Jim Pagon - Woodworking for Beginners: 7 Steps to Learning the Very Best Woodworking Basics, Woodworking Projects, and Woodworking Plans! (Woodworking - Woodworking ... - Woodworking Plans - Woodworking 101)

Step 1 Woodworking Safety

The first step in learning wood working is that you have to learn about safety. Just as if you were going to start a new job you need to take some time to learn how to be safe while you are working with wood. Woodworking can be a great hobby and even a great way to make an extra income on the side but if you do not follow the safety tips I am going to give you it can also be very dangerous.

Most of these tips are common sense but if you do not follow them you risk serious injury to yourself. When you are working with wood you should not become rushed or think that it wont happen to me because injury does happen every day and it is better to be safe than to have something terrible happen.

1. Always wear your safety equipment. In the work place you would know this as PPE or personal protective equipment. Just like it is important to wear these items in the work place it is equally important to wear them when you are working in your wood shop. You will need to make sure you have a set of safety glasses to protect your eyes. These cannot be just any pair of glasses, they need to be specifically designed for safety because these will not break if a piece of wood or a piece of a saw blade were to fly up and hit them. If you wear regular glasses or sun glasses you will risk injury to your eyes. You will also need a set of ear plugs or ear muffs. If you choose to use ear plugs make sure you wash them each time you place them in your ears to prevent infection.

You will also need a dust mask for when you are sanding and cutting wood. This produces a lot of dust and you want to make sure you are not inhaling the dust. You will also need a respirator for when you are applying varnish and paints, you do not want to inhale these fumes.

A face shield is a good idea if you are going to be using a lathe because these tend to cause a lot of flying wood chips and a face shield will protect your face from any flying chips that would hit you otherwise. The face shield is clear and it can be flipped up when you do not need it.

You also need to consider what type of clothing you will be wearing while you are working with wood. You should wear long sleeved shirts as well as long pants but nothing that you wear should be loose enough for it to be caught in the power tools.

1. Avoid the use of all drugs and alcohol when you are working in with wood. It may be tempting to have a drink or 10 while you are doing wood working, after all you do this for your enjoyment but it is very dangerous. You have to remember you are going to be working with moving blades and if you were to stumble or your hand were to slip while you were working because you were under the influence of drugs or alcohol the effects could be devastating. Save the drinks until after your project is complete as a way to celebrate what you have accomplished.
2. Keep children and pets away from all of the power tools. Again this is a commons sense tip but it is very important to mention. Often times we think that it is okay for our children or pets to be in the same area we are working because we think that we will be able to keep an eye on them. We then become wrapped up in our work and forget that we are supposed to be watching them and that is how accidents happen. Children are also very interested in power tools and they dont understand how dangerous they can be so it is very important for you to explain to your children that they are never to touch one of your tools and explain how dangerous these tools can be. It is a good idea to unplug each tool when it is not in use as well just to be sure that a child does not try to use them when you are not looking.
3. Use one extinction cord for all of the tools. This is one think that will help to ensure your safety as well as the safety of others. I dont want you to use one extinction cord per tool, but one cord total. This will ensure that you have to unplug each tool that is not in use and only have one tool plugged in at a time. Doing so will make sure that you dont forget that you have a tool plugged in, lean on it or accidentally turn it on and hurt yourself. This also ensures that anyone else that would come into your work area does not get hurt either.
4. Always disconnect the power before you change your blades or bits on power tools. This is something that many people know they should do but they get in a hurry and they think it will be okay. Most of the time it will be okay but there is always that 1 out of 100 chance that if you change the blade with the power connected you are going to get cut or severely hurt. Think about it like this, you should never do anything while you are working with power tools that you would not do if you were at work. Meaning you would never change a saw blade at work without locking out the machine or disconnecting the power supply. We all know these kinds of rules are put in place on the job site to keep us safe but we often tend to overlook the same hazards when we are at home.
5. Never reach over a blade. It does not matter what type of saw you are working with, never reach over the blade while the saw in connected to a power source. This is very dangerous, you could get cut or your clothing could get caught in the saw blades, you could accidentally turn the saw on and cause a lot of damage to yourself. If you ever need to reach over your blade make sure you shut off the saw and disconnect the power first.