Where Are My Hands?
Some think this rule is silly because it seems so obvious. Unfortunately, we sometimes overlook the obvious and this can be dangerous. When you are about to start a power tool capable of causing serious injury, it is critical to know the exact location of your hands before a motor is started. Once the tool starts, it could be too late.
Perform The Task
Once the first four rules are done it’s time to get the task completed. Now you will proceed with the full knowledge that the task will be performed accurately and safely.
Put The Tool Down Carefully
Once the task is performed you may still be standing there with the tool in one or both hands. Now is the time to turn off the tool, give it time to stop fully, and put it down on the floor or on a bench safely. If it is a stationary power tool it is important to completely finish the cut, turn off the machine, and wait for it to come to a complete stop.
A Time-
All this sounds like it could be time consuming and it does take a little time. Obviously, you won’t be able to work as fast while taking these steps. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your projects are going to take longer. Remember that these steps will help you avoid mistakes that can take many hours to correct. More importantly, it can help you avoid serious injuries that can take months or even years to overcome.
Chapter 14
The Order of Things
As you complete more jobs for your customers it will become clear that the order in which certain things are done is important. It can help you work safer and more efficiently.
Doing things in the best possible order requires a high degree of attentiveness. Devoting your full attention to your own safety, the needs of your customers, and the overall quality of every job will contribute much to your success in the woodworking business.
What follows is a long list of basic rules with explanations and they apply equally to your safety and to any tasks you may be doing for yourself or a customer.
Think About What You Are Doing
This certainly sounds obvious but so many times a person is thinking about a dozen other things besides what he or she is doing. If you are fortunate, failure to follow this rule may only lead to a mistake, but it could just as easily lead to serious injury.
Measure Twice And Cut Once
That old saying “Measure twice and cut once,” is an example of rule one. When you are thinking about what you are doing, you will take the second measurement to be certain it is correct before actually cutting the wood. While this is always important, it can be critical when you have calculated your materials closely without consideration for waste. By taking the time to think, you will avoid ruining a piece of material that you really need to complete the work.
Visualize The Task Through To Completion
This sounds difficult and time consuming to some because they are always in a rush to get things done, but it’s really simple. Just take a few seconds to imagine how the cut will proceed so you can prepare for potential difficulties.
This could help you realize that a certain crosscut on a table saw may cause a kickback or you are about to run a router in the wrong direction possibly damaging a surface. Common problems are diminished in size when you are ready for them and visualization prepares you for whatever actually happens.
Assembling In The Right Order
The best order of things can come to you while assembling a project. Two examples of how carefully determining the best order of things can help you appear below.
The biscuit joiner is my favorite joinery tool so I am often assembling cabinets and furniture using biscuit wafers. This requires putting glue into the slots cut by the biscuit joiner prior to the actual assembly of the unit. Early on I realized that the order in which I put the glue and the biscuits in the slots was important.
The first time I proceeded with an assembly without thinking it through and visualizing the procedure, I wound up with slots full of glue being turned upside down and dripping glue on my project and my work surface. After that first time I planned carefully by thinking and visualizing and the only slots that were ever upside down had a biscuit in them so the glue could not drip out. This may not be important to some, but being a basically neat worker the glue mess was a problem for me.
Another time when thinking saved me a lot of unpleasantness involved spray painting. Years ago when I built a set of lecterns for a hotel, I sprayed clear lacquer over stain. On the first batch I made the mistake of assembling them completely before spraying and quickly found out that spraying into enclosed spaces caused the overspray to come right back at me in large and unpleasant quantities. It was a lesson I never forgot.
Recently, while building new kitchen cabinets for my own home, I decided to spray
paint them. Since the cabinets are an off-
Sometimes, a failure to think and visualize causes a painful situation that ensures you will do both next time. One tool that can teach this lesson promptly is the pneumatic nailer.
Although I am a careful person, sometimes things just happen. Once, while using a pneumatic finish nailer to assemble a project, I held one piece with one hand while pressing the other in close for nailing. I had my fingers too close and when I pressed the trigger to shoot the nail it came out the side of the material and directly into my finger right to the bone.
The pain was excruciating and I bled considerably all over the cabinet. I had the wound checked out and everything was fine but it was an excellent lesson and since then my fingers have never been within range of a nail so it has never been repeated. Thinking and visualizing how that nail could go would have saved me the pain and possibly more serious injury. Plus, I would not have had to sand the blood off my cabinet.
The woodworking business requires planning and organization to decide what, when, and how you are going to do things. It’s also important to remember that the order of carrying out these functions may make your work safer, faster, and even cleaner. So, spend time thinking and visualizing before doing.
Thanks for reading this chapter. I hope you found it informative. You can get my book Woodworking Business: Start Quickly And Operate Successfully now by clicking on the order now button below. Thank You.
Copyright 2010 Positive Imaging, LLC