The following is by Steve Latta. Steve makes contemporary and traditional furniture, and teaches woodworking at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and Millersville University in Lancaster County, Pa. He’s a contributing editor to Fine Woodworking magazine, and is working on a project for Lost Art Press. His Instagram is @steve_latta_woodworking.
About 30 years ago, I took a turning class from the late Rude Osolnik in Akron, Ohio. At that time, Rude was teaching at Berea College and was a master at his craft. It was my first turning class and I had never chucked anything on a lathe prior to it. As Rude was prepping for a demo on spindle turning, he pushed the blank into the tail stock and with the lathe running, he slowly engaged the drive center. With a little finesse of tightening and loosening the stock as it spun, he ended up with the blank humming nicely.
Feeling confident with what I’d observed, I went back to my station, attempted the same technique on the Powermatic #90 assigned to me and promptly launched my blank, leaving a divot in the ceiling. While rubbing the emerging bruise on my hand (not to mention on my ego), a classmate doing his best to suppress a laugh explained that Rude does it that way because he’s been doing it for 40 years. He recommended that I load my blank with the lathe turned off. Despite my stupidity, I survived the self-inflicted forces of natural selection.
That same experience occurred when I started teaching woodworking at a technical college in Lancaster, Penn. I had 16 years in the trade and was a pretty decent cabinetmaker at that point. I even considered myself a “safe” cabinetmaker – until I observed my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed students doing things on the table saw that made me turn white with fear. When asked “Where in the hell did you learn that!?”, the answer was more often than not, “From watching you.” Ouch! That hurt, but it impressed upon me the urgency and necessity of starting with the basics and the essential safe practices for operating a tool, whatever it is.
I love my students. I love their raw energy. Most are between 18 and 25 years of age, male, driven by hormones and with a brain that is far from fully developed. That is not a criticism, just a fact. Their typical solution to most problems is to push it or hit it harder. They do not fully grasp the consequences of a bad choice. They don’t know what the tools really do and certainly do not yet how to use them properly. At that age, most have yet to learn that they themselves are breakable.
Mishaps with hand and power tools can change a life or end a career in a millisecond. Back in the early ’80s, a fellow apprentice was ripping wide, heavy boards on a table saw while wearing gloves. In a blink of the eye, there were four leather fingers resting on the table detached from the glove. They weren’t empty and his career in woodworking was done. Over my 40 years in the trade, I have picked up, scraped up or cleaned up more human tissue than one should. The most recent incident involved small chunks of bone and flesh from the dust chute on a jointer. And, yes, it was gross.
Some folks name their tools. An acquaintance of mine named his 36” bandsaw “Bandosawrus” because of its size and power. I know of a 9-horsepower shaper named “Shredder.” I do not know of any named “Daisy.” Despite that sense of attachment we can get to our tools, I guarantee the emotional bond is strictly one way. There is not a part of my body, any part, that will make the power tools in my shop bog down even a single rpm. The edge of a sharp chisel will pay no mind to the calluses on my hands. The destruction these tools can cause to a body happens in an instance without love nor malice. Although it is easy to blame the tool, “operator error” is often the real problem expressing itself as a lack of diligence or understanding.
These days I often bristle watching videos of various woodworking operations on Instagram or YouTube. I recall a well-known internet personality demonstrate how he cut the dovetailed slot on the bottom of the column for a three-leg pedestal table. Using a shaper with an industrial-size dovetail bit, he ran the first pass right down the center of the mortise, requiring an additional pass on each side of the first to obtain the proper width. He did not show the second cut but skipped to the final pass furthest from the fence. He finished his video sliding the dovetailed foot easily into the column. He was smiling ear-to-ear. I am quite certain that anyone who attempted what had been demonstrated did not smile. The omitted second cut was a climb cut, and a particularly dangerous one at that. I suspect the author discovered that little nightmare making his video. I also suspect that is why he left it out.
Sometimes the videographer even states, “this one will drive the safety police nuts!” In our “rugged sense of individualism” culture, we admire those who break the rules. But sometimes the outcome is ugly. If something isn’t safe, don’t post it. Take a look at your motives for making the video. Is the purpose to relay solid information or rather, out of vanity flavored with ignorance, say “Look at me. Look at me.” Does the number of “likes” and “followers” trump basic safety? Sure, it is possible to turn a short spindle on a table saw combined with a drill. The fact that it’s possible and may even look “cool” garnering thousands of hits does not make it a valid technique and certainly not a safe one. Just because something can be done doesn’t mean that it should be. In my mind, promoting such practices is a crime.
Deviating from accepted safety norms should only come after mastery. Stepping out of what is considered safe should be a conscious choice based on years of experience with a full understanding of what the negative consequences may be. The undefined nuances of what a tradesperson knows are rarely expressed in articles or videos. The subtleties are so ingrained that they are unwittingly taken for granted and hence are inaccessible to the observer. A certain technique might work 99 times out of 100 but the one time it doesn’t might be a bloodbath, literally. In this trade, we are not working with knitting needles but an endless assortment of sharp objects, some of them moving at incredible speeds. Out of respect and concern for viewers in our online ventures, safety rather than sensationalism, should be gold standard, not the number of likes.
– Steve Latta
Editor’s note: If you do get hurt (we sure hope you don’t), make sure you have a well-stocked first-aid kit at hand, and that you know how to use it. And that you know when to seek professional help. Reading “Workshop Wound Care,” by Dr. Jeffery Hill, is a good first step.
Thanks for the reminder.
I teach turning and sailing, not at the same time I hasten to add. As a qualified classroom teacher as well I learned to create lesson plans. I have also qualifications in the dreaded health and safety, which gives me experience in risk assessments. Adding all this up together, not necessarily on paper, makes me think things through when demonstrating to pupils, and importantly when operating near them.
I tell my sailing students ‘you start off with a bucket full of luck which is leaking away, you also have an empty bucket of experience. The idea is to fill your bucket of experience before your luck runs out.’ Having sail that I once worked with a guy whose job is was to investigate parachute accidents, he said that most accidents happened to experienced people because if they had a problem they would try to sort it out whereas newcomers did what they were taught and exercised emergency drills as they were taught.
I’m a fairly inexperienced [albeit invested] woodworker, I’ve had a lot more experience patching people up than I do with fine woodworking. As a doctor, thank you for posting this. I cannot state how many fingers I saw lost because a DIYer decided to hold the workpiece and the circular saw at the same time… one of the reasons I am attracted to hand tools is I have yet to see any type of amputation via hand saw.
Please continue to raise awareness (I’m lazy and rather not work hard)
Part of the reason is I like hand tools as well. Not the only reason though.
I lost some fingertips on my table saw when it was new to me many years ago.
The previous saws I had were underpowered and would stall in cuts while this new one was three horsepower. My out feed table was slightly higher and the wood I was cutting lifted over the top of the saw blade pulling the small board I was cutting over the top of the spinning blade, my hand just went for the ride. It took a long time to get over it. To this day if I attempt to cut anything that gets my hands close to any spinning blade the hairs on my head start to rise and I stop. Then I figure out another way to make the cut. I also spent good money for the best guards I could find and used them. What came originally with the machine I had thrown out because it was junk.
I’m a fairly inexperienced [albeit invested] woodworker, I’ve had a lot more experience patching people up than I do with fine woodworking. As a doctor, thank you for posting this. I cannot state how many fingers I saw lost because a DIYer decided to hold the workpiece and the circular saw at the same time… one of the reasons I am attracted to hand tools is I have yet to see any type of amputation via hand saw (although I’m sure it’s only a matter of time).
Please continue to raise awareness (I’m lazy and rather not work hard)
Thank you for this one. I share many of the same thoughts as I cringe at a lot of what I see online. I often find myself think “I would never…”. I’ve only been in the hobby (for me) for 12 years, of which only about 8 of the most recent of those killing electrons in the process. I’m pretty conservative with the operations I do by machine. Maybe I’m chicken, but I like to think of it as self preservation
I can’t watch woodworking videos with power tools. There are far too many idiots out there.
Safety is a major reason I use hand tools (and that I do not own a table saw). Not that bad things cannot happen with hand tools but I like the odds better. A good reminder, thanks.
Add to that all the videos showing people working with power tools with no safety gear; no glasses, ear protection, etc. Just waiting to lose an eye or some long term permanent damage to develop over the years.
I really appreciate this article. Too many people have too much confidence (and arrogance) with power tools, take too much risk, and far too little experience.
I use power tools (I have a dreaded circular saw and a powered jointer) but mainly stick to hand tools because, for a hobby woodworker not looking fo compete with Ikea, I don’t see the point in risking my hand.
I am fearless in the shop.
Also, I only have three fingers and one working eye.
Excellent article!!!!
Even though I still have 10 fingers and both eyes, as well as quite a bit of experience, I purchased a Sawstop table saw earlier this year. It is an additional layer of protection because I know that I’m human and not invincible. In researching this purchase, I watched a number of online videos and I was astonished by some of the dangerous practices some people used. At least when you are purchasing a book, you can generally count on whatever being illustrated has been vetted by an experienced editor (plus most publishers wouldn’t risk their money on just anyone). No one is vetting the online “experts”.
I owned one for 7 years. It was an amazing machine.
I could never wrap my mind around why folks would get so worked up around the back and forth and legal wrangling. My fingers are more important to me than the politics of big business holding companies.
And because of the way the mechanism works, the saw itself is massively overbuilt, and ran much more smoothly than any other (non-euro) table saw I ever used.
Amen. The sneering comments usually follow cautions such as this. The advice on two major woodworking chat sites is mostly appalling and should be pulled, but the moderators are among the most ignorant of safe practices. I have stopped visiting due to the screams of “safety police” whenever a safety caution is logged.
Excellent article! It is so easy to become complacent when using tools of any kind. Most of us realize, though we may not practice safety, the dangers associated with power tools but hand tools alse inflict their share of injuries
Yep — Great article. All my power tools scare the bejeezus out of me. I got a sawstop which helps some, but…. For some reason I’m very cautious around my table mounted router now. It seems to want to eat an end of a finger recently. Maybe I’m getting old. Hand tools are somewhat better. I’m always careful to keep my digits behind the chisel handle also.
The worst part of the social media/YouTube deluge of questionable woodworking content, as I see it, is that the very people who are likely consuming all that content are the most vulnerable. And don’t immediately recognize poor practices when they see them. Having taken many classes with great instructors and earning my my skills daily for 15 years I am quick to ignore most of these videos as just so much internet garbage…there are plenty of amazing woodworkers on the net too. More that anyone should have time to watch. But every so often I’ll meet a beginner at ww’ing assoc meeting or such who will ask “which way do you do…x,y,z?” And I’ll have to say something like it depends on the material or the application or whatever and then say I’ve never heard of doing that in way z? Aren’t you worried it’ll grab the work or whatever? And the answer is usually, “oh I saw this guy do it in a video.”
MK
Great article, Steve.
When I was contemplating the purchase of my first chain saw, I asked the resident old timer for advice.
“Treat it like an alligator,” he said. “Don’t let it eat you up.”
Wise advice for all of our power tools in the shop (and beyond).
I worked with a young man that said he was faster on a table saw. I told him it wasn’t a race, think about every cut and be deliberate. I told him that table saw had no conscious, it would hurt him. I’m 70 years old now still have 10 digits. He is missing 3digits on the right hand, lost them at 23 years old. It was a shame.
Thank you for a great article, I get very tired of correcting YouTube_itis in my turning classes. I think I may make it mandatory reading for my students.
Excellent article. I’m reminded of the story about the shop teacher who always took his beginning woodworking class to a nearby butcher shop to observe how quickly the butcher’s bandsaw cut through flesh and cow-sized bones. Safety must always be paramount. Before performing an operation on a power tool (or even a hand tool) I like to think through the operation, and the technique I plan to use, in my mind to identify where any problems might occur. That process might suggest using a different technique for improved safety. As a result, I have a variety of push sticks and push blocks next to my table saw that keep my hands at least six inches away from the blade.
I’m an ER doctor and I’ve seen many gruesome injuries from woodworking machines in my career. I always make a point of asking the patient how it happened, what safety equipment they were using etc. Almost all the patients I’ve seen tell me that they knew that what they were doing was stupid/risky but they thought they could get away with it. This includes complete amateurs and people that have been professional woodworkers for decades. It’s frustrating to see many of the social media influencers promote horribly unsafe woodworking practices; it’s one thing to be stupid and risk your own safety, it’s inexcusable to encourage other people to do the same.
I worked at Rockler, and then Woodcraft for a total of about 3 years. It was pretty well understood that the accident rate was basically an inverted bell curve. Amateurs got hurt by not knowing anything. And experienced tradesmen got hurt because their slow accumulation of bad habits and comfort levels had finally hit a critical point.
Unfortunately, there were no requirements for me regarding who could buy equipment, or what level of skill they needed to have. Some of my customers had learned what they knew from a contractor buddy with an underpowered job site saw. So I heard a few stories from folks who figured the saw would just bind up, instead of kicking back or throwing the board.
Terrifying stuff.
Wow, great article! This is one of the best toolbox-safety talks I’ve heard but I’m sorry it comes at such a great cost. So, the collective wisdom above is worth paying attention to. I’m also reminded of Mike Rowe’s comments about Safety Third: safety is the individual’s responsibility. No warning label, company mandated safety program, unheeded gray-haired wisdom, lawsuits, or surgeries can ever reverse a serious injury.
Great article Steve – I have lately started showing a few friends and neighbors how to turn a bowl on a lathe. I start with a short safety chat and I watch like a hawk that they are not standing in the line of fire. I also pick what I hope is a safe blank without inclusions, etc. And when the first catch happens, which of course it always does and usually soon. then we use that to talk about the bevel and poking a very sharp tool into a spinning object. But I can do a better job Thankyou for the reminder.
Thanks for posting. Well, written and highly sobering. Sadly, I imagine those who most need to read this aren’t visiting this website. It is tremendously important to remember that “stupid” has permanent consequences when you’re doing woodworking.
Would it be possible to print this post out to pass out to my apprentices? I work at a transmission plant for Ford in the toolroom, and am always looking for new ways to reinforce safety lessons
Your thumb tips have a very rich blood supply, and are also rich in nerve endings.
Do not cut them off while using a table saw.
Do not ask me how I know this.
I worked in a lumber mill as OSHA was just getting established, in 1973. Hard hats required, otherwise, training was “Stand here and feed the saw. Stand over here and stack the product.”
The injuries were many, and varied (burns, high-speed projectiles, outright loss of digits). People complained about OSHA, but it was a good idea. Most of the employees weren’t legally employed, so they weren’t about to complain about safety.
Thank you for this post. I’ve seen too many woodworkers missing fingers. I hope I never do.
Love this article. I guess I have a bit of a different take on safety. I do dangerous stuff with my power tools fairly frequently (read off label cut). The difference is I always have some type of jig, stick, or board exposed to the danger. The boss of my one man shop is a bit of a jerk about losing hobby time to idiotic injury.
Exactly the kind of person he’s warning us all about.
Think table saw cove cutting jig with a box covering the saw blade from runner to runner. Or for boards a little wider than the jointer, one direction rollers affixed to jointer fence on face cuts; edge cuts use a shop made magnetic feather board that covers the cutter head with or without the ‘porkchop’ guard. Or an MDF sled with plastic shims/double sided tape to joint the really wide boards on the planer. All common off label operations made more safe and/or possible with jigs. Also, except for the one way wheels, fairly inexpensive. Sprinkle in liberal use of push sticks and blocks and I won’t apologize for any of it.
I may not get to the end with all my marbles, but I will have the phalanges I arrived with.
Thank you Steve, times ten, for this much needed safety first article. I often comment on you tube and other such woodworking videos when I see what I know to be unsafe and/or unwise techniques or methods being used. Something as simple as not using safety glasses when hammering a nail, which can launch itself unexpectedly in the blink of an eye, and hopefully would not end up in the user’s eye.
Example: I saw recently a well known and very talented YT woodworker in Texas making a lovely bowl from found driftwood while using a super sharp, large bent gouge to carve the bowl’s cavity, and Yikes, he was wearing thongs on his feet which I have never seen him do before. One accidentally dropped gouge on the foot would likely be a disaster.
I made my living ( not as a woodworker) for 40 years using razor sharp knives, scalpels and other instruments, all without incident because safety was always paramount.
Shop safety cannot be stressed and used enough in my opinion, and even if one only uses handtools the very same rules apply.
Thank you.
Cheers,
Michael
In grad school for chemistry my nickname was Captain Caution. What most didn’t understand was I knew individuals in the field who had lost a hand, eye, and hearing because of lab accidents due to the power of the chemicals we were working with. One individual was burned so badly it was touch and go whether he would live. I saw him six months later wearing some sort of compression type bandages. His life was forever altered. I could easily go on.
Now I woodwork since I’m middle management in the biotech/pharma industry and no longer use my hands in the lab. There are a number of tools that scare me. I’ve taken classes to learn how to use them but I won’t be buying them. I’m ok with that. I think I held off for so long in getting a bandsaw and planer because I knew that would force expensive dust collection. I’ve worked on several inhalation products. I really understand that dangers of sawdust. Am I being Captain Caution all over again? You bet.
What I don’t see much discussion about is power feeders you can put on the machines. I didn’t know they even existed until 6 months ago and I’ve been woodworking for 7 or 8 years. Though kind of pricy, seems like a good safety feature to keep the fleshy bits further from the tools. Then again, I don’t see much written so I don’t know what additional potential problems that exist with them outside of cost.
Forgive me if I’ve told this story before …
The first day of 7th Grade Wood Shop (back when schools had shop class!), our teacher, Mr. Nickely, started class by holding up his hand, with a missing chunk of a finger. He then regaled us with the story of how he took the safety guard off his snowblower, and, clearing a jam, got his finger in there somehow.
Like Mr. Latta, he thought it important to start with safety. And Mr. Nickely ended with safety, and all through class was walking around ensuring safety. And we were safe.
Mostly.
In 8th Grade Metal Shop, I chucked a section of 1/2″ steel, the base material of my soon-to-be nail-set, which I still have and use to this day (painted in my school’s colors, purple and gold!). Not a tricky material to work with … except I left the chuck key in the chuck. Started the machine and got PUNCHED in the gut. Not dead in the head, blinded in one eye, nor stabbed in the heart – I was LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY. I hurt, was bruised, and that lasted a couple days, but lucky.
To this day, I tighten the chuck on my drill and that chuck key goes right into its holder on the side of the drill press before I reach for the power button.
I missed getting hit by a chuck key in 7th grade.
I have my chuck key on a retracting badge holder. Keeps it handy and now that I think of it, would help with safety
A few years ago I reached out to this company that made centrifugal ventilation fans. There was a technical constraint with the fan I was installing. Surprisingly, I got in contact with one of their industrial design engineers.
I had never talked to someone in that field. He knew fluid mechanics backwards and forwards, did not spew any marketing bullshit at me and answered my questions really well. In that moment a piece of adulthood kind of clicked for me.
There’s a tremendous amount of thought and consideration that goes into designing a piece of mechanical equipment such as a table saw. From that moment on I have lived on the principle that I will only use a power tool for what it is designed to do. My table saw is for cutting sheet goods and that’s it.
Since then, I’ve become the type of guy that not only reads the entire manual, but is fascinated by it.
Not one person asked what is the project Steve is working on for Lost Art Press?
A book 😉
OK – a book on stringing and inlay.
First thing I tell my apprentices is that you can learn everything from YouTube… but in my opinion 65% of the videos show unsafe or questionable practices for an experienced woodworker. (That’s true for any number of other trades, as well.) The remaining videos should still be intelligently scrutinized before a novice tries them. And not just for powered tools. If your chisel falls off the bench, just get out of its way. We can resharpen it. 🙂
Very good article, thank you.
This has been one of the best safety meetings I’ve ever attended!
Well said Steve, I once commented on a post where the woodworker was running things through the table saw while wearing gloves. I was basically told to mind my own business, “I’ve been doing this for x years and know what I’m doing.” Well, I too have been around the block a few times, and I have witnessed first hand when someone gets a glove caught in a spinning doodad. I am here to tell you that chances are slim to none that your reaction time is fast enough to get your hand out of that glove before it gets dragged into said spinning doodad.
Thank you for writing this article. I’ve been lucky so far but have also had a more than a few wild eyed moments. Safety is always job one and when in doubt reassess the situation.
Again, Thank you.
On talking to fellow workers who were injured. They said that they were either tired or on a time constraint to get a task done. Both said that they had “Gut Feeling” to stop, yet kept going and got injured. Trust and Respect your “Gut Feeling”. I have stopped when I had five more minutes of work to do and still have five fingers on each hand.