The Best Tool You Have is You

If I said the word “safety” your brain would shut down, because safety is boring. If I said “medallion,” your brain would light up with interest. It is much easier to make a medallion with 10 fingers. I am sure we all agree on that. I’d like to start this year of technical blogs with the basics.

Safety is always first.

Every profession has its dangers. Our profession dictates working with power tools every day. As qualified and as talented one can be, stuff happens. When it does, it can be a minor cut that would heal within a week or a serious injury that would not allow one to go back to work. Through the years I’ve seen so many people do stupid things working on job sites while using power tools. I used to be one of them. Years ago I was ripping a thin molding on my table saw without using a push block (the push block was next to me, I did say stupid, right?) The piece kicked back at my palm and sliced my flesh. Ten stitches later I became wiser.

The piece kicked back at my palm and sliced my flesh. Ten stitches later I became wiser.

We can all agree that Wayne Lee is more experienced and older than me.  He injured his finger not too long ago using a router. Whether or not we like to admit it, accidents happen. We can’t eliminate them with a 100 percent guarantee but we can definitely work harder to minimize the chance of an accident.

Have you ever read the first few pages of your miter saw manual? No. the first few pages are safety-related instructions, like “Don’t cut a piece of wood without securing the work piece first.” How many times have you cut a piece of wood too fast? How many times did you hold a work piece with your fingers so close to the blade on your table saw? No need to answer. I think we got the point.
I am not going to talk about the obvious stuff we all know, like use a sharp blade, keep your fingers out of the way and more. You can read all that in your manuals and you probably know most of it already. It is not a bad idea to review what you already know and to remind yourself that the best tool you have is you.

I’ll be (I hope) writing or posting a video blog from the Master Craftsman school coming up in a couple of weeks. If you will be there, get ready for hard work.