We had a great response last month to Howard Van Valzah’s safety tip about wearing brightly colored gloves to help him stay aware of his non-dominant hand while woodworking and avoid scrapes and bruises (and worse!) In addition to being fun and challenging, woodworking can be a hazardous hobby, and any precautions we can take to have a more safe experience will definitely improve our overall enjoyment. It’s amazing how stopping to take an extra second makes a huge difference.
Now we want to hear from you on some of the safety precautions you take, and any little tricks you use to stay safe. Leave your ideas in the comments, and if you want to improve your safety, take a quick look at some of the safety items for sale at Highland Woodworking.
Safe Woodworking, everyone!
I have a Makita dual compound sliding miter saw which came with hold down clamps for the wood to be cut. Since the clamps hold down the work (yes, I KNOW it takes extra time to clamp and unclamp your work) you do not need to have your left hand anywhere near the blade. Duh. In fact, I have made a practice to place my left hand BEHIND my back before I turn on the saw. With one hand on the switch and the other hand behind your back, you cannot cut yourself. And if you clamp it right, no kickback worries either. Safest saw in the shop.
Just above the request for safety tips, there’s a nice photo of a hand and some steel wool cleaning rust from a table saw’s cast iron top. The hand in the photo appears free of nicks and cuts, but it would be safer to crank the saw blade down below the table surface. In fact, it’s a good idea to lower the blade whenever the table saw is not in use.
I recently completed a saw till to hold my motley collection of handsaws, and I incorporated an important rule into the design: Store the saw with its cutting edge toward the wall. Several saw till designs I’ve seen on the Internet are built to hold the saws with cutting edges facing away from the wall. That presents a lot of opportunities for cuts and nicks. Think of a kitchen knife holder: would you store the knives in a drawer with cutting edges up? Probably not for long!