Turning Safely

[Ed Reiss]

Hi All...
Here is an e-mail I received from one of my buds at our turning club today.

I am attaching a photograph of my latest masterpiece which came in the way of a lathe accident. I send this not to brag that I have more stitches than you but to warn you about the age old warning"Never wear long sleeves when woodturning"
and a few oif the other stupid thing I did which added up to a trip to the ER.

I had just finished sanding at (mistake #2)1250 RPMs when I hit the off button and immediately reached across the top of the lathe to turn off my dust collector. The jaws to the strong hold chuck were extending beyond the body and grabbed a hold of my shirt sleeve, wrapping it around the chuck along with pulling my arm into the spinning jaws which cut out a 1/4 inch pathe 2 1/2 inches long in my arm right down to the muscle. I had to wrestle the lathe with my right arm until is stopped completely in order to remove my arm.

Needless to say, it was not pretty but I do feel very fortunate to have missed my arterial artery which they tell me would have bleed out uncontrollably with a 1/4 inch wide slice like that in my arm.

I hope to have learned a few lessons from this such as don't rush to meet deadlines(I now know why they call them dead lines), don't reach across the top of the lathe, don't wear long sleeves when turning, and don't sand of turn a vase at 1250 RPMs no matter how much of a hurry I am in.

The vase was saved but I doubt it will pay my bill for the emergency room.

I cannot wait to get back to turning, more safely of course.

Robert

[RETIRED]

Gee, I break all the rules then except the most important one.
NEVER, EVER, NOT NO HOW reach to the back of the lathe whilst it is running.

To clarify: I wear long sleeves and gloves otherwise I would have no skin left after 10 minutes. We regularly turn at twice that speed. In fact most people turn too slowly.

[bigfish]

The vase was saved but I doubt it will pay my bill for the emergency room.

Robert

Ed, maybe you need to move to Australia - we don't pay for treatment in an ER (of course you may have to wait 4 hrs to get treatment) - ah, the joys of Universal Health Care!

Many years ago, my BIL put an electric plane down on the bench without waiting for it to stop. Needless to say, it went walkabout - right off the edge of the bench. Displaying extraordinary reflexes and athletic ability he caught it it mid air... ouch!

Nevertheless, glad to hear your injury was relatively "minor" compared to what might have happened.

You can never be too careful when sharp edges and high speed rotation is involved.

Cheers,

Alan

PS. If you clip the ends of the sutures really short, they shouldn't get caught in the chuck jaws

[switt775]

Gee, I break all the rules then except the most important one.
NEVER, EVER, NOT NO HOW reach to the back of the lathe whilst it is running.

To clarify: I wear long sleeves and gloves otherwise I would have no skin left after 10 minutes. We regularly turn at twice that speed. In fact most people turn too slowly.

Well said. Some timbers are very irritating, and even in the hottest weather I wear welding gloves when roughing out, so I don't get an arm full of splinters.

As you said, the real safety issue is reaching over top of any machinery which is running and not fully guarded.

[Rum Pig]

OUCH I hope Robert's recovery is quick.
After reading that I'm glad I live in the tropics were it is to hot to wear long sleeves.
But I dose point out the fact that some times we can get to comfortable with our surroundings and forget the dangers that are present. This one reason I have always liked teaching apprentice's because I get a refresher course at the same time.

[robutacion]

Bloody hell, mate
That is a nasty "gash"

No doubt we all get too confident sometimes, no exceptions here!
I can understand why some fellows, don't like to admit publicly that they stuffed-up or even, had a accident of some sort, when turning but, if anything else, pics like this do make people stop and think, this could be me, or how long before I run out of luck with some of the "bad" habits?

I get no reward to know that you got hurt, but I'm glad that you told/show us, about it!

Wishes of quick recovery!

Cheers
RBTCO

[hughie]

Ouch! but the up side is your still with us and will be back at turning soon.