If you spend your time around power tools, you know they can be dangerous. While it’s true that you need to be careful when using power tools, there are certain safety equipment items you must have to help protect yourself and others. This post covers ten items that should be in everyone’s tool bag.
Whether you’re a homeowner, contractor, or even a casual DIYer, you should always have these items in your tool bag.
Protective Clothing
Protective clothing is required when using power tools. When choosing the correct protective gear, you need to choose between “form meets function” or “function meets form.”
If you opt for the former, you’ll want to consider safety goggles, ear protection, and safety gloves. For the latter, you’ll need rubberized gloves, an apron, and eye protection.
Your protective clothing needs to meet these two criteria. If you fail to do so, you could easily suffer serious injury. For example, if you’re wearing gloves and they get wet, you’ll likely lose the ability to feel what you’re doing.
Eye Protection
It may seem trivial, but eye protection is essential for power tool users. This is a must for all tradespeople and anyone who regularly uses power tools.
When using a power tool, there’s always a chance that something will fly into your eyes. While you can never predict the future, having eye protection can help reduce the chances of injury.
Work Gloves
If you work with power tools, you need to be prepared to handle the unexpected. One of the best things you can do is wear gloves.
While there are times when it’s acceptable to use your bare hands, a pair of work gloves will keep your hands safe from small pieces of metal and splinters.
Respiratory Protection
The dangers of inhaling dust and fumes while using power tools are very serious. These materials can cause lung damage. In addition, your body produces white blood cells that fight off germs and bacteria. If you get exposed to dust and fumes over a prolonged period, it can affect your body and reduce the effectiveness of your immune system.
Dust particles can cause asthma-like symptoms, such as wheezing, tightness in your chest, coughing, and shortness of breath.
Hearing Protection
Many power tool users don’t wear hearing protection when using their power tools. This is a huge mistake. You’ll hear all kinds of noises. These include a hammer hitting metal, sawing, drilling, etc. These are all noises that you need to protect yourself from. Earplugs specially designed for power tool use will block out these sounds. If you don’t wear hearing protection when you work with your power tools, you will get seriously injured.
Work Boots
There are lots of reasons why work boots are important. They’re comfortable, they’re durable, and they’re essential for working in various environments. Unfortunately, many contractors still neglect to purchase quality work boots even though they’re essential.
While a pair of $20 work boots may look nice, they will not last you very long. They can also cause blisters and calluses. One of the main reasons many people get injured on the job is because of bad work boots.
Fire Extinguisher
Power tools such as circular saws and drills are incredibly useful, but they’re also extremely dangerous. Power tools are responsible for about 18% of all home fires.
So how do you know if you have a safe toolbox? The number one thing you need to do is get a fire extinguisher.
Many fire extinguishers are made for household use, so they’re affordable and easy to find. You can even find some that are built specifically for power tools.
Power tools are dangerous for many reasons. They can be very noisy and hazardous. They can also be very powerful and cause severe injuries. So, use safety equipment to work without danger!
