Woodturning – Issue 343 – April 2020
English | 112 pages | pdf | 44.78 MB
Welcome at Woodturning Magazine Issue 343 April 2020
Everyone has an ‘oops’ moment, which will often turn out to be a defi ning point in time. The perpetrator of that moment is usually the person who was holding a piece of equipment and doing something with it when IT happened, or undertaking an action in the workshop, such as reaching up, over, or bending down to get something, stacking something, lifting something and so on. Now, some people could say that such things are just accidents. For instance, a cat or dog could randomly run under your feet and cause you to lose your concentration or your balance. But then, having said that, you should have shut the door so the cat, dog, family member, neighbour, pesky wasp, rat or other thing that does not belong in the workshop could not get in and cause you to lose concentration.
That sounds a bit harsh I know, but the workshop is your environment and it is down to you to keep everything in its place, keep it clean, keep the tools sharp but safely stored, make sure you have safety kit and so on in case something does go ‘oops’. Even with the best planning something can go wrong. But it is interesting how many times I hear of something going wrong in the workshop and someone is not even holding a piece of kit. How many people have tripped over a trailing lead or a piece of wood? How many of you have dropped a piece of equipment on your foot and were not wearing sturdy shoes or safety footwear?
How many of you know that turning tools tend to fall sharp-edge down? If you do know that, did you avoid injury? Have you ever reached into a pile of tools and cut yourself? Are all your shelves perfectly stacked? What about your woodpile? Do you hump around timber that would be better tackled by two people? Is your timber pile safe from toppling? The list is myriad, but every workshop contains risks and that is before we even start using tools and ancillary equipment to make and shape things.
Now, talking of someone working, I heard a tale not so long back of someone reaching across some spinning work on the lathe to get something off the shelf behind the lathe. They got caught in the spinning work and pulled onto the lathe. Thankfully they escaped serious harm because they had the tension on the belt drive set to low to avoid the risk of nasty catches. So, when they got tangled on the underside of the arm of their tight-fi tting jumper and wrapped around the work, dragging them into the lathe somewhat, the belt slipped instead, winding them in ever harder. The person escaped with some minor bruises, a very stretched jumper and a bruised ego. They
vowed to reorganise the workshop to be able to have the things to hand they needed without reaching across the lathe. Now, that incidence is a sobering thought. I will leave it for you to ponder.
We might shrug off the little accidents and slip-ups, but if they are more frequent, does it mean there are bigger problems that need attention? Hopefully
people will learn from the person who reached over the lathe too.
We should love our chosen hobbies and be thankful that we are able to do such wonderful creative things, but please do think and work safely.
Have fun, Mark
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