Learn Safety Tips for Power Tools

Series Summary

Home improvement projects are often some of the most rewarding—and frustrating—tasks homeowners can tackle. Whether it's building a new deck, installing drywall, laying tile, or just fixing the toilet, home repair and maintenance can be done successfully with the right tools and the right knowledge. The key to making your home improvement project relatively hassle-free is a tactic that has worked for ages: divide and conquer. With step-by-step instructions and safety procedures in hand, Saturday afternoons walking around the house with a power tool and a plan can resume.

In this free do-it-yourself video series, learn how to use a belt sander. This power tool allows you to complete large woodworking projects in minutes instead of hours, saving you the back-breaking effort of smoothing out large areas of rough wood by hand. Our expert will give you easy-to-follow shop safety tips, as well as how to care for and maintain your sander, how to operate the trigger system, and what types of wood to use.

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Jon on behalf of ExpertVillage. In this video clip, I will be talking about general safety instructions. First off, you want to make sure that your work area is kept clean. Any type of sawdust or other debris around your work area could be a trip hazard. Or, you could also get some other type of injury. You also want to make sure that work area is well lit. It is very hard to work in the dark. You also want to make sure that you are not working in any type of an explosive atmosphere. If you are using the belt sander, and you hit a nail, it could cause sparks to fly off which could ignite anything explosive. And, lastly, you want to make sure and keep anyone that's watching at a safe distance so that you can properly use your tool without the possibility of them getting injured."