anecdata:

I graduated high school in 2015 and had woodshop, auto shop, and metal shop classes. Also welding, and, for what it is worth, cosmetology. This was at a public school in Houston. We had wood and metal shop in middle school, as well.

These classes are still offered at my school according to my relative who still works there.

Teachers are generally well paid, though.

Sometimes the requirements are and/or, and sometimes they let you slide if you're "working on the masters".

The biggest restriction is lack of decent pay relative to the quality of life and liabilities of the job.

Doing a trade apprenticeship is the common way to do it, but not an option for people looking to get in as a hobby. But even as a hobbyist, an "apprenticeship" is helpful if you can make friends who already have the experience you're after and are willing to hang out and build things with you.

You can learn a lot on your own, but you will miss some important safety and productivity tips that just aren't obvious except through experience.

And slightly off topic, but power tools are honestly not what frighten me - it's dust and chemical exposure that keeps me awake at night.

There's a lot of edge cases where you can get away with it but it's a bad habit to get into.

That said, the people who complain that literally every bit of content with a power tool doesn't start with the introductory lecture about safety need to go stick their hand in a wood chipper. That's like asking for every math class to start by reiterating basic arithmetic. It's an unnecessary drag on everyone for nothing. The people who need to be told to wear safety glasses aren't watching a youtube video on how to build a race car cage, they're not at that level, and the people who are watching it don't need to be told.

Not surprisingly the second workshop was not used at all, which is somewhat of an antithesis to being an open workshop in the first place ...

While getting mentored at jobs that takes OSHA violations seriously? Most youtube maker channels are full of comments complaining about how lacking the hosts are in their safety.

> I'm also curious how one builds up strong manufacturing skills safely?

A lot of technical colleges/polytechnics offer short courses for skills like welding or cabinetmaking, often during the evening.

If you make something fool-proof, the universe will invent a better fool.

Imagining every possible failure mode is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Some modes aren't obvious until you begin using the device. Some modes aren't obvious until they happen.

I do see what you mean, but you can still get hurt even if you do everything "right". Angle grinders, for example, can shatter even if you don't break any safety rules. Hopefully your safety equipment works, but really hard shards flying around at 10,000 rpm are unpredictable.

Although the only carpenter I’ve worked with that had a missing digit had ground his thumb off with a belt sander. He didn’t speak English, and mimed the accident to me with our belt sander. I felt a bit sick.

Which reminds me I used to play with my father’s power tools on my own when I was 8-10 years old. Good times.

When nothing had warnings unless it needed it you took the warnings seriously. When a screwdriver comes with a warning and internet commenters get whipped into a frenzy because some youtuber didn't preface an advanced topic with an introductory safety lecture you don't know what to take seriously and you are effectively on your own. It's the same old information overload problem we've seen in other areas.