Young, old, novice or expert, staying aware of danger and thinking before acting seems so simple to follow, yet complacency and tunnel vision is always tugging at our sleeves.
Bee Safe. Regards, Peter
When I got into model railroading after retirement, I was very fortunate that I had already learned all I need to know about X-Acto knives in my career in graphic arts.
www.bostontype.com
A foot switch is a good accessory for many power tools. It allows you to quickly stop the tool without having to find the on-off switch. I use one with my Dremel all the time. It allows me to position a drill bit in the center punch mark before starting the rotation and if the bit jams I can stop before it breaks.
Mark Vinski
Nearly sixty years working on big trucks and mining equipment I have pretty much ruined my ears. Sometimes the ringing and static in my ears is incredible. But at least I still have all my appendages. So I'm good with a little background noise. I know plenty of old mechanics that are a lot worse off than me. But you still have to take care of what you have.
Pete.
All of the above are good points. I think my "closest call" was quite some years ago but I was using a "Roto-Zip" which is a high speed rotary cutter to open up and elongate a hole through sub roadbed for a Tortoise rod (at this location it was 1" plywood) and while overhead the tool slipped out of my hand and landed on my shoulder with the 30,000 RPM cutting tool frighteningly close to my neck. I was on my reclining, wheel-about "trolley" at the time so trying to "escape" was not easy.
One thing not mentioned is the risk of slips and falls, especially germane for many of us old timers.
Chances are that my highest risk of injury occurs while descending the basement steps, especially while carrying materials or, perish the thought, an expensive brass engine! Sometimes during layout projects there is quite a bit of clutter and extension cords that can present tripping hazards.
I don't know the exact numbers but the chances of injury by falls make a huge increase as many of us enter and pass our 60s.
Be Safe — Ed
NittanyLion I'm fanatic about hearing protection. We use some fairly loud tools in pretty enclosed spaces when we're building benchwork.
I'm fanatic about hearing protection. We use some fairly loud tools in pretty enclosed spaces when we're building benchwork.
So very important NittanyLion. Anytime the tools come out, my ear protection is hanging around my neck for immediate use. Or if the really loud tools come out, I have my professional Bluetooth ones and can listen to my favorite tunes while working.
Should have practiced taking care of my ears earlier in life before tinnitus developed. Trying not to think about it helps, otherwise it can drive me nuts. It sounds like I'm walking around with a couple of seashells over my ears all day.
TF
Sounds like a self induced cardiac incident.
Mark B.
Extruded foam is in the walls of many houses..as insulation.
Good afternoon
Safety First!
I have one rule of thumb that sums up all good safety practices for doing everything.
If you can think to yourself this one statement that applies while doing anything, (KIDS DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!) then you are not practicing good safty
If that statement makes absolutely no sense whatsoever while you're doing something, .....
#1 you're being safe
#2 you're setting a good example for the kids at home.
#3 you can keep your eyes, ears, extremities and lungs for a while.
#4 there is no number four as you're being safe, so (usually) nothing goes wrong
Don't work 30 feet above the ground with a 35 foot tag line.
Never use your knee as a quick saw horse and skill saw.
Don't try to catch the falling Xacto knife. Especially with your foot.
Don't lick the end of the locktight bottle no matter how good it smells.
Saftey contacts don't work. Use glasses instead.
Side cutters do shoot objects at incredible speeds. Needs government regulations and a 10 day waiting period.
120 volts is not the same as 12.0 volts. Never mix and match. That little dot is important.
If you paint indoors. Have plenty of Tylenol available if you wake up.
A utility knife is the most dangerous machine in the house.
Don't wipe up the drip of super glue with your finger and then touch your nose or scratch your groin.
Never ever leave your grandson unattended in the workshop. Even for a second.
dknelsonElectricity class encouraged you to feel pretty free and easy about working with full 115 or 110 volt household electrical wiring
On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving back in the 1970s our elderly industrial arts teacher was explaining to a friend of mine how 110 volts wasn't really all that dangerous. The teacher took an unfinished extension cord, plugged it into the wall, and then grabbed the two exposed wires at the other end. He jiggled around quite a bit, and I think his eyes kinda rolled back into his head. Finally when he let it go he said "See? No problem".
Over Thanksgiving vacation, he died of a heart attack.
Safety is something that perhaps geezers and veterans need to be reminded of and think about even more than the raw beginners! There are obvious things like power tools, knives (good advice above about dull blades being more dangerous than sharp), eye protection. Then the things thare are "unseen" but dangerous - fumes and chemicals; does your basement have a carbon monozide detector; for older basements such as mine, asbestos in the flooring and such.
Kalmbach not long ago posted an article basically saying that in the good old days of Model Railroader and Model Trains magazine, articles were published that gave what we now know to be genuinely awful advice about materials and techniques. I remember in particular an article about building your own spray booth that brought horrified letters to the editor in subsequent issues. I remember writing on the original article to "see letters section MR) giving date and page so that I would not accidentally follow the article in future years when the subsequent warnings might be forgotten. An article on silver soldering and an article basically about massive use of extruded foam in the layout room brought similar letters from doctors and firefighters. For those who like me keep old issues it can make you stop short now and then.
Some things can give you false confidence -- for example when I went to school every boy had to take electricity class (and wood working, metal working, and mechanical drawing and I sure wish I'd paid more attention to all of them!). Electricity class encouraged you to feel pretty free and easy about working with full 115 or 110 volt household electrical wiring and that, combined with older MR articles that did the same (or Linn Westcott's book on wiring for that matter) but not enough was said about safety -- lip service mostly. I know I had an older power pack and as a teen an older modeler in town offered to re-wire it to add "pulse power" which was quite the fad at that time. Well he did and it worked for a while but that old power pack was not really fit for that and it darn near burned our house down. The cord was not rubber but gutta percha and the heat build up made it smoke and smell to high heaven.
This may just be my opinion but I do think that for just about everything under the sun to carry the now boiler plate warning that it contains materials "known to the State of California" to cause cancer has the effect of dulling one's sensitivity to the stuff that actually DOES cause cancer.
Dave Nelson
My soldering iron has one of those cage things to put it back in after use. This protects you from burns if you forget it's on and accidentally touch the tip. Not MR specific, but a good thing to look for when getting an iron.
There's also safety to protect your investment. Power everything down when working on wiring, and fuse those cheap power suppplies.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
In my 70 plus years of model building, I've never hurt myself of any significance, but that is only because of luck and basic skills taught by others and shop classes (Lane Tech '62). Also, spending 40 years at various refineries certainly added to being safety concious.
IMO, the most likely accidents are from improper use of sharp objects (actually dull ones are more dangerous), the shattering of cutting discs, etc., and the mishandling soldering irons.
So as indicated, cut away from you, wear that eye protection, and pay attention to what you are doing.
Ooops, can't forget the use of a respirator and/or doing your painting in a well ventilated place.
I guess my scariest close call was the two or three times I dropped an Xacto knife while working at the hobby desk - barely missing my foot. So again, pay attention to what you are doing......
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
How about:
--keep flammables away from potential sources of sparks.
--make fire exits easy to get to.
Don't grab at falling tools! Use eye protection. Cut away from you. Wear a reperator when neccisary. And now a plug for Woodland Scenics, their hot wire foam cutter dose not heat the foam to a high enough temperature to create toxic gases, have not found another that has this limitation built in.
Reading through this months NMRA rag and it had a small ad for the nmra website for beginners. And it highlighted model railroad safety. I haven't gone out to see what it contains but though it was interesting since I never though of that before. But then, I have been in the hobby since I was knee high to an ameaba. So any safety sort of thing is engrained. Like most of us here it is second nature. Thought it would be useful discussion for the beginners here.
shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space