Scott, that site lights up my AdBlock, some tracking stuff on there it doesn't like. Try this:
Uvex Astrospec 3000 | Eye and Face Protection | Honeywell Safety

 

Ditto on the great value of Saw Stop.

But, I have had experienced machinists (ones with all their fingers) warn me about wearing gloves around high power rotating machines like lathes, bench grinders and drill presses. A glove can get caught in the rotating parts with very disastrous effects. Ross's caution about clamping drill press parts is spot on.

 

I had to slow down and make sure I was keeping a shop helper safe the other day. Well, twice. We took the radiator out of the 55, and the boy made sure to lock the dog out of the shop. Before I even thought about it. Then, since we are working on my wife's truck, she came out to help.. Kind of like the old days before we were parents. She was always a great help on the race car. I find myself kind of retraining her particularly when it comes to safety. I really don't have to look after the boy anymore. But one pinched finger is likely to chase my wife out of the shop these days. I'm just glad to have her involved again. I don't think she is going to weld. The kid just loves it though. I think I am a better teacher than I am a welder myself. Every year older my eyes get the worse my welds get.

 

Good job . Yes, you have to be careful with dogs around antifreeze. They will even lick it up off the floor.

 

And make sure your wife doesn't put it in your sweet ice tea or your Gatorade!

 

Well, since I'm sitting here with a sore big toe with a blackened nail and recovering from hernia surgery on Friday, I'll throw reminders in here for wearing steel-toed shoes in the shop and also using proper lifting technique.

I've always had the 10-foot-tall and bulletproof, strong as an ox mentality and have tended to work accordingly. I've been pretty lucky thus far, but early this spring it caught up with me. I was cleaning up a piece of property one fine Saturday and spent several hours slinging 100 lb. chunks of concrete and cinder blocks up onto a pile. When I got home and hit the shower, I noticed a sore spot and a lump in my lower belly. A trip to the doc confirmed my suspicions. I had a blowout. Unfortunately, I had just started a new job and taking time off right then was out of the question. I had to nurse it through the whole year until I could get a week off and get it fixed. The surgery wasn't the worst thing I've ever dealt with, but the recovery hasn't been much fun and the whole experience was avoidable if I'd just used the backhoe or waited for somebody to give me a hand.

And then there was last week. I knew I would be unable to lift much for a couple weeks after the surgery, so I spent a lot of time out in the shop trying to get things caught up before I went under the knife. I was rushing and ended up bumping my Toyota steering box and knocking it off the work bench - and it landed on my toe. It didn't break my toe, but I bet I lose the nail before it's over with and WOW! did that thing hurt for a couple days! If I'd have bothered to put the steel-toed boots on that were right beside the tennis shoes that I put on instead, I'd have been fine. The good news is that I broke its fall and the steering box didn't get hurt!

So that's my message. Take care of yourselves out there, guys. None of us are bulletproof and none of us are getting any younger. A few extra seconds or even minutes spent identifying the hazards of the task and equipping yourself to handle them can easily avoid a lot of pain, regret, and lost time to heal. A little stubbornness and complacency can leave you hurting on the sidelines for weeks.

 

I'm used to steel toed boots now. Anytime I go into the plant in my new job it's steel toes, glasses and hard hat. I'm not doing the hard hat in the shop, but the other two are common. Gloves for many things as well. That's really hard for me to get used to.

 

Gloves for everything except machine work and applying duct tape.

 

I've had metal pulled out of my eye three times now, which wasn't fun, especially the time when the steel rusted in my eye causing more complications. But some of the pics on this thread down rite made me cringe. we all have done it, and all need to do better at using our safety gear, I know I do. Thanks for starting this thread Scott.

 

I need to wear glasses for seeing all the time. Safety glasses were a struggle as I could not find some that were able to go over my regular glasses. As well I often have to look at work above my head but close to me. Think looking over the top of my glasses. It took a couple of visits to different eye glass places but found a pair of safety glasses that have the up close lenses top and bottom and the far away lenses in the middle. Look a bit goofy but work great. All prescription of course.