How dangerous are lathes?

[Joe]

Also, the absence of accidents does not indicate the presence of safety.

Your instructor needs to have someone tatoo that to his forehead.

[Nova]

I had to get six stitches in my lower lip after a piece broke off at lathe, bounced off the ways and hit me under the face shield.

When I was in grade school a friend of mine was killed by a piece of stock that broke off a face plate and impaled him in the forehead.

[Robatoy]

Let's take a hunk of material, spin it at great speed, and poke a metal stabber at it. What could possibly go wrong?

I think Nova posted the answer.

I am willing to go out on a limb and venture a guess that stupid people are more likely to get hurt than those who use their brains. I could be wrong. Lathes are dangerous. Period. (Commercial ones are usually behind metal cages.)

r

[The Davenport's]

Basically, you are correct, fumes and "critters" are the bigger problem, compared to "simple" dust, however, as someone suffering from COPD/emphysema, I'll take every bit of protection from dust that I can. While the nose is pretty good at filtering out the crap, it's not perfect and if I'd been more careful in my younger days with using dust masks, I might not have the COPD now...or at least, might not have it as bad or as soon as I did.

Use a dust mask...it's not THAT hard to do, is it?

Mike

[J. Clarke]

FWIW, I managed to draw blood with a router today. Not the way you expect--I wasn't watching where my fingers were when I released the lock on the plunge base and it pinched me between the base and the stop. Then for good measure I banged my head on the lumber rack and got a cut there too. On the other hand getting a 280 pound bandsaw down a 7 foot vertical drop didn't do me any damage at all (I haven't opened the box yet so won't say for sure that the _saw_ survived).

[RonB]

I, like most of the other posters, find it amazing that an instructor would make such a stupid remark. He should be fired.

The dust mask is a good idea. Face protection is essential because lathes do have a habit of throwing things. A good hard catch could even throw the handle or blade end of a tool up toward your head. The flexible, full face shields are pretty good. I have only had one mishap when a pretty large piece of stock came out of my machine while turning between centers. It happened so quickly I never actually saw it happen. I felt a pretty good blow on the top of the shield at about forehead height. I looked down and the workstock was cradled between my arm and side. The chunk weighed well over a pound so the face shield did its work.

RonB

[Toller]

Well, he cautioned us against hair and loose clothing, but not a word about safety glasses or dust masks.

The other woodworking class I took wouldn't let you use machinery without safety glasses with side shields, though they were very casual about dust also.

[RonB]

" In HS metal shop I was standing right next to a

Reminds me of a vo-tech metal shop incident. We were turning 12" long aluminum bar to various diamenters and then threading each diameter. I heard "whack - crash" followed by "OH SHIT!" from behind me. An instant later my position and others were showered with crumbled concrete. The bar in the lathe behind me left the machine, went straight up and struck a concrete beam in the ceiling of the old shop building. The bar pulverized a chunk of concrete about 2" deep and a foot in diameter; then left the building though a closed window. Ran the tool in a little to fast.

RonB

[Doug Miller]

Well, dust isn't much of an issue at the lathe except while sanding (when it's a *major* issue)... but eye protection is mandatory. Safety glasses are a bare minimum; turners with good sense use full face shields.

[lwasserm]

How long has this guy been an instructor? He's never seen a tool catch or a turning come out of a chuck or break? Perhaps true that lathes are less dangerous than many other power tools, but people DO get hurt. and DAMHIKT.

[Lobby Dosser]

Had the same thing with a bowl. Left a dent in the face shield and dazed me enough that I spent the rest of the day turning channels.

[nailshooter41]

It's always a problem for me. I seem to turn the woods that have thick bark raided from different places as well different glued exotics I cobble together.

The bark of mesquite comes off in clouds when you hit a punky area. Molds? Spores? Fungus? I am sure they are all present along with the requisite amount of fine dirt that a mesquite will collect in that rough bark in the windy, dusty areas it grows best.

I personally am scared of the exotics and take great care aound them. I have had some bad skin rashes caused by exotics, so I can only imagine what that might do to my throat, lungs and sinus cavities.

And come on Doug.... you mean you don't get those fine wisps that hang in the air from a properly sharpened scraper or a bowl gouge turned with the flutes parallel to the cut surface?

Just kiddin'.

Actually.... I only did the bowl gouge thing once while I was being supervised by a guest turner that uses his bowl gouge for everything. I can do it with a scraper with a fresh edge anytime. Those wisps are close enough to dust for me. I have tried the "Dust BeeGone" mask and liked it, but I really like the good seal of those masks and a change to a fresh, clean mask (not full of sweat and grime) after turning for a couple of hours. Also, I didn't like washing it out after I used it.

I use the booger/mucous test on those dental masks, and they do quite well. The test of course is in the hot shower after the debris is cleaned up. Without going into details, they passed with flying colors.

Robert

[George]

Possible that the new guy doesn't know enough to recognize what's being practiced.

You, for instance know nothing about it, but are willing to condemn rather than entertain for a moment the chance that your opinion might be in error.

Oh well, it's merely speculation anyway, but there are no old, bold pilots, as they say.

[George]

Of course, that starts with "don't be casual about the mount," which many are, in my opinion. Spur centers in face grain, what do they expect? Some won't even taper back the ends of the log section before they mount it, assuring the lathe will be doing the dance of death if they have the speed too high.

It was a "D" for the day if I caught a kid starting the lathe while in the throw zone. An "E" if I caught them starting it with someone else in the throw zone.

[Doug Miller]

The OP in this case may be new to turning, but he's definitely not new to woodworking.

While I wasn't there, and don't have first-hand knowledge, it's certainly not true that I "know nothing about it" -- I read the OP's post, and know what he reported. If his report is accurate, and we have no reason to suppose otherwise, then the instructor is an ass, and a dangerous one at that.

You, OTOH, know no more about it than I do (and quite possibly less, since your comments leave considerable doubt as to whether you actually read the original post), yet you are willing to condemn the OP's statements, and assume that he is unable to recognize safe practices when he sees them -- rather than entertain for a moment the chance that your opinion might be in error.

[George]

Thank you. If all you fault him on is his briefing, he can't have been too bad.

Some things are so obvious they go without saying. Eye protection being one of them. Lathe is far less likely to cause problems in that regard than things that whirl the tool not the workpiece. The real idiot is not the one who failed to mention, but the one who fails to use. Same with dust. If it irritates you, protect yourself. If you think it might irritate you someday, protect yourself. Sort of like wiping, as the DI used to say. He shouldn't have to tell you that. Perhaps a "D" for personal safety for not wearing wasn't too harsh after all. Betting there were posted warnings on the wall.

The lathe is certainly far down the list of life/limb risking machines. I've not seen a lathe accident which required my services in twenty-five years, though the saws and shapers have made some horrible messes. To me the hot dog hot stop makes perfect sense.

Watch your instructor and see if maybe he's teaching you to stand out of the way without mentioning it, cut the wood versus stab it, and not use excessive speed at any time. He may be better than you think. Perhaps what he meant to say is "no reason for a thinking man to get hurt at the lathe"?

[nailshooter41]

SNIP

at the lathe"?

Aww... here we go. It took a while for it to get here, but finally the inner SawStop has come out from someone.

If you are intelligent enough to think about what you are doing, you won't get hurt. So what does that mean in your world? The flip side of your hypothesis is the people that should expect to get hurt are the ones that won't think, can't think, aren't able to think, or don't know how to think? Only non-thinkers get hurt at the lathe?

So accidents don't happen, much less bad accidents don't happen to those that think. All you have to do is "thinking man" and you have "no reason" to worry about being hurt while using the lathe.

Yeah, right.

Main Entry: ac=B7ci=B7dent Pronunciation: 'ak-s&-d&nt, -"dent; 'aks-d&nt Function: noun

1 a : an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance b : lack of intention or necessity : CHANCE

So... can you think your way throught the unforseen? Obviously you don't believe accidents exist, perhaps only in a word.

What a load.

Robert

[Robatoy]

the lathe"?

[schnipfered to brevitize]

Mmmmmm....here's my take on that. Somebody who doesn't use his head and makes a stupid move is more likely to get hurt than somebody who does use his head and makes smarter/safer/more thought-out moves. One is more vulnerable than the other. One is more likely to get hurt. Neither will have immunity from a random series of events which lead to an unforseen event resulting in an accident. But if I had to place a bet? My money would be on the brighter of the two. Smart people can make mistakes too......or so I'm told.

r

[nailshooter41]

I couldn't agree more with your thoughts. I think it is a sure bet that careless distraction is certainly a recipe for accidents. And I think it stands to reason that a prepared person that is focused on the task at hand, employing available safety protection is less likely to SUFFER from the results of an accident. However, no amount of thinking or planning will prevent or preclude all accidents. By definition that is why the term exists.

In my experience, it is not carelessness or distraction that causes accidents. I have found that most DIY and "semi pro" (whatever in the hell that is) suffer at the hands of their own arrogance and over confidence. And I couldn't have found a better example if I had interviewed a hundred people: "no reason for a thinking man to get hurt at the lathe".

My point was simply that sometimes you do all you can to be a safe as possible, and there are still events that transpire that you cannot anticipate. Safety gear and focus are the best ways to keep from having accidents, and to mitigate the results when you have them.

I have never met anyone (maybe I need to get out more) than can outsmart an (not even a smart "thinking man") accident by simply thinking about things.

Robert

[Robatoy]

[e-mail] wrote: [snip]

Yabbut, yabbut...(at the risk of belabouring the point).. doesn't a thinking man have an advantage when assessing risk? Even though I have done a certain routine a bunch of times, I tend to stop and think and ask myself the following question: "IF this is going to fark me over, how would it happen?" That is as natural as ascertaining that I have enough cord to get to the end of a cut I'm making. I don't start cutting and then, when 60% through the cut, I run out of cord...now I have to look at my problem, or try to pull on the cord...or stop and start things... (I got really close to getting hurt that way.)... basically losing focus of my activity. It is at times like that, when shiat tends to happen.

But I think we agree. Working with power tools is no time to be stupid.

Lathes interest me.

r