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I know we've discussed Weightlifter Bob before. Well today he was my ally. (He may be slightly chauvinistic and somewhat homophobic, but he isn't a chauvinist pig)
I have this big rush project that needs to be done by Friday. A bunch of different tests need to be performed and certain parts need to be cooked at 1600F overnight. This is the slow step on which everything else has to work around. I got all of the preparatory tests done today, and I had to have the five parts cut into four smaller pieces. Only one of the four pieces needs to be cooked.
Now the quick and dirty way to break one of these parts is to take a pair of pliers or a hammer to them. However then they aren't divided terribly evenly. They don't have to be in exact quarters but a reasonable approximation would be nice.
So anyway we have various rotary power saws in the lab. Florian told me to ask Weightlifter Bob to help me out, since Ron was "busy" doing other stuff. Florian also knows that Bob is more likely to be willing to help me than Ron since Ron doesn't like to do any more work than he has to.
So Bob decided which saw would be the best to use. There is one which you can clamp the part into but it was much more of a pain to operate, so the biggest safety risk was the fact you had to use your hands to hold the parts. But if you were careful you were fine. I have a fairly steady hand after sewing and needlepointing for so many years. Also these parts spit carbon dust everywhere as they are being cut. He cut the first one and we discovered this. So before I did the rest he told me to go get a dust mask from the tool crib, which I did. We were both wearing safety goggles. He watched me do the first couple cuts, decided I wasn't in major danger of bodily harm and left me to do the rest on my own. His office is only a few yards away from the saw so if I needed help all had to do was holler.
Anyway I got the parts cut and went on my merry way, doing what I needed to do to get as much of the project as I can done today. My goal is to get them into the overnight cookoff before I leave. I'm doing a preliminary cookoff at a lower temperature as I type.
A bit later I see Weightlifter Bob, in Florian's office. I didn't think anything of it since he and Florian chat fairly frequently. Anyway Bob stopped by my office on the way back to his, and told me that Florian had bawled him out for letting me use power machinery, basically because I'm a girl. He rolled his eyes because he was the one that knew I was proficent enough that I wasn't going to kill myself. I suddenly realized how grateful I was to Weightlifter Bob that he did think I could do something like that myself, as long as I was shown how to do it once!
Florian is just a mother hen and not truly chauvinist either. And he meant well in trying to protect me. I know he respects my brain, but I can't help wonder what else he is trying to "protect" me from as if I was one of his daughters (who are about the same age or slightly older than me.)
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I thought the whole point of power tools is that you don't have to be incredibly strong (or free of the distractions of being attracted to your co workers) to operate them.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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It depends on the tool, some of them require more strength that you might think. Although those tools are typically doing things that would be near impossible to do without them. At any rate this is obvoiusly a side issue as in AJ's post she states that you "had to use your hands to hold the parts" so the tool was used on handed.
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It was a rotary saw/grinding wheel combo. The settings were either On or Off. So,both my hands were free to hold the part. If there had been a way to use a block or a chuck to hold and guide the part I would have. It would have been safer that way, but the whole problem was the awkward size of the part to begin with.
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AJ, when I first started at NHS, a guy was assigned to stay after work with me until I left the building, if I wanted to work late. He had a family and would miss supper if he did that. But because I was a girl and the building was so isolated it wasn't safe for me to be there by myself. I finally got them to get over that business.
I've been told things that are perfectly safe for guys are unsafe for girls so many times I can't count them. I have always paid no attention. I've never seen such vast differential safety factor between the genders to be borne out in reality yet.
Later on in that same job I was told I couldn't go on a start-up by myself because paper mills are such rough places that it wouldn't be safe for a girl. I went anyway, and never had any problem. The one time on a startup a guy ever acted inappropriately, I set him straight. I was not afraid at all. Had this guy not gotten the message right away, I could have screamed or asked for help, and 100 millwrights were immediately available to spring to my aid. Those guys were very chivalrous and they don't seem like the sort to be terribly fussy about the niceties when teaching someone rude how to treat a lady. I expect, had that been necessary, it would have been a lesson the dude would never forget.
Anyway, before it was over with, they had me doing most of the start-ups. I was electrical and they said that electricity stuff was way too hard for Mechanical Engineers to figure out. Mechanical stuff was easy and they could teach me very quickly how to deal with that. (Nobody wants to have to travel and do start-ups, so that made a good reason for them to stay home.)
Only a few months ago, two of the shop guys at my next job were boggling that a girl could read a tape measure. I just laughed. I really thought we were further along than that.
[ February 11, 2004, 04:55 AM: Message edited by: ak ]
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I've been told things that are perfectly safe for guys are unsafe for girls so many times I can't count them. I have always paid no attention. I've never seen such vast differential safety factor between the genders to be borne out in reality yet.
Later on in that same job I was told I couldn't go on a start-up by myself because paper mills are such rough places that it wouldn't be safe for a girl..... The one time on a startup a guy ever acted inappropriately, I set him straight. I was not afraid at all. Had this guy not gotten the message right away, I could have screamed or asked for help, and 100 millwrights were immediately available to spring to my aid.....
Um, you realize that part B kind of puts the lie to part A, right?
What if those 100 millwrights were not around, and the jerk was a REAL JERK?
Most situations are equally dangerous for both women and men. A major notable exception would be (unfortunately) that sometimes SOME men can make a perfectly fine situation more dangerous for a woman, as your story so eloquently described.
Posts: 524 | Registered: May 2003
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The guy backed down immediately when I frosted him. Had he not, and had no guys been around, I could have picked up a hammer or something and beaned him. Other guys are a big help mainly because they can intimidate some miscreants without hurting them. I don't like injuring people if I can avoid it.
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(Nobody wants to have to travel and do start-ups, so that made a good reason for them to stay home.)
