A comment by a poster(Eaglecash867) made me think of this. What protection do you use when Modeling? You know about Safety Dlasses and Different types of Masks right? Well, the old Good Ventilation is another one. How about when you use resin products? What do you use? Now, another question. What Kind of hand protection do you use when handling all those scalpels and sharp things?
The idea of NOT using any protection was brought home to me during a convention of National Wood-Carvers. One of many that did Large Birds, even down to individual feathers was doing a group of Tail-Feathers for a life sized Red Tailed Hawk. He slipped and had to have twenty two stitches inside in and on the palm of his hand near the base of the thumb. I now use a Carvers Glove if I am using my knives. It’s thin but very resistant to that kind of thing. No more Thin Sliced thumb surfaces!
I do still carve life sized Hummingbirds for folks that ask for them, But, I don’t sell them or show them. I just do it to keep the muscle memory in my 79 year old hands, to stave off more damage from “Uncle Arther-ritis!”, See we all have to be related! A lot of families have that “Uncle” for sure!
I wear only my Rx daily glasses when working with plastic. I have a Pace booth for painting and don’t use any additional respirator. It pulls the fumes out very effectively and I barely even smell the solvent.
No hand protection. I’ve been practicing dentistry for over 3 decades so using finger rests and instrument control are pretty much ingrained.
I have a high intensity light, a near-by open window, and sometimes a fan behind me to get a cooling breeze going during hot days. That’s about it. I have been handling blades since I was a small kid. Back then all we had were razor blades, mostly double edge, and if lucky sometimes a single edge if lucky.
I have my reader/magnifier glasses that I work with at my bench, a nice bright LED headlamp, and for protection from all of the sharp instruments I just remain conscious of where things are in relation to each other and make sure my hands, fingers, and other body parts are out of the slip path. My airbrushing method is very different from what I have seen others doing…I have the airbrush in really close to the work and use low pressure and low volume, so the paint is all going where it was intended. No need for a mask or booth with that method. I think the most important component in bench safety is just slowing down, not getting in a hurry, and always being conscious of cause and effect. Any injuries I have sustained, as well as damage to my models, have always been due to my rushing something. Heh…also helps to have my Xacto handle that has the little bump on the back of it to keep it from rolling off the bench onto my feet or into my lap. Aside from that, another crucial safety measure I take is to practice good housekeeping on the bench. If I don’t have things piled on top of other things, I’m a lot less likely to accidentally come into contact with a blade. My cat taught me good house-keeping when he jumped onto my bench, picked up a straight-edge razor blade by skillfully hooking just one claw in it…and then popped it right into his mouth and ran off with it. Scared me to death! Thought my carelessness had killed my cat! I was able to stay calm and just follow him so I could distract him with something so he would drop it. He was completely unscathed. Never again…always keep things picked up on the bench now.
Nah…didn’t need it. He dropped it on his own, so I didn’t have to try to take it from him…figured any kind of struggle would just make the situation more dangerous. Heh…can’t say the same about the time I had to pull a collard green stem out of my iguana’s mouth after she got it stuck in her throat. Almost had it completely out, and then she closed her mouth on my fingertip. They have teeth like sharks, so even though she didn’t mean to bite me, it did a lot of damage. Not much alternative though. Anything thick enough to protect me from her teeth would have been too bulky to allow me to grab the stem. It was worth it to save my green baby.
I remember when the dentist would tell me to hold my breath as he stuck the needle in and moved it around the tooth to numb it. I assumed he was going for the root nerves. Not a fun time. These days a root canal doesn’t hurt.
I have to wear glasses day to day to see things anyway. I have thick paper masks with elastic to hold it tight. This is for resin kits and painting. I have recently bought what I would call woodworkers aprons, to keep paint and glues off my shirts/jeans I wear. I have a vent hose on my spray booth that is connected to an extractor fan, that I put out the door of my garden cabin that I use for all my model work when spraying with rattle cans. Basic stuff I presume but all these things ensure a safe place to breath and keep clean.
I use a face shield and a dust mask when I use my table saw or my power sander. I keep a package of band-aids in a drawer next to my bench. I wear a dust mask when I use spray cans at my spray booth.
Incase of a accidental cut they make band-aids that come with bleed stop in them. They work quite well on small wounds. Before you make a comment, I had a accident with my expanded foot and had to use a couple to stop the bleeding. WHen it was over I cleaned up the blood stains on the rug too.
I used to carry a couple packs of powder in a belt pouch in case my leg might split open again. Fortunately after several weekly trips to the wound section at our VBA hospital and numerous applications of med pads and wrapping, that problem seems to have gone away, at least for now.