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I grew up in my dad's cabinet shop around all the tools like a 36" surfacer, 18" jointer, table saws, ect. The only times I can recall getting hurt were my own fault and the only one that was really bad was when I unplugged his radio and ran the back of my hand against a table saw blade laying on the bench, long cut but nothing serious. He always explained to my brother and I how easily we could get seriously hurt yet neither of us was. I'm still in the same building with my business and there are about 20 kids in the neighborhood running around all the time. They range in age from 3 to 12 and are generally good kids. I do a lot of welding and have large pieces of equipment on site most of the time. I got them all together the one day and explained to them how dangerous it was for them to be around this stuff and that they should not go near anything unless I am with them. To drive the point home, I had a set of tandems here that were going on a trailer. Innocent looking thing that did not scare them. I placed a rather large pumpkin under the wheel and rolled the dolly over it squishing it flat. I told them, "this is what could happen to you if you screw around here, that could be your head, arm or leg." That was enough to maked them understand I was not BSing them. I also explained to them that if they looked at the welding arc, they will go blind. So far, no problems with any of them. They go around and if I'm welding outside, they go around the oposite end of the building just like I told them to. I think you should take measures to keep kids out of the shop or work area when there is no adult supervision but why not take the time to show and tell them why they cannot play there. Show them the dangers, it's not a costly or time consuming thing. Put a nail in the ground clamp of the welder and one in the stinger then stick one in one side of a hot dog and one in the other side and flip the power on at it's highest amperage setting. In 1 to 3 seconds the hot dog will smoke or explode and it get the point of electricution across very clear to them. Visual effects kids will understand and remember better and longer than words. In ten minutes you can get a hard lasting point across to them very clearly. Kids will understand the dangers, all you need to do is take the time to show them in a manner they understand. Keep in mind that the attention span for kids is 5 to 10 minutes so be brief but clear.
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