Shop Safety 101

I heard a segment on the radio about some new technology to make table saws safer. Seems some scary number of people, even professionals, are injured by table saws every year.

It reminded me of when Tabby and I took shop in 8th grade. Safety was a big deal, and we took it pretty seriously, but we were responsible for two mishaps that I can remember. 

We had been taught to use the table saw in pairs, with one person pushing the lumber through and the other pushing down and pulling it towards them from the other side. So Tabby had her back to the TA, who was sitting in a chair trying to flirt with her. We had reached the point where she was controlling the board and I was about to let go when she got distracted. She also let go of the board, which was about a two-foot square of cabinet plywood. It flipped off the blade and hit Ty right in the chest. At the same time, he reflexively pushed the chair back, causing it to tip over. The board didn't hurt him, but the backwards landing on a concrete floor shook him up a little :)

In the other instance, Tabby was flirting with Brian C and caused him to skin his knuckles pretty good on the wooden block he was turning on the lathe when he got flustered.

It took me all quarter to build a basic bookshelf and a crooked picture frame. Tabby never did finish the bread box.