Good Monday Morning!

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Sage Advice

~ By Brian Kelly, an ol timer mentoring beginning woodworkers ~

I have been making my living doing woodworking for over 50 years. I have been a boatbuilder, homebuilder, and cabinet shop owner.

I still have all of my fingers, although my right thumb was customized by an up-side-down skill saw in a piece of plywood that we were using as a table saw when I was in the Army.

Now, when I look at a post about somebody who’s having trouble with a splitter, or riving knife, or blade guards, there are quite a few who say “I’ve never used them because they get in the way”, or “throw them away, I never use them”, or something similar.

I have also heard similar things said about jointers, shapers, mitre saws, radial arm saws, even drill presses.

PLEASE STOP!

You don’t know how much experience a person has with the machine. It may be that they have never operated that tool before, with no idea what to expect, or it could be they have years of experience using it.

Either way, you have no business telling them to disregard safety equipment.

There are times when you have to take off some safety gear to get the job done. I’ve done that. Then you put it back on.

Even if you have used a saw for years without so much as a scratch, it only takes one tiny bit of inattention or unforeseen detail to result in a trip to the Emergency Room.

You are fine, the job is going well, and then it happens. Hopefully they can stitch you back together.

In some cases, with a jointer or shaper, there is nothing left to put together. The surgeon will probably have to finish shaping the bone so that there won’t be a sharp edge trying to poke through the skin.

I have seen so many accidents in the last 50+ years. They call them accidents, because nobody does them on purpose. But if you purposely leave your safety gear off of your tool, it may be a preventable accident.

At 78, usually working alone, I certainly don’t want any unnecessary visits to my local Emergency Room.

So, stop telling people that they don’t need to use the safety gear that came with the saw.

You don’t want to contribute to someone else’s accident!

Busy week ahead- visits, appointments and responsibilities. There's even a rumor that some of that white stuff may be in our future later this week.