ice carving secrets: power tool safety
Looking at this picture reminds me of another day I’ll never forget. You’ll notice that I have safety equipment on while I’m working on this large sculpture. Well, I remember a safety demonstration that I went to at an ice carving event. Because of all the power tools involved, I’ve witnessed a number of injuries over the years and this seminar was designed to address that sort of thing, supposedly telling you what to do and what not to do. When the presenter got to a grinder tool used for aggressive smoothing of ice, he plugged it in and promptly injured himself. He forgot to follow basic safety rules such as: “before you plug something in, make sure it’s turned off” or “keep your hands away from the business end of your tools.” Well, his misfortune was a reminder as to how dangerous all of the ice carving tools can be. And the reminders keep coming. Recently, I had a friend cut his arm with a chainsaw (not off, fortunately.) Be careful!
The following comments were on the original blog entry. After some technical difficulties, the blog had to be reconstructed, and this was the only way to keep the original comments.
darren.best
Ive always thought that a trigger switch such as on a chainsaw would be nice on grinders an die grinders as well . there may be some on the market but I havent ran across them
Thursday, March 29, 2007 - 07:06 PM
Darren.Best
Dawson I noticed in your pics you always wear safety glasses, I try to wear them but find they usually get covered with water an are hard to see out of ...any solutions?
Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 02:43 PM
Darren,
The photo at the top shows me wearing a helmet with ear and eye protection. The eye protection, however, is a screen that you can flip down in front of your face. It's designed for chainsaw users (wood) and I think it's made by Peltor. It looks a little silly sometimes and I don't truly know if it would stop something as well as safety glasses, but it sure keeps things out of my eyes. I've also seen Kevin Roscoe wearing a smaller set of "screen" goggles, but I have no idea where to get those. Regarding your other comment, DeWalt makes a die grinder with a paddle switch (or they used to), but it's heavier than the standard Makita GEO600 die grinder.
Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 10:24 PM
Darren,
Also, if you carve in the freezer, water on safety glasses isn't as much of a problem (but the glasses fog if you walk out of the freezer). You could tape a towel to your arm so that you could quickly wipe your glasses with your forearm. Also, if you pay attention to the direction that you're cutting, sometimes you can send the ice and water away from you instead of at you (but not always). Anyway, water on your glasses beats getting blinded by a broken tool. Good luck
Thursday, May 17, 2007 - 10:30 PM
Darren.Best
yes , I guess if you lose an eye there is no longer a need for safety glasses
Friday, May 18, 2007 - 09:53 AM
You can get the Screen Safety Glasses and Goggles at BAILEY's Logger and Woodsman Supply (URL: http://www.baileys-online.com/) they are called Wire Mesh Safety Glasses, (item #62310) and Bugz-Eye Mesh Goggles, (item #35750) Currently as of this writing they are both around or under $25.00. P. Palazzo, CT.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - 09:22 PM
See, that's one of the reasons that I started this site. I didn't know where to get those glasses and now I do. Both pairs look like something that I'd be interested in and I'm not sure which I'll try first. Thanks for the info!
Thursday, June 21, 2007 - 10:37 AM
power tool safety
8/10/06
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