It’s the first week of May, and therefore it’s Woodworkers’ Safety Week. Many folks have some great posts regarding safety while working in the shop. I’ll take a slightly different approach and talk about safely getting into and out of the shop.

My shop is in the basement, so it involves going down stairs to get there (as well as the laundry area also in the basement). My house is old, and the stairs were no exception. After years of weakening from use, some damage at the foot caused by the occasional wetness that can occur after a good rain or snow melt (and who knows how much water before a sump pump was installed some time in history), being very steep, and no handrail, the stairs needed to go. (I think you’ll agree after looking at the pics below – I’ll let you guess which are “before” and “after”.)

So that’s my safety tidbit – have a safe way of actually entering, or exiting the shop!