Child proofing a basement woodshop. Help me choose a strategy.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Do you think a locked door is not enough? Perhaps you are a tad too worried...

I raised two very active and curious children and they never entered into my workshop without supervision.

[Benjimin Young]

Wow, what a fantastic time to share, enjoy.
I think most of the best ideas have been given - but just to agree with all of the above; be proactive and calm the curiosity, educate, put emphasis on safety and why, post easy and fun rules; get them involved if they want to help daddy, even encourage them; but what if.... where are your safety glasses? why are you wearing those slippers in the shop, etc. etc. lol; the red light is on, what does that mean?; personally I would provide some level of entry control when you are not in the shop but that depends on you and your family, could be locks, tool power, lights, etc. Re the red light, in my shop, my wife will not enter if she hears a power tool running for fear she distracts me at the wrong moment, she has suggested a red light many times.

[Brad Alexander]

I childproofed my house, but they keep finding their way back in.......

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Just when you think you have made things either fool proof or child proof a smarter fool or child comes along. I kept a lock on the door to my basement workshop when I lived in Virginia. Darn kid at age 10 figured out how to take the pins out of the hinges to get in. Drilled and secured the hinge pins with allen screws inside the hinges and that kept them out. (No windows or they would have tried that.) I have no real problem with kids for now, but grandkids will be visiting soon and I know they will want to see the barn. I do have a main barn subpanel that I can easily flip to off and the lever is almost 6 ft high, so difficult but not impossible to reach. They are city kids, so here on the farm, they will be accompanied 100% of the time. Don't need them trying to pet the bull, etc. Don't want them petting the billy goat either, (WHEW)
I am partitioning off the part of the barn that will be my shop and the floor will be concrete. Those doors to the shop area will be locked just to keep tools from walking away. (Mrs. leaves tools, jackets and coffee cups at the last place she used them)

[Jim Dwight]

My kids are in their thirties. My daughter was never interested in my tools but my son was. But he knew he couldn't use them without asking first. If it was a tool I wasn't sure he could handle, he couldn't use it unless I was there. I don't remember him violating that. For most of the time they were little, my "shop" was the front of a 28 foot deep garage. There was no way to lock them out. I could have locked up the tools, I guess. But I never did.
My son was the compliant one, however. If my daughter had been interested, I might have had to lock them up. All kids are different. But if you can lock the doors I would if you have kids you aren't sure about. Unless you are a lot neater than I am, there are multiple hazards. I have wood I am recycling with nails in it in the shop. I have lots of trip hazards. I have lots of dust my wife doesn't want to migrate inside. I have heavy stuff they could pull down on themselves. It isn't kid friendly and I don't see how it can be. It's a shop. Kids (and others without training/skill) need to be supervised when they visit.

[Charles Lent]

My present shop is in an outbuilding. It is always kept locked. My youngest of 4 is now 47, so I'm no longer worried about them getting hurt in my shop, but they would "borrow" things without me knowing and then somehow never get around to returning it if they could get in there. My wife doesn't have a key to the shop for the same reason. I alway turn off all of the breakers, except the lighting circuits, and the ball valve between the air compressor and the shop when I'm not there, for fire and safety reasons. This way I know for certain that nothing powered will operate or start a fire in the shop when I'm away.The air compressor tank is left at full pressure, but with no power to it.

Charley

[Don Bullock]

My dad had a basement shop when I was little. He taught my brother and me from a very early age to resect his tools and shop. You can put all the obsticals in place to keep kids out of the shop or prevent the machines from being turned on but teachng respect for your shop and tools will still help even more.

[Karl Kaucher]

I approached all the dangerous hobby equipment in my home the same way. Kids were always welcome but supervised. I, like others, never said no. I also stressed the critical requirement that my kids were never to mess with anything. ever. This covered not only things in my woodshop, but other dangerous things like guns and reloading equipment. I believe it helped the kids understand the danger involved when I first took them to the range with a .22 caliber rifle and pistol and demonstrated what they could do to a can of soup, a water bottle, and some fruit. I stressed to them that danger was danger - whether in a hand tool, a power tool, a weapon (yes, I'm politically incorrect!) or the butcher knives in the kitchen. It must have worked. Both my kids are in their thirties and still have their original-issue ten digits per extremity. I kept things locked up - not so much about the kids, but to slow down the thieves if they were to break in. If it takes long enough to get what they're looking for, they will abandon their efforts at my house and move on to the next...

Now that I'm circling the drain toward becoming an old fart, I set up an alarm that will wake the dead, and even my wife, should I get into trouble. Sort of like "pulling the red handle" discussed earlier. I also like and wish i'd thought of putting an exit sign and lighting in the workshop. There are no windows, so it's pitch black with the door closed and lights off. I'm off to the electrical parts store to take care of that issue.

[Roger Feeley]

Karl, what did you do for the alarm? I've never given that any thought. I'm the guy that posted about, "pull the red handle" but I guess I never fully thought it through. Maybe I should rig something that sets off a klaxon if we ever pull the handle?

I had the pitch black problem as well. I wired up a motion detector and light for when I come in the back door at night so I can navigate to the light switch I use most.

I do stand by my sub-panel idea with a shutoff (big red handle) that you can lock if necessary. I really hope it will never come to that.