wood Workers Safety Week, take a look at your safety practices. Check out your safety gear. And remember, the most important safety device that you own rests between your ears. Use it.

We’re in Wood Worker’s Safety Week, and I’m sure you are 100% fully compliant on all safety practices. There is a zero percent chance of an accident ever befalling you…

Well, we’d all like to believe that. But, as we know in life, the only things that are 100% certain are death and taxes. Beyond that, it’s a crap shoot. That doesn’t mean that you don’t want to load the dice in your favor, right?  I mean, none of us takes down the box of rat poison and pours it over their breakfast cereal in the morning.  Or walks out into the middle of traffic on a busy road without at least a half-hearted glance to see if cars are oncoming. We don’t light the barbecue grill inside the living room, do we?

In the same way, becoming a little bit safer in the workshop really doesn’t take much thought or effort – or certainly cost. By following a few simple safety tips, you can improve the odds that a freak accident won’t befall you.

1) Kill clutter.  It never fails – you start working on a project  and the next thing you know, there are extension cords, offcuts and tools all over the place. On the floor. On the bench. Across the shop. They become tripping hazards. Dropping hazards.  I’ve found myself recently becoming lax on cleaning up my messes during a project. There have been times where I have piled up so many tools, clean up could take several days. That’s why I’ve had to institute a plan that at least keeps the mess at bay. My new cell phone has a countdown timer on it. Now, I set the timer for one hour, and when it goes off, I take the time to look at the bench and the tools to see if anything can be cleaned up or put away. Sure, it’s a pain in the rear, but taking a forced break every hour to walk away from the bench and clean up some stuff helps to keep a tidier – and safer – work area.

2) Avoid overloads. In order to save a few bucks, I used to use light-gauge outdoor extension cords from the one outlet in my shop and plug in multiple tools. And, for some time, this arrangement worked well for me. That was until one day I smelled this aroma of hot plastic in the shop. What could it have been?  Much to my amazement, the extension cord was uncomfortably hot to the touch. Now, I’m sure the circuit breaker would have kicked in before something would have happened, but it was shortly after that my wife and I had to have a conversation about adding a few shop dedicated circuits to handle the loads I was placing on the tools.

2a) Sure, it cost some money, but there was an added bonus – when I put the tools on two dedicated circuits, if the breaker ever did trip, the lights remained on in the shop. This was a HUGE improvement over what used to happen; the circuit would trip, and the lights would go off with a spinning blade I could no longer see right in front of me…

3) When in doubt, secure your work.  If I’m going to route a set of dovetails, I’ll take the time to carefully clamp the work to my bench. If I’m going to joint a board with my hand planes, I’ll crank down on the board in the vise. But, when I have to make a few simple cuts with a chisel, I typically just lay the board down on the bench surface and go to it. Or, even dumber, I’ve even HELD the board with one hand while using the chisel with the other. That was cool in my eyes, until the day I accidentally laid the sharp edge of a 1 inch chisel across my inner left wrist. You know, where all the veins, arteries, tendons, nerves and ligaments run that operate your hand run. I barely got a scrape from my encounter, but I could have been looking at some major micro surgery to get my left hand working well again.  That was the day I bought a set of Quick Grip trigger clamps, and now I set the piece down on the bench and clamp it into place. Sure, it takes some extra time, but when I think of complaining about that, my mind flashes back to that scary incident.

These three tips are just a starting point. In fact, I’d love to hear more about your safety tips. Remember, Wood Workers Safety Week works when we all share our collective wisdom and help keep everyone happily pursuing the craft.

There are lots of useful power tools in the shop. The band saw. The router. The thickness planer. The drill press.

But, as far as versatility is concerned, there are few multi-taskers as capable as the table saw.

Rip. Crosscut. Angle cut. Cut joinery. If you can dream it, a well-tuned table saw can get you there.

But, the major concern about this useful tool is safety. A quick visit to the Table Saw Accidents site shows that table saws cause the most injuries of any stationary power saw. A blade with carbide teeth whirring at between 5,000 and 9,000 RPMs can get your attention in a hurry.

Many of the accidents involved contact with the blade or some kind of kickback, but a significant number of injuries occur when an off cut is caught and thrown back toward the operator or the operator reaches across the blade to retrieve an off cut. With the saw blade’s teeth arranged on a circular blade body, it’s easy to see that the the teeth that do the cutting at the front of the blade push the work down to the table. The problem comes in when something contacts the teeth rising out of the back of the table.  Should a workpiece his that, it could be sent flying back toward you.

And, I know you know the safety rule about keeping your hands at least three inches away from the blade at all times, but  there’s always that moment during repetitive cutting where I find myself reaching across the top of the blade reflexively to knock an off cut away. It’s always a bad idea, and I know I have to remind myself to stop doing that.

But, what about those pesky offcuts?  How can you corral them safely to keep them away from the blade and keep them from interfering with your work?

Some of the tips I’ve seen out there include:

Zero Clearance Inserts. These insert plates allow for a very tight opening around the table saw blade, preventing thinner offcuts from falling into the saw’s body. Not only do they prevent these issues, they also allow for cleaner cuts with little tear out where the blade exits the bottom of the work piece. They are very easy to make, so keep a few on hand if you change your blade or for different dado blade widths.

Use your splitter. Splitters and riving knives help to prevent contact with the back side of the saw blade. Working without a splitter could allow the wood you are cutting to do just that. Riving knives, since they raise and lower with the blade, rarely have to be removed.  Splitters do have to be removed for non-through cuts.  So, if you need to take it off for an operation, be sure to return it when you are done.

Support your crosscut. If you have to do a lot of crosscutting, a crosscut jig can help you get better control.  By building a version that straddles the blade, your work will be supported on both sides of the cut. Also, if you build the sled properly, you can clamp  a piece of scrap wood as a hold down clamp, holding both the keeper and offcut piece safely in place.

Watch the side space. It’s tempting to use both the miter gauge (to hold the piece at 90 degrees) and the rip fence (as a stop block to cut consistent lengths) to make crosscuts, but that’s a very bad idea. By not allowing enough room for the off cut to fall away, it could pinch between the blade and fence and fly back at you. It’s a great idea to use a stop block clamped to the rip fence as a gauge and setting that gauge behind the point where the blade contacts the wood. This way, once the piece clears the blade, it’s free to fall away.

Support your pieces. The table saw makes quick work of ripping, but you have got to exercise care when doing that. For long pieces, set up an outfeed table slightly lower than the height of the table saw’s top. This way, when the board clears the saw and the weight tips the board toward the outfeed side, you still have support under the board, preventing it from pivoting away from you.

Clear those offcuts. Sure, they seem innocent enough, just sitting there on the left side of the blade. Those little offcut pieces don’t normally cause issues… but  they can vibrate into the blade and be flung at you.  I’ve seen lots of jigs out there to steer those scraps away from the blade. I’ve seen people try to hook up compressed air systems to blow them away.  And, it always seems like such a great idea to push them away from the spinning blade with a stick and keep on cutting. But, so far, the safest way I’ve seen to remove them from the saw is to turn the darned thing off between cuts, wait until the blade comes to a stop and then pull them away.

Needless to say, you should also wear all of the obligatory safety gear, never operate the saw after drinking or on certain prescription drugs and always listen to that little voice in your head. That way, you can spend more time fuming about your offcuts and less time nursing a pretty gruesome injury.

It’s not often that when we think of shop safety that our thoughts turn to our feet, but think about it for a minute.  Do you hand plane? You probably stand to do that. Rip boards on the table saw? Probably standing. Rout mortises with a plunge router?  Up on your feet. Gotta walk across the shop to get the only chisel in your set that you really REALLY need to use to precisely trim a joint, but  you forgot in your tool box.  Feet, don’t fail me now!

Yet, still, we often think about the puppies after everything else has been considered.

Well, my job today is to get your feet to the top of your mind… so to speak. Let’s take a look at some of the footwear options in the shop.

Barefoot. I’m sure this was the footwear of choice of woodworkers for millenia. And, I’m also willing to bet that this level of footwear served its owner well.  Of course, there are a few downsides to this option. There’s no protection from temperature extremes, stuff laying on the ground you could step on or things dropping onto your foot. Also, it’s absolutely miserable to stand on a concrete shop floor for a long time with no sort of cushioning. This may not be the best option in today’s shop.

Socks. Not as silly as it seems. In the Japanese woodworking tradition, special socks with split toes are worn by woodworkers. This gives them the flexibility to use their bodies as weights to hold boards down as they work on their projects. It also helps that the traditional Japanese woodworking is done on the floor or at low trestles.This reduces the likelihood that something could be dropped onto your feet.

Sandals. I’m sure they were popular in places such as the Roman Empire (where many western woodworking traditions began) as well as Florida.  They are a step up from bare feet, but still offers no protection from the occasional gravity test.

Athletic shoes. Super comfortable and supportive, these babies make standing for a long time very easy on the feet. They also have skid resistant soles, which can prevent an unexpected slip. Of course, the only issue is if something gets dropped onto your feet from a bench.

Boots. This is what I prefer to work in when I’m in the shop. I use some gel insoles in them for added comfort. My boots have steel toes and are made of thick leather, which gives me a lot of confidence that should anything fall, my feet will be protected.  They also have slip resistant soles. Now, they are heavier that any of the other options, so they can make my legs tired, but I’m willing to deal with that.

Gosh, it seems as if I’m spending a lot of time worrying about something falling off the bench onto my foot.  Sure, I might be overreacting… but this video shows what happens when a 27 pound cast block of iron falls on a steel toed boot.

No, I’m not likely to drop cast blocks of iron onto my feet, but, hey, ya never know what else could fall.

And, protecting your feet can prevent the need to get back on your feet after an accident.

Woodworking is an awesome craft, hobby, profession and avocation. You can build family heirlooms, make your living area more functional or create a work of art. It’s something that can make your spirits soar or just provide you an opportunity to unwind after a hard day’s work.

But, it should never be something you get hurt doing.

That’s why a lot of research and development money is spent on safety equipment. Safety glasses, hearing protection, guards and jigs are developed and improved each year. And, they protect the users from risks such as eye or hand injuries.

When it comes to safety, another critical component to consider is dust collection. Keeping the dust out of your lungs and nose can prevent a number of problems such as nasal polyps, sinus infections and cancer.

“Besides the health concerns, there are far more practical things to consider,” said Tim Walter of Eagle America. “If you don’t like sweeping up mountains of sawdust, adequate dust collection is for you!”

Tim explained to me that when it comes to dust collection, defense in depth is a key. “Taking care of dust in your shop starts where it’s created with the big stuff and gets finer and finer.”

Tim pointed out that the big offenders in the shop need to be addressed first. “A bigger dust collector in your shop can pull in dust from your table saw, jointer, planer, band saw and other tools. You can have a portable hose that you move from tool to tool, or, if you have a powerful enough collector, you can set up a fixed dust collector system with piping in place from tool to tool.”

Some tools – such as cabinet table saws – make dust collection an easy proposition. They already have a dust collection port and handling built in to the design. “There are many other tools such as contractor table saws and router tables that are a lot tougher. That’s why we offer products such as the Dust Cutter which make these tools a lot easier to collect dust from.”

While fixed systems are great for stationary shop tools, those hand-held power tools can generate a blizzard of sawdust that needs to be handled as well. “Ever try collecting the dust from a session of routing into MDF? You’ll drive yourself nuts!” To help with these situations, you can rely on light flexible hoses that can plug into your larger system, or get a point of origin collector. “Any shop vacuum can serve well as a dust collector, but there’s definitely a step up with either a Fein or a Festool collector. They both come with a feature that will turn the collector on when the tool is activated. It makes using the collector a lot easier.” Added bonuses include portability, better filtration than your average shop vacuum and a whole lot less noise. Built in mufflers keep both the Fein and Festool at a more comfortable decibel level.

For the finer dust that gets into the air, filtration systems can help keep the airborne particles at bay. “These are not replacements for a dust collection system, but offer another layer of protection for your lungs.” While most tool manufacturers offer expensive systems that can be hung in the shop, Eagle offers the Demo AirNet. “It’s a very cool system that attaches to a normal fan. It will filter debris out down to five microns, making the air a whole lot easier to breathe.”

Finally, when working it a very dusty environment, there’s nothing quite like a personal air mask. “If you are working in dusty environments for a short time or not too frequently, disposable masks make a lot of sense. If you spend more time in the dust or haven’t yet gotten your dust collection system up to snuff, a respirator with replaceable filters is a sound investment in your health.”

While it may not be as glamorous as a new table saw or the latest router bit collection, dust collection is a sound investment in keeping your shop a safer, cleaner and more productive place.

Iggy the Trained Shop Monkey here, and, boy, do I have a howler for you today.

But, first, I wanted to share with you a quick definition that I found online:

i·ro·ny

/ˈaɪrəni, ˈaɪər-/ [ahy-ruh-nee, ahy-er-]

noun,plural-nies.

1.the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.

2.Literature.

a.a technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.

b.(esp. in contemporary writing) a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion.

3.Socratic irony.

4.dramatic irony.

5.an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.

6.the incongruity of this.

7.an objectively sardonic style of speech or writing.

8.an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc.

Now that we have that out of the way, I want to share with you something that Tom, the supposedly more ‘advanced’ member of this pair, did over the weekend.

About 30 hours after posting his link of the week this past Friday – you remember, the one about what to put in your first aid kit – he was out playing around in the yard with his brand new spiffy hedge cutters.  This  was taking place after a busy morning of using a pole pruner (chainsaw on a stick, basically) to trim back some trees.  With that long and arduous task behind him and the pole pruner returned to the rental center, he moved  on to other  yard work.  While shearing back the suriname cherry hedge in front of the house with his new hedge trimmer, he proceeded to use his right hand to sweep some cuttings out of the way.

While his left finger was on the trigger.

An 8" x 10" glossy color photograph of the quote SCENE OF THE CRIME unquote...

Let’s see if you can fill in the blanks…

Since I was watching from the shop, I saw it all.  He dropped the trimmer and began the ‘Ouch this hurts’ dance universally performed by people across the globe when bad stuff happens.  With blood flowing freely from his finger, he pounded on the door for his poor, long suffering wife while I raced outside with the first aid kit from the shop.

No, we didn’t have to go looking in the shrubs for his missing digit.  It was – fortunately – still firmly attached to the rest of his hand. He said he had feeling in his fingertip and could still bend the joint.  Good boy.  So, with direct pressure on the injury and his two kids safely at the neighbor’s place, we took off for the immediate care clinic.

The doctor was a nice fellow and took some pity on poor Tom with a quick lidocane injection to dull the pain.  If I was the doc, I would have given him a stick to chew on, but that’s just me…  Six stitches and half a mile of gauze later, and the boy was on his way home.

All this at the end of Woodworker’s Safety Week, to boot.

How ironic, don’t you think?

This got me thinking.  After questioning the lovable galoot for a few minutes, I found a disturbing pattern developing.  All morning, he was hyper-vigilant about safety while using the pole saw.  A spinning chainsaw above your head dropping huge laurel oak limbs to the ground has this way of waking you up and paying attention.

But, later on in the day, this happened.  He said since this tool was a light-duty $40 model trimming a bush, he let his guard down.  If the trimmer had a little more oomph, it may have taken the whole finger with it.  He thought the worst he could get was a nip.

And, that’s exactly what he got.  A six-stitch nip.

Now, he’s been put on light duty for the rest of the week.  No woodworking.

I just hope that the big guy uses this time to think things over before he does any more work.  Even the tools that can’t hurt ‘too badly’ can really do a number on you.

What should my woodworking first aid kit contain?

It’s a piece of equipment we need to keep in our shops, but we hope we never have the opportunity to use it.  A well-stocked first aid kit is a necessity, and most woodworkers will dutifully go to the largest big box store and pick something up off the shelf.

But, do these pre-packed kits have everything you might need?

Accidents in the shop can be very severe, requiring more than a few band aids and an instant cold compress.  How about a bottle of Betadine wash, so you can sterilize deep cuts?  A bottle of sterilized water should you get something in your eye?  And, for the very worst case scenario, a one gallon zip top bag should you have to bring a severed body part with you to the hospital.

This comprehensive list goes into some incredible detail, but, hey, when you need it, you need it!