Monday, December 7, 2015

OK, I might add ONE more machine to my shop...

A week ago today I received an important reminder about shop safety.

You see, I was working on cutting some mortises, and had paused to flick out some chips, which I do with a screwdriver.  I put the screwdriver down, picked up my mallet, and noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that the screwdriver was rolling off the bench.  I grabbed it... and discovered it was actually the chisel.

Fortunately, this was a fairly cheap lesson:  It needed four stitches, but only did real damage to skin, so there shouldn't be any long-term damage except the scar, which will probably be fairly significant.

There are two important lessons here:

1) If something is rolling off your bench, DON'T TRY TO CATCH IT!

2) There's a tool rack on my bench.  This is pretty much exactly why it's there.

Hopefully I'll learn from these, and in the meantime I'm going to have to find a different way to cut mortises.

2 comments:

  1. But what's the "one more machine" you might add?

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    Replies
    1. A hollow chisel mortiser... it's a way to not have to cut mortises with a hand-held chisel.

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