Safety, PPE and Some Links

The recent article about an unfortunate machine shop accident is a good (if sobering) reminder: be safe! Wear your PPE, recently I've been stressing eye shades when working with arc welding equipment, but PPE includes other good stuff like

• safety glasses when you are drilling / cutting
  
• heavy leather gloves when you are welding / melting
  
• nitrile or latex gloves when you are handling chemicals (there's a pack by the sink)
  
• long sleeves are often needed for welding (UV protection), but short sleeves are often indicated for power tools (also, secure long hair and remove rings / dangling jewelry)
  
• hearing protection is cheap, those little foam ones do wonders at knocking-off the high-frequencies that can "notch" your hearing (I always wear them whenever I'm using the angle grinder)
  

Other good shop practice that's come up in emails is ventilation. Soldering and welding fumes are not good for you! Use the box fan that's in the space to increase airflow when doing these activities. We have a hand-held fire-extinguisher in addition to our wonderful red sprinkler system. Familiarize yourself with the instructions and place it nearby when you are working with hot stuff.

All-Important PPE

If you think of some other good safety tips that I left off, please post them in the comments. Bottom line: we want you healthy, wealthy and wise so you can brag about your hacks at the next meeting, so be safe.

On a "funner" note, I thought this video about scientific glassblowing was really cool:
Handmade Portraits: Kiva Ford from Etsy on Vimeo.
Read the full Etsy post http://etsy.me/hfODoT

Master craftsman Kiva Ford aka ( http://www.etsy.com/shop/kivaford ) toes the line between scientific beakers and delicately curlicued vessels. At his furnace, the intangible takes shape.

I tried some rudimentary shaping with the carbon arc clamped down to the table so I could use both hands to continuously turn an old beer bottle in the flame. It's really hard to get things heated evenly and cooled slowly enough to prevent cracks from the thermal stresses. Anyway, Sam Adams and I need some more practice on our technique, so no pics I want to share yet.

This article on reciprocal frames did inspire some nail melting though:

I figure if I keep posting stuff about me melting paperclips, nails and tin cans the rest of you guys will post some stuff out of shear boredom ; - )