Safety discussions

What have you seen in "other" shops that needs fixed? Not that it would ever happen in your shop ....but some things that need attention from a outside perspective, a fresh set of eyes. If you were to pick one or two items that could be "brought up to standard" what would they be? * The electrical cord that the insulation has separated and pulled out of the socket. Wires still intact, but it just needs reattached. * The air hose with the bulge in the rubber. Still serviceable, it just needs a coupling installed at the bulge (or a piece of pipe and a couple of clamps). * The fire extinguisher that leaked off and now the needle is in the red zone, but not very far …

When was the last time you took time to secure a piece of work to the table top with clamps, chains, tack welds etc? The question arose when an assembly moved when the welding spudder balls and swarf acted like ball bearings and project came to rest closer than I would like to the table edge. Do you take any extra precaution when making "light" lifts in the 50-200 pound range? Everyone gets out of the way when you lift thousands of pounds into the air, but they will work under, or walk under, lighter loads. Any stories you wish to post so the rest of us can recognize trouble when we see it?

I have finally got around to setting up my forge, but the only place I have for a shop is a small chicken shed. It is fairly open to fresh air, but is crampt, so I will be working close to the forge. It is too short for me to use a chimney. Basically, does it sound like I'm going to gas myself?

A friend of mine asked if I could melt down a bunch of AL for him. I figured it wouldn't be to difficult or dangerous so I agreed. After assembling a makeshift "foundry" out of firebrick from my old brick forge and a JTH-30 I spent a couple of hours melting and pouring AL. After working for a while I was very tired, but I didn't really do that much to feel tired and when I woke up in the morning my face was red for several days. I believe I had mild CO poisoning and UV burn from sitting too close to the gas fire while adding the AL to the pot. Thankfully nothing to bad came out of it, but I can see how this could of ended worse.

I'm a pretty industrious guy when I'm not in the smithy I,m working on my wife and I's car or the house or whatever.SO last week my hands got to the point where the were scabbed blistered and bruised, and I was whining about it to my wife so she made this solution for me and it was the best.warm water, hydrogen poroxide and olive oil. Olive oil you say? Yes it has anti bacterial properties.I've used it on all my tattoos with great results. I soaked for about 10 min while I watched Family guy. gigidy goo

Over Christmas I brazed a piece on an old printing press for my father. I cleaned up the piece to remove 100+ years of grease, and grime, etc. Ground my notches, fixtured it up and proceeded to full steam ahead. Long story short, I hit a hidden pocket of evil goo of some sort. When it burned, the resulting fumes got me in the face. After some gagging and coughing, (and losing the ability to do math do to my brain melting), I finished up the job. The lesson, when you think it is clean,, check again, there might be a booby trap hiding in it. In this case, it was in a hole for lubricating a pivot point. Yours,, minus some brain cell but VERY lucky, Phil

On monday in prep for a big snow storm I had a plow to repair so I went down to my shop and fired up the compressor to use with an impact wrench and plasma cutter. It was 31 deg. in the shop. I threw the main air line ball valve to my filter, drier, regulator. I was standing right in front of it looking right at the gauge but the pressure reading was low so I am watching it to see what it is set at ( BOOOOM ). The gauge explodes and I get gashed right above the eye, parts and pieces all over . I have been a welder long enough to know better but I got sloppy.:mad: Any time you air up any type of pressure gauge you should always stand off to the side of them and never look …

How do i know if the metal im using is safe to forge with? (fume explosions etc.)

Tetanus infection generally occurs through wound contamination, and often involves a cut or deep puncture wound. We are the ones that work with rusty metal, right? When was the last time you updated your tetanus shot? Any medical professionals, or other knowledgeable folks, that can give us some precautions to take?

As blacksmiths everything we handle is either hot, heavy, sharp, or dangerous. SAFETY is a personal responsibility. When grinding I wear glasses, and use ear plugs to both keep the dust and grit out of my ears, and to protect my hearing. But it turned out that the shield being in place on the angle grinder was the most important safety device. The grinder was brought up to speed and let run for a minute or so before starting. It had been in use for several minutes when the disc fractured. They do break and without warning. This part of the grinding disc remained on the machine, the rest was not found. Your safety is your personal responsibility. Please,…

Well then, from time to time we all have a need to stop blood in one fashion or another. Last evening I knocked off some hide on the right middle finger. Hacksawing some 3/16 rod in the vise. We all get ow-ies and I normally just say a bad word or 2 and move on. I noticed DNA on couple pieces I was handling and this continued. Handkerchief would not completely stop the blood. Short story long i finally found the band aids in the fridge. Why they ended up there I will never know. Direct pressure and the blood stopped.

The Treadle Hammer As Kitchen Aid (and Follow up Safety Article) I just found this story again while looking for something else Enjoy Untitled Document

Do you have fire extinguishers in your house and in your shop? Yes, good! Now the next question, how long has it been since they were serviced? Ok so the pressure is good but is the dry chemical packed in the bottom? I check my own and service them annualy. To service a dry chemical extinguisher first check the pressure on the guage. If that's ok then turn it upside down and rap it with a rubber mallet untill you hear a change in tone and you get more rebound. You'll know when you got it. Ok lets all go out and do our part for our families safety.

Just a thought... I plan to build a smithy once the wife and I find a house and get moved (currently renting a house). I have been smithing out in the open which is nice when the weather is nice but there have been times when even my thick skull can understand that it's time to get indoors due to approaching electrical storms. There have been many strikes here, mostly to the trees on the property. Some of them have been hit multiple times, as well as the house, barn and silo. Once the new smithy goes up it WILL have lightning rods and be grounded. With all that metal around it just seems like a good idea. IS YOUR SMITHY GROUNDED?

I just came back from the hospital; I had to have a steel filling dug out of the center of my eye. I still have to get the rust ring burred out. I would just like to say that any protective wear that looks like any sort of designer sunglasses suck for angle grinding! The only way to go is with those cheep ones that are sealed all the way around top and bottom, they are cheaper and look dorky; but are the only ways to go. The other may be ok for forging, but not for use with the angle grinder. Bye, the way

Was working tonight in the shop doing some real normal, everyday stuff and wound up mashing my left hand under the 100 lb power hammer. Nothing broken but it does smart a bit. I use a lot of saddle tooling and was removing a butcher tool when the brake slipped and the ram dropped. Was more of a slip than a blow but my hand was stuck and not coming out. I grabbed the cell phone and called my wife from the house, who came out and found a pry bar. A quick lift and the hand was out after about a 5 minute clamp. One of the veins on top is broken but no worse for the wear, although it could have been a bigger problem if no one had been home. The brake is getting new lini…

Jim "Paw Paw" Wilson attaching a wire wheel on a motor. The motor was attached to a bracket and securely hung on the outside of his shop. All was fine till one day ..... The wire wheel caught the piece of 3/8" square "S" hook, grabbed it out of his hands, round the circle and launched it back at Jim. Jim took the 3/8" square in the fore head on as he ducked out of the way - it happened that fast. He then hit his head again on a 5 gallon bucket of concrete used to anchor the outside shop roof. Result = two concusions and several months of headaches that pills would not cure.

IFI and BGV member Ted Throckmorton has a lot of great information and experience in the field of safety that we can all learn from. The following are the two parts of an article he submitted to The Blacksmith Guild of Virginia. Thanks Ted for sharing your knowledge with us. You can download any of the Blacksmith Guild of Virginia newsletters from our website on the "NEWSLETTERS" page. Here is a link: Blacksmith Guild of Viriginia - Home

has anyone ever heard of the dragon's breath? It's when you use a gas forge, and those invisible flames that seep out through that one tiny hole that isn't supposed to exist. they can seriously burn you or start you on fire. Also never let a gas forge run for a long time without igniting it. It creates a mini gas bomb housed inside of your shop.

Was plasma cutting rose petals yesterday and couldn't see the tracings well through my old O/A glasses. Couldn't find the other glasses But I wanted to get them done so I took the O/A's off and cut with out them. No sleep last night and still alot of pain today. It's been a few years since I have burn't my eyes. It's as miserable now as it was then. Not something you want to take a refresher in. If I saw somebody else doing that I would tell them not to. Yet I still did it. And yes I fell real STUPID. Lost all day today and will probably be squinting alot tomorrow. So much for being in a hurry. John

I've just aquired some old grinding wheels I want to put into service. I'm wondering if grinding wheels have ever contained asbestos or anything else particularly nasty. Any ideas? Thanks.

This is a caution for those building their own air hammers. - I started to hammer texture some 1-1/2" solid bar today for a handrailing job, and found a flaw in my hammer design. This has not been a problem since I built it 5 yrs ago. The issue of the problem lies in the placement of the inline air/water trap filter. When I built the hammer I put the filter in a handy place(hand hight) and also this is where the air hose quick coupler is, although today I found that was in the wrong place. I've forged many hundreds of feet of stock but not any large round bar as today with this hammer. The residual heat from the larger bar was to close to the acrylic filter housing and lu…

Thought this would be a good "Don't cut into containers when you don't know whats in them" reminder... There is an article about a man who was hired to cut into an old safe, the owner didn't know what was in it. It turned out to be full of M80s, which didn't react well to the cutting torch.. Burlington Free Press.com | Local/Vermont

Do you want to go Blind?? This guy can show you how. I think he is using a Lens # Phone Book Make sure to use a helment that doent leak and use the correct # shade lens for the welding http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/guide/guide.pdf

Welding Fumes Look at this and let me know what you think. doent look to be much to it. YouTube - SmokeCannon