Garage Safety
 

a little something me and a few co-workers/buddies discussed this past week, when i had a near disaster incident in the shop.

i live alone, in an urban area, homes pretty spaced apart, and i do work on my vehicle quite often at home, while alone. and the other night while i luckily had a friend over while working on my truck, had a jack slip while lifting to install stands, and it made us think about how dangerous it could be sometimes working on your vehicle. a small laps of judgement can mean a bad ending.

the whole point to this, is you guys out there alone, what do you do to remain safe when in the shop alone. if something where to happen while im in the shop, there is a possibility i would not be "found" for a few days. even one of my co-workers said he works on his vehicle at home, and his wife maybe out for 2-3hrs. i always have my cell phone on me, and do practice a safe work environment, but accidents do happen.

any thoughts?

When I lived alone and worked alone in the garage a lot I had two friends check on me every other day with a phone call. I also told my next door neighbor to keep watch on me and if you don't see me for a whole day or you see my garage door still open very late at night or very early morning check on me. I'm in S FL so I don't work in a closed garage, no need to.

If I'm doing anything remotely sketchy with cars, ladders, chain saws, etc. etc. I always find someone to watch for a few minutes just in case things go sideways. If I have to wait till someone's available, then so be it.

It's not just for the car/projects danger but other reasons also. My sis had a friend in his thirties that fell down a flight of stairs in his home and died. He didn't show up to work for a few days and eventually someone went looking for him.

I was having a heart attack one day when my next door neighbor walked over to check on me, I'd made it out to my front porch but was in bad shape, gave me a ride to hospital. Couple hundred thousand dollars of medical bills, but I'm able to type this.

Have people check on you!

I use wooden stacks to jack my car up and put them under the tires before I raise it any further to place jack stands underneath the car. Once the jackstands are installed I still leave them there for added safety.

Had a sobering reminder of this scenario a few years ago. One of the machinists at work didn't show up one morning; we figured he was sick, but he was fine the previous day and didn't call in sick that morning-- and he's *not* a no call / no show kind of guy.

A couple of hours go by and someone finally got a hold of his wife to see if everything was OK; she said "When I was leaving for work this morning he said he was going to check out a funny noise under his car and then head to work..."

They found him under his 1995 Corvette, the jack gave out and he didn't put jackstands under the car-- probably one of those "I'll only be under it a minute, I don't need jackstands" decisions that you shouldn't ever do but get away with 99 times out of 100. Autopsy doctor said he was likely conscious and struggled for several hours before finally suffocating as there was no immediate life ending trauma or head/neck injury; however there was enough weight on him to fracture a couple of ribs, compress his chest, and limit his breathing. Garage door was closed and he probably couldn't get enough air in and out of his lungs to yell for help.

His cell phone, wallet, and car keys were on the toolbox, so there wasn't even the possibility of getting the phone out of his pocket to call for help.

Always a good idea to check in with someone from time to time, but unless there is another person around all the time it won't save you from all possible scenarios. If you're going to do something risky, as mentioned earlier either have someone show up to help/watch or call them before and after and let them know if they don't hear from you in a certain amount of time to come by and check in.

There's also a few phone apps out there where if you don't acknowledge the apps "check in" message at intervals of your choosing it will automatically contact people that you designate to let them know you might be in trouble and also send your current GPS location.

I installed cameras inside my shop (and outside my house)and tell my wife when ever I'm heading to the shop so she can look at me on camera to check on me. I also try to always have my cell phone on me as well.

Letting a buddy know to call it text you every couple hours if your doing something even close to dangerous is a smart thing to do for each other.

Another thing I do and it might sound silly and off subject but even when I buy items on craigslist or offerup I send my wife the address the person gives me and a link to their for sales ad so if anything happens she can retrace the my steps of whom I went to see if I don't make it back home.

Whenever the car is in the air on jacks, I put stands and typically something large and solid (like the tires if I am rotating them or working on the brakes) under the vehicle as well.

Even when at the road side dealing with a flat, after the car is in the air the flat tire is under it until it is ready to come down.

Close calls
 

Had one a few years ago with the body only so damage to myself or others would have been non fatal ... car was fine but a close call nonetheless

Another scary dangerous thing is space heaters fire and carbon monoxide are both killers
Care out there

Around 10 years ago, a member of either Team Camaro or Pro-Touring.com died when a pickup truck he was under fell on him. His wife came home from work and found him pinned under it. We took up a collection to help her with funeral expenses.



It's best to focus on prevention, use good quality four leg jack stands instead of 3, and the higher capacity stands have wider spaced feet for more stability. Your floor jack should have a rubber pad on it so it doesn't slip. Clean up your workspace so you don't trip over junk. The best advice is always take time for safety, and always THINK SAFETY. Bad things happen when you hurry and take short cuts. A friend was drilling holes, cut his finger so he wrapped a shop rag around the finger and kept drilling. The rag snagged on the drill and it pulled his finger off! The doctors could not re-attach it. An employee on our farm came to work with a chipped tooth, he was washing parts in his garage, passed out from the fumes and hit the floor. He was using Gasoline. I gave him a container of Naptha which is what we use to clean parts, it's Combustible not Flammable. I test poured Naptha on my welding bench and put a torch on it. It will burn with the torch on it but not ignite and burn on it's own unless it's absorbed into a rag or paper towel.



My cousin works on a nearby farm, he smelled gas from one of their trucks and told the operator to get it fixed right away. Nothing was done and the next day, the truck burst into flames and was heavily damaged. The point is, to use good quality fuel hoses and fittings, and don't ignore the warning signs.

Garage Fire Safety Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbLb3blQu7Y

Around my shop I place extra fire extinguishers, high up so I can see them. I put extra safety glasses face shields and work gloves near my machinery so I don't have to go looking for them. It's very tempting to grind on something without protection when you are in a hurry. I put warning stickers on my bench grinders to remind me and others to use protection. I have plenty of good jack stands, got rid of the cheap ones. Set your place up so it's very easy to be safe.



Another thing to do is to do a safety survey around your garage. Remove as much flammable material, paint thinners, fuel cans, cardboard or paper as you can. Especially around any weld or fab areas. Look at your extension cords for fraying or wear, air hoses too. Pretend you are an OSHA inspector and give it a hard look, or invite someone else to critique your work area for things you missed. Winter is a great time to do it.

I actually had the cast iron ratchet part of one of my jack stands break off dropping my enclosed trailer on the ground while I was repacking wheel bearings. After collecting my thoughts and accessing what happened I scrapped all four stands. I now have a set of Snap-On jack stands. F*** that Harbor Freight junk!

Very glad you said this! trust in my harbor freight stands....gone