Comment by quickthrowman
Comment by quickthrowman 10 hours ago
> I was using an angle grinder to strip paint off of a large table top and necessarily had to remove the guard.
You did not have to remove that guard, you chose the wrong tool for the job. Chemical stripper and sanding tools exist, use the right tool for the job or next time you might lose that finger.
This is also part of the concept of normalization of deviance, though. Selecting tools because of proximity or accessibility rather than suitability.
One time you "need" (feeling pressure from somewhere) to get something done and you reach for the tool at hand, it's not the right tool but it's workable. Then later you experience the same thing and think, "Oh yeah, that worked last time I can just do it again." Repeat a few more times and it becomes the tool you reach for instead of your backup when you have nothing else but "need" to get the work done now. Its unsuitability becomes apparent when you injure yourself or cause damage to the items you're working on because it was never the right tool, you were just careful in how you used it the first few times and got too comfortable with it as time went on.