Welcome to the Safety section of the webpage. Although most of the information seems very easy and obvious, it is still very important to remember that a simgle mistake can mean one less finger.
First off, always wear safety goggles when near someone working. Your eyes are the most important thing to protect during construction, since they are extremely important and very vurnerable.
Now, onto the more specific stuff:
Sawing
When you are going to saw something, it is extremely important to clamp the object down first. Make sure that you have used at least two clamps, and that the object can not move around at all.
Also, remember that there are many things that can go wrong with cutting metal, but they usually all spring from the same place: The hacksaw blade. If it is too lose on the hacksaw, then you won't be able to control the cutting well at all, making the result a piece of ..., and the hacksaw itself might get bent, ruining it for all future uses.
Here's a pathetic little game I made. You will need flash in order to run it, as usual. Just move the almuminum sheet and the clamps (they are magical, oval ones.) around in order to safely saw it in half.
Oooh. Ahhh. Now onto drilling!
Drilling
Drilling is far more dangerous than sawing. For one thing, a bad mount can mean things far more damaging than a poorly cut piece of metal. Instead it might make a well cut piece of arm...
The problem is that, if you are drilling the metal with a poor clamp, then the metal might start rotating with the drill. When that happens, people start losing arms. Any mildly sharp object rotating at 10 rps will deal serious damage to anything in its path.
However, there is really no danger as long as you are responsible, mature, and careful that you don't mess up the clamp.
Here is another pathetic game I created. Same rules as the one above, except this time you get to play with goggles as well.
There are some other rules just to be wary of:
Never run in a working area. It just is dangerous.
Unplug any tools after using them.
Always announce that you are about to turn on the robot if you are going to turn on the robot. Most robots have moving parts that can be a little sharp.
File off any sharp edges on the robot.
Don't run with nails.
Don't run with scissors.
Wash your hands before eating. I'm not kidding about this one.
There. Now you should be able to survive a season of FIRST robotics while keeping all body parts in tact. Good luck!
