The most dangerous place on campus may not be the nuclear reactor, but the wood and sculpting shops in the art building.
They have band saws, sanders, open flames and tools capable of removing a finger, arm, or head — if someone gets careless.
And it’s Chris Reisz’s job to protect students from these lethal tools that can produce groundbreaking art or break bones.
“I’ve been lucky in the six years that I have been here,” said Reisz, the 3D lab manager. “I have only seen one major injury. Somebody cut the meaty tip of their finger off. I think one accident in six years is pretty good, though.”
Apparently a safe haven from the whirling madness, Reisz’s office is home to objects like a severed rubber chicken and a piece of rebar with a blade-like object attached to it.
An alumnus, Reisz said students who want to work in the shop have to take a safety class, which he said reduces injuries. He said he has rules that protect the students. For example, students can’t stand behind a piece of wood when pushing a strip of lumber through a table saw.
Instead, they have to stand to the side, and guide the wood through the machine so they can avoid a kickback from the piece they’re cutting. A kickback, to put it in perspective, can crush internal organs and break hips. Kicked-back wood pieces left at least four silver-dollar-sized dents in a solid steel door 10 feet from the table saw.
Between the metal shop and the wood shop, the woodworking shop is more dangerous, Reisz said, because the human mind is hard-pressed to recognize the hazards of a rotating saw.
“We are evolutionarily scared of fire,” Reisz said. “A whirling blade, though. I don’t think we have gotten quite used to those.”
Coincidentally, Reisz failed to mention that fire is one of the main tools in the metal workshop. More interestingly, Reisz said the biggest machines aren’t the most dangerous to use.
Even though it shakes the space, Reisz said the giant band saw in the middle of the woodworking shop is probably safer than a smaller band saw in the corner. “With the big one, you just want to get away from it as soon as you can,” he said.
But keeping everyone safe is getting trickier as the modern era becomes more digitalized.
Reisz said in previous years students came in knowing how to use simple tools like a hammer or a hand saw. Now some come in with no experience, and he said phones likely have something to do with that.
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“Texting on the phones probably does the opposite of preparing students to work with these sort of tools,” he said.
That, he said, doesn’t keep students from producing unique art work. Recently, he saw a student construct a six-nippled green monster that oozed slime. It was set up outside of the art building with a sign that begged for help. He said he also sees a lot of “obscene” sculptures, but that’s part of the process.
Given the chance, Reisz wouldn’t change the his occupation, even though others don’t understand why he chooses to battle danger on a daily basis.
“Some carpenters or students who have worked with tools think I am crazy,” Reisz said. “Sure you lose mobility, but this is a lot safer.”
