O for Others Experience   

                              

Here we look at how we can learn from the experience of other people. It is said that a sensible person will learn from their own mistakes whilst a wise person will also learn from the mistakes of other people

A particular example of this occurred some years ago. A club member turned up to a woodturning meeting with several fingers bandaged. He explained that he had caught his fingers on the sharp edges of the rotating fixing jaws of his woodturning chuck. Whilst he recovered from his injuries he considered the problem and subsequently rounded off the sharp edges of the fixing jaws. The result was that although still capable of giving a painful rap to the fingers contact with the modified fixing jaws would not result in such significant damage to the turner's hands. He showed us what he had done and some club members followed suit and also removed that sharp edges from their chucks and jaws.

Interestingly the chuck manufacturer has recently modified their chuck design so that instead of having sharp edges the ends of the fixing jaws are now rounded over.  

What we can learn from this are:

• Firstly to be careful of protruding parts of rotating chucks - this particularly applies if the chuck is well open.

• Secondly removing sharp edges from jaws will help reduce injuries if contact is made with the rotating parts.

• Thirdly that it may be a long time before someone else takes action.

Whilst there is the temptation to keep quiet about things which may have gone wrong in our workshops it is only by sharing information about these incidents that we can help prevent other people making the same mistakes over and over again. Maybe there is a place for a feedback slot in our newsletter where brief details of mishaps which have befallen us could be included. If it stops another person getting hurt then it will be worthwhile. If required the person giving the information can remain anonymous.

LEARNING POINTS

• The best way of protecting ourselves is to minimise the risks to which we expose ourselves.

• If someone tells you that they hurt themselves whilst woodturning ask them more about the incident, how did it happen, who was involved, what were the prevailing conditions and could it have been avoided?  Then share the information with the other members of your club