best saftey item?

[Rick Schuman]

A good night's sleep.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

I think I own something like 8 pairs of safety glasses, and about 4 sets of hearing muffs.

When I go down to the Dungeon, I put my safety glasses on before I put my apron on.

Something that I like to do with almost any tool I use, including hand tools, is to to a test run, an unplugged test run.

Test pushing the piece through the saw, even it you don't actually push the piece. One thing I used to see a lot, was guys cutting something, and having their body completely out of position buy the time the cut was finished.

Otherwise, sharp tools, well maintained and a clean floor got to be up there.

Cheers!

[Steve Clardy]

The best one.
Keep shop locked. Throw away the key.

[Mark Patoka]

#1 would have to be safety glasses. I actually feel like something's missing if I don't have them on and I'm ready to hit the ON switch.

I also agree with the other responses as there are many good and required safety items.

I'm glad you didn't ask "What's the ONLY safety item".

[Ian Barley]

Safety glasses, hearing protection.

Personal hobby horse - safety shoes/boots.

[Earl Kelly]

This safety item may not be obvious, Sharp Blades, at least on the table saw. I try to always keep sharp blades on the saw. I find with sharp blades, less force is required when feeding matetrial thru the saw. When it's easy and comfortable, less chance of an OOPS!!!

Oh, yeah, got to have hearing and eye protection. Push sticks are right there, also.

[Chris Barton]

Short of grey matter activation, sharp tools and eye and ear protection would be the shop monkey that does it all for you.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

This goes right along with using your brain; I can't overemphasize the importance of understanding how a machine works and the safety rules for that machine before ever turning it on. If, due to ignorance or accident, you misuse a machine, even the best safety devices may not help much. Saw Stop may be the exception to this rule, but there are thousands or millions of saws without this luxury.

[Per Swenson]

Afternoon nap

Per

[Joe Chritz]

I had the dubious pleasure of making a trip to ER many many years ago to have a tiny piece of brass removed from an eye. My glasses were a bit loose and I was in a bad spot trying to watch a cut on a lathe.

Allow me to say it is not fun at all so my vote goes to proper fitting safety glasses. (right behind brain power)

Joe

[Larry Cooke]

I had the dubious pleasure of making a trip to ER many many years ago to have a tiny piece of brass removed from an eye.

I had a simular thing happen to me too, though I wasnt' wearing my eye protection. I was using a bench grinder buffing a piece of metal and a piece wire from the wire brush flew into my eye. It wasn't noticable at first, but over the next two days it felt like I had sand in my eye.

I went to the ER and they immediately saw something in my cornea. Next thing they did was lock my head in a head vise and the doctor came at me with a needle from a syringe. He said don't move your eye (duh!) and proceded to use it to remove the small piece of wire from my eye. That was scarry, but honestly I'd rather go through that than loosing a finger, hand, or arm.

My best suggestion is to use common sense and knowlege for safety. If you know better then do it. If you don't know then don't do it. Either way, you'll pay a price for a lack of safety...

Larry

[Barry O'Mahony]

I had the dubious pleasure of making a trip to ER many many years ago to have a tiny piece of brass removed from an eye.

At least it was brass and didn't rust.

My wife was doing some DIY stuff and NOT wearing safety glasses. She didn't like some tile in the kitchen and was chiselling it off the wall for some reason (I would have just taken a sledehammer to it, and removed the tile and the wallboard). Anyway, she didn't know how brittle drywall screws are; a tiny piece went flying into her eye unnoticed. By the time she saw the eye doctor a couple of days later, rust had set it ('lot's of oxygen in tears), which had to be all "dug out" (shudder).

She takes real good care of her Wavefront Lasik "bionic eyes" now, and always wears safety glasses.

[Michael Gibbons]

Safety glasses and dust collector are tied for first.

[Rick Gibson]

Safety glasses, hearing protection, dust collection and safety boots. Sure glad I was wearing them when the 10' x 1' 8/4 ash board came off the bench on to my foot.

[James Ayars]

Like you guys, I use a lot of safety stuff, but top of my list is eye protection. I used to just wear safety glasses but now I wear glasses and a face shield when I run my table saw or CMS. About three years ago, I had a cms blow apart when I was using it. Pieces of the saw went to the other side of my garage 25 feet away.

That day I had been running an angle grinder also so I happened to have my shield on over my safety glasses. The gouges in my shield convinced me to make it a permanent part of my saw safety equipment.
James