Had a disturbing dream last night where I witnessed an ex employee have a close call on the tablesaw. Classic kickback scenario of bringing the workpiece back between the fence & the blade. Most of us understand the dynamic here so that is another discussion.
In the dream I see him start to pull the piece back and want to yell stop ! I don’t because I know that startling / distracting someone can be worse ! He got away with it and then I yelled stop !!!!!!
I then proceeded to give the appropriate safety reaming and explanation.
The question is when & how do you stop someone ?
I realize there is no cut & dried answer to this and every situation is different but wanted to throw it out there.
Replies
IMHO kickback happens so fast that the only way to deal with it is prevent it thru proper training, the use of relatively stable stock, outfeed tables and splitters.
I totally agree but people still do stupid things.
PS I do run a full safety program in a union enviroment.
On a hill by the harbour
Edited 3/19/2004 2:05 pm ET by NOVY
Interesting question.
I was biking with a friend a while ago. She was in front of me and turned to say something to me. As she turned, she started to veer towards a utility pole not too far away. I was about to yell a warning, but decided against it, because I thought she would certainly crash if I startled her. I also thought that she would manage fine on her own when she turned back to see where she was going. (There was a little time for me to react, but not much.) Well, she did turn around, and saw the pole, but froze up and ran straight into it. A few hours and stitches later, she was fine. So, in that instance, keeping quiet didn't help. It would be interesting if I could go back in time and see what would have happened if I had yelled out a warning. I bet she still would have hit the pole. But who knows?
Most accidents happen when otherwise intelligent people let their guard down and stop paying attention for a moment. Some people do this more than others. Maybe the answer is to remind them to pay attention if you ever see them being inattentive. Then it might be more likely to become ingrained.
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Friend of mine tells about doing his student teaching gig in a high school shop class. One day he sees a young lady bent over the drill press with her long hair hanging down unrestrained on either side of her face. Like others have said, he didn't want to startle her. So he reached over her and hit the power switch. And she, darling child, said "Hey!", reared straight back and smacked his nose with the back of her head.
But at least she didn't get her hair tangled in the chuck.
I think the smack in the nose in thier case was better than the long hair in the drill press equation..............On a hill by the harbour
Oh, yes. That's what Ralph said, too. But it would have been even better if she had tied her hair back.
This is exactly what my post was about !
Your friend had the oppourtunity to shut the machine off without causing an accident !On a hill by the harbour
You got my pointOn a hill by the harbour