Safety

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

Most of us have worked around shops for years and often don't what to talk about the times we have goofed or had something go wrong. Chris's point in starting this thread was I think to make us all stop and think and share our collective wisdom on avoiding accidents.

I have a supply air system in my shop which with different masks is used when I'm painting, grinding, working with chemicals and most often when welding.

A welding helmet with auto darkening lens, a leather back hood and a supply air system is the cats meow in comfort and protection. The air keeps the lens from steaming up, hood keeps stray light from reflecting off the inside of the lens which combined with the auto darkening lens means you can actually see what you are doing. Only one big problem you may not smell something burning.

Which I found out one day when welding wearing a wool sweater, you guessed it the sleeve caught fire which because of the supply air I didn't smell and because of the layers of clothing I didn't feel right off. Fortunately I noticed and was able to beat out the fire and remove the sweeter. Only damage conversion of a good long sleeve shop sweater to a short-sleeved one.

What did I do wrong, a couple of things:

I had two good Nomex shop coats that I use just for welding hanging on the wall not 10' away which I wasn't wearing.
Was wearing shop clothing that had been used while working on things and it had some oil stains.
No smoke alarms in the shop.

So while I was doing a good job of protecting my lungs working in the shop with a supply air system that was supplying out side air, I failed to take into account if you aren't breathing the air you may not smell a problem.


Now I know there is some question of the value of smoke detectors an CO detectors, in a shop. Lots of false alarms, for me working alone in the shop most of the time I decided to put up with the false alarms.

Just my thoughts, hope it will help protect somebody else.

Cheers Phil