Children's safety in the workshop.

i want to introduce my grandson, who is 8 to the workshop. We have already been out there to work on a school project with papier-mâché but I would like him to become familiar with simple workshop practice like using a hacksaw and filing. It would be interesting for him to see the lathe and the mill in use but while I might be a bit lax with my own safety on occasions I can't afford to be with his !

Has anybody else gone down the road of purchasing child size safety eyewear? I can see lots of safety glasses but my own experience tells me that swarf gets over and under those and would prefer if he could wear goggles to the relevant standards but in a child fit. Amazon has stuff in what might be the right size but no mention of standards.

Overalls are easy enough to find but eyewear needs to be decent kit.

I suggest that a visor would probably be most suitable, Nige

... It would even 'grow with him'.

MichaelG.

I introduced my son to the workshop when he was 11. I bought Bolle overspecs from Screwfix - the sell small and large versions that fit close to the forehead and work very well.

A peaked cap can help to keep the swarf getting over the top of the safety specs, spec seem to be classed as ok at the local high school, and ordenary specs can be warn under the type that they use. Yes to a visor, and if the clear part is too big, it's easy to cut a bit off, and also easy to replace it if scratched.

The cap keeps hot swarf from getting in the hair.

Ian S C

Thanks guys. The visor is a good idea as is the peaked hat with specs. It was stuff getting over the top of glasses that I was bothered about but I guess as the lad doesn't wear glasses safety specs would be closer to the face anyway. I'll see what he thinks as I have learned that involving children in decisions about them generally makes the process easier 😊

Where are you roughly in the country Nige?

Hi Nige,

It would be great to introduce your grandson to your workshop and you are obviously fully aware of the hazards in such a place. My experience is, despite telling them to ask before they touch anything, you need to watch them every second they are in there.

I have a small model room which houses a N gauge model railway and our great grand daughter who is five years old just loves to drive and watch the trains. Each time we go in there I always tell her that she must not touch or pick anything up without asking first and generally she is very good. One day we were in there and she asked if she could have some different wagons on one of the trains, she was standing along side me whilst I changed the wagons.

She said to me "what is this grampy" and when I looked she had picked up a Dremel which had a diamond cutting disc fitted. It still makes me shudder to think of it, she had reached over and picked it up off the modelling desk, thank goodness she didnt switch it on. Now quite clearly that was down to my stupidity, leaving a cutting tool within easy reach, something I normally never do as everything is put out of reach and cleared away, but that day I forgot.

Children are very inquisitive and it only takes a second for them to pick something up or even switch something on.

Sorry Nige, I,m not preaching just making the point of how you need to be overseeing them at all times.

regards

Ron

Edited By Ron Laden on 06/07/2018 15:08:08

I used ordinary face goggles - the sort with a ventilated seal around a flat plastic pane that covers both eyes - for my granddaughter, who was 7 at the time. She made barrels and tops for 2 ballpoint pen kits for herself and 'other' grandma.

Aluminium's a good choice because the swarf is generally weak and blunt, so that was what I used.

There was no risk that I was aware of any time in the sessions.

I only wish the little darlin' would show some continuing interest...

I still shudder when thinking how my father introduced me to his lathe around 65 years ago and wonder how I survived to tell the tale. I was around 6 or 7 at the time and obviously not tall enough to reach so I had to stand on a chair. The lathe was driven by an open caged motor that didn't have any starting windings, so to get it to start I had to pull down smartly on the flat belt that drove the line shafting that ran the length of the workshop and drove all the other machines. At the same time as the pulling on the belting one had to switch on the power which was controlled by an aerial isolation switch, (also known as a knife switch) all bare brass at mains voltage apart from a very small ceramic knob which was grasped whilst switching!!! Never designed for mains, but that was my father for you, I only wish that I had a photo of this set up as most people that I have told about this just don't believe me.

To be fair, it was not long afterwards that Dad did upgrade the switch to an enclosed variety but the motor lasted until I was about 14 when it eventually burnt out and was replaced with a more modern type.

As you can imagine from this background I have a somewhat odd view of modern safety rules.

Phil

John, I am roughly in Peterborough 😊👍

I was using a Wolf Cub electric drill when I was 6 yrs old as Dad couldn't get his hand / drill in an awkward place. We chain drilled a 4" hole for the air hose on the car for dad's new heater. Broke a few 1/8" drills mind! For me, I would unplug / Imobilise any machine I didn't want someone to use.

Why start in the workshop, make a model Balsa wood aeroplane kit - just sharp knives and pins etc. Build up from there perhaps.

You cannot wrap them up in cotton wool,nor watch them every second.You can only tell them,show them,let them try for themselves,ready to step in if something looks like going wrong. Yes,they will get a few cuts and and a few frights,but that,s all part of the learning process.

The amount of instruction I received,even when I worked in a huge machine shop,at 16 years old,could be written on the back of a stamp.My wood machining is self taught,with the aid of a few good books on the subject.

Kids are not as helpless as we might think,they learn fast if they are interested,and if they are not,they have no place in a workshop anyway, Give him a try,you might be surprised. Just explain that machines NEVER SLEEP and need to be treated with respect ALL THE TIME.

He might end up teaching you a thing or two !! Has happened !

Good luck,it,s nice to hear of some young lad showing an interest in such things,most just cannot be bothered.

I learnt very early in life not to trust my dad with any type of tooling. My earliest memory is when he decided to put a light in the outside loo. He took the two wires from the 15amp (round pin) socket in the kitchen twisted them together and put into one side of the new light switch and the two wires from the bulb were twisted together and put in the other side of the switch. It did make a very big bang and put the house in darkness. He tried 4 or 5 times before admitting defeat. It still makes my brother and me laugh.

Lionel

Nige, I agree with Mick, the face goggle type are probably the safest to start with, your grandson probably wont think they are very "cool" but much safer than some of the newer "stylish" types which dont seem too safe to me.

Ron

My earliest workshop memory was sitting on the wing of a Mercedes that my Father was rebuilding, my job was to steady the engine while he operated the chain block, I was certainly no more than 4 years old. When I was about 11 we had settled down after being posted all over the place with the RAF and my dad built a workshop, this kept me highly entertained and as the local tip was on my way home from school I salvaged all sorts of things like motors from washing machines and all sorts of other stuff. My mate and I were also allowed in the local scrap yard and sourced things like Villiers engines from lawn mowers and such treasures. Bed irons were a great source of light angle iron and they turned up almost daily on the dump. The only power tool was a pistol drill until I made a lathe to turn wood. I don't know if I am lucky to still be 100% intact or just have a reasonable sense of danger, a bit of both I suspect. Having a yen to make a model hovercraft it seemed very convenient that the fan from a car heater fitted on a spin dryer motor, it certainly shifted some air running at 10-15 times its design speed, it must be a tribute to Smiths Industries that it didn't shed any blades, the project was not a success and my nagging doubt about the fan was getting louder so that got binned off as not one of my better ideas. I think kids do have a sense of danger but it needs nurturing. Although I hate all this risk assessment jargon that invades everything we do, I do think that we do actually do the risk assessment as part of self preservation and application of common sense. As we cannot watch youngsters every minute we need to get them to think about what they are doing and spot the dangers for themselves, a long list of does and don'ts will soon be forgotten but an explanation of why we wear safety equipment and how machinery just loves loose clothing and fingers can start to build a young persons awareness and ability to see danger and take care to work safely. Safety has built an industry out of some peoples inability to see and respond to risk. If someone does not show signs of seeing danger then maybe a workshop is not for them but if they start to give you confidence then the day will come when they can be left to get on with it.

Mike

Edited By Mike Poole on 06/07/2018 19:16:59