Being a carpenter is not quite as easy as it sounds. You require a specific skill set to work with wood, especially if you’re going to work in the construction industry. And be it building cabinets or ornate staircases, no carpenter is free from work hazards that include cutting, joining, and installing wooden components with each other or to other components, not to mention using heavy power tools from time to time.
Depending on their job requirements, carpenters might work indoors or outdoors. In both scenarios, their jobs put them at equal risk for unforeseen accidents. This is why safety is of paramount importance, and following workplace safety standards is a must. For those work places that do not employ such standards, safety tools become every carpenter’s best friend.
Here’s a look at the 5 most important tools that every carpenter should carry with him or her –
1. Safety Shoes
Electric shocks are among the biggest problems carpenters face when using heavy machinery and power tools. A 240 jolt of electricity is strong enough to kill a person, and if there are naked wires lying around or a pool of water where the work is being done, the chances of being jolted by electricity increase exponentially. Then, of course, there’s the danger of getting hurt with nails or chisels lying on the floor, or even being burnt by waste disposed of in skips.
This is why safety shoes should be worn at all times by carpenters when they are on duty. Safety boots with steel toe caps and mid soles are the safest shoes to wear, but people can opt for other types of shoes according to the level of comfort or safety required at their jobs.
2. Hearing Protection
Regular use of equipments like spindle molders,planers and saws can lead to partial or complete hearing loss. In an ideal world, machines would regularly be inspected for any and every noise that they made to ensure they function smoothly without a glitch. However, since most companies neglect to do so, it’s up to carpenters to ensure they’re well equipped with noise absorbing hearing aidsthat will help reduce the noise around them, thus protecting their ears from excessive noise.
3. Head Protection
It’s impossible to function properly when one’s brain is damaged or injured, which is why wearing a helmet while performing tasks pertaining to carpentry is extremely important. Wearing helmets reduces the impact of hard surfaces hitting your heads, especially when one is atop ladders and the impact of damaging your head increases.A lot of carpenters don’t bother wearing helmets, thinking it’s a safety equipment best left to bicyclists, but they’re wrong. Heavy wooden logs falling on your head, slipping on wet floors and hitting your head or even falling from ladders can severely damage your brain functions. And wearing a helmet protects you from exactly those accidents.
4. Safety Eyewear
It’s no secret that be it chiseling or using power saws – splinters and flying wood particles are a constant danger to a carpenter’s eyes. Corneas are among the most sensitive parts of the human anatomy and even the slightest damage to them can result in permanent blindness. And even while wearing safety glasses, it’s imperative that carpenters should wear eyewear which is correct for them. For example, safety eyewear worn by welders would prove to be unnecessarily bulky for them while giving them limited visibility. The best type of safety eyewear, thus, would be glasses that cover the side of your eyes (along with the front) to give your eyes maximum safety from debris.
5. Gloves
Carpenters working in a commercial environment are regularly exposed to a number of chemicals, which can cause a myriad of medical complications for them. For example, one can inhale or ingest a lot of wood preservatives can cause dizziness or nausea, while solvents and epoxy resins can easily be absorbed by the skin, causingsevere dermatitis. In suchthese cases, direct contact with such chemicals should be avoided at all costs and if that is not a possibility, it’s best to resort to wearing gloves and/or overalls while coming in contact with said materials.
For those of you worried about where to buy safety equipments, you don’t have to worry any more. The safety tools market has been growing slowly and steadily in India, and with websites like Moglix.com, shopping has become a remarkably easy and hassle free experience.