[TheForge] Tongs & power hammer - a safety issue?

[Andy Vida]

xlch58@swbell.net wrote:
> 
> If your hands are baby smooth, with nary a trace of scratch or burn,
> then maybe you are the super vigilant one that has no need to consider
> any safety device, but if your hands are a callused network of minor
> mishaps, then you might want to at least consider the merits  of various
> safety devices. 

	Well, I cannot say i agree with this or the implications.
	I've known many top-drawer machinists and cabinet makers
	who have NEVER injured themself even after 30 or more years
	of working with such dangerous machinery and who do not use
	any special safety devices.  I'm not one of them and I have
	the multitude of scars and a couple amputated finger tips
	to prove it.

	When I was a cabinet maker in college I never knew a single
	worker that used the guard and with two exceptions I never
	saw any serious injuries.  We use push sticks and by some
	miracle therefore fail to cut ourselves.  The only safety
	devices other than push sticks that I saw in universal use
	was an anti-kickback mechanism such as a feather board and
	on rare occasion, the splitter.  If we are going to be foolish
	and work when we're tired, then we are inviting disaster into
	our lives.  We all know it and we ignore it at our peril.

>  I used to say to myself I would never seriously hurt
> myself  with woodworking tools, since I was so hyper vigilante with them
> .   Then I took out a joint in my hand with a 3/4" wide dado blade at
> two in the morning ( hey, if I can regularily work with code all night,
> why not wood?).

	Why, indeed. :)  I saw a guy split his right forefinger to the
	second knuckle on a veneer blade.  The cut was only 0.01" wide.
	The doctors taped him up and a few weeks later he went into
	physical therapy.  His finger worked just fine after that, but
	he never gave up his daily beer after that.  yeah, you heard me
	right: he split his finger because he hadn't had his morning
	beer.  All the guys drank on the job except me.  Just enough to
	relax around all that dangerous machinery.  Gave me the willies.

>  One unthinking moment and over in an instant. 

	So true.  Yet it is possible to work a lifetime around these
	machines and never sustain a single injury.  It's a matter of
	choices in most cases, as far as I can see, though at times
	shyte happens, I agree.