Phill is absolutely correct. If you surf the HSE
website you'll even
find a set of pages making fun of the more silly claims that are made in
Indeed. I am sure many of the more silly ones come from the 'compensation
culture' and a desire to avoid being sued.
I'm curious about Tony's alleged requirements
for all sorts of safety
equipment; what they were and where they came from, because I know HSE
don't generally make much fuss about small self-employed operations.
I cna't rememebr the exact source, but it was 'official', possibly
somebody at the DTI. I was told that if I used my hobby workshop for
business (meaning I was doing work for money), even if I was the only
person there and the only person in said businsess, then I would have to
have various guards on my machine tools, I would have to have fume
extraction on the soldering iron, and so on.
From what I've heard, one-man clock repairers (who
not suprisingly use
lathes) have been hassled by safety officiers about such
things.
And here we come to the problem. Even if I am in the right and I don't
legally require, say, a fume extrraction set-up, I have neither the time
nor the money to do battle in court. I'd much rather be fixing old
computers, etc, than battling with officials. Period.
And then there's the question of 'is it worth it'. I am not pestered by
people who want me to fix their machines or make parts for them. Yes, I
am asked -- a lot -- for advice, but that's a diffrent matter, and
doesn't have any legal implications.
Think of a repair you might want me to do for you. Now think how much
you'd want to pay for it. And then how many such repairs I might get in a
year. The conculsion I quickly came to was that it simply wasn't worth
it.
Yes, it's worth me stickign a bit of 7/8" brass rod in the 3-jaw amd
making a hub for an HP9810 card reader for a fellow HPCC member. But
given that if I did it commercially, I'd have many more expenses
(insurance, possible safety upgrades ot th workshop, etc), and that I'd
be lucky to sell 10 a year at, perhaps \pounds 5.00 each, I don't see it
being worthwhile.
-tony