A reader recently left a comment in response to an older post about Ullman hooks and picks, and something he said has stuck with me.
In his comment, Steve says:
Another good practice is to work deliberately; know what you want to do before you start and determine what may happen as you work. Most don’t do that; we grab the pick in desperation because what we’ve been using (our fingers or pliers) isn’t working out. We start pulling on something to remove it (without donning the necessary safety equipment), and that’s when people get injured.
Advertisement
Thank you Steve for the wonderful words of advice!
In the few days since then, I paused quite a few times when I found myself working with tools. Was I working deliberately? Sometimes the answer was yes, other times it was no.
The two or three times when I remembered Steve’s comment before picking up a tool to do something, I found myself working more cautiously and efficiently.
I suppose that sometimes the human mind can be too focused on the outcome of a quick task, rather than the process and small steps that we often don’t take the time to think about. Failing to consider all aspects of a project or application doesn’t necessarily mean we’re being hasty or negligent, it only means we’re human.
We are all guilty of indeliberate actions. For me, this often happens when a project comes to a halt and new tasks start branching out. I often do what it takes to clear a hurdle and get back on track, with focus on the bigger picture. In hindsight, I can think of a few times when a minute’s pause could possibly have saved me from making mistakes or suffering minor injury.
Looking back at another older post about my 5 hand tools that drew the most blood, some of those injuries could have been avoided if I worked and acted more deliberately.
Advertisement
Another good practice is to work deliberately; know what you want to do before you start and determine what may happen as you work.
We have all heard think before you do, but the shorter phrase doesn’t seem to have the same resonance, at least with me.
So let me ask – Do YOU work deliberately?
Chris Pyfer
There are times when I find myself on auto-pilot and could benefit from stopping and deliberating. It is a lot easier said than done when you are in the middle of a long project that is not going as planned. That’s when a short break saves time and prevents injury.
Allen
Absolutely. Taught shop for 33 years, 12-18 year olds. Never an accident more serious than a sliver or blister. From 7 th grade on they used all the power tools available in a wood and metal shop.
A lot of things are dangerous, but they don’t have to be unsafe.
Josh N.
When you’re up to your *** in alligators, it’s easy to forget that the initial objective was to drain the swamp.
Erik Potter
Bravo to Steve for original post and to Stuart for highlighting it.
I try to be deliberate. Some of this shows itself in pre-planning. Pre-planning for results as well as safely. Sometimes this is calmly planned in the way mentioned, but it also comes into play with life’s split second plans. Say driving your vehicle you foresee a potential problem, and preplan how to react to it.
Driving my motorcycle home one particularly cold and wet 4am I was surprised by a traffic signal that went from green through yellow and to red in well under one second. I applied both brakes and lost traction in both wheels but used the planning from my motorcycle safely class to recover…only to come to a stop in the middle of the intersection. Fortunately at 4am there was no other traffic. After regaining my calm I planned for this possibility again and decided how to react. If there was traffic moving towards me I would break again but a bit more gently. If there was no traffic I would run the red. Low and behold, a couple blocks later I chose to run the red for safety reasons and I was glad I didn’t have to make another attempt to recover from loss of traction in both wheels another time.
When working with less dangerous tools I preplan how much force to apply, how far I’m going to let my arm move when/if things give way and where to be to avoid injury. This might include using a sharp blade cutting towards some part of my body but my bracing and preplanning has (so far) always allow me to confidently handle the situation. When the stakes are higher, the preplanning errs far more on the safety side of things…such as planning to NOT be in the danger zone of a broken bandsaw blade or planning NOT to reach near/across a blade for a falling/propelled piece of material.
All the little jabs and cuts I’ve had over the years however have come from not pre-planning. Usually something like building a model carefully and with preplanning, only to get pulled into a conversation while forgetting I have an x-acto in my hand…until I poke myself with it. Its letting myself get distracted around the lesser dangers that cause me to bleed. Fortunately for me, my respect for sharp and pointy things spinning quickly holds my attention well.
george
I have always worked like that. in fact almost everything I do in life is thought out.
its why I never had any broken bones or missing digits, etc. I also have a huge respect for all the tools I’m using.
mike
Working in a machine shop environment the day you dont do that is when you get an injury.
Everything needs to be thought out about your processes. Is it absolute? no definately not because you cannot eliminate the human factor.
I see young guys starting out in the trade using very bad habits sometimes. I warn them what could happen.
Dave L.
One thing my dad taught me that I’ve never forgotten-DO NOT take your eyes off the point of action of a tool-power, machine or otherwise.
Hang Fire
Good advice!
Jim Felt
You’re new slogan?
Could be!
Chris Fyfe
I pre plan , come in heavily armed , and have a plan of attack . A large percentage of the time , all this cerebration goes down the crapper , but at least I have something to build on for the next , hopefully well planned attack .
Chris
David
Two years ago I was gathering up pine limbs from my yard to burn. One wouldn’t break in half from stomping on it, I quickly grabbed a Jackpro short handsaw (it has large rough cut teeth and saws quickly). I was sawing the branch in half quickly and was holding the branch in place with my left hand when the saw jumped out of the slot on the pull stroke and went across my distal thumb joint. It was a bad cut, and to this day I still have pain and flexibility problems in that joint. If I had put on thick work gloves first or even grabbed an axe to do it, it would not have happened. These days, I think before I grab a tool for a job.
Michael Veach
thanks for the reminder
Michael Wright
“Begin with the end in mind.” Some limited thinkers believe this applies to a project. But, I submit it might equally apply to tool selection and use. I sawed across my left hand too, trying to take a shortcut trimming the bottom of a Christmas tree, not as bad as David did, but enough for trip to the ER and stitches.