Preseason is a great time to sharpen up your skills, especially in safety. During build season, you may be working a lot in the shop or with tools, cutting and drilling pieces for your robot. However, the machines you need to use can be dangerous if not used safely. So, it is really important to get properly educated in many areas: safety procedures, how to use various machines, hand tool safety, and do’s and don’t’s of the shop. You can get trained by a mentor that works in the shop a lot.
A few reminders:
- Be sure to know your point of contact in case of emergency.
- Never work alone.
- Make sure your clothes are safe (long pants, no sweatshirt strings, hair tied back, closed toe shoes etc.)
- Wear proper protection equipment (safety glasses, gloves when needed, etc.)
- Have basic working knowledge about the different machines.
- Know where first aid is.
For our team, Chuck, our main shop mentor, takes groups of girls to the shop. He teaches them all the rules and procedures related to the shop and quizzes them along the way. All girls are required to go through the training each year before build season.
Machine shops and tools are incredible assets to have during build season. Train and learn so you can make full use of them. Have fun, you’ve got this!
