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by prova_modena 1254 days ago
It really depends on what area of industry you are in and the safety culture of the shops you are around. I hear a lot of stories of really bad safety practices in metalworking. Including the exact inverse of your statement about machinists/woodworkers and missing fingers. I would also argue that accidents with common machine shop tools like lathes and mills may have higher consequences than your average table saw or jointer in a cabinet shop. The "potential energy" is higher so to speak, although I'm not trying to downplay the forces involved in something like a table saw kicking a workpiece back. For example, there's a prominent post on r/machinists now where a poster witnessed their coworker getting sucked into a lathe (fatally). This is not something that is a risk at most cabinet shops, but is a risk at most machine shops. That accident was indirectly caused by disabled safety interlocks on the lathe, an unfortunately common practice in the industry. All anecdotal evidence, of course, but I think machine shops have a different risk profile that isn't necessarily less risky overall.