I saw this book by Chris Hacket, who had a TV show where he built stuff from junk using cobbled together tools… Great fun, so I purchased.
While starting to read it, I was initially disappointed. One of the first chapters is “Run a Safe Shop”… Argh, more lectures from the safety Nazi’s… But a few pages later, I encountered the first bit that made me think, well maybe not. There is a description of how to suture you own gashes without needing to go to Hospital/Emergency room. Yes, this was amid the normal safety nazi crap…
Then in a later chapters he mentions how to use wet carboard to protect the floor in your living room, if you just have to weld in there… But the following excerpt is the best summary of why this is a FANTASTIC book…
As you can see I strongly recommend this fun read to those who share my disdain for the safety Nazi’s…
The only safety equipment that I’m a nazi about are safety glasses. You only get two chances to keep your eyesight, and one chance to keep your depth perception. You can still live quite successfully missing other parts of your body.
I can’t tell you how many times my eyeglasses have saved my eyesight. Taking apart even the smallest Sony Walkman tape decks of the 80s were dangerous. I had a spring fly up and smack the middle of my right lens. If it weren’t for those glasses I would’ve had bad eye damage many times over the years.
I had a piece of purple heart kick back and up and nail me on the forehead. Inch to the right and down and I’d have lost an eye. I now have a face shield and a better appreciation for riving knives.
Getting hit in the forehead - reminds me of driving one of my old cars with the windshield folded down and getting hit in forehead with a junebug - it felt like a rock…back when “Deep Ellum” had no name bands and cheap beer.
I’ve hit a grasshopper at 65 with my visor up on the bike, and it stung like crap. Had sunglasses on, so no damage, but one hell of a mess to clean out of my helmet and off my forehead.
I’ve been wanting an angle grinder class for some time now. It’s not something that I’m terribly familiar with, but my understanding is that it’s the #1 most useful tool to use in the Metal Shop universe. I’m certainly willing to teach it if someone will help me to develop the course.
If you want to make a class out of it, I’d suggest teaching most/all of the basic tools such as horizontal band saw, bench grinders, drill press, abrasive cut-off, etc.