SOme people shouldn't be allowed to use a can opener

One of the things I see in the power tool world is that they are constantly adding things to make things safer for the user.

I figure that a lot of this is to make them a little less scarier to the guy that really isn't a tool guy and to decrease the liklihood of the user getting hurt.

HAH! Fat chance!

The first rule if making something fool proof is to not even bother wasting your time. Fools are the smartest people in te world and they will out think the safety people and find a way to hurt themselves every single time.

Of course, they will blame the tool company. Legal action is sure to ensue.

The truth of the matter is that people have to learn their own limitations. There simply are a lot of peolle out there that shouldn't be allowed within rifle shot of a Handy Andy child's tool box and that is simply the way it is.

I'm pretty handy with tools but I pretty much know my limitations and know that care must be used at all times and that a single second of inattention can bite me pretty hard. I also know that there are tools I should simply stay away from. The radial arm saw is one of these. I do not own one, although I have.

I got rid of it years ago because my instincts told me that it was just a matter of time before it bit me.

On very, very rare occasions I wind up having to use one and I am very careful when I do. For me it is one of those tools that I simply do not like so I stay away from it.

This is probably pretty odd as I use quite a number of tools that some people consider a lot more dangerous than that.

I have built a number of houses over the years and there are not a whole lot of tools I can not use. One time at a shipyard a machinist let me turn a piece of scrap steel into a pretty good Fourth of July cannon that I used to use until recently. The neighborhood has changed a bit so I only break it out on the Fourth, but I digress.

When I asked to use the lathe I had the machinist give me a crash course and I took my time and when I had a question, I simply turned the machine off and got my answer before I resumed. I guess I did OK because I have a pretty good cannon and I didn't break anything so we can say I did OK.

The lathe was pretty intimidating because it was big enough to be able to sell rides on at an amusement park.

Anyway, back to the tool companies that are marketing tools designed to be used by people that imply should not be using them. They do this by installing safety devices that keep the user from getting hurt and in the process makes the tool a lot more unusable.

Right now an awful lot of chain saw sellers put a tip guard on the saw that precludes using the tool to make plunge cuts with. Mine had one and I yanked it off there the minute I got it home. I know how to make plunge cuts safely.

I look at things a little differently. I would rather they make tools the old fashioned way that did the job more efficiently and did away with the Joe Homeowner safety gizmos and made Joe a little more responsible for his actions.

Then again, the courts and legal eagles have seen to it that the companies are forced to make things inefficient because Joe Homeowner is a crybaby and doesn't seem to think it is his responsibility to think before he uses something. He thinks it is the responsibility of the toolmaker to make it safe for him to use.

Perhaps it is because of the way I think that I keep getting booted off of jury duty because I am not willing to cop to the mentality that product makers are responsible for making foolproof tools. Making a foolproof anything is an impossible task because sometimes fools can be the most ingenious people in the world. Out there somewhere waiting to strike is someone that can find a way to screw up a P-38 can opener.

In fact, I am somewhat surprised that there isn't a civillian version of the P-38 can opener out there that has a guard of some kind attached to it.



my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/