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Woodworking Safety Guide

About Your Safety: An Introduction

comments (5) April 30th, 2009 in blogs     
MBerger Matt Berger, executive producer
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Visit Fine Woodworkings Guide to Safety for videos, articles, quizzes, and more.

Visit Fine Woodworking's Guide to Safety for videos, articles, quizzes, and more.
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Woodworking is inherently dangerous. To help you avoid learning safety lessons in the woodshop the hard way, the editors of Fine Woodworking have compiled a comprehensive Guide to Safety, which features articles, videos and quizzes that will arm you with the know-how to work safely in the workshop. We put this site together in honor of the second annual Woodworkers Safety Week, but it's information that is pertinent every day of the year.

No matter what your skill level or how many years you've worked in a woodshop, these important safety reminders will help you prevent and respond to accidents in the woodshop.

 

DID YOU KNOW?
According to data from the Consumer Products Safety Commission there were an estimated 28,300 emergency room treated injuries caused by operator contact with a tablesaw blade in 2001. That same year, another 17,000 tablesaw accidents were reported that didn't result in emergency room visits. Download the CPSC report.

  • 94 percent of the injuries were sustained to the fingers
  • 65 percent were lacerations
  • 20 percent were fractures, avulsions, and crushings
  • 15 percent were amputations

 

The blog: This ongoing forum features a collection of tool safety manuals and videos for the most common tools in most woodworking shops. Each tool safety manual includes a list of safety guidelines. If you feel like information is missing from these manuals, we encourage you to use the comment feature to add your own tips and cautionary advice. Browse the blog

The quiz: To help you test your safety skills, we created three quizzes to test your general shop safety, tablesaw safety, and planner and jointer safety. These quizzes are based on a safety test I used to administer when I was a woodshop technician at my college woodshop. Take the quiz

The videos: We've also compiled a collection of FineWoodworking.com's best safety videos. These videos detail common safety procedures on woodshop tools and machinery, and help you understand how to buy and make use of common safety gear like eye protection and respirators. Watch the videos

The articles: Finally, as always you can browse the rich archive of safety articles from Fine Woodworking magazine for more in-depth information about techniques, tool use, and safe shop design. I recommend starting with Alan Marco's article Woodworkers' First Aid where you can download a two-page PDF that lists and illustrates all the items you should keep in your woodshop First Aid Kit. Browse all articles

As always we want to hear from you. We'll be posting safety questions regularly in this blog and look forward to following the lively debates that follow. Until next time, be safe and think twice.


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Comments (5)

mokusakusensei mokusakusensei writes: Good job Matt. Having taught woodworking for 31 years, I find the humor good to have. To you others, pick up your purses and tissues.
Posted: 9:55 pm on November 27th

bendymilkman bendymilkman writes: New to fine woodworking. So probably in the wrong thread?
Just watched the video of the shop made stop block in use.
Has this guy still got all his fingers?
Posted: 11:59 am on May 22nd

buddy01 buddy01 writes: I also did the "Safety-test". Question 2 is wrong. The first and only concern is "THE INJURY". You can always replace the wood. Ask any medical personal or first aider.
Posted: 4:38 am on May 21st

MBerger MBerger writes: Thanks for the comment toolswede. I was trying to get some humor into the quiz. Perhaps it wasn't the right place for that. I agree, focus on your health, not your project...
Posted: 12:55 pm on May 20th

toolswede toolswede writes: Hi!

Did the "Safety-test" and was surprised when I lost a point to the question regarding "What to do when you get injured in the workshop"...OK..blood staines...what´s new...but when you are injured...SHOULD YOU EVER HAVE to think about staines??...NO...get your self together and fix yourself up...that number ONE...stained wood is on a place faaaaaar down on the list...
Posted: 11:26 am on May 20th

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