Safety when you are alone.

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ed miles

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Last year there was a topic on PM on "Safety and the one man shop". Some of the postings were down right scary. The thread covered both the home shop and the guys that work alone for their bread and butter. My wake up call came when I tripped on the edge of a comfort mat in front of a lathe while I was carrying an eighty pound bearing with both hands. Landed on the floor and could not get up. Cell phone forty feet away in the rest room. No blood. just pain and afraid to move in case something was broken. After an hour or so it was clear something had to be done so movement started to see how far I could get. End result, got up hanging on to the side of a bench and made my way into a small rest room to sit down, have a coffee and assess my situation. Turns out it was only a lot of bruises and one damn sore big toe because when I tripped on the mat my shoe came off, and in landing I kicked the concrete floor.

The question is, what are your plans in the case of an accident where you could be unable to move, or the worst case, unconscious. The problem is an accident happens without warning. The only solution that seems to be at least usable is keep your cell phone in your shirt breast pocket, which only covers you when you are able to use the phone. No one had the answer to the worst case, that was feasable. Maybe our home shop people here could come up with something simple that would provide some form of help, when you can't help yourself.

Ed
 
I have two options in my little garage. All the power I have there is a big extention cord to power my shop so I could give it a yank and kill all the power.

Last week my woman was mowing the yard and I was running a weed eater. She tripped and fell on the ground and hurt her ankle. My pit bull puppy started barking like crazy and would not stop so I killed the weed eater and went to see what she was barking at and it was my woman laying on the ground.

Shes 51 and I am glad our new puppy is so sensitive to her and let me know. I hope she would sound the alarm if I went down hurt.

My dogs love to lay on the rug in my shop so in a small way I am never alone.

One thing is that if I feel like drinking beer its time to turn off the machines, turn on some music and do some cleaning and put some things away.

Dont drink and machine. :wink:
 
My worst scare wasn't working alone. It was in a full operation shop.
I was operating a large vertical boring mill gouging out a deep groove with
a 60 degree turning tool. The cut was making a wicked heavy stringer
when I'd first start the feed before it gained enough pressure to break the
chip. On one cut that stringer whipped at me and caught the front of my
shirt. It wrapped it up tight and started sucking me into the machine.
I was braced up with all I had to the frame of the machine, and the guys
working close had no idea it was happening.
Lucky It was an old shirt, and it ripped it free before it dragged me in.
Our little machines at home can be just as dangerous. They don't know
the difference between flesh and steel. A small stringer catching a ring
watch or sleeve could earn you a new nickname in less than a second.
This is a great hobby, but the machines need to be treated with the
respect they require.
Rings, watches, hair (not an issue for ME! :lol: ) If it can get caught it
probably will at some time.
Think about what could happen. For every point you can think of there
are a dozen more that you haven't thought of.
Years ago you could identify a machinist by his missing fingers.
There's no reason our hobby should be a danger.
You need those hands to build your next project.
Protect them with your head!
 
Safety in the shop is the first job. No one, and I mean no one comes into my shop without safety glasses on. Me, my wife, son, buddies, neighbors, etc. There are too many ways of lossing an eye out in the shop to not utilize a inexpensive pair of glasses.

The second thing is I always look at what I am doing and assess the risks involved with any given operation. Something as simple as pulling stock out of a bin gets a quick mental check. 1) How heavy is it? 2) Can it be easily pulled out? 3) Where is it going? 4) Is there a clear path to the destination? 5) Once at the point of destination, will it potincially fall off/down and cause a hazard? 6) What do I do if something goes wrong - exit strategy; call for help; what to do if injured; etc.

It only takes a few seconds to go through an operation mentally and see what you are about to do before doing it. Once you get your mind trained into thinking about it, it is second nature to assess your actions before making a move. An accident is usually a combination of factors that line up to initiate the event, but can happen very rapidly.

Also, I try to keep someone informed if I am doing something that is fairly risky. Example; lifting and object with an engine crane. This is what I deem as an elevated risk to perform, and typically will not do something like this alone. If I am "cornered" and have to, then a phone call to a friend, neighbor, significant other in another room, or whatever can be made to let them know that you are about to do ____ and that you will call back in a few minutes to check in. If that check-in call isn't made, then a plan of action is to be implemented (call emergency services, for instance). Make sure that the party your are relying on is responsible enough to be that back up and understands the plan!

Play it safe! Think about what you are doing.
 
Fire is my biggest fear. I have 5 fire bottles in my shop. Being the son of an automotive machinest and being bundled in a blanket to go to the shop in the middle of the night when the shop is on fire is unforgetable. All power in the shop is off at night.
 
the engineer said:
i have cerable palsey and as i have got older the falls are more frequent and hurt a lot more it seems :cry:

the boss at work worries all the time which irks me a bit as im the only one in seven years not to hurt my self at work
but i still love my work and life :D

I have noticed that increased pain and slower recovery time from falls myself as I get older. I have seen children learning to skate spend hours falling down, then getting up only to do it again and again. One or two and I would be on a stretcher!
Your experience at work just underlines the truth that Safety Is No Accident. It just takes some thought about the next procedure to save ourselves from unnecessary pain. Hurry without thought and it will bite you.
My hearing doesn't cover the same range of frequencies that most people hear. I can't hear the high notes. Not to much of a problem but those Sonalert alarms that are in many electronic devices are silent to me. And forget about watch alarms! Others can hear them from the next room over other noises but even in a quiet room all I can hear, if I am close enough, is a faint clicking. I just sit there fat, dumb and happy while others are agitated by the sound. I had to try out various fish finder/depth sounders to get a model that I could hear the alarms before I run aground. Many of us have problems that can be compensated for with a little thought and planning to make a safer working environment.
 
One point I'd like to add is TIREDNESS ,because it brings lazyness, about ten years ago I was working very late with a friend ,to finish a big wooden job which we were late with and getting hassled by the client ,my friend was passing me panels and I was pushing them through the circular saw, with the guard removed to make raised panels, a bit dangerous,done it a million times before, because it saves 2 hours setting up the spindle moulder just for a few pieces!,the shop was full of the job and I was putting the cut bits on the floor against the saw to save 10 seconds putting them somewhere else!, as a result my feet were getting gradually further away from the saw and on the last piece my thumb slipped over the blade and lost a 1/4 inch off the end, I won't go into details, but it scared the s**t out of me! and it was lucky my friend was there and rushed me to the hospital. I learnt the hard way (my fault!).I you're tired STOP ,it's not worth the risk!
 
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