Workshop Behaviour, Competence and Safety

Competence comes before operation

A person should understand the machine they are using, its controls, its hazards and the task being performed.

Beginners should not operate heavy or unfamiliar machinery without appropriate training and guidance from a competent person.

Reading instructions is useful, but reading about a machine is not the same as being trained to operate it. A table saw, lathe, welder or industrial CNC machine can injure someone much faster than they can stop and reconsider what they are doing.

If you do not understand what a machine is about to do, do not operate it until you do.

Children in workshops

Children should generally be kept out of active workshop and factory environments.

Where children are permitted to enter, they should remain under constant close supervision by a trained and competent adult and should not be allowed to approach or interact with operating machinery unless the activity has been specifically assessed as safe and appropriate.

An active workshop should never be treated as an unsupervised play environment.

Pay attention to the operator

Someone operating machinery needs to concentrate.

Do not unexpectedly distract, touch or startle a person who is cutting, machining, welding or positioning a workpiece.

Likewise, an operator should stop if they become distracted, uncertain, excessively tired or otherwise unable to give the task their full attention.

Machinery does not become less dangerous because a job is nearly finished.

Keep the work area controlled

A good workshop is organised enough that the operator can move safely and understand what is happening around them.

Cables, offcuts, tools and materials should not create unnecessary trip hazards or interfere with access to machinery.

Operators should know the location of emergency stops, isolation controls, fire equipment and first-aid facilities relevant to their workplace.

Guards, interlocks and protective devices are part of the machine. They should not be defeated simply because doing so makes a job faster or more convenient.

Personal protective equipment

Personal protective equipment, or PPE, provides an additional layer of protection against hazards that cannot otherwise be fully eliminated or controlled.

Different tasks require different PPE.

Common examples include:

• safety glasses, goggles or face protection;
• hearing protection;
• suitable enclosed footwear or safety boots;
• welding helmets and protective welding clothing;
• respirators appropriate to the dust, fumes or vapours being produced;
• gloves where they are appropriate to the task;
• protective clothing suited to heat, sparks, chemicals or sharp materials.

PPE should match the actual hazard.

More PPE is not automatically safer. An item that protects against one hazard can introduce another.

Loose gloves, clothing, jewellery, hair or other material can become entangled in rotating machinery. Gloves that are appropriate when handling sharp sheet metal, for example, may be inappropriate near an exposed rotating spindle.

The correct question is not simply:

“What PPE should I wear?”

It is:

“What are the hazards of this operation, how are they controlled, and what PPE is appropriate after those controls are considered?”

Workholding is a safety system

The workpiece also needs to be controlled.

A cutting tool pushes against material. A drill can grab. A saw can pull or throw a poorly controlled piece. A milling cutter produces changing forces as it travels through a part.

Clamps, vices, fixtures, jigs and machine-specific workholding systems keep the workpiece where it is supposed to be.

Good workholding improves both safety and accuracy.

If a machine expects the workpiece to remain in one position, the workpiece must actually remain there.

Before operating machinery

A competent operator should be able to answer some basic questions:

What is the machine about to do?

What can move?

What can cut, crush, burn, entangle or eject material?

How is the workpiece being held?

Where should my body not be?

What happens if something goes wrong?

How is the machine stopped safely?

If those questions cannot be answered, the task is not ready to begin.