If you can choose, select the higher-alkyl (propyl, butyl…) cyanoacrylate over methyl- or ethyl- one. The resulting polymer is more flexible, and these are actually used in e.g. eye surgery as a tissue glue.
Thought… is there some such tissue glue available for not-insane price in e.g. veterinary supplies? These are often virtually as good and have less markup over human-grade ones…
I love wearing ear muffs, a respirator, coveralls, and goggles. Sort of a sensory deprivation experience where everything slows down into a peaceful calming calm…pretty useful outfit for dealing the kids working in the shop.
This is really timely and extremely valuable info for me, as I’ve just started dabbling in making jewellery, mostly self-teaching via tutorials on the internet. A lot of them are very good about mentioning the safety aspects but of course there are always a few that don’t and some that assume you will get that information elsewhere.
Since I’m learning to work with a lot of sharp, pointy things, and also a few potentially dangerous or toxic chemicals like glues, resins and solvents, it’s much better to research properly and plan for safety ahead of time than to expose myself to unnecessary risk. Thank you so much for this!
Depending on what jewellery it is, and how often you do it, there may even be nothing much to worry.
Sharp things are sharp things in any context, keep them sharp enough so they cut smoothly, and cut in direction away from fingers. Minor cuts and lacerations are the price of doing things. Rotating tools of Dremel kind don’t have That Much energy but some rudimentary goggles are good even for comfort; sometimes the grinding is in angles that send dust straight against your eyes when you want to see what you are doing, and it is always good to be prepared against a workpiece being seized and sent your way, or the wheel shattering. Again, with the energies involved it would require a direct eye hit to be of significant danger, but better be safe and it lets you worry only about the workpiece. A hit with a small jewel-grade thing with dremel-grade energy in other-than-eye place is merely unpleasant.
The glues and solvents aren’t of the horribly dangerous kind, too. Benzene is not on the list (and rightfully so), other ones are way less of a concern. If the workplace is a sufficiently large room, the concentration from smaller amount will go quite down even without open window. Avoid soaking too much to a rag or paper towel, and cover the jars with lids, and you’ll be on the safe side. Beware of combination of solvent-soaked materials and a lit-up torch.
A special thing to worry about is hot-melt glue. That thing can stay melted (and hot and sticky not unlike napalm) for tens of seconds and you can touch it way easily. The burns are small but unpleasant. Don’t ask how I know. (Especially bad when you use a torch for melting a glue stick, instead of the “normal” glue gun. Torch will give you much higher temperature, lower viscosity and better adhesion, for the price of greater risk. But it is worth it. And you can even glue sheetmetal lids on metal tubes that way; put the glue on the edge, place the lid on, heat both parts until glue melts and properly wets both, press down on the lid with e.g. a screwdriver butt, and hold until glue sets. Then cut away excess glue. And be aware of molten glue dripping from the stick, especially when you wear no pants in the shop. Don’t ask why I am stressing this.)
If you work with molten glass, more gotchas and caveats are on the list; ask if you need.
Generally, at tabletop scale the perceived risks are way overblown.
Consider adding these to the first aid kit or medicine chest near it:
Big squeeze bottle of povidone iodine (irrigate/debride wound, though copious clean tap water usually suffices);
QuikClot sponge (if you’ve got a real bleeder); possibly to be used with
Israeli bandage (explained here: http://kk.org/cooltools/archives/4877).
Pressure is your friend.
If you can’t get an Israeli bandage, you can improvise with a clean diaper or towel and a regular Ace bandage… and someone to help you put those on.
I bit off topic from workshop safety, but the NAP just released this:
Safe Science: Promoting a Culture of Safety in Academic Chemical Research | The National Academies Press
It is more of a pie-in-the-sky administrative safety guide – for something that is based on engineering controls/etc there is Prudent Practices in the Laboratory: Handling and Management of Chemical Hazards, Updated Version | The National Academies Press
As with most NAP books, the PDF version is free.
My biggest personal safety touchstone is to always listen to the little voice in the back of my head saying “This is a bad idea” - I don’t think I’ve ever had anything go wrong in the workshop where I didn’t at least have an inkling I was doing something stupid.
Next version to be challenge version; ‘…while barely noticing you’re acquiring immunity to ebola.’ Hard to call whether it’s fraught with too many or too few natural fibers.
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