Metalworking Safety Facts
Metal is always sharp and wants to cut you. It is always hot and it wants to burn you. Metalworking machines are always on and want to cut you to ribbons. Repeat those three ideas to yourself every second that you are working with metal and you will prevent many of the injuries that are common among metalworkers, knife makers and swordsmiths. Safety equipment is not optional. If you do not use it, you will get injured.
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Eyes and Ears
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Protect your eyes and ears. Don wraparound eye protection before cutting, grinding, polishing or hammering hot or cold steel. Only wraparound eye protection will prevent pieces of sharp metal from flying into your eyes. A simple face shield protects from the front and sides, but not from below. Metalworking machinery is loud. The damage you are doing does not show up until later, when you gradually lose the ability to hear certain sounds.
Lungs and Other Vulnerabilities
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You might manage to keep hammering steel after losing your eyes or your hearing, but if you cannot breathe, you can die. Grinding dust accumulates in your lungs over time, eventually causing asthma, emphysema and silicosis. Wear respirators at all times and work in a well-ventilated area. No matter how well-paid a metalworking position is, if your shop has poor ventilation, quit. You can get another job but you cannot get another set of lungs.
Always wear welding leathers when welding or smithing. Wear cotton clothing, not polyester.
Hands and Feet
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Do not wear gloves when using moving equipment such as drill presses, milling machines, grinders, saws or any other spinning machine, as metal chips or burrs can catch your glove or sleeve in an arbor and suck your hand or arm into the machine. Lefty should be a nickname for a great baseball player, not a former metalworker.
Always wear gloves and welding leathers when working with hot things. Do not work with hot things and spinning things at the same time.
Hair and Head
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Flowing locks are for the covers of romance novels and live-action role-play games. Your hair should be under a heavy-duty cotton welder's hat. This will save you much trauma. The top of your head is the last place you want to burn. If your hair is more than an inch long, it can get caught in a spinning arbor and you can be scalped.
Pull your hat down so that the bill of the hat touches the top of your full wrap-around safety glasses. This creates an additional barrier against flying debris getting into your eyes while you are looking down at your work. Long-billed truck driver's hats are often preferable to welder's helmets, as the bill creates a stop to prevent putting your face into a spinning mandrel or other arbor.
Shoes and Shirt Sleeves
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Wear heavy leather shoes when working with very small items. Never wear cloth shoes unless you like that burning sensation in your foot. You should wear steel-toed boots at all times when working with anything that weighs more than what you want to drop on your toes. If you enjoy the feeling of your four-pound cross peen dropping onto your big toe, go ahead and do without the steel-toed boots. Make sure your work boots are comfortable and fit properly. Standing on shop floors for long periods of time can cause plantar fasciitis, a common cause of severe foot pain.
Shirt sleeves should be rolled above the elbows when machines are running. Sleeves should be rolled down and arms and legs covered by welder's leathers when working hot steel.
Heat and Flame
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Fire is bad, especially when it is your shop or your body that is burning. Do not use water on electrical equipment. It will only cause a larger fire and destroy your equipment. Do not use fire extinguishers on human beings. Fire extinguishers will remove oxygen from the lungs and cause suffocation. Use water or a fire blanket when a person is burning.
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