1 Safety
1.1 The Educational Woodshop
The educational woodshop is at its heart a classroom. It is a place of learning for individuals of varied skill, experience, and engagement. It is critical that student woodworkers feel comfortable asking any and all questions. Open communication, inquiry, and curiosity are essential to a safe woodshop. In a learning environment, we often see mistakes as valuable opportunities for growth. While mistakes are often crucial to developing strong problem-solving skills and a deeper understanding of the concepts being taught, in short, there are mistakes in the woodshop we cannot afford to make.
Safety is paramount in the educational woodshop. While accidents can be avoided, prevention begins by recognizing the risks inherent to woodworking tools and machinery. Hopefully, you have heard the expression, “safety first.” In the educational woodshop, safety is first, second, and third. It is followed only by concerns about the quality of work completed. Quantity or speed of work should not be considered in the educational woodshop. Producing quality work safely is the most important consideration in a woodshop learning experience.
There is no race, and we are not motivated by profit. To ensure a learning environment of safety, it’s crucial to remember that no project or deadline is more important than personal well-being. No woodworking project is ever worth what you are putting at risk.
Every board and woodworking project is different and will present a different set of problems; you will always encounter situations that may not have been covered in your initial training. It’s important to remember that no two boards are the same. Every tree is unique, so every board is unique. This simple and fundamental woodworking truth impacts every stage of a project.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions that pertain to your specific task and project. It’s always better to ask a question and ensure safety than make a potentially dangerous assumption. By staying curious and open to guidance, you’ll improve your own skills and help create a safe and supportive shop environment for everyone.
1.2 Safety Mindset
Your mind is the most important safety device you have. Physical safeguards and Personal Protection Equipment or PPE (safety glasses, hearing protection, etc.) are critical, but the absolute most effective tool for machine accident prevention is a vigilant, focused, and well-informed operator. By exercising caution and mindfulness as second nature, you will have a safe and productive woodshop experience.
A safety mindset goes beyond merely complying with the rules. It is important to understand the reasoning behind those rules. If you comprehend the rationale for an operating procedure, you will have better judgment in complex scenarios involving multiple factors and can adapt to changing conditions. With the appropriate knowledge, you can react quickly and confidently in any unexpected situation.
Rather than refer to “safety rules,” this guide presents “safety practices” with the introduction of each tool and discusses “safety habits.” Safety is an ongoing, active commitment rather than a list of restrictions. Our goal is to create a culture of responsibility and awareness. The safest (and best) woodworkers understand safety as an integral part of the craft, not just a simple set of instructions to follow or obey. As a beginner, you should develop and hone a safety-conscious mindset as you would any skill.
The example for a safety habit that I use in my class is the “nine and three rule” for driving. Student drivers are taught to drive with both hands on the steering wheel, placing their hands at the nine and three o’clock positions if the wheel were a clock.
I ask students to raise their hands if they ever drive with their hands in a different position … or even drive with only one hand on the wheel. I raise my hand at the same time. Then I ask where they put their hands if an animal runs across the street or road conditions are bad. The answer is always nine and three.
As beginning drivers, we are trained into a habit—it becomes rote physical memory, part of our driving routine. The safety habit keeps us on the road in an unexpected situation.
Woodworking is much the same. As beginners, we need to learn safe habits from the very start. As we gain confidence and operations get more advanced, safety can sometimes become a gray, nuanced area. Like comparing a student driver and a Formula 1 race car driver, what a master craftsperson considers safe is not safe for a beginner.
With ingrained, foundational safety habits, we learn to work with a safety mindset, trust our own judgement, and are prepared to prevent accidents.
PLAN your work. Assemble all tools and materials before beginning any machine operation. Complete layout and marking at your bench, not at a machine.
ASK questions. Make sure you are knowledgeable and comfortable with the operation. If in doubt, ask!
WEAR the correct PPE for the job at hand. Minimal woodshop PPE is safety glasses, long pants, and closed-toe shoes, and often extends to respiratory and hearing protection.
BE PRESENT, develop a safety mindset and exercise situational awareness using all of your senses. This includes awareness of your state of mind. If you’re not in the right mindset to focus safely, step back.
NEVER work alone.
SLOW DOWN, patience and precision are the fastest path to safety and quality. Deliberate and methodical work always finishes woodworking tasks more efficiently and safely than speed.
1.3 General Woodshop Safety Practices
Safety needs to be considered before work begins. The following must be addressed before machines are operated, and some before you even leave for class.
ALWAYS wear safety glasses. Find a pair that’s comfortable (and stylish!) so you are more likely to wear them. Prescription eyeglass wearers must wear an over glasses style or should consider prescription safety glasses. Make safety glasses are marked as meeting the current standard (ANSI/ISEA Z87.1-2020).
ALWAYS wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes. NEVER wear flip-flops or sandals.
DO wear pants or a form-fitting work apron.
ALWAYS securely tie back long hair. Keep hair ties in the first aid kit.
ALWAYS know the emergency plan for your shop, including the first aid kit location.
ALWAYS enter the woodshop ready to focus, make sure you are well-rested, fed, and hydrated. If you’re not in the right mindset to focus safely, consider taking a day off from machines rather than risk an accident.
NEVER wear exposed jewelry in the shop, especially around your neck, hands, or fingers.
NEVER wear gloves at a stationary machine. Loose material can catch in rotating parts, bare hands allow for better control and awareness of your workpiece.
DO NOT wear loose clothing (including scarves, neck ties, large coats, etc.). Long sleeves should be rolled up.
NEVER work under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
NEVER work if you are fatigued or otherwise unable to focus.
NEVER use a cell phone when using a tool or operating a machine. Leave it in another room if you can’t keep it out of your hands.
NEVER use earbuds or noise-cancelling headphones when working on machines. DO wear approved hearing protection when required or encouraged. ALWAYS remain aware of important environmental sounds in the shop.
DO NOT get rowdy in the shop, ALWAYS work safely and professionally.
The following are basic machine operation guidelines. These apply to every machine and power tool you’ll use in the woodshop. Learn these carefully; they are the fundamentals.
CHECK your material before beginning any work for nails, screws, staples, embedded gravel, loose knots, paint, etc.
INSPECT the machine before use. Do not operate a tool that is broken or missing a safety guard.
ALWAYS make sure you have been properly trained on a machine before starting. If your training was not recent, ASK for a refresher.
ALWAYS ensure the dust collection for the machine or tool is turned on and operating correctly.
NEVER start or stop a machine for someone else. The individual using the machine or tool is the only person who should operate the switch.
LISTEN to the tool. If the machine makes a troublesome or different noise, shut it off immediately and report it to the instructor, teaching assistant, monitor, or technician.
ALWAYS let the machine come up to full speed before introducing your workpiece to the blade, bit, or abrasive.
ALWAYS work on one board at a time. Cutting multiple boards at the same time is referred to as ganging. Ganging boards must be done very carefully and is an advanced operation.
DO NOT force your workpiece into a machine. The harder you push, the more dangerous the situation becomes if you slip and lose control. If the machine seems to be operating differently than you expect, stop and find out how to correct the situation. Do not push harder.
DO NOT work metal on the same machines used for woodworking. Sparks can cause a fire or explosion in the dust collection system.
DO NOT leave a machine when it is still moving. You will quickly learn that a powered-off machine still has momentum. WAIT for the machine to stop completely. ALWAYS use the brake if the machine is equipped with one.
STOP work immediately if injured – even slightly. Report the incident to the instructor, teaching assistant, monitor, or technician.
CLEAN up each machine after using it. ALWAYS make sure the machine is completely stopped before cleaning.
1.4 Kickback Hazards
Part of learning to work safely in the woodshop means understanding kickback hazards. Kickback is when a machine forcefully changes a board’s motion. Typical kickback causes a board to shoot backward from the machine—often where the operator is standing. Kickbacks happen in milliseconds, faster than a person can react, and boards can leave the machine with catastrophic force. Both small and large boards present serious kickback hazards.
Kickback can happen if an operator misuses a machine, loses control of the workpiece, or if a machine is improperly set up. Beginners often understand the sensibility of keeping fingers away from a spinning blade, but avoiding kickback involves a more comprehensive understanding of the machine’s operation. Kickback can be a bit of an unseen force until experienced. It’s important to understand the directions of the multiple forces involved with each machine operation. Recognizing how and why kickback can occur helps you position your body safely, maintain control of the workpiece, and prevent injury.
Kickback is a predictable response from physics and can be avoided. Many machines (like the table saw and planer) have components designed to prevent kickback from happening. When you are first learning a machine, consider what might happen if you lose control of a board. Where would the machine’s momentum likely throw the board? Develop the habit of not standing in this kickback zone, and make sure that no other shop users stand there either.
Kickback is avoided when machines are in correct operating condition, all appropriate guards are used, the operator controls the workpiece during the entire operation, and the operator understands the kickback hazards specific to the machine. Physics always wins; the laws governing motion, force, and energy are absolute. These forces never make exceptions, and as safe operators, we must respect this reality and always act accordingly.
1.5 Making A Push Stick: Learning to Work Safely
Project-based learning enhances engagement as students learn through active participation in a meaningful, real-world project. This approach helps students develop a deeper understanding of practical skills as they learn by doing. When this teaching pedagogy is applied to safety instruction, students should make something useful when they operate machines for the first time (rather than simply cutting boards in half). Building a simple, practical project allows students to apply safety and machine operating principles directly.
Chapters 2 through 4 instruct the basic machinery (drill press, bandsaw, and stationary sanders) used to make a small push stick from plywood. It is a low-risk exercise, where success is easily achieved with straightforward steps. Beginners can confidently accomplish this small project, which involves foundational machine skills like bandsawing freehand to a line and using a stationary sander to remove saw marks.
The first step is to trace an existing push stick used as a template. Woodworking accuracy is fundamentally about references. In this case, the push stick cleat is carefully aligned with a 90° corner of the plywood blank. When you make the straight cuts at a later stage, you will use the long edge of the plywood blank as a 90° and parallel reference. Nesting the part into the corner like this is also a better use of material.
