Lathe accident, Tool organizer, bad idea.

[RonP]

Hi Guys, yes working on machinery can be fraught with injury situations. One idea I learnt from a friend is to make a foot operated switch that controls the lathe. I have found this to be very convenient and in no way inhibits what I am doing on the lathe. I mounted a micro switch on a wooden plate then with a piece of ply hinged so it makes contact with the switch. Only when I apply foot pressure to the ply does the lathe operate. It is simple and convenient.

 

[bootie]

The problem with a land line phone is that it has to be set loud for you to hear it over machine noise but then it can make you jump when it rings, perhaps at a critical moment.
Also, it can cause a sudden loss of concentration if it rings whilst you are, say, counting divisions on a dividing head or cutting a gear wheel.
Best if you can have it near the lathe or mill, but set on the quietest ring and don't intend to answer it.

 

[bootie]

I guess that many of us will help a small pedestal drill chuck to come to a stop by gently gripping it.
I heard of a young lad gripping a two inch (50mm) milling cutter in a large mill, to stop it.
I was told that in the 1970s - the days of males wearing very long hair - my friend saw a man scalped when it caught in a srill chuck.

 

[gus]

Hi Guys, yes working on machinery can be fraught with injury situations. One idea I learnt from a friend is to make a foot operated switch that controls the lathe. I have found this to be very convenient and in no way inhibits what I am doing on the lathe. I mounted a micro switch on a wooden plate then with a piece of ply hinged so it makes contact with the switch. Only when I apply foot pressure to the ply does the lathe operate. It is simple and convenient.

Hi Ron
I am with you on emergency stopping a lathe. Thinking of a waist height horizontal bar to activate a micro switch to stop lathe.In the event of hands getting caught by chuck or job piece,we have spare hands. A body bump on to this bar will stop lathe.

Loose Tee Shirt of clothing.
My engineering trainee days at Metal Box(Continental Can)
I was helping a female production operator to pick up a scrap can behind the can body making machine and my tee shirt got caught and was stripped topless. Had the tee shirt not given way,the chain cog wheel would have cut open my abdomen.

 

[Tciplumber]

I try to work as safely as possible. After reading some of these posts, I realized that placing tools etc behind a lathe was a really risky move! Although I had never put any storage behind the lathe, the thought did cross my mind. Now it is a "banned" area. To keep myself safe, I modified this little push cart to hold all my commonly used lathe tooling. Wood pieces help keep the centers from damage and rolling off the cart. The top shelf I covered with short nap carpet so that tooling and measuring tools are protected. The bottom shelves I lined with underlayment plywood. The cart makes it easy to roll the tools out of the way for clean up or re-positioning. The only other improvement to make yet is putting the chuck key on a counterweighted "dog leash". I love that idea!

 

[robcas631]

Ouch!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[robcas631]

We should all realize that we are creatures of habit, and form safe habits from the get go. And, stick with them no matter what. Carelessness creates catastrophe.

 

[Hopefuldave]

Hi Guys, yes working on machinery can be fraught with injury situations. One idea I learnt from a friend is to make a foot operated switch that controls the lathe. I have found this to be very convenient and in no way inhibits what I am doing on the lathe. I mounted a micro switch on a wooden plate then with a piece of ply hinged so it makes contact with the switch. Only when I apply foot pressure to the ply does the lathe operate. It is simple and convenient.

Ron, I'd be much happier if your stomp switch *stopped* the lathe - this is pretty much standard practice in industry and education.
Imagine the chuck's pulling you in, your foot's on the go-pedal. You try to pull away and push down harder with your forward foot...

It's pretty simple to turn the go-pedal into an emergency stop, particularly if the machine has a no-volt-release power switch (with start and stop buttons - also compulsory in industry and education), just find the wire to the solenoid and bring it out to a normally-closed microswitch, and while you're at it wire in a couple of Big Red Switches around the shop so your significant other won't have to climb over your corpse and dodge the flailing arm to turn the lathe off

It's a worthwhile safety feature and will cost less than a few carbide inserts, I did it on my 1950s (pre health and safety) lathe with parts from the junk box in an afternoon, including making the stomp bar and hinges! I now have an emergency stop by the entry door, too

Just my safety ha'pennorth,
Dave H. (the other one)

 

[Paul_C]

I can't imagine an emergency stomp switch would be very useful and I'm surprised no one has commented on it yet. Better than nothing I suppose but I would be more likely looking for the motor switch. Reason being your not use to using it and thinking about using it in a dire situation is unlikely. Many of the machinery and equipment like bucket trucks I operate use a dead man's foot petal. You need to keep the petal down to operate and as soon as you yank your foot out it stops. You get use to yanking your foot out at the first sign of trouble. And if it happens too fast your foot will be yanked out for you. I recall once operating an old large lathe that had had a foot brake the length of the machine. You had to lift your leg up a foot to get on the bar. A half press would release the drive and further press would brake. Once released it would not reengage. Most operators including myself would use the foot bar as a foot rest so there was a bit of safety with it.

 

[Hopefuldave]

Well, they're useful enough that they're compulsory on industrial machines and those in schools over here...

The "dead man's pedal" you describe was tried by British Rail for electric loco's, and found wanting - they went for a handle that had to be lifted, on the principle that a heart attack would leave the driver slumped forward... If a "go" pedal was fitted, it'd be better to make it lift to go, then you wouldn't be able to hold it on when trying to pull away from the machine...

Dave H. (the other one)

 

[Mbusha]

I am really glad to see this thread pop back to the top. I read every word of every post , then scrapped my latest lathe shelf idea and ordered a proper lathe file and handle (thanks for heads up on that Chris).

I also have noticed, and heed, that little voice that tells me something is not quite right with what I am about to do. For me it's a hobby, not production. Work slow, stop for cocktails and read HMEM when tired.

 

[wildun]

In my days as a tradesman working on lathes and milling machines, I saw a guy put a 1" S/S round bar ( intending to chamfer one end using a relatively slow turning speed). The bar was protruding about 3' - 4' out of the back end of the headstock spindle.
He switched on the lathe but hadn't checked which gear it was in and it started up at high speed, the bar immediately bent at right angles, smacked the concrete, lifted the lathe off its mountings and continued to spin with the lathe doing a dance across the floor, I dived in from the tailstock end and managed to get the thing switched off with the red emergency stop button (which on hindsight was not a real wise thing to do in this case!) but miraculously no one got hurt.
Moral of the story, don't ever put a long protruding bar in the lathe without some type of steady to support it, and check that you are using a low gear!

 

[Tin Falcon]

Good point wildun;
I did the same thing on my mini lathe with a piece of brass. it damaged my antique oak tool chest and wounded my pride felt really stupid. but thankfully no injuries.
Tin

 

[wildun]

Yes, I would say that most of us have made mistakes, being careful operators or not and I would hate to see the guy who hasn't made a silly mistake proudly telling people that because one day!....................

I was close to a couple of years from retirement age and was proudly thinking to myself that I still had all my digits intact after using machine tools carefully most of my life, then I lost half of my left thumb!
This did not happen on a machine tool as you'd expect, it happened with a large (12") butterfly valve which I was helping a salesman prepare for a customer, it was air operated and I was trying to mount it in a vice - he couldn't wait to try the air on it, then it slammed shut .... on my thumb! - the rest is history.

 

[mikbul]

My lathe tools go back to the tool box on the right when I'm done with them and hammers, files, etc. are in the drawers beneath the lathe. That can of cutter is even gone now replaced with insulation.

 

[Walltoddj]

I just finished reading all these post and would like to say the gentleman with the mini lathe is worst off a Dc motor just keeps turning until something breaks. I've seen a man loose a finger in a punch press, I've seen a man cleaning an inline production drill get wound up in the drill and if his shirt had not been torn for his neck he would have been killed this was a multi drill head for a V6 engine at very high speed. What my biggest pet peeve is gloves I don't care what you are doing any time you are near a moving piece of machinery gloves are a NO NO. Had a guy ground he's hand very nicely in a belt sander glove caught suck his hand right in. I have cabinets above my lathe for tools, but I work of a roll around and if I do reach for a tool my chuck is passed the end of the cabinets.

Todd

 

[Walltoddj]

I've was thinking more on this subject and I have to ask what do you use to keep chips away when making cuts? How many have learn that if something is rolling to let it go don't grab it?
I was taught and always have used a brush to move chips, I've eaten up a lot of brushes but never my hands. Any kind of brush will do and if it gets caught let it go they will make more.
I also learned to let things fall it's a natural instinct to reach to catch say a pencil rolling off a desk. As I learned and was taught don't ever reach because you see one thing and your mind see another. It takes a long time and concentration to be able to let it fall. Now at times I still catch things but I've trained myself not to around machines and I'm proud to say I still have 10 Toes and 10 Fingers.
How many wear steel toed boot? I still wear them in my home shop I dropped 580# of steel on my foot when a slide broke the stops and fell on my foot. The on damage was it drove my foot down so I broke the second joint to my big toe, the shoe was intact and it never bent the steel toe.

Todd

 

[pkastagehand]

Yes, I would say that most of us have made mistakes, being careful operators or not and I would hate to see the guy who hasn't made a silly mistake proudly telling people that because one day!....................

I did some flying in years past and this reminds me of an old pilots adage: There are two types of people who fly aircraft with retractable landing gear. Those who have landed with the gear up and those who have not yet landed with the gear up.

I have not YET done the long-bar-out-of-the-back-of-the-headstock dance.

Paul

 

[lennardhme]

Todd, I thought that was what old toothbrushes were for - short bristles that dont get caught or wrap around moving parts, & cheap. Good for applying cutting fluid too !
leonard

 

[Walltoddj]

Anything that works but not a rag and not your hand!!!

Todd

I use acid brushes for cutting oil toothbrushes are busy cleaning my parts.