anyone doing this with their kids?

[Frosty]

Funny what Parents perceive as "dangerous".

I ran Farm Machinery, drove Cars, Pick-ups and big "Straight" Trucks, Jumped Horses and had free access to the Gun Cabinet, ... before I was 10, ... but had to wait until I was 18, to buy my first Motorcycle.

Mom and Dad thought they were too dangerous .....

 

.

My parents too! I wasn't allowed to have a motor cycle till I moved out of the house. I bought one anyway when I was 18 and they didn't kick me out. I wasn't allowed a .22 either, Dad said it was too easy to treat like a toy and no firearm is a toy. By time I bought one I'd had proper gun safety drummed in he let that one lay too. I was 18, couldn't buy one any younger in California at the time.

Heck, I remember the Boyscout badge for staff fighting. I had the shooting badges, heck I had most of the badges and most weren't about doing safe things. They were all about doing dangerous things as safely as possible.

Seriously, kids ARE going to try . . . things. Would you rather show them the safest way you know or let them try figuring them out themselves?

Frosty The Lucky.

[jumbojak]

I was a kid who was thrown into potentially dangerous work without any real instruction. My dad wouldn't have had it that way but after the family fell apart the farm we moved to needed things done and I was expected to do them! At the age of thirteen I was taking a JD 4020 down the road that really didn't belong in the field. All this was with no real instruction. 

So, while I think there are jobs small children shouldn't do there is a proper way to go about educating them. Baby steps until they master basic tasks, followed by the "fun" stuff that requires forethought and planning to do safely. Driving a truck is pretty simple, a tractor less so, and a forklift can get you into real trouble in a hurry.

When we did fabrication work for the farm things like safety glasses weren't even a consideration. Welding was done wearing whatever shoes and clothes you happened to have on with zero concern for how wet the ground was. Galvanized? Heck, galvanized metal was prized for the fact that it could be had for free and that metallic taste in your mouth was just part and parcel with doing a days work.

Whatever you do with your kids, make sure they are mature enough to understand the risks, are then informed of the risks, and can then assess what could go wrong and how they, or others, could get hurt. It might be a good idea to find some video online of just how bad an accident can be to get the message across before you start. If I knew then what I know now I can assure you I wouldn't have done a lot of the foolish tasks that were assigned to me.

[Charles R. Stevens]

Some of the guys I served with werent any beter than toddlers, and the Army liked it that way. "Charge what hill?!" Was not what hey wanted to hear. Break it down barny simple and show them the right way. Explane, demontrate, have them do it. Then rate the task as to unsuperised, unsupervised with permition, supervised or stand back with the phone and fire extiguisher...

[Borntoolate]

i don't agree with" young" children driving fork lifts, tractors. etc .

I totally agree .People in the past fought hard to give children the right to a childhood 

Who says that kids are deprived of a childhood if they are trusted to operate heavy useful equipment, do a productive job, learn life skills and a work ethic?   Most I have seen take huge pride in what they do.   I don't think depriving kids of being useful is depriving them of a childhood.    Letting them operate major destructive equipment via video games is a waste, at best.    Child slavery is another thing.   I don't think anyone is talking about that.   And yes some kids won't fit a certain mold that you might want.   I guess bottom line is I think kids nowadays are too coddled.   But I bet all Grandpas have thought that since forever!

As a kid I would love to drive a forklift!  That would be awesome!

Driving forklifts and tractors and doing really cool but effective things are part of why video games appeal.   In a video game you are trusted with multimillion dollar equipment and lives.   IF kids are coddled they are trusted with nothing.  

And I am not suggesting that Eric is telling us to coddle our kids.   Just my two cents, respectfully.

 

Edited October 27, 2015 by Borntoolate

[root]

My 8 year old daughter helps me with the forge. she calls th spot I have her stand and hold things her "station"

She's been helping with bodkins lately. holding a swage and turning the blower on and off.

Helps with other things like putting new exhaust on our can.

Didn't even ask if it was ok just crawled under nad held it up when asked.

Told her she would be the one who got the roadrunner her reply was No daddy I like the jeep!

# boys that I can't get to lift a finger. LOL 

she's a real learner that's for sure. 

Rich

 

[ThomasPowers]

Besides which teaching your daughters life skills helps them evaluate boyfriends better!

[Charles R. Stevens]

Amen, brother Tommas..

[Double Y]

I wrote a long post about family and growing up on a ranch...and it disappeared.

Long story short by kids both are in the shop, ride horses and motorcycles, work cows, drive tractors, drive trucks (farm trucks), drive pickups, shoot guns, irrigate, snow ski, water ski - do dangerous stuff over all.

My son is 14 and my daughter is 11.

[Tubularfab]

My boys drove me nuts asking to try this when I switched over the patio from summer to blacksmith mode this fall. They listened carefully and gave it a good try. They are 5, 8, and 9. Biggest challenge was the smallest safety glasses I had were still too big. I need to figure out where to buy smaller ones. Most of the time I was right with them, but had to step back and get some pics of course!

 

 

[ThomasPowers]

Face shields can often be sized way down  if you get a good one.  I would strongly suggest a fire resistant apron too!

[Tubularfab]

Yes, this was a 5 minute test to see how much they really want to get into it.  The anvil is too high for them, specially the youngest.  But, they got a couple of wacks in with the hammer, and I am certain they will want to do more.  So, time to find more PPE for them!

[natenaaron]

Looks like a good time was had by all.

 

My wife would poo a brick wall if I turned the patio into anything other than a patio. 

[Charles R. Stevens]

Duck boards to get them to forging hight befor you scrounge up their own anvils and kit

[Panday]

I didn't start "smithing" until I was in my 20's but I first learned how drive a forklift and weld with a O/A torch when I was 11. I pretty well lived in a fabrication shop from then until I was old enough to drink.

[DSW]

7 hours ago, Tubularfab said:

Biggest challenge was the smallest safety glasses I had were still too big. I need to figure out where to buy smaller ones.

I'm trying to remember where we get the kids size safety glasses we use with the 4-H shooting sports programs like air rifle and archery. I want to say they may come from the archery outfitter supply  we use, but I can't say right now. That might at least point you in the right direction. I'll dig a bit and see if I have one at the house in a package or not. You might also think about something like choker or Croakie to keep the glasses up on their face, even if they are a bit big. I hated working in glasses for years before I found Croakies. Now every pair of prescription safety glasses I own has them, and I keep at least a pair or two in stock for when they wear out.

 

I'd also suggest a wooden box or platform they can stand on to raise them up higher until you can get a shorter anvil for them to work on.

[AR. Hillbilly]

We have 2 of our grandkids stay with us each summer. They both like to spend time in the shop with me. I prefer one on one but sometimes I take both at one time.The boy is seven and the girl is nine. I set up a railroad track for an anvil for them. I thought of building a step for using one of my anvils but I was worried about one losing balance and stepping off of it. I also have the small saftey glasses issue and finding good gloves that are small. I keep a good eye on each and shut it down at the first sign of fatigue. Grandma helped each make their own leather apron. I hold the tongs if required. Absolutely no grinders at this point. I'm trying to give both good life skills before I become stupid and uncool. I was farming and working cattle at a very young age and got my first 22 at 9 years of age. I wasn't allowed to take it out with out one of my brothers or my dad until I was much older. I was riding bulls at 14 and driving a race car that I built at 16.

[DSW]

I did a bit of looking but I can't locate the exact ones the 4-H program uses. Cabelas has at least two different youth shooting glasses, Cabelas brand and Champion, both available in clear or yellow. I've also found Remington and S&W make youth shooting glasses.

 

I also found this that has a number of possible options for kids.

http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/childrens-safety-glasses.html

[JHCC]

If that third one wants to keep the American flag with him while smithing, just make sure it's natural fiber.

[JHCC]

Sometimes you have to be really explicit to your little apprentice striker about where to put his feet:

[earlgpowell]

I have been teaching metal spinning classes at the Techshops for going on 10 years now.  We have been teaching students 12 years old and up.

[Frosty]

38 minutes ago, earlgpowell said:

I have been teaching metal spinning classes at the Techshops for going on 10 years now.  We have been teaching students 12 years old and up.

Welcome aboard, GLAD to have you! If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many Iforge folk live within visiting distance.

I grew up in a metal spinning shop, my first jobs when I was careful enough to walk in the shop without opening veins, was packing blanks, parts, wiping down and oiling machinery and general gofer. I was spinning on a production line by time I was 12. What I was spinning was dependent on my size and strength. Dad owned a scissor tool shop, we did a LOT of production jobs and Dad did a lot of aerospace work, some insanely precision parts.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your post but there aren't many spinners here.

Frosty The Lucky.

[j.morse]

Only you the parent can decide if your child is old enough to tackle a task. I encouraged my kids to do new stuff at every opportunity. Things like driving the tractor, running the outboard on the lake, using the various tools around my shop. All that stuff builds life-skills and confidence. My son was safe enough with a gun that I would have trusted him to deer hunt alone when he was too young to even do it legally in our state...at that time you had to be 14 to gun hunt big-game. He had lugged a pellet gun alongside me for many years and I was an old maid about gun safety. If he screwed up he went without the pellet gun for weeks and knew it. I can honestly say that he is one of the safest gun handlers I know. Some kids can't be trusted to so much as mow the grass, let alone run equipment that can kill them (not that a mower couldn't!). Each parent has to decide all these things themselves with each kid. It ain't a "one size fits all" deal. We all know adults that can't be trusted to do many of the things posted on this thread. Maybe if those folks had had a dad that worked with them, they'd have the skill to do it.......and maybe some are not trainable at ANY age!!

[ThomasPowers]

Last weekend I gave my eldest grandson an "eggbeater drill" and told him he was welcome to practice drilling on anything in the wood pile of the kindling pile.

My wife tells me he's been practicing regularly!   Now to buy 6 more for the rest of the grandkids....(though I have been told his younger brother has started taking things apart with a screwdriver.  Time to accrue  some "safe" items suitable to take apart!

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Thomas, my Dad used to buy stuff at the DRMO auctions for me to take apart. His only instructions were "I want it completely disassembled, but I don't want anything broken." I learned about taper pins , left hand threads, etc, and in general how things are put together. Unfortunately most of the office machinery today is more office electronics than the actual machinery the old Addressographs were.