First Really Close Call

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nightowl

nightowl

Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2008
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323
Location
Lexington, Virginia, USA.
I was sanding an icycle that I had made for an ornament. I was turning it between spindles. I had a short sleeve shirt on. I had sanded to 220 when I suppose I got too close and my shirt sleeve of my left arm got caught on the dead center in the head stock. It pulled me up and started ripping my shirt off. I managed( after about a 20 second struggle) to reach around my body and hit the off switch. In the struggle I noticed that I had actually pulled back so hard that my Jet 1421 had started to tip over. That would have really been disasterous. It would probably have broken my leg. My arm has a pretty red half circle around it from my shirt sleeve. I guess I was lucky I was sanding around 850rpm and not turning at 1500. I won't make that mistake again.
 
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I won't bother sending the pics but I have some of a person working on an industrial metal lathe.
He was wearing overalls carhart type and a long sleeve shirt. The metal stock rod that was being turned at about 1800 rpm when a large metal bur hooked his left shirt by the wrist and pulled his entire arm into the lathe followed up with the strap to the coverall and entire upper body. He never had a chance the machine didn't even slow down. Keep in mind these lathes at our plant are very powerfull but regardless. It's almost like a instant reaction when loose items have been pulled into a lathe at 1800rpm. Glad to hear you are ok. all I have to say Is thank god the lathes were using aren't on a 220amp plug with massive motors. Live and learn.
 
That's why I do all of my woodworking in the nude! No, not really. Never had my sleeve get caught, but had rags get caught as I was cleaning dust off blanks before putting on CA...
 
Well..if your lathe had been bolted down, you could have just ripped the shirt off instead of tipping over.

I was turning in sandals during the summer and dropped a skew. Let me tell you how much fun that was cleaning up the blood. Luckily the toe is still attached.

Glad your not hurt.
 
Accidients around power machinery are always scarey to me because they happen so fast that they are usually over with before you even know what is happening. My dad had to clean up after a man who was going to make "just one quick cut" with a table saw that had a gang blade on it. The man was not used to the saw and he was wearing a necktie. The tie got caught in the saw and pulled his face into the blade. While the man wasn't killed, he was severly disfigured for the rest of his life.

I'm glad that you were not seriously injured and thank you for sharing your experience. I may help someone else from making the same mistake who may not be as lucky as you were.

Jim Smith
 
Thanks for posting this. I need a good shaking up every now and then. We get so used to these tools that we start to take them for granted, but really each of our shops are like death traps just waiting for us to do something stupid. I'm only 25 and I have a lifetime of turning ahead of me. What helps keep me in check is just knowing that being around tools as much as I am that it's pretty much only a matter of time before I hurt myself in some fashion. That thought helps keep me on my toes a little bit more. I like to read stuff like this to help keep the fear alive in me!!:neutral:
 
Safety is always a big concern ---no matter what size lathe of piece of wood.
There are just so many ways to get hurt.
Thanks for sharing
 
Glad you weren't hurt! With almost 40 years in machine shops, I've seen some horrible stuff, shirts not tucked in getting caught in Lathe feed screws, arms getting caught in strings of metal after getting wrapped around a chuck, (like when PR will wrap around a bank) some jackass cutting off fingers on a table saw, (oh wait that was me), one of the first things I learned was no gloves or loose clothing around a lathe or milling machine, gloves sound safe, but it scares me to see some one turn wood with a glove, granted most of our wood lathes are not really over powered, but if a glove gets caught like your shirt sleeve guess what! And you can't pull your hand free, I've seen it happen twice, in two different shops, Machinery is all dangerous, that's why they print manuals and nearly all have the same warnings, AVOID OPERATION OF EQUIPMENT WHILW WEARING LOOSE CLOTHING.
Ever see a young guy get a ponytail wrapped around a spinning shaft at around 800 or a 1000 RPM, it's not very pretty.
 
GouletPens said:
Thanks for posting this. I need a good shaking up every now and then. We get so used to these tools that we start to take them for granted, but really each of our shops are like death traps just waiting for us to do something stupid. I'm only 25 and I have a lifetime of turning ahead of me. What helps keep me in check is just knowing that being around tools as much as I am that it's pretty much only a matter of time before I hurt myself in some fashion. That thought helps keep me on my toes a little bit more. I like to read stuff like this to help keep the fear alive in me!!:neutral:
Click to expand...

I have to echo Brian's post ... except for the part about being only 25. (Sigh) if only. :)
 
David, glad you are alright. Sometimes we get complacent or focus so much on what we are doing we forget safety. At work we have so many safety posters I get to the point of ignoring them. When something like this happens it's time for me to step back and look around at the shop. Thanks for posting.

Glycerine, didn't really need that picture. LOL
 
wolftat said:
Another argument for turning nude.
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NOT ONLY is that a picture I prefer NOT to envision,

ALSO, when your finish spits off the blank and flies on your glasses, it comes off with acetone. IF it hits your clothes, well, they weren't GOOD clothes. But, if you're nude, acetone clean-up just doesn't SOUND like FUN.

But, to each his own (please, not MINE!!)
 
For those that turn in the nude ... I will bet you several dollars that you won't fry bacon in the nude but once! Thats a quick lesson in life's school! Not that I know anything about that myself!

Glad all you lost was the shirt off your back as it could have been worse.
 
wolftat said:
Another argument for turning nude.
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Its bad enough when a drop of CA gets on your finger :eek::giggle:, I`ll keep my shorts on thanks!

funny_face.jpg
 
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wolftat said:
Another argument for turning nude.
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I know it sounds like a good idea, but it always puts me in mind from a scene from one of the Pink Panther movies where Clouseau is in a bathrobe with the front open, and he gets a little too close to an oscillating fan that's about waist high ....

Even a small machine can get you. I recently scooped out a nice bit of skin with a mini-thickness sander that I thought wasn't on, because it runs very quietly and I had the shop vac on. That was eleven days ago, and the wound is finally closing up. With the steady application of emu oil it looks like we will even avoid scarring.
 
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