That is an awful story. It is, however, one that will be cited at every machine shop and woodworking class from now on.
This could easily have been any of my peers in graduate school. Lots of us did work late at night, and there are lots and lots of ways to injure or kill yourself with shop equipment. You have to take the work very seriously, be sure you are alert, and whenever possible do your work when other people are around.
Meanwhile: You really, really want the supervisor of your machine shop to be a merciless drill instructor [1] who takes no crap. And you want the people who can't pass boot camp to be sent home without a key to the shop. Why?
A) You, yourself, need more training than you think.
B) Even if you are an expert, you want to be very sure that the person working next to you is trained. You may not be the person who makes the mistake, but you could still be the person who gets electrocuted, or struck by flying parts from a nearby spinning lathe, or crippled when you slip on the spilled oil and drop the hundred-pound vise on your foot [2], or injured by the broken machine that wasn't properly taken offline, labeled, and locked.
C) It's not just the fatal mistakes that will drive you crazy. I've worked in a lot of shared shops. They will waste your time. Waste it by the month and by the year. Because the equipment gets dented, or stripped, or burned out, or rusted, or dirty. It only takes one incompetent or un-conscientious person to ruin something. Entropy is annoying that way.
There's a reason why, e.g., every machinist has their own little box of tool bits and chisels and favorite screwdrivers, and why chefs never let other chefs use their knives.
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[1] The similarities between good infantrymen or sailors and good machinists (or contractors or modern farmers, for that matter) have been remarked upon before. In all these cases, you're constantly putting your life in the hands of the equipment that's being maintained by your peers.
[2] When your shop instructor gives you the lecture about the steel-toed boots for god's sake get some steel-toed boots and wear them.
This could easily have been any of my peers in graduate school. Lots of us did work late at night, and there are lots and lots of ways to injure or kill yourself with shop equipment. You have to take the work very seriously, be sure you are alert, and whenever possible do your work when other people are around.
Meanwhile: You really, really want the supervisor of your machine shop to be a merciless drill instructor [1] who takes no crap. And you want the people who can't pass boot camp to be sent home without a key to the shop. Why?
A) You, yourself, need more training than you think.
B) Even if you are an expert, you want to be very sure that the person working next to you is trained. You may not be the person who makes the mistake, but you could still be the person who gets electrocuted, or struck by flying parts from a nearby spinning lathe, or crippled when you slip on the spilled oil and drop the hundred-pound vise on your foot [2], or injured by the broken machine that wasn't properly taken offline, labeled, and locked.
C) It's not just the fatal mistakes that will drive you crazy. I've worked in a lot of shared shops. They will waste your time. Waste it by the month and by the year. Because the equipment gets dented, or stripped, or burned out, or rusted, or dirty. It only takes one incompetent or un-conscientious person to ruin something. Entropy is annoying that way.
There's a reason why, e.g., every machinist has their own little box of tool bits and chisels and favorite screwdrivers, and why chefs never let other chefs use their knives.
---
[1] The similarities between good infantrymen or sailors and good machinists (or contractors or modern farmers, for that matter) have been remarked upon before. In all these cases, you're constantly putting your life in the hands of the equipment that's being maintained by your peers.
[2] When your shop instructor gives you the lecture about the steel-toed boots for god's sake get some steel-toed boots and wear them.