Speaker 1 00:00:04 Welcome to the weekend. Warriors home improvement show built by bar lumber. When it comes to biggest wall projects around the home, Tony ACORE, you've got the know-how and the answers to make your life just a bit easier. Yearly are your weekend warriors, Tony and Corey.
Speaker 2 00:00:24 Hey, welcome to the weekend. Warriors home improvement show built by power lumber. I'm Corey Valdez,
Speaker 3 00:00:30 And I am Tony Cookstown.
Speaker 2 00:00:31 Thanks for tuning in with us a fantastic weekend here. We're uh, we've got a new show lined up for you today. It's going to be about safety.
Speaker 3 00:00:40 Yeah. Safety is a huge topic. There are so many subtopics under there to cover, and we're not going to probably cover them all, but we're going to try to cover some of the very common, uh, ways that you can become injured while working around the home. Um, DIY projects, weekend warrior type projects, uh, and a lot of these unfortunately will come from our own experiences.
Speaker 2 00:01:07 Yeah. You know, I actually had a customer come into my store the other day and he said, you should do a show on safety. It's kinda got what he got me thinking about this.
Speaker 3 00:01:15 Yeah, that's really good topic. We've we've, we've talked about safety in the past, but I don't know if we've dedicated an entire show, but I think it's going to be good. We've got a, a long list of things to cover and we might rabbit trail a little bit, but I'm sure there's going to definitely be some good morsels in here.
Speaker 2 00:01:30 Well, I want to, I want to ask you, Tony, what is the worst thing you've ever done in your shop or, or just in general, DIY doing weekend, warrioring working around your house. What's the worst thing you've ever done.
Speaker 3 00:01:43 So something that, that didn't result in a catastrophe, but, but could have, is that what you're thinking? Yeah, I mean, it, honestly, I can think back to a time when my chop saw, um, was pushed off of the cabinet that it was sitting on and it hit the ground and it broke the guard and, you know, bend it up. And, and, uh, here I had projects to do and I needed to use it, even though it was not functioning properly. I actually removed the guard from my 12 inch chop saw and I used it a lot.
Speaker 2 00:02:15 Oh man.
Speaker 3 00:02:16 After that and you know, honestly I cringed sometimes, uh, when I was using it. Um, but I came to my senses and, um, and I discarded that thing and replaced it with, with a new saw that was, has all of the proper
Speaker 2 00:02:31 Ever hurt
Speaker 3 00:02:31 Yourself. I know, I know. I'm sh I have set, definitely hurt myself, cut myself with a box knife and, you know, needed 13 stitches. I've done a lot of stupid things. I've fallen off of the roof.
Speaker 2 00:02:42 You have,
Speaker 3 00:02:43 Oh yeah. I fell off the roof of the house. It was a single story. So I guess that, I would say that I felt about fell about nine or 10 feet probably.
Speaker 2 00:02:51 And you didn't, you didn't break anything That realizing
Speaker 3 00:02:54 It broke my pride a little bit.
Speaker 2 00:02:55 When I was a kid, I distinctly remember, remember my father falling off a ladder that was tipped against the house and he fell in such a way. He broke his back.
Speaker 3 00:03:07 Oh my goodness. I
Speaker 2 00:03:08 Remember that as a kid.
Speaker 3 00:03:09 Yeah. That's I mean, that's obviously, you know, those are, those are worst case scenarios. I was lucky I was helping a guy reshingle, uh, the roof. And, um, and we, we had a system, he had explained it to me. This is how you do it. We were not tied off. And again, this is 20, I don't know, 30, this was a long time ago. Um, probably close to 30 years ago. And, uh, we were, we were the roof and he had, you know, these Sikh had some safety protocols in place. Um, but I went where I wasn't supposed to go. And I stepped on a shingle that had been placed and not nailed. And it just slipped. Yep. I just went straight down. So right off the edge of the roof and I landed in some mud Lucky and knocked the wind out of me. But, but, uh, I'll tell you what, every one of those types of things near misses, or even some injuries there, they're definitely going to, um, help you if you learn from them.
Speaker 2 00:04:05 No, you're absolutely right. I actually, a few weeks ago, uh, was, was being really stupid with a Exacto knife and I cut my finger, the tip of my finger to the bone.
Speaker 3 00:04:17 Oh,
Speaker 2 00:04:17 Yikes. And it is only now beginning to really heal up. It's been a couple of weeks, probably almost three weeks now. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's a ridiculous thing to do in, as soon as I did it, I was so mad at myself. Uh, but you know, in the, in the line of work we are in, we hear a lot of these stories. And so fortunately I don't really, I don't try to make the really dumb, big mistakes. Like, yeah. I know a guy several years ago who was pin, he pinned the guard on his, on his Skilsaw and he cut his thumb off.
Speaker 3 00:04:50 Oh man.
Speaker 2 00:04:51 Yeah. They, they could not save it. Uh, I know another guy recently, uh, last year you probably remember this. Um, at one of my job sites, one of the guys was tied off on the roof and then he untied himself to go work on another area and it was just inconvenient, uh, to tie back off and he slipped and fell four stories down onto the ground and he, he died.
Speaker 3 00:05:18 Oh man.
Speaker 2 00:05:18 So it's something that we have to do to take very seriously. Uh, so safety, that's what we're talking about.
Speaker 3 00:05:23 Yeah. I mean, you know, you and I, uh, you, and I've seen a lot of, we haven't been, uh, in too many really bad situations, but you know, you and I saw a guy cut his fingers off, um, with, with home man, the chop saw, he was just, you know, he was just not using it the right way. It was not fastened down. It was sitting on a not level space. And he was cutting a piece of wood that was tuned
Speaker 2 00:05:47 Too long.
Speaker 3 00:05:48 It was too long and too big. And the saw, um, the saw bound up and because it wasn't, uh, sitting on a flat surface or attached to the surface that was sitting on it, it just spun, it just came right up off of the table and turned and just took his fingers right off of his hand. They were able to reattach them, but either they don't work properly. And so, yeah. You know, we've seen some pretty yucky stuff and, um, hopefully we'll cover some things today that would help somebody at least think twice or, um, put in place some sort of safety procedure that would keep that from happening to them.
Speaker 2 00:06:23 Yeah. So, uh, let's go over some of the things, you know, one of the, probably one of the most important things of any project or any weekend warrior tool that they have in their arsenal would be a ladder.
Speaker 3 00:06:36 Oh
Speaker 2 00:06:36 Yeah. I mean, it's kind of the one thing that a lot of people are up on, uh, their, their roofs, they're cleaning their gutters and it's it's you need to take that seriously.
Speaker 3 00:06:47 Yeah. I was, um, I was at a friend's house not too long ago. And uh, he asked me to take a look at his gutter and, uh, I'm like, you got a ladder and he comes out with a wooden ladder and here's the thing. This wooden ladder was probably could very well have belonged to my great grandfather. It was so old and it was, you could just see that it was worn in. And I thought I'm not climbing up there on that wood ladder. I mean, that thing is a death trap. And he was like, oh, it's fine. I use it all the time. I said, I'm telling you right now, you need to throw that thing away, cut it up into little pieces and go buy a ladder that is not a hundred years old.
Speaker 2 00:07:29 Yeah. Did you know Tony 90,000 people, every single year ended up in the emergency room from a latter related injury,
Speaker 3 00:07:38 90,000,
Speaker 2 00:07:39 90,000 people per year. That's an insane amount of people doing stupid things on ladders.
Speaker 3 00:07:44 Yeah. And then, because ladders are moderately expensive. I mean, it's kind of a big purchase. Um, if they have a ladder that has become damaged, one of the rungs or one of the feet came off or whatever it is, they just want to rig it so that it will work. So they don't have to buy another ladder. I mean, it seems like it should be fine. And, um, you know, uh, I saw one time, a guy that had a ladder where the, the connective brackets that hold this A-frame ladder or a step ladder that hold the two sections together, um, had the Riverhead come out and it was just dangling there and he's like, oh, it's no problem. You just have to make sure that you get the feet nestled into the ground. Really good. And, uh, he climbed up on, he used it for a couple hours before, uh, finally it got onto a spot of the ground that was, you know, not as strong as some of the portions of ground and it just slipped straight out and he went right down on it, just face planted right down on that ladder.
Speaker 2 00:08:42 Yeah. You know, it's important to choose the right ladder for the right job. You know, there, there are all kinds of different ladders, you know, an extension ladder, there's a
Speaker 3 00:08:53 Step ladder,
Speaker 2 00:08:54 Step ladders, you know, that come out and have feet on four feet. Uh, but if you don't use the right ladder for the right job and you're setting yourself up for failure, just like your friend, if you're using it incorrectly. Now, when we talk about the different types of ladders, there's also different types of ladders in those subsets of ladders. Every ladder has, what's called a rating and you'll have a type one or type two, a type three. And each one of those is rated for certain amounts of weight. So if you're a big guy like you and me, you know, we need the higher rated,
Speaker 3 00:09:29 More expensive,
Speaker 2 00:09:30 More expensive, heavier
Speaker 3 00:09:31 Duty,
Speaker 2 00:09:32 Right. They make them in fiberglass. They make them in aluminum wood and there's just different types. So you want to be careful. You want to think about what you're using the ladder for what you're carrying on to the ladder. I've been to these job sites before where I've seen framers have a step ladder leaned up against a wall incorrectly. It's not an extension ladder. So it should be on all four feet. They have it leaned against the wall in they're carrying a 300 pound beam on their shoulders, setting this beam on a ladder that has a 250 pound capacity. So you've got a 200 pound guy holding a 300 pound beam climbing up a ladder. I mean, you're, you're bound to have a
Speaker 3 00:10:16 Failure,
Speaker 2 00:10:16 Serious failure. And I mean, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to fall off a ladder holding a 300 pound beam or even half of a 300 pound beam. Uh, come on down on top of you.
Speaker 3 00:10:28 I mean, I've been the guy with the beam on his shoulder, climbing the ladder. You know, I said a six by 1220. Yeah. When I built my back patio cover. And uh, I mean, I'm going to be honest with you that that's been years ago, but, um, I didn't do the math to determine what, what weight of beam I was carrying and my weight and check the ladder to see what, but, but I can tell you that my ladders are the highest rated ladders. That doesn't mean I didn't still exceed, uh, the weight rating on the ladder when I was doing that. But that's, you know, this is the thing we're talking about. People do these things a lot of times without giving it a lot of consideration, right. You and me included in that group.
Speaker 2 00:11:11 Nope. A hundred percent. I mean, we catch ourselves all the time, you know, not wearing safety goggles or not wearing ear protection or something like that. So
Speaker 3 00:11:20 It's gotten a lot better about that. Uh, since we started building things in front of a camera, uh, you know, that, that was one of the things we needed to learn right away. Um, but so it, it was a beneficial for us.
Speaker 2 00:11:34 Well, you know, another thing I actually follow on Instagram, there's a, there's an account on there that posts crazy videos of things around workshops. And one of the ones I've been seeing lately is people that use angle grinders and they've been wearing their safety glasses and they will literally have a piece of the disc, the wheel from the angle grinder stuck into their safety glasses.
Speaker 3 00:12:02 Wow.
Speaker 2 00:12:03 I mean, just imagine the force of a shard of disc that's rotating at, I don't even know what RPMs flies off and has enough force to puncture and stick into safety glasses, which aren't supposed to be able to be punctured. Right. Right. I mean, you're losing an eye.
Speaker 3 00:12:25 Yeah. You're blind. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:12:26 Completely. I mean, it's stuff like that. That really makes me cringe. And I think about it now. Um, I had a friend over just a few weeks ago and he was showing me pictures of, because his dad listens to our radio show in his dad had almost cut his thumb off on his table saw and he just cerated in, it took chunks out of his thumb. I don't want to get gross and gross. Right, right. Um, he showed me pictures and he, he may never have full function of his thumb back. And it's on his right hand is his hand that he uses. So I don't know, we get pretty passionate. We talk about safety. Um, but you know, again, ladders 90,000 people a year. That's no joke.
Speaker 3 00:13:11 When I think about a ladder being used for something that it's not supposed to be used for. I am, I I'm always reminded of a movie that I watched. I think it was called Everest. And these guys are climbing Mount Everest,
Speaker 2 00:13:24 These climbers,
Speaker 3 00:13:25 And they take, uh, an extension ladder and they extended out and then they just lay it over this crevasse. Right. And they're walking across this ladder in a way that it should, and you can just see the ladder is bowing. You know, it's deflecting like 12 inches in the middle and you're thinking, what are you guys with doing
Speaker 2 00:13:44 Tons of equipment? These guys are crossing these things with tons of equipment. Yeah, no, I see that too. And I cringe. And actually that was one of the things about using your ladder properly is how many times have you seen people use them as a plank scaffolding or a plank
Speaker 3 00:13:59 All the time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:14:00 They're not designed for that. And you're just asking for trouble.
Speaker 3 00:14:04 Yeah. But you know, having said that there are some ladders that are designed for that. They make those articulating ladders that, um, can be folded in a way that it makes this sort of box shape thing. Um, you know, it just depends on the ladder that you have and the way that it's intended to be used, but there are some ladders that can be used that way. And that's okay. Yeah. Um, yeah, so it's very interesting. The way ratings is important. Here's one other little quick note. Um, if you're using a ladder on a job site, you know, the, the labels that are on the side of the ladder that tell you its weight rating and the other, um, information that's on there, if your ladder does not have that label, the original label or, or a replacement label, that's telling the same information, uh, that's actually an OSHA violation and can, and can cost you thousands of dollars. Um, it, you know, that is just like using an extension cord that has, you know, that is frayed or where the installation is torn or cut away. And the, the wires are exposed. Yeah. OSHA violation now, oh, she's not coming out to people's personal residences in and, um, and seeing what they're doing, but, you know, contractors that are listening to this of course would understand, um, if it's an OSHA violation, it's certainly something that you should not be doing as a weekend warrior either
Speaker 2 00:15:26 No, a hundred percent, uh, always inspect your ladder before you get onto it before if you've had it for a long time. Or if somebody gives you a ladder, you know, say you've inherited a ladder from a, you know, a father-in-law or you're somebody that gave you one always inspected before you climb on the thing. You know, you want to make sure that the hooks are on there securely. A lot of them are just riveted. A lot of these connections and points on a ladder are just riveted, so inspected before you climb onto it.
Speaker 3 00:15:53 And of course it goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway, since we're talking about ladders, the top of the ladder is not
Speaker 2 00:15:59 A step,
Speaker 3 00:16:00 Actually the top two, the top rung and the top of the ladder. They're not steps
Speaker 2 00:16:06 Most ladders. I think tell you that this is not a step,
Speaker 3 00:16:09 Right? Yeah. But you know, the older ladders where the labels have all worn off
Speaker 2 00:16:13 Ladder placement, placing it in the wrong spot. Like your buddy that put it on something too soft and it slid down. Have you ever used a ladder where you were in soft ground and say one of the feet?
Speaker 3 00:16:26 I mean, not, not
Speaker 2 00:16:27 Sunk into the ground.
Speaker 3 00:16:28 It's not me personally. Oh, sure. Yeah. Not where it caused me to fall, but you know, I had set it up and started climbing up the ladder and then sure one foot started to, and then you're like quickly back down the ladder and find a more solid place for it. I actually was a volunteer firefighter for five years and, uh, they teach you proper ladder usage as a volunteer firefighter. And I can tell you that if you're using an extension ladder and you're putting it up against a surface, you're supposed to stand on the bottom wrong and hold your arms out, straight in front of you and have them, your hands just reach, uh, the rung that's directly in front of your hands. Uh, just so that you can grab it. If it's, if your arms are bent and you're holding it, then it is at the wrong angle. And if you can't reach it, then it's at the wrong angle.
Speaker 2 00:17:12 So if you can't reach it, it's too shallow of an angle
Speaker 3 00:17:15 It's too, yet, too far away from the house, which is a danger of it's sliding out from underneath you. And if you close, your arms are bent, then it's too close at the bottom and you need to add some more space. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:17:26 So if you climb up, but you could potentially tip back.
Speaker 3 00:17:29 Yeah, exactly. Right. And you know, that's a, that's a very real thing I think. Um, and you won't realize that until you get up there, you know, if you're using a 20 or 28 foot ladder and you're going to the top of a 28 foot ladder, 28 feet is not the place to find out that you put it too close to the house. Yeah. Or that you leaned it up against something, not strong enough to hold you. Um, you know, sometimes if you're going up to the roof and you put the ladder up against the gutter, uh, you know, sometimes the gutter is not strong enough. A gutter is older. Gutters can collapse or, uh, you never know what's going on up there. Or they have a tendency to slide one way or the other, if it's not fixed. Um, another thing to note, if you use an extension ladder and you are going up to the top of the surface, you're going to climb off the ladder at the top onto a surface. The ladder needs to extend up past the surface, like three feet or maybe four feet.
Speaker 2 00:18:22 Oh
Speaker 3 00:18:22 Yeah. Yeah. So if you're going up 28 feet, you've got a 28 foot ladder. That ladder is not long enough. Right. And you're going to figure that out when you get up there
Speaker 2 00:18:29 And when you get down, you might be able to climb up on there, but then getting down, if you're, you have nothing to hold on to, and you're literally dangling off the edge of your roof, trying to climb onto a ladder.
Speaker 3 00:18:40 That is not a good situation. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 00:18:43 What about, um, the rule of four? That's kind of like what, you just talked about, the rule of fours. It's like a rule of thumb on how to hold the ladder and that you actually explained it perfectly.
Speaker 3 00:18:53 Yeah. If you are using a tape, I think it's supposed to be one foot. The base of the ladder is supposed to be one foot away from the surface that you're leaning it up against for every four feet that you're climbing. So if you're climbing eight feet, it needs to be two feet away. If you're climbing 12 feet, it needs to be three feet away.
Speaker 2 00:19:10 Yeah. That's a smart, uh, but
Speaker 3 00:19:11 You're not going to tape that you just do the bottom rung thing, hold your arms out and then you'll know, all
Speaker 2 00:19:16 Right, what, if you have big, long gorilla arms,
Speaker 3 00:19:19 Then you're going to probably end up falling. I have kind of gorilla arms, but you just have to use it responsibly and carefully. And the, and the feet of the ladder need to be intact and they need to be on a level surface. And maybe you need to create a level surface. Maybe you need to go get, um, a two by 12 or a sheet of plywood or something to make a flat surface for the base of your ladder to sit on.
Speaker 2 00:19:44 I have done that. I've gotten into situations where you have to climb up and the dirt around your house or whatever. It's just super soft or you're in bark dust and it's come down, I've had to go get pieces of wood. You know, you want to get something large,
Speaker 3 00:19:59 Right? You don't want it to be a small little block right there that can tip over.
Speaker 2 00:20:03 And I've also, if you've ever gotten onto a situation, we've had to climb onto a surface that is up there and you just feel precarious. I've actually used wood clamps to clamp the roof in play or clamp it to the roof to hold it in place. So that it's just more secure as you're climbing on and off. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:20:22 All really good tips. Ladder is a big one. And when we spend some extra time on ladder, but everybody uses ladders from changing light bulbs to painting or, or, you know, whatever it is that you need to be on a ladder for, just be very careful and, um, and, uh, make sure that the ladder is, is in the condition that it needs to be in before you use it.
Speaker 2 00:20:45 Uh, what about eyewear? Protective is probably one of the most obvious ones. You know, you buy safety glasses. Uh, first thing I want to say about that is to make sure that the safety glasses that you're using are actual safety glasses. Ray-Bans are not safety glasses.
Speaker 3 00:21:04 You
Speaker 2 00:21:04 Know, they might prevent dust from flying in your eyes, but are they going to stop a, what about beating disc of, you know, cutter wheel car flying off Slamming into your eyeball?
Speaker 3 00:21:19 What about Maui? Jim's
Speaker 2 00:21:21 I would say now
Speaker 3 00:21:22 Also those who
Speaker 2 00:21:23 Also know Oakley. Oh
Speaker 3 00:21:25 Yeah. I'll
Speaker 2 00:21:26 Bet you I'll bet you, they make them.
Speaker 3 00:21:28 Yeah. They
Speaker 2 00:21:28 Might have to go out on a limb and it's, I would bet that they make very stylish safety goggles. Uh, but safety goggles are made very specifically out of polycarbonate. They're formulated to where they will not shatter. So if anything hits them, they won't shatter and that they should stop a nail being driven, flying back in your face.
Speaker 3 00:21:49 Yeah. And th and they make safety glasses, and they're very common and not expensive that fit right over the top of your regular prescription glasses. So your regular
Speaker 2 00:21:59 Super
Speaker 3 00:21:59 Dorky and your regular prescription glasses are also not safety glasses.
Speaker 2 00:22:03 They can be I've actually, I know some framers and some contractors who wear prescriptive glasses that are safety glasses, but you have to know that
Speaker 3 00:22:13 Well, yeah. Plus
Speaker 3 00:22:15 They don't, they have, they have a tenant, they don't cover, you know, the largest portion of your eyes. You know, you don't have it's open on the sides, you know, sometimes on the bottom, um, you know, safety glasses cover. Very good. Um, so anyways, yeah, using safety glasses, I I'd say the last time I remember that I didn't have safety glasses on. I was using a Skilsaw. Skilsaw has a tendency to, um, to bring wood tentacles. Yeah. Right. Towards your face. Actually, if you're cutting or if you're looking on the wrong side of the soft and a little tiny piece of wood, fiber went into my eye and it reminded me immediately. Oh man. I was lucky.
Speaker 2 00:22:51 The last thing you want to do is squint. When you're operating a south,
Speaker 3 00:22:55 I see it all. We've got to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Don't go away.
Speaker 1 00:23:07 Your listening to the weekend. Warriors home improvement. Joe built by Parr lumber. Now here's Tony and Corey
Speaker 2 00:23:21 Hey, welcome back weekend. Warriors home improvement show. Thanks for staying with us. Hey, if you haven't already go check out our Facebook and Instagram pages, we are at WW home show. Do you have any questions or comments? Feel free to email us. We are weekend
[email protected]. Love to hear from you. If you miss any part of this show, you want to catch any of our other shows. We're putting those up on our YouTube channel. Uh, it's a YouTube forward slash WW home show. You can always go to par.com or just search the Parr lumber weekend warriors on YouTube or anywhere you listen to your podcasts, just search Parr lumber, and we should come right up.
Speaker 3 00:23:59 Yep. That's
Speaker 2 00:23:59 Right. We'd love it. If you'd like to subscribe to our channels and catch up with all of our cool new stuff. Uh, so today we're talking about safety, safety, safety, safety, and, uh, you know, over the years, Tony have, I have, we've never done anything really, really stupid, but, uh, we both been
Speaker 3 00:24:16 Injured. I mean, I've done a lot of stupid stuff. Well,
Speaker 2 00:24:18 You have not, we've never been injured,
Speaker 3 00:24:20 Always. Not always. Safety-related stupid stuff. Just
Speaker 2 00:24:24 Stupid.
Speaker 2 00:24:25 I'll tell you one time I was operating a table saw in my garage many, many years ago and I was cutting. I was crosscutting a big sheet of plywood by myself and I thought, well, I'll just stand back and hold it on the table and I'll push it through. And it was a fairly thin piece of plywood. I think it was three eights of an inch. And I was ripping it in half the wrong direction without a guard, without a frit fence or anything. And I got it part of the way through and it bound up and I was trying to unbind it and the panel actually lifted up and it flew off of the top. Like the, the blade caught it in, flung it right into my stomach. And I S I had a bruise so big.
Speaker 3 00:25:15 It was the piece you were cutting off the smaller piece.
Speaker 2 00:25:17 Yep. It ripped, broke, ripped. And then right into my gut.
Speaker 3 00:25:21 Yeah, I had that exact same thing happened on a panel saw I was operating a panel sock. I was ripping a sheet of plywood and, and I was ripping, um, strip off of the bottom. And so the saw was way down, low the blade. And I was sliding the panel from left to right across the saw and it got bound up there just towards the very end. And as I tugged on it a little bit more and it finally cut through, it sent that piece, that it was cutting off, just slinging the other direction. Fortunately, it didn't come my way. It went the other way. But if I had had been standing on that side, it would have gotten me for sure. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:25:57 You probably should have cut the top.
Speaker 3 00:26:00 Yeah, no question. Definitely should've come to a, but you know why I didn't, and this is the reason why a lot of people end up with, with, you know, um, injuries. I didn't, because if I would cut the top, I would have to change the sod F every time I cut. Oh, by cutting the bottom.
Speaker 2 00:26:18 Cause you were ripping it into strip
Speaker 3 00:26:19 That's right. By cutting the bottom. I only had to set at one time and just keep moving it through, but it wasn't the safest way. The safest way would definitely have been to cut the top, move the saw, cut the top and also results in eight strips that are all different widths
Speaker 2 00:26:35 Slightly, you know,
Speaker 3 00:26:37 But, uh, you know, we, we live and learn.
Speaker 2 00:26:40 Nope. I know what you mean. Cutting, cutting, uh, thin pieces of anything is risky. Yeah. A little bit of,
Speaker 3 00:26:47 Yeah. Here's something else that I think that you and I dabble with a little bit, that we should be more careful. We find ourselves sometime with the chop saw cutting small pieces, the smaller, the piece you're handling when you're operating the chop saw the less you have to hold on to the closer your hand is to the blade. You know, the more it starts to get a little bit sketchy in that area. Um, but we're pretty good about using a push stick when we're using the table saw and you know, that kind of thing. So, you know, we're getting better.
Speaker 2 00:27:16 Yeah. Yeah. There are ways to hold pieces of wood in a, if you have to cut something, you can always kind of temporary facet to another piece, or you can use a clamps of sticks or clamps to hold it while you're cutting it. They just have definitely safer ways to think about it,
Speaker 3 00:27:32 That it takes longer. One
Speaker 2 00:27:34 Of the things that safer, one of the things I always do personally, when I'm using any sort of power saw is I will look at my fingers, all 10 of them in where they are in relationship to the blade. Before I turn the blade on always, I always look at my fingers and say to myself, are these fingers going to get anywhere near that blade as it comes down, if I'm using the chop saw, or if I'm running a blade, something through a table saw, I always think about where my fingers are going to be, and that's pretty good practice to have. So
Speaker 3 00:28:08 Yeah, that is good. It's good awareness. Taking that extra moment before making a cut is a, is a good idea.
Speaker 2 00:28:15 Any many injuries happen when you get too comfortable with the tools that you're using and you start to forget, right. And think to yourself, oh, I'm not going to do that. I'm I'm good at this.
Speaker 3 00:28:26 And sometimes it's because of time, the time aspect you're rushing. Um, yeah, those, those are good reasons. We were talking before we went to the break about eye protection. We did cover ladders very extensively. Um, we, we touched on eye protection. There's, there's several different types of personal protective equipment. They, they refer to it as PPE, personal protective equipment, eye protection is one of those, um, ear protection is another one. Very important. This is something that I feel like we, um, oftentimes as, um, as, uh, maybe he has a civilization, right? And not just you and me, but everybody that uses power tools, we underestimate the damage that the, that the sound can do to our ears. And we aren't, as careful as we should be.
Speaker 2 00:29:15 Well, every time you do something in your ears ring, you get that ring ringing sound from my understanding is once you have destroyed that portion of your ear, that hears that particular frequency, you won't hear it again. Wow. So it's, it's ringing because it's been destroyed. Yikes. I mean, maybe there's some doctors out there that know obviously more than I
Speaker 3 00:29:37 Hear not a doctor.
Speaker 2 00:29:39 Um, but I, the thing of it is if you protect your ears from ever having that occur, you're much better off because one of the things is once it's been destroyed, you're never getting your hearing back.
Speaker 3 00:29:52 Yeah. I think, uh, I, I'm almost deaf now, but I think that's mostly from listening to the radio too loud when I was 16. I know
Speaker 2 00:30:00 It was the same way. Rock metal concerts all the time, you know, no earplugs and yeah. I know for a fact that when I get slightly older, when you
Speaker 3 00:30:09 Get to be my
Speaker 2 00:30:10 Age, I'll be like, what?
Speaker 3 00:30:11 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:30:12 Huh. Yup. I know a contractor who constantly nonstop wears earplugs
Speaker 3 00:30:18 Smart. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:30:19 And I bet
Speaker 3 00:30:20 You can hear really good. I'm sure
Speaker 2 00:30:23 It's a super smart
Speaker 3 00:30:24 Corey. When do you feel like is a good time to be wearing gloves and when is not a good time to wear gloves?
Speaker 2 00:30:31 Well, that's a very good question because you always want to protect your fingers and your hands. Uh, if you're using harmful chemicals, you know, bleach any sort of chemical that can have a chemical burn, uh, if you're handling anything rough or insulation, even like I've been doing installation work around my house, always, always, always wear gloves. Uh, those little fine fibers will just get in and destroy your hands. Uh, same thing with chemicals, you know, you can, you can hurt yourself or anything. Uh, if you're working with something where you're heating it up, you can burn your hands or cut your hands. If I'm grabbing anything like metal flashing metal flashing is one of those things that if you've worked at a par lumber warehouse and you've had to grab flashing, you know how easily your, you can cut your hands. Yeah. So gloves are great in that regard, but if you're using power tools, terrible idea, you never want to wear any sort of gloves when you're operating a table saw or anything like that.
Speaker 2 00:31:36 Or a chop saw because you can get your gloves caught in the saw and it will pull it in and cause much more damage, same thing with loose fitting clothes or earrings or long hair, or, you know, sleeves, you know, if you got your sleeves are dangling and you're running it through the table saw, and the table saw grabs a button, it can pull your hand in. So same thing with, with hair, you know, gals probably experienced this experiences a lot more. Uh, if they're, if they've got long hair and they're working in power tools, you have to remember to put your hair up.
Speaker 3 00:32:13 Yeah. That's really smart though. You, you know, you have an awareness of your fingers and, and where they are, you were talking about that. But when you add some large leather gloves, some heavy leather gloves, you know, you're adding width to all of your fingers and width to your hand and your mind subconsciously not taking consideration the additional width that you've added to your hand. And you may inadvertently get your hand too close to something. So that makes really good sense. I feel like that, that there it's, it's okay to wear some rubber gloves, like neoprene, rubber gloves that stretch on if you're working in the shop, you know, if you're dealing with glue and stain and those types of things, and you can leave those on, even if you're using a tool, but you don't want to have, um, larger gloves or baggy gloves or anything that can be caught up in the machinery. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:33:04 You just gotta be conscious of that. Anything long, anything clothing wise, it's loose fitting. Uh, if, if you're leaning over a tool that could potentially grab, that's what you don't want, you don't want it to grab and pull you in and cause damage that way. Sure. So, um, let's move on. Uh, let's talk about lighting. Lighting is an important safety measure. I know I have over the years have worked in spaces where lighting has been an issue and it's dangerous because if you can't see what you're doing, you're potentially going to cause yourself harm. So in my, you walk into my garage, I have 15 shop lights everywhere, all over my garage because I like to be able to see what I'm doing at all times. And it's a, it's a really good safety thing to do.
Speaker 3 00:33:53 Yeah. I agree with that. A bright light, um, in the working area so that you can see all of the things you don't want. Sometimes you can not realize what you can't see. And just as a side note, your projects will turn out better. If you're working in brighter light, you can get that saw blade closer to that pencil. Mark. If you can see it properly, I mean, you, you end up cutting corners when you can't see very clearly and you don't even realize it. Yeah. And that's the truth.
Speaker 2 00:34:21 Uh, let's talk about your workspace, Tony, giving yourself room, having enough room to do what you need to do in your workspace is important. If you're tripping over pets, if you're tripping over, you know, scrap
Speaker 3 00:34:36 Wood, scrap
Speaker 2 00:34:37 Wood or bags of insulation or something to cut a piece of something it's not safe.
Speaker 3 00:34:43 You know, when I was, uh, I feel like I'm going back to this again, but as a volunteer firefighter, uh, I got my EMT basic. And when I got my EMT basic, uh, we did a ride along with, uh, the ambulance. And so I was riding along with Metro west ambulance, and we, um, responded to a call where there had been an incident with a saw. And when we got there, the guy had, was using a table, saw in the backyard and he was cutting these small pieces of wood off of larger pieces of wood. And he tripped on the scrap wood that he had been cutting off. His cutoffs were on the ground. He tripped on the cutoff, fell forward and cut the fingers off of his left hand on the table saw, oh man, when we got there, I was responsible for collecting the digits. And then, uh, and then of course they, they wrapped up hand and we put them in the ambulance and we transported him to OSU, but it happens so easily. You think that, um, you know, that you're doing this fairly simple project, but something as simple as a two inch piece of two by two, you know, this little square piece of wood on the ground underneath your foot might as well be a ball. I mean, you just roll right over the top of it. And uh, and he just slipped and boom fingers got, yeah,
Speaker 2 00:36:03 It's like, you're when you're operating a tool, a power tool or power saw or something, and you've got to connect to an extension cord and that extension cord isn't long enough or you've draped the extension cord over the work that you're cutting. Yeah. I mean, these are the stupid things that have happened throughout the years to many people that cause injuries, just think about it. You have to have room to get done what you're trying to get done. And if you're having to step over things while you're making a cut, holding up spinning blade at thousand RPMs, you know, it's, you're asking yourself again, okay.
Speaker 3 00:36:35 You know, like you're talking to me because I have this tiny wood shop in my backyard. That is a stuffed packed full of tools now. And there's some pretty tight spaces around inside there.
Speaker 2 00:36:48 I have a tiny workspace isn't I don't think that's necessarily the detriment that's going to cause you injury,
Speaker 3 00:36:56 But it's incumbent upon me to keep it tidy
Speaker 2 00:36:58 And clean. Yeah. That's the thing, you know, if you've got, like you said earlier, pieces of wood chunks all over the floor and saw dust and it's slippery and you've got cords draped over other tools. Uh, that's what we're talking about that is that is, that is the unsafe
Speaker 3 00:37:13 Earlier in the show, we talked about using a tool without its proper guarding mechanism. I mentioned that I used a chop saw without the, without the guard because it had fallen and broken, but this is another really big one. So often people are injured because they're using a tool that is not being operated the way it was intended to be operated. The guard on a table saw seems to always just be in the way when you're trying to cut something and you're so tempted to lift it up or take it off or, you know, whatever that is that's asking for trouble. It just simply is asking for trouble
Speaker 2 00:37:55 A hundred percent. Uh, you did, you know, that power tools account for 124,000 injuries per year. Wow. Slightly more than ladders.
Speaker 3 00:38:07 Oh, really? More than ladders, interesting
Speaker 2 00:38:09 Ladders, 90,000 per year power tools, 124,000 injuries per year. You know? So it's just something to keep in mind if you have a power tool, no matter how many times you've used it and we've all done it you've, you've used it wrong at least once or twice. And you're gambling at that point.
Speaker 3 00:38:29 Yeah. Uh, you mentioned draping the extension cord over the area where you're working and then, uh, inadvertently, uh, cutting through the, um, through the extension cord. I mean, that's happened, you know, a million times, probably not, not to me, but uh, we don't have to worry about that anymore. Do we? And because almost every single thing we have is cordless Makita cordless tools. That that is a safety feature, that in and of itself right there, cordless power tools are absolutely amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:39:04 No
Speaker 3 00:39:04 True. And Makita makes a great one
Speaker 2 00:39:07 A hundred percent. I agree. Um, what about this one, Tony, when you're using a power tool, make sure that it's off before you plug it in. Have you ever had your table saw in the, on position when you've plugged it in?
Speaker 3 00:39:23 Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 00:39:24 That has happened to me before. Scary. Yup. And if you've got anything sitting on top of
Speaker 3 00:39:28 Material
Speaker 2 00:39:29 Material sitting there and you plug it in and the table saw a, what about a router? I've done it with my router, with the switches incidentally on you go to plug it in and then router speeds up to full speed.
Speaker 3 00:39:40 Oh yeah. It's like a little gyroscope,
Speaker 2 00:39:42 Half a second. So you gotta be safety that way you safety in that way.
Speaker 3 00:39:48 Yeah. That's also smart. Here's another thing. Um, when it comes to electrical, like we were talking about the extension cord, it is not safe to use an extension cord to plug in a power tool in a permanent situation. You should not have a power tool plugged into an extension cord. That's plugged into the wall. Uh, in permanently, you should have that power tool should have a pigtail long enough to reach an outlet. And that is the way it's supposed to be. If you were on a job site, um, OSHA would find you for permanently powering a tool with a extension cord Side note. Here's another one. If you've got a power strip and you have six outlets and all six of them have power tools plugged into them and that's plugged into a splitter, which is plugged into your outlet. Uh, also not a good idea.
Speaker 2 00:40:46 Well, there is something in regards to extension cords. And I know we've talked about on the show before, but power cords have ratings for how many amps they can carry. So if you've ever had like a hundred foot extension cord and you tried to plug in a power, saw that draws tons of amps, it won't work. Right. You turn it on, you get this murmur, the electricity cuts out.
Speaker 3 00:41:10 It won't turn your blade, right.
Speaker 2 00:41:11 Because it's, it's drawing too many amps. And it's the same thing. It's like, if you have a long extension cord and you're trying to use a saw and it may turn on, but as soon as you're cutting through material, it'll cut out. It'll trip the breaker. Yeah. Which is dangerous. If you're in the middle of a cut and your blade stalls or stops, that can definitely be dangerous when you start it back up.
Speaker 3 00:41:35 Yeah. The longer your extension cord is the less of that power source is going to make it to your tool or whatever you're plugging in. So shorter chords, more power, longer cords, less power,
Speaker 2 00:41:47 Larger diameter, larger gauge,
Speaker 3 00:41:50 10 gauge.
Speaker 2 00:41:50 Yeah. If you see these little, you know, 16 gauge extension cords, even 14, 12 gauge, I've got a couple six gauge extension cord. Wow. That are like, you know, yeah. Five eights, diameter wire. I mean, they're, they're amazing. But even then you still wouldn't want to have them plugged in permanently. Correct. You said using them all the time. That way.
Speaker 3 00:42:13 Here's another, here's another little story I have in my house, a, a, an electric fireplace and it sits in the corner and my TV it's like my entertainment center and in the center of the entertainment center is as an electric fireplace and it's got a three prong plug on it. And I had that three prong plug plugged into a power strip with some of my other, uh, electronics, you know, that right there in my entertainment center and, and the, the heater would get turned on and beyond for hours. And it was not intended to be plugged into a power strip, little did I know? And it actually melted the end of the plug that was on the, that came from the electric fireplace. And it caught fire. I mean, I didn't start a fire in my house, but there was a fire there, small enough that it, the big enough that it turned to the entire thing, black and melted that plug. And I didn't see it happen. I didn't see that happen. I found it that way later that could have burned down my entire house. Wow. And, uh, it was a very scary realization. So if you've got something that's pulling a lot of amps, I mean, it needs to be plugged into the wall. Um, you know, power strips have their place, but something like a heater that pulls a lot is not a good thing to have plugged into a
Speaker 2 00:43:42 There's basic calculations you can do. Or you can look at your power strip. You would look at the amount of amps that is you can use with that power strip. And you can read all the tools or, or things that you have plugged into it. You know, if you're running a phone charger, sure. You're showing like 0.08 amps or whatever. But if you're running a table saw it's pulling, you know, 10 amps or something crazy, for sure. I mean, I'm not electrician, but, um, anyway, that's how you do that. You just gotta be careful. Electricity is extremely dangerous.
Speaker 3 00:44:15 Yeah. If you're ever doing any kind of work inside the house, if you're, um, if you're replacing an outlet or, or a light switch or doing something, replacing a ceiling light or fan, make sure that you go to the breaker and turn off the power to the, to the house. You know, I don't, you don't have to do the entire house, but you need to turn it off to that area, to that place where the power is, and then check it with a pen, like a little
Speaker 2 00:44:42 Voltage,
Speaker 3 00:44:43 Voltage meter. Yeah. And make sure that it's dead. If it's dead, your cleared to work a lot of times,
Speaker 2 00:44:49 Don't let your friends test it, test it yourself.
Speaker 3 00:44:52 It seems simple enough to just turn the light off with the switch on the wall, and then you can test it and it's dead. But the problem is when you're up there working on that and somebody else walks in the room, flips the
Speaker 2 00:45:05 Switch.
Speaker 3 00:45:05 You people turn lights on without even thinking it's just a subconscious, it's something that you do. And somebody may not realize the gravity of turning on that light. And that could be, you know, that will be a, an electrifying experience. I guarantee you,
Speaker 2 00:45:20 Uh, another one real quick, going along with that goal, going back to the tool situation, if you ever had to change a blade on a chop saw or change a blade on a table, saw, make sure it's unplugged or make sure the breaker is off. Because just like that, if you're, if you got your hands in there and you're touching that blade and you're taking it off and somebody accidentally, or you bumped the on switch or something with
Speaker 3 00:45:48 Your knee, with your knee,
Speaker 2 00:45:49 You
Speaker 3 00:45:50 On switch on a PA on a table saw is right there next to your knee could happen.
Speaker 2 00:45:54 Absolutely.
Speaker 3 00:45:55 You know, with any project that you happen to be taking on any home improvement type projects, do it yourself project. It helps of course, to think the entire thing through pre plan, what you're going to do, how you're going to do it, how you feel like it's going to turn out, you know, all of the steps along the way. It's always a good idea. And I'll tell you what I do this all the time, always a good idea to contact a friend or a professional who has done this type of work before and talk to them about some of the possible pitfalls or dangers that you might encounter and have those in your pocket, going into the project, understanding some of the things that could take place during your project, uh, could be the thing that saves your hand or your life.
Speaker 2 00:46:41 Yeah. Uh, and letting people know what you're up to or letting people know what you're doing. You know, if you're working at home and you want to clean off your, you know, the Moss on your roof, it's probably not a good idea to do it by yourself
Speaker 3 00:46:54 For sure.
Speaker 2 00:46:55 Or when nobody else is home. Cause if you do slip and you do fall and you break your back, laying in the backyard in the middle of winter,
Speaker 3 00:47:02 Um,
Speaker 2 00:47:04 You could mean a lot of trouble. Yeah. I actually know someone that happened to, oh, they were framing a house in Montana and it was, they had snow storm. They were up on the roof. He slipped, fell, landed in the yard and laid there for hours until his partner showed up.
Speaker 3 00:47:22 Yeah. It seems scary. Well, folks, it's all the time we've got, thank you so much for tuning in. We hope you got something useful out of the show today and we will look forward to talking to you again soon. This has been another episode of your weekend warriors right here. We can warriors radio. Now have a great week.
