Always - and I mean always - wear eye protection
A maker safety announcement from JRC - Makes
First, I am perfectly fine and seeing 20/20 out of both eyes (with corrective lenses, of course). Nothing bad happened. Not even a close call.
Because I always wear eye protection.
There was an incident, however. I was drilling in some steel with a high-quality drill when it happened. Going slowly, using cutting fluid, I was doing everything the way I was supposed to do it. Or so I thought. But about halfway through the metal, the bit grabbed and torqued hard, almost pulling my cordless drill from my hands. "Wow," I thought. "This drill has some power." I backed out the bit and reinserted it into the hole to complete the job.
And then it happened.
I started the drill again; this time, when the bit grabbed the same way, it shattered. No, I don't mean it “broke.” It shattered - with little shards of hot, high-speed steel flying everywhere.
I collected the bits of the bit I could find, but there were more by the looks of it.
As alluded to above, I was wearing eye protection. And I'm thankful.
Making can be a dangerous endeavor. And while some risks are obvious, like the table saw I preached about a week ago, others are more subtle. Drilling is a seemingly tame task that doesn't feel all that risky. Honestly, things rarely go poorly drilling in wood, plastic, and even soft metal like aluminum. But when it does go sideways, like my aforementioned steel incident, they go sideways. And so, out of an abundance of caution, I always wear my safety glasses, even when the job will unlikely be a challenge.
I do this simply because it is a good habit, like wearing a seat belt.
We don't expect to get into an accident, and by and large, we seldom do. But having as much protection as realistically possible, just in case, is always a good idea. Because, well, because of the obvious.
Unlike car seat belts, with safety glasses and other personal protective equipment (PPE) in the home shop, no laws mandate we wear them. One can weld without gloves (I don't advise this). And use that drill without safety glasses (again, not my recommendation). No police officer will swoop in to issue a ticket. Instead, we are left to our judgment regarding safety while making.
But if something bad happens, while one’s soft fleshy bits and other vulnerable faculties are left unprotected, regret will soon follow. And pain. And then more regret.
It sounds a heck of a lot better to put on the safety glasses.
Until next time.
JRC
As we get older, we realize that even though the odds of a given [something bad] happening may be very low, those odds x time means they are much more likely to eventually happen…so taking a few sensible safety precautions seem very worthwhile. It’s a pity most individuals don’t recognize this in their youth. Then again, maybe it’s good that they don’t, and with such a mindset are far more willing to take transformation risks than us old folks…