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  View original topic: Health and safety "do's and don't's"
Volks Wagen Fri Sep 19, 2014 5:44 am

I'm going to start this off cos a lot of us have kids who like to help and be around when we're working on the cars...

1) Wear protective gear when sanding. Protect your eyes with safety goggles/glasses and your breathing with a respirator.

2) Clean your work area of paint/filler dust. You have no idea what the paint contains unless you have the label or have it tested. These are old cars and it's not beyond possibility that someone applied a poisonous lead based paint coating at some point in some layer on the car.

3) Keep power tools away from children and vice versa.

etc.

Multi69s Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:12 am

4) No loose clothing or jewelry.

5) Long hair is tied up or tucked in.

6) Ear protection

Keithinky Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:35 am

Do not rely on a 44 year old bilstein jack. Use stands or ramps.

Northof49 Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:44 am

Do not operate a grinder without the guard in place.

Tim Donahoe Fri Sep 19, 2014 12:00 pm

Do not rely on any kind of jack--let alone the Bilstein. Scissor and floor-pump jacks are just jacks, also. Use jack stands--always.

Ask for help. Don't be a macho-fool.

Point the spray toward the work--not your face :wink:

Edit: Go ahead and lift up your back seat and unhook your battery ground strap when working around wiring. Crap, I was once simply tightening the three screws that hold my choke element on, and my screwdriver shank also touched the wiring to the alternator. I got a nice spark that--on some leaky carbs I've seen--could have been a nice fire.

Tim

TheDon Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:43 pm

Northof49 wrote: Do not operate a grinder without the guard in place.

Or without a face shield

Jacks Fri Sep 19, 2014 8:10 pm

Remove rings, and watches. NO EXEPTIONS!
Steel toed shoes can collapse under enough force, requiring cutting to remove your foot. Your choice :D

Brian Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:06 pm

Beer before liquor, never been sicker

Don't wear your nice socks

Think of things that can go wrong before they happen

Go to offroad shops for better work

Don't pay cash to a sketchy shop

Invest in your tools

Multi69s Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:06 pm

Do not use gasoline or paint thinner to wash hands. Use hand cleaner.

Wear gloves when ever you can

67jason Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:51 am

















I work in environmental health and safety for a semi-conductor manufacturer. our in department moto is "do safe stuff!" 8)

busdaddy Sat Sep 20, 2014 1:24 pm

And a new one for the 21'st century.......PUT DOWN THE I PHONE!!! , leave it somewhere out of the shop, you don't need that constant distraction.

As for the gloves, respirator, etc... use all the gear you can even though you don't think you need it. Stuff I did 20-30 years ago that was supposedly "safe" and didn't require the gear is coming back to bite me now, much of it as developed sensitivity to common dusts and chemicals.....for now....who knows how my senior years will go?

anthracitedub Sat Sep 20, 2014 2:56 pm

I like using my phone in the shop.... I use it to take pics of disassembling parts, where wires go, etc....

While working on my Ghia, I logged on to the samba and looked at a wiring diagram to help trouble shoot my indicator lights.

andk5591 Sat Sep 20, 2014 3:27 pm

My f###-ups

#1 cant stress jewelry enough (at least wear gloves if you keep your wedding ring on) - jumped across alt hot and ground with the ring. You would NOT believe how hot a ring gets in one second....

#2 Flammable clothing when grinding is NOT a good idea. Was wondering were all the smoke was coming from - my plaid quilted jacket was on fire.

#3 Appropriate fire extinguisher in a good easy to find place in case you need it to put said jacket out or something else you caught on fire.

#4 DO NOT use something that requires xylene or toluene to thin it in an unventilated garage. Like putting on herculiner roll on undercoating in February is not a good idea.

#5 heavy leather gloves when grinding or welding - Even if you use the shield. The slice on one of my gloves was a good lesson. Mechanics gloves are not enough.

#6 CLAMP your workpiece in the drill press so it doesnt spin and take a finger off. ( I do still have all of mine)

#7 invest in a decent real dust mask - You can get a decent 3M for maybe $40 at Lowes or Home Depot. They fit well and are pretty comfortable. The paper ones dont work well for me.

#8 Do not - I repeat DO NOT put on a nut or bolt unless you are going to tighten it down. Watching your one wheel pass you while you are towing the project car does not make for a good day.

swavananda Sat Sep 20, 2014 3:54 pm

A serious tip I learned from here:

Do not use brake cleaner on metal that is to be welded:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=429464&highlight=brake+cleaner

andk5591 Sat Sep 20, 2014 6:51 pm

swavananda wrote: A serious tip I learned from here:

Do not use brake cleaner on metal that is to be welded:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=429464&highlight=brake+cleaner

Starter fluid works well though....

busdaddy Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:27 pm

swavananda wrote: A serious tip I learned from here:

Do not use brake cleaner on metal that is to be welded:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=429464&highlight=brake+cleaner
The key word here is Chlorinated, non chlorinated is OK (aside from it's flammability), one molecule makes a huge difference.

Regarding the phone thing yes it's handy to have a camera and reference source right in the shop, but dropping the tools every 3-5 minutes because the phone vibrates like my teenage son does (working on making that did, almost there) is stupid and leads to serious injury or a F'd up job because you missed something, and it's really hard to do many jobs with only one hand.
Park the social life when you walk through the shop door, your followers or buddies can surely wait till later, some of the stuff you are doing is no different than lion taming or explosive diffusing as far as danger level goes, would you have a phone in one hand texting when doing any jobs like that?

raygreenwood Sun Sep 21, 2014 5:57 pm

Very excellent thread. One of the numerous hats I wear is that I do consulting and training for Hazardous waste handling, safety and disposal (along with a certain amount of industrial hygiene and EPA).

Sadly my immediate industry has chemicals that make automotive look like kitchen work.

You can never be safe enough.

Some points of my own:

1. Keep all low flash point solvents (carb cleaner, paint thinner, gasoline) away from all power tools. This means your air compressor too.

2. Take this from someone who knows the hard way (having been in over 3000 industrial facilities).....the damage that is done to your system is not always immediate. Some of the simplest chemicals can kill you cumulatively over years. Ventilation and gloves are key.

3. Buy the right kind of gloves for the right purpose. The minimum any of us should be using is 5 mil nitrile. If you have a parts washer you need specialized gloves that should be listed in the MSDS/SDS sheet.

4. Citrus based solvents and non VOC solvents are NOT safe for use without respirator and gloves as a minimum. The industrial degreasers in many of the common "green" solvents will cause permanent de-fatting of tissue. Many others are combinations of exotic non-VOC surfactants and esters that can cause nervous system, liver damage and allergic reactions.....
After several years with a chemical company that primarily makes solvents like this yo7 would think I would know.....however the year before last I came across one that even with, gloves and Respirator....I was so allergic to that it put me in the hospital. All of my fjngernails and toenails fell off.

5. Lastly.....hand cleaner yes. That being said it is dangerous in certain respects. Do no5 b3 casual with its use. Some use various abrasives. The better ones....actually use industrial silica grit.....glass. back in 2003....I had some residue ....obviously. ....somewhere on my hand. I wiped my eye driving home. I almost lost the eye from the abrasion, damage and the resulting staph infection.

6. If you use brake cleaners, acids or bases....and that means oven cleaner or even purple power.....your respirator cartridge must be set up for multi contaminant. You generally cant buy that cartridge at home depot these days because of legal ass covering.

Be safe. Ray

fabricator john Sun Sep 21, 2014 6:01 pm

NEVER WEAR GLOVES WHEN USING A DRILL PRESS
fabricator john

raygreenwood Sun Sep 21, 2014 6:35 pm

fabricator john wrote: NEVER WEAR GLOVES WHEN USING A DRILL PRESS
fabricator john

Ill add one to that.....when free handing it with a dremel.....use a lap board in case you drop it. Same effect....more sensitive area!
Ray



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