Safety First in Your Garage Workshop Area

Your home garage work area, or workshop is probably the most accident-prone area of our home. Just think of all the safety hazards, sharp blades, heavy objects, toxic chemicals, flammable materials and more. Respect for your tools and a clean work area will help keep accidents low, you should still prepare for a potential accident. Here are some of my ideas for a basic emergency center. Keep it stocked with a phone, first aid kit and fire extinguisher and you will be well on your way to keeping safety first and hospital trips to a minimum.

First and foremost, you will need a well stocked first aid kit kept in plain sight and at easy reach. I suggest hanging pegboard on the wall and using hooks to hang the kit if possible, along with emergency numbers, a phone and a fire extinguisher all within the same area of reach. Your minimum first aid supplies should include plenty of gauze and bandages, antiseptic first aid ointment, non-latex gloves, a disposable cold compress, rubbing alcohol and swabs, iodine or other disinfectant and a first aid guidebook.

Next to the phone and first aid kit, you should hang a fire extinguisher. The extinguishers are rated by their ability to combat fires of different causes. One rated "A" is best used against fires of wood, trash and paper. "B" will extinguish flammable liquid and grease fires, while "C" can be used in electrical fires. For your garage or home workshop you should try to find a dry chemical fire extinguisher with a rating of "ABC", such as KIDDE brand.

To round out your emergency center, it is best to have general safety equipment on hand. You can protect yourself from dust and fumes with a particle mask (disposable for general work), a dust mask (has replacement filters and flexible faceplate to keep out sawdust), or a respirator which can be fitted with filters to protect against chemical fumes. Your hearing is a very important asset so when operating power tools wear ear muffs, ear plugs or corded foam ear inserts to best ensure you can still hear the alarm clock the next morning. And of course, our eyes should definitely be protected at all times. All it takes is one time to be cutting some metal and have a flake of it fly up and into your eyeball, permanently damaging your vision. A face shield is best worn when cutting and grinding metals or doing more hazardous work where safety glasses made with shatterproof polycarbonate lenses are great for all around activities. I am not one who believes that if you already wear glasses for eyesight that they can substitute for shatterproof eye goggles. You wouldn't wear a glass vest if someone was planning on shooting you, or would you?

Another important tip if you are using stationary power tools is that most come equipped with a removable lock or key that is inserted into the on/off or I/O switch of the tool, use it! The tool can't be turned on if they key is in place. Store the lock keys in your emergency center but away from the tool station.

And finally one more danger to consider when working in a wood shop is that the dangers of sparking a fire from static electricity is extremely high. You should add a dust collection system and ground it with bare copper wire so the built up electricity can escape. Dust if left uncontrolled not only can harm you by sparking a fire but can shorten the life of your power tools as well.

So in closing, I would like to thank the training I received from the Wales Fire Department as well as Baystate Hospital of Western MA and the safety department from the Hartford P&DC mail facility in CT for expanding my knowledge in this area and helping me to share this information with you. Remember KIDDE is a supplier of many fire safety products for your home or business.