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Washington Administrative Code (Last Updated: November 23, 2016) |
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Title 296. Labor and Industries, Department of |
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Chapter 296-155. Safety standards for construction work. |
Section 296-155-350. General requirements.
Latest version.
- (1) Condition of tools. You must maintain all hand and power tools and similar equipment, whether furnished by the employer or the employee, in a safe condition.(2) Guarding.(a) When power operated tools are designed to accommodate guards, they must be equipped with such guards when in use.(b) Belts, gears, shafts, pulleys, sprockets, spindles, drums, fly wheels, chains, or other reciprocating, rotating or moving parts of equipment must be guarded if such parts are exposed to contact by employees or otherwise create a hazard. Guarding must meet the requirements as set forth in American National Standards Institute, B15.1-1953 (R1958), Safety Code for Mechanical Power-Transmission Apparatus.(3) Personal protective equipment. Employees using hand and power tools and exposed to the hazard of falling, flying, abrasive, and splashing objects, or exposed to harmful dusts, fumes, mists, vapors, or gases must use the particular personal protective equipment necessary to protect them from the hazard. All personal protective equipment must meet the requirements and be maintained according to Parts B and C of this chapter.(4) Switches.(a) Scope. This subsection does not apply to concrete vibrators, concrete breakers, powered tampers, jack hammers, rock drills, and similar hand operated power tools.(b) All hand-held powered platen sanders, grinders with wheels two-inch diameter or less, routers, planers, laminate trimmers, nibblers, shears, scroll saws, and jigsaws with blade shanks 1/4 of an inch wide or less may be equipped with only a positive "on-off" control.(c) All hand-held powered drills, tappers, fastener drivers, horizontal, vertical, and angle grinders with wheels greater than two inches in diameter, disc sanders, belt sanders, reciprocating saws, saber saws, and other similar operating powered tools must be equipped with a momentary contact "on-off" control and may have a lock-on control provided that turn-off can be accomplished by a single motion of the same finger or fingers that turn it on.(d) All other hand-held powered tools, such as circular saws, chain saws, and percussion tools, must be equipped with a constant pressure switch that will shut off the power when the pressure is released.(e) Disconnect switches. All fixed power driven tools must be provided with a disconnect switch that can either be locked or tagged in the off position.(f) Self-feed. Automatic feeding devices must be installed on machines whenever the nature of the work will permit. Feeder attachments must have the feed rolls or other moving parts covered or guarded so as to protect the operator from hazardous points.