Metalworking safety tips: General Industry Coverage

Living is a dangerous occupation—just look at how many dead people there are. Metalworking is no more dangerous than any other human occupation; its hazards are just different.

Safety is a situational awareness issue as opposed to an equipment one. Just because you have protective equipment and guards in place does not ensure any particular level of safety. Similarly, experience and training can help, but do not guarantee safety.

If you never get in a car, it’s less likely you will be in a car accident than a person who frequently does. If you never stick your arm in a log chipper, you will most likely never have it removed by one. These examples describe two kinds of hazards: Hazards that can seek you out and ones you can just plain avoid.

Years ago, I went to one of those once-in-a-lifetime, super-duper garage sales where a retired metalworker was selling his junk pile to move across the country. A friend and I must have spent the better part of a day rummaging around in the various rooms and sheds in a machinery-drunken stupor. We each had a pile of treasure, which grew steadily as the day wore on.

The metalworker had pulled out all the stops to help unload his massive collection of rust-colored treasure. He even carted a large portion from the basement and set it along the driveway so more people could see the stuff at one time. I suspect it was also so people could actually enter the basement and move around. This guy had that much stuff. I get misty eyed just thinking about it.

Sometime in the late afternoon, a neighbor stopped by and asked the owner of this fantastic collection, who was also the area’s Mr. Fixit, to help him repair a lawn mower blade. The metalworker had set up the blade in a vise attached to a bench. Out of the corner of my awareness, I heard him hammering on the errant blade. I paid it no real heed because I was at least 50 ‘ away.

After a vicious round of hammering, I found a real gem in the pile I was sorting through. I stood up and raised the bauble so my buddy could see my find and the gloat on my face. Bing! One more hit with the hammer and a sudden pain at the corner of my right eye. Apparently, Mr. Fixit was using a cold chisel to chip the heads off several steel rivets holding the blade to the hub. A chunk of rivet clipped me. I was extremely lucky because it only caused a small nick and a watering eye for 30 minutes.

This is an example of a hazard that seeks you out, which is tough to guard against.

Courtesy of T. Lipton