Do you clean up your rough end

So what about all the other sharp objects in the workshop?

Scriber with a cork on the pointy bit?

I must admit I put a rubber teat on the hook end after repeated injuries

Unless you are very special you pick up tools with sharp edges by the blunt bit. Leaving sharp edges on things adds a random element which could easily be avoided.

I am trying to show my boys how to do things properly in the workshop, a few seconds here could save a trip to casualty or even just some minor inconvenience.

In the 70s we use to make a deburring tool from a part of a hacksaw blade. A small hook ground with a cutting angle and tape for the handel, worked great on sheet metal till you slipped and sliced the top of the thumb.

Deburring lengths of sheet steel you could actually get oil smoke from the tool, quite satisfying with lengths of fine swarf on the floor. Deburring all blanks was mandatory then, I bet its not today.

+1 on this. Gloves or no gloves, sharp edges and burrs are a safety hazard. Leaving a sharp edge or burr was considered the sign of an amateur or an apprentice so woefully ignorant as to be almost beyond hope, and backsides were kicked accordingly.

In the car industry razor sharp panels are standard so you never handle panels without gloves and bare arms are covered with amulets. Of couse you get tempted to just pick up a panel and you will get away with it until you cut yourself then saving that minute starts to look like a bad idea. Until the car is painted you really don’t want to handle it but after paint it is much safer.

Mike

Couldnt have put it better myself Jonny.

I can see the point there Mike until planishings done, if at all. Certainly when thin CR4/HR4 parts come off presses it will form a burr, same with guillotines.

The ony time i wear gloves is when my donnies are cold.

While fitting a replacement stainless cooker extractor/hood a couple of years back, it slipped in my hands and the un-deburred non-rolled 26 gauge edge sliced the web between my left hand thumb and first finger. I could actually see the thumb tendon with all the flesh around it cut away. Got SWMBO to drive me to the hospital to get it glued back together.

And that Mark is the whole point of the discussion of this post, to avoid just such painful and potentially disabling damage to someone who has to handle the part(s) later.

Quite apart from simply not bothering to clean up after you have cut something that leaves surfaces in that kind of condition, I was always taught to deburr afterwards as a mark of finishing the job off in a satisfactory way. It was even expected at an agricultural place that I worked in for a spell.

Sawn bars were always run across the linisher belt for example, it took seconds to do and added far more than that simple action to the impression given to the customer when they came to use it later.

Brian

I just took plenty of notes from this thread... Thanks gents!

I've worked, at a semi-skilled level, in machine-shops, and all the drawings I saw had "Remove All Burrs And Sharp Edges" in the pro-forma labels.

One day, as a materials store-keeper with a company making specialist printing-machines, I re-stacked some steel plates that had been cut but left ragged, and a knife-like burr on one of them bit me. Someone patched me up from the first-aid kit but he also used a spray-on coagulant, like a powder version of the old Styptic Pencil, which made the injury look far worse and made me feel very faint!

Worse though befell a miller who had to make two long trapezoidal bars from a single length of stainless-steel flat. He drilled rows of holes down the stock to screw it down to T-nuts, then proceeded to profile the bars. He did not though use a sacrificial plate or spacers and cut right through the flat, but milled trenches stopping only a few thou above the table, so when released the profiles would break off.

Only one of them slipped in his hand, still with its razor-sharp "blade"... I think he had to have stiches in his hand.

My work was cutting the blanks for machining and had always to deburr them on a horizontal linisher, before issuing. Safety, but also to allow proper setting-up. As for the stock, my main concern was always to leave the colour-coded end intact.

A lot of the smaller, machined components were deburred in a tumbler: an octagonal drum with circular cheeks that ran on driving-rollers, and filled with the parts mixed with finely-abrasive stones and soapy water. It gave the work-pieces very slightly rounded edges and a satin finish, but if mild-steel they had to be rinsed off and sprayed with WD-40 immediately after tumbling.

I do this as well, saves a lot of time finding stock.

I clean up with a file, it is not a waste of time as it means I don't have to do it when I cut the next bit. Plus of course I like my blood on the inside of my body. I leave enough of it around the workshop as is, without adding to it.

Oh and there is far worse than a cut, darn metal splinters. Always hurt, always jagged like harpoons so have to be dug out and always seem to get infected.

Adrian

I have a set of basic workshop rules, not written down and not set in stone but I keep certain red lines I don't cross:

Do not wear gloves with rotating machines

Deburr all sharp edges

treat all cutting tools (all tools) with respect - wear gloves unless the tool is for a rotating machine and its easy to forget to take them off

wear gloves with sheet metal that have a decent level of cut resistance

always wear eye protection in the workshop no matter what I'm doing.

wear boots with toe protection, that 125mm milling vice will break all the bones in your foot if dropped (probably damage your foot even with boots on, its all about limiting the injury after the event if you can't prevent the event).

Use guards and swarf shields whenever possible - use common sense.

recheck clamps vices and tools are tightened/fitted correctly before pressing the start button.

avoid contact with oils, glues, paints. Read the warnings and apply that thing called common sense again.

Work within the limits of the machines and my skills, if I'm not sure seek advise or look it up. I try to avoid the 'I thought I knew what I was doing until it all went wrong'.

clean-up at the end of the work - the workshop is used for things other than my hobby & the kids or misses can nip in there to get something out of the freezer - to easy to step in sharp swarf or get it caught in shoes then walk it indoors where bare feet can find it. I don't like working in a mess either.

with these rules I don't miss workshop time though injury recovery or waiting in A&E

small cuts and bits of metal stuck in fingers still happen but I hope that I do enough to prevent any serious injury after all its a hobby and hobbies shouldn't hurt.

Oh dear.

In my own workshop sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't, as the whim takes me.

Can't remember cutting myself on a sawn end, though - perhaps because I've a habit of looking at the material as I pick it up. I suppose I'm much more likely to clean up and chamfer if I think somebody else might be picking up that material, though.

I always clean up the cut end, so that the metal is ready for use next time. And no burrs to cut, or to foul on anything, when mounting it for the next job for which it is raw material.

Workpieces are always deburred, even on "non functioning" edges.

Just habit, I suppose.

Howard

Yes, I always do, if only to save myself from nasty cuts later on. I t only takes a few seconds to do it and it pays off. I always round off sharp corners ,where it can be done.

Also, it helps to make the job look better, something that*s often required with my efforts !