Marc: The Wood Whisperer is sponsored by
Powermatic.
The gold standard since 1921,
and by Clear Vue Cyclones.
Clear the air and breathe easy.
In spite of his rugged good looks,
vast knowledge of the human body,
inability to sign his name legibly,
tendency to use big words in casual conversation,
and insistence that his son refer to him as Dr. Dad,
The Wood Whisperer is in fact
not a medical professional.
This video is not intended as medical advice
and you should consult a real medical professional
for specifics on proper first aid.
(lively music)
A long overdue upgrade
to the Wood Whisperer shop
is the addition of a first aid kit.
The reason I didn't have one
is because we always had everything we needed
inside the house.
What I've got here is one of those first aid kits
that's kind of everything and the kitchen sink.
You got everything you could possibly need in here
but this tends to be a little bit overkill for the shop.
We have some very specific injuries
that can occur as woodworkers
and I think we could probably reduce this
to a much smaller package.
Not only did I do my own research
but I put a question out there to the community
and asked what would you put
in your woodworker's first aid kit?
Let's jump into it.
I actually have a little box here
that looks a lot like a toddler's lunchbox
but it's not, it's a first aid kit.
This was empty.
I bought this off of Amazon
and I decided that I would fill it
with the things that I think are important
and that's what's in here.
Let's take a look.
It's pretty jam-packed as you can see
but it's actually fairly basic.
I have quite a few extras of things in here.
What we'll do is look at the different injuries
that you might get
and I'll show you how this kit addresses them.
^First up is a personal favorite of mine, the cut.
^Of course, in a woodshop
^there are hundreds ways that you could get cut
^and not just with power tools.
^If you're a hand tool user
you pride yourself on getting
surgical sharp steel blades,
and if it can go through hardwood
imagine what it can do to your skin.
No one is exempt from this.
Let's take a look at how we might address a cut.
The vast majority of what I have in my first aid kit
is actually there to address cuts.
Of course cuts can be minor, major
or somewhere in the middle.
For small stuff, minor cuts
I've got a bunch of Band-Aids
and I have these very heavy duty ones
that will hold up well
so I can actually get back to work.
Of course different sizes for different size cuts
or different parts of your body
that you need to apply them to.
One important one that I think we should all have
are the finger tip and knuckle bandages.
These are meant to go around your finger or a knuckle
and allow you to continue to use your hand
without it falling off.
Not your hand falling off, the Band-Aid falling off.
Make sure you're well-stocked on those.
Now as things go up in severity here
you're gonna want to keep that wound closed
so I've got these Steri-Strips which are pretty large
so these is an ER trip
and this is just gonna hold the wound together
until I get to the ER.
You of course got those classic Butterfly Strips
that you can use.
Now I also have for larger cuts
that you might want to bandage,
we've got these gauze pads.
Two different sizes
and I've got Angry Birds tape
that can be used to secure it in place
and then a roll of gauze as well.
Now this is something
that's not actually in my first aid kit
because I use it in the shop so it's always here
and that's CA glue or super glue.
You can actually use this
to temporarily stitch a wound close.
I'm not going to give you advice on how to do that.
That's for you to look up
and consult a medical professional
but I've seen a lot of people refer to this
as a pretty reasonable option
to hold the wound close.
I've also got this QuikClot.
This is something that stops bleeding fairly quickly
and I guess in an emergency situation
that might come in handy
and I have antibiotic ointment.
Now here's the thing.
There's really nothing better
than good old soap and water
in terms of washing and cleaning a wound.
A good washed wound shouldn't really need
a whole lot of extra antibiotic
that can actually slow down the formation of a scab.
This is here if I have a situation
where I can't quite clean the wound adequately.
I might use this
but normally I just use soap and water.
I have a love hate relationship with wenge.
I love it but it seems to hate me.
Every time I use this wood
I end up with 20 or 30 splinters
in the palm of my hand,
^and that's not the only wood that's gonna do it.
^Any wood can give you a splinter
^and some of the worse splinters I've ever had
came from plywood interestingly enough.
That's something we definitely need to know
how to work out in the shop is removing a splinter.
Of course, for splinters
you can't go wrong with a good old set of tweezers
and these aren't just any tweezers.
These are Tweezerman Tweezers
that my buddy Dan got me
quite a while ago actually
and one of the best gifts I've ever received.
These things are incredibly strong,
very, very pointy.
You can really dig in.
You don't necessarily need a sharp blade
to get out a stubborn splinter.
You can actually get to it using this, right,
and it's pinpoint accurate.
Just using the very tip
unlike a very cheap set of tweezers,
the very tip is still gonna be able to
do what you need it to do.
It's worth spending a few extra bucks
to get a nice pair of tweezers like this.
Additionally, this is not something
that's in my first aid kit
but it is in the shop,
and that's a magnifying headset.
You would be surprised of how helpful this is
to go after a splinter in your hand.
This way you don't have to worry about holding
the magnifying lens.
You just kind of have it wrapped around your head
and you got use of both of your hands.
The final thing we have to be concerned with
^and it's one of the scariest, amputation.
^Unfortunately, the tools that we operate
^are capable of removing limbs.
^They're capable of removing digits
so that's something we need to be prepared for.
Now if you can believe it
one of the most recommended things
when I asked the community
what they would put in their first aid kit
was a tourniquet.
This is a one handed operation tourniquet
that you could just tighten up like this.
It's also rainbow colored
because if I ever cut anything off
that requires a tourniquet
I need as much cheering up as I could possibly get.
This guy comes on and off very easily.
If you do sever something
you want to be able to recover that if possible
because it might be able to be reattached.
I've got an instant cold compress.
This would go inside the Zip-Lock bag
and then the thing would go inside the bag with it
and that would go with you to the emergency room.
With any luck they could reattach it.
Now I've got one final suggestion for you
and this one has to do with your eyes.
^Should you get something in your eye
^it's probably not a bad idea
^to have a sterile saline solution
^that you can use to flush out any debris.
Now I've got actually an eye wash station on order
and it hasn't arrived yet so I can't show it to you,
but when it does I'm gonna mount it
over there on the wall
right next to the first aid kit,
and this way everything is located in one place.
One thing I want to point out
is I specifically showed you
what to include in your first aid kit
but I didn't show you how to use the stuff.
I don't really want to get involved in that.
From my research, the things that are in here
are safe if used properly.
Do your research
and find out what you need to do
for the various different types of injuries
we might confront in the wood shop.
Once you do that research
you'll be armed with the information you need
in conjunction with the stuff that's in here
to give you the best possible chances
of recovering completely
from whatever that particular injury is.
Of course, infection is always a big concern
so knowing how to use this stuff to prevent infection
and then if you do have the worst case scenario,
an amputation,
knowing what to do to treat that amputated part
and get it to the ER and get yourself to the ER
is critical to your chances
of getting that thing reattached, right?
Do your research.
Make sure you understand the different types of injuries
and the procedures for stacking the cards in your favor.
Good luck.
Hopefully none of these will ever be necessary
for me or for you guys,
but we have the stuff we need just in case.
It always pays to be prepared, all right?
Thanks for watching.
Happy woodworking safety day
and stay safe in your shops.
(lively music)