I think that one of the biggest enemies of shop safety is inconvenience. For example, everybody knows that machinery should be unplugged before doing any work “under the hood,” but when a plug’s at the other end of the shop, you may opt to risk it every now and then in order to save time. If this sounds familiar, you need this tip.
To eliminate the temptation—and potential injury—of working while a tool is plugged in, I’ve wired my workshop so that the electrical receptacles are within an arm’s reach of my major power tools and trimmed my machinery’s power cords accordingly. With this setup, unplugging my table saw and keeping the exposed plug in sight during any set-up operations is as convenient as reaching for a blade-changing wrench.
