Lathe Safety Thread on PM

[JHowell]

Mostly horror stories, actually, but it reinforces the admonition not to stick your finger inside a bowl while it's turning, and not to wrap anything around your finger (like sandpaper), not to wear loose clothes, jewelry, etc.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/ubb/u ... /34/8.html

[RadDavis]

Mostly horror stories, actually, but it reinforces the admonition not to stick your finger inside a bowl while it's turning, and not to wrap anything around your finger (like sandpaper), not to wear loose clothes, jewelry, etc.

And don't leave drill bits in the tail stock.

Rad

[JHowell]

Nah, nobody *else* would pull a stunt like that.

[Nick]

Oh man! That story about the guy losing a finger and the tendon stretching...uughh! Just gave me shivers. OUCH! Consider me more careful!

[KurtHuhn]

I lot of the stories seem to revolve around the work grabbing loose clothing, gloves, or emery cloth wrapped around fingers.

I guess I must have had all of that properly drilled into my head years ago when I took shop classes in high school, and during my short stint in a toolmaker's shop. I can't recall any time recently when I violated those rules.

But, I have had my share of injuries caused by being inattentive. Like that time I grabbed the work to stop it, but the lathe was still on. Nothing serious, but my hand had a nice case of friction burn for a couple days.

Or the time I forgot to tighten the chuck on a block of wood, and it sailed past my head and into the wall behind me. That was an eye opener....

These days I do wear a tight fitting Mechanix glove on my left hand when turning bowls or platters. I think if you're careful, it's a lot safer than having splinters of wood flying at bare flesh - or hot, wet chips when turning green wood.

[Frank]

One of the most important rules when working with a lathe (easily overlooked) is to never let the chuck key leave your hand until you put it down after tightening/loosening the chuck. A flying chuck key is hard to dodge.