July 14, 2022

Procedure: Shop Access Training School of Architecture School of Design

The College of Architecture, Arts, and Design as well as the School of Architecture, and the School of Design require university specific safety trainings to ensure the safety of all university personnel and students. Training requirements are lab specific.

Training Enrollment

  1. Go to: http://ehss.vt.edu/training
  2. Select Training
  3. Select View Training Profile
  4. Login with your VT PID and password credentials (your PID is not your numeric ID number but your ID

you use in your VT email address, excluding the “@vt.edu”.

  1. Your required training should be displayed
  2. Click the Register button and then take the selected course (s)
  3. Once completed, be sure to click the “Post Score” button at the bottom of each course completion page

so that it is recorded in the EHSS database.

Wood/Metal Shop – Burchard 101 (also see Burchard Woodshop Orientation inside the SMS) Access to the wood/metal shop is managed using a training data feed from the university Safety Management System (SMS) and the Hokie Passport. A score of 80% is required for all EHS classes. All students and university personnel are required to individually swipe their Hokie Passport before entering the lab. Required trainings include: HAZCOM Right-to-Know (RTK) Lockout-Tagout Awareness Machine Shop Safety Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Awareness Portable Fire Extinguishers Access is not approved unless all trainings are current. Upon expiration of any one or more trainings access is automatically terminated.

SMS roster management is a continuous process.; Each semester (fall/spring/summer), the school academic advising team will send a new enrollment list to the college facilities manager. The facilities manager and the college safety officer will add these listed individuals from the SMS system. Newly enrolled students will be notified of the training requirements in order to access the lab.; Each semester (fall/spring/summer) after the drop/add dates, the school academic advising team will send a list of students that have left the program to be removed from the SMS system.

Revision 1.0 7/14/22

; Each semester (fall/spring/summer), the school academic advising team will send a graduation and/or dropout list to the college facilities manager. The facilities manager and the college safety officer will remove these listed individuals from the SMS system.

Kiln Lab – Burchard 104 (also see Kiln Lab – Safety Guidelines in manual) The Kiln Lab is used to teach classes and fire ceramic materials for university related projects. Only Authorized Kiln Operators (AKO) are eligible to operate university kilns. Prior to any faculty member or research assistant receiving approval to become an AKO they must pass the following required training: HAZCOM Right-to-Know (RTK) Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Awareness Portable Fire Extinguishers Kiln faculty uses will also be required to read the Skutt “Be Safe” section of the Kiln Master Manual (pages 3-

  1. found at https://skutt.com/skutt-resources/manuals/kilnmaster-manuals/.

AKOs must be familiar with the Skutt Operating Manual. Kiln operating manuals must be in proximity of the university Skutt kilns. Only faculty and research assistants are permitted to be trained to operate the kilns.

LaserCAMM – Burchard 014 & 125A; LaserCAMM Access Visit the Input/Output services website and fill out the form to sign up for training.; Video training should be watched and studied before the in person test.; The in person test includes cutting sample material and a walkthrough of the fire safety procedures.

; Acceptable Material

  • ABS
  • Acrylic
  • Birch Plywood
  • Balsa Wood
  • Basswood
  • Cardboard
  • Chipboard
  • EPDM Foam
  • Fabric
  • Foamcore
  • HDPE
  • UHMW
  • LDPE
  • Matteboard
  • Mylar
  • Paneling
  • Paper
  • PaperPerf
  • Polypropylene**
  • Strathmore
  • Styrene
  • Solid Wood (birch, oak, poplar, pine,teak, maple, bass)

; Unacceptable Materials

  • Any metallic material
  • Glass
  • Masonite
  • MDF
  • Plywood with exterior glue
  • Polycarbonate (lexan,etc.)
  • PVC
  • Dense solid woods (Purpleheart, Ebony, Mahogany)
  • Spectar (Copolyester wood)

Burchard Woodshop Orientation Shop Access

; The Burchard woodshop is for architecture students to work on studio projects.; Environment, Health and Safety online classes need to be complete: Coronavirus awareness, HAZCOM RTK, Machine Shop Safety, PPE Awareness, Portable Fire Extinguishers, and Lockout/TagOut Awareness.; Watch shop safety video and complete online test; Use your Hokie Passport in card swipe at the shop door to enter the shop. Put on safety glasses and make sure you are wearing closed-toed shoes (no sandals.) Make sure there is no clothing loosely attached to you that can be wound up by spinning tooling - tie up long hair, roll up long sleeves, remove jewelry, scarves and neckties.

Acceptable Materials; Wood, wood panel products and some plastics; Two exceptions: No pressure treated or recycled wood!; Limit use of medium density fiberboard (MDF). MDF is very abrasive on shop tooling. The dust from cutting it is very fine as well as carcinogenic (MDF is as much formaldehyde glue as wood) and the dust is not captured by our dust collection system.; Only use clean, new, dry material. Remove any staples or metal of any kind in your material – check with shop staff to ensure your material is acceptable. Shop staff can provide sources for material.; No glass – there are glass shops in the area that can cut what you need

Process Solid wood vs. wood panels products; Wood panel products include plywood, MDF, particle board and OSB. This material is purchased in the thickness required. It should be flat when purchased.; Solid lumber needs to be milled. Lumber should have two flat coplanar faces and two edges milled to 90 degrees.; Tooling (blades, drill bits, end mills and even sandpaper) is sharp! o Keep fingers at least 3” away from all tooling. o Use and adjust the guard provided before starting any machine.

o Use push sticks, push blocks, wood pencil erasers, and double stick tape to keep your hands at least 3” from tooling; Inward or Winding Force o As tooling spins, it can wind up loose clothing, ties, hair, jewelry, hoodie strings, and shirt sleeves. o Check to ensure that you don’t have any loose items attached to you that if wound up would pull you into the blade. o The guard on the machine should help prevent the tooling from winding loose materials.; Outward Force – Kickback! o Stock is typically fed into the rotation of the tooling. If the tooling grabs the stock, it can propel it back into you at a very high velocity. o Always support the long edge of a board with a fence to make cuts at any saw with a circular blade. o Always control a board where it is trapped either by a fence or stop at any saw with a circular blade.

Chop Saw; The chop saw is used only to rough cut boards to length. Before boards are milled flat and straight, cut them oversize to length on chop saw. The chop saw is an inexpensive and inaccurate saw.; The guard does not need to be adjusted.; Before starting, inspect the board for crook, cup and bow. Orient board for best support – boards with crook should have the ends away from the fence, boards with cup should be oriented with the edges down, and boards with bow should have the ends up in a smiling configuration. Hold board with left hand, cut with right – never cross arms in blade path.; Fully support the long edge of the board to fence and hold over 3” away from the blade. Be aware of inward and outward forces. The blade can wind up loose clothing and hair and pull you into the blade. The rotational force is into the fence. Support the long edge of the board against the fence.; Do not make any adjustments to the saw. For precise work make final crosscuts at table saw.

Jointer; Boards must be at least 12” long and ½” thick.; The jointer is used to flatten the large face of boards up to 12” wide. The jointer has two guards: a red spring-loaded guard and a fence that also functions as a guard. Before starting the jointer, adjust the fence to only expose the amount of cutter head needed for the width of the board.; The cutter head is between the infeed table and outfeed table. The outfeed table, to the left of the cutter head, is preset to the height of the cutter head at top dead center. The infeed table, to the right of the cutter head, is set about 1/16” below, so each pass over the surface of the jointer removes about 1/16” of board thickness.; Keep hands at least 3” away from the cutter head. Use push blocks and push sticks as needed.; Be aware of the winding force with the spinning cutter head.; Be aware of the outward force of the spinning cutter head - always work from right to left against the rotation of the cutter head. Never pull a board backwards!; Inspect board for cup and bow. Position the board on the jointer table for best support – if the board is warped, the hollow should be in the middle of the board with the ends and edges in contact with the bed. The grain of the board should run parallel to the fence. Never joint end grain.; Stand in front of the jointer, out of the potential path of kickback, and pass the board over the infeed table, cutter head, and outfeed table.; Once the face is flat, joint one edge to be straight and 90 degree to the flat face.

Planer; Boards must be at least 12” long to go through the planer.; The planer is generally a safe machine. The cutter head is in the middle of the machine. There is no guard to adjust. The planer has infeed and outfeed rollers that pull boards through and a rotating cutter head shaves the top surface of the board. Do not put hands inside! Pinch points can occur on the planer bed.; The planer planes the board to the desired thickness. Reference flat face on table to plane opposite face flat and coplanar to the starting flat face from the jointer.; To operate, measure the board with the calipers, turn on the machine and set the planer bed to.05” below the height of the thickest part of the board. Pass board through the planer taking off no more than.05” at a time until desired thickness is achieved.

Table Saw; Kick back is the biggest safety danger with the table saw.; Boards must be at least 12” long to be cut to width on the table saw.; To continue the milling process cut the board to width on the table saw using the rip fence. A rip cut is parallel to the grain of the board. Boards should be cut to width before length.; Set the rip fence to the dimension required and lock in place. If the board is to be cut under 2” wide switch to a splitter aka riving knife or gopher tooth to allow for a push stick between the blade and fence.; Adjust blade height so the bottom of the blade tooth is even with the thickness of the board.; Stand to the left of the blade, facing towards the fence.; Support jointed (straight) edge of the board tight to the fence with the left hand, push the board through with the right hand, always between the fence and blade. If the board is less than 5 inches wide, use a push stick. Push the board past the blade and guard. The board should slide through the left hand positioned behind the blade. Never push the board into the blade with the left hand.; Boards can be accurately cut to length with the miter gauge and sliding table. Board edges should be fully supported by a fence. Stops can be set up to cut pieces into equal lengths. Always push the board between the stop and the blade. Short lengths can be held with push sticks or pencil erasers.; The miter gauge and sliding table can be adjusted to cut board ends at an angle. The blade can be tilted from 45 up to 90 degrees. Boards must be fully supported by the long edge against the rip fence, miter gauge, or sliding table - never make freehand cuts.

Band Saw; The small band saws have ¼” blades and can cut curves down to a radius of ⅝ of an inch. There is no danger with kickback at the band saw - the blade force is straight down, so band saws can be used to make freehand cuts.; Make sure the board is fully supported on the band saw table or fence and adjust guard within ¼” of the board surface.; Stop the saw before backing away from long curved cuts.; The large band saw is only used for straight cuts. It can re-saw boards into thinner boards. It is also useful for rough cutting boards to width.; Never use the band saw to cut cord, string or round stock.; The teeth are only on the front of the band saw blade, so it is always safer to pull boards through then push.; A clean shop is a safe shop.; Use the vacuum cleaners scattered around the shop to clean the machine and the floor around the machine after you are finished using it; We will stop 15 minutes before lunch and before the end of the day to clean the entire shop; Discuss your plans with wood shop staff before starting your project. Come prepared with plans

If you have not used a particular machine in our shop – staff will demonstrate the function of the machine, the guarding and safe operation of the machine, and ensure that you can competently and comfortably operate the machine.

Kiln Lab – Safety Guidelines

Safety Guidelines for Loading and Firing Kilns

  1. Use proper kiln equipment to fully load the kiln before firing.
  2. Greenware should be completely dry before firing.
  3. All glaze work should be clear of glaze on the bottom of the work before loading.
  4. The lids should be closed and the fans on before starting the kiln.
  5. Clear the area around the kilns of all combustible materials.
  6. Ensure the proper firing program.
  7. Remove and clean equipment once the firing process is complete.