Please note - this is not intended to be a comprehensive guide. You are responsible for your own safety.
Building pans can be a hazardous endeavor. Over the years, I've cut myself numerous times, hurt my back, smashed my fingers...I regularly visit a chiropractor. Are you SURE you want to do this?
There are some very simple things that I believe limit my likelihood of injury in both the short and long term.
THINGS THAT HELP
HEARING PROTECTION. Making pans is fundamentally noisy, whether you're sinking, shaping, grooving, tuning, polishing, etc etc. Wear hearing protection AT ALL TIMES. Don't think that a pair of earbuds that let you listen to music while you work is going to help. You need industrial quality headphones or in-ear protection AND YOU NEED TO USE IT. It's bizarre to me that I got taken to task by a guy who was convinced that wearing hearing protection while tuning pans was a bad idea and would result in inferior instruments....
GLOVES - often we're dealing with sharp edges from trimming barrels down, drilling holes, etc. You should get a good pair of safety gloves for this work,
RESPIRATOR - some of the jobs require the use of chemical cleaners, or create metal dust. Making the workstations will create cement dust. Buy a good quality respirator. A cloth face covering or an N-95 mask is not sufficient. You need a real industrial respirator. I prefer the ones that are rated for solvents since sometimes I use spray paint. If you can smell the stuff through the respirator, you're breathing it....
SHOES/BOOTS. You're going to drop steel, hammers, pliers and other tools n things. And they're going to land on your feet. Do not wear open sandals and the like. You need proper closed shoes. Safety Boots with steel toes would not be a bad idea.
EYE PROTECTION Wear safety glasses when appropriate. Metal in your eye is no fun. Ask me how I know....
THINGS THAT HURT
LOOSE CLOTHING/HAIR/JEWELRY. If you're working with an air hammer, angle grinder, jigsaw, drill or some other powertool, you really don't want it to grab your scarf/beard/necklace/hair and suck you into the tool, or have the tool catapult up to you. Loose clothing etc is is a bad idea in any metal shop and you should avoid it. This is Safety 101 in any Machine/Metal Shop.
CELL PHONE DISTRACTIONS. If you're constantly on your phone looking at Facebook, Tik Tok etc, you have a propensity to create a hazard. You may set a tool down in an active state, or forget to wait til it's stopped spinning, or who knows what. Stay focused on the job you're doing when you're working with tools.
FATIGUE. It's important to recognize when you're getting tired, and to STOP AND TAKE A BREAK. In addition to increasing the risk of injury to yourself, you're likely to do shoddy work if you're tired. Building good pans takes focus and concentration, and when you're tired these things are lacking.
ENVIRONMENT Make sure the place you're working in doesn't have any hazards. For example, repeatedly hammering on a drum will cause the floor to push up dust, and you'll be breathing it if there's no ventilation.