A lot of this stuff, like so many things done by the government, is an attempt to replace intelligence and so-called common sense with generic, one-size-fits-all rules. In trying to fit all situations, the rules often become horribly complex and impractical. I have never worked in a machine shop, in my 30 years as a machinist, where the working machinists did not sympathize with the employer on this issue and regard OSHA as primarily a pain in the butt or something to be worked around. Where I work now we definitely keep on hand the things we actually need and use, such as hearing protection, goggles, dust masks, and chip guards. We use good sense with solvents and electricity. We don't wear neckties while running the lathe. But then we have this lockout/tagout crap that is basically there only to bluff through OSHA inspections. It is not like our machines are down for days at a time, or like you can tangle yourself around the spindle of a Bridgeport mill and have somebody else walk up and somehow not notice you there and plug the thing in and flip the switch on without you saying anything. We aren't stupid.
Signing into Better MRO is easy. Use your MSCdirect.com username /
password, or register to create an account. We’ll bring you back here
as soon as you’re done.
A lot of this stuff, like so many things done by the government, is an attempt to replace intelligence and so-called common sense with generic, one-size-fits-all rules. In trying to fit all situations, the rules often become horribly complex and impractical. I have never worked in a machine shop, in my 30 years as a machinist, where the working machinists did not sympathize with the employer on this issue and regard OSHA as primarily a pain in the butt or something to be worked around. Where I work now we definitely keep on hand the things we actually need and use, such as hearing protection, goggles, dust masks, and chip guards. We use good sense with solvents and electricity. We don't wear neckties while running the lathe. But then we have this lockout/tagout crap that is basically there only to bluff through OSHA inspections. It is not like our machines are down for days at a time, or like you can tangle yourself around the spindle of a Bridgeport mill and have somebody else walk up and somehow not notice you there and plug the thing in and flip the switch on without you saying anything. We aren't stupid.
23