Never operate a lathe this way,EVER!

[Kevin54]

As far as a special tool goes for holding emery paper I was taught to use a file to hold it. Wrap it over the end an hold it tight with your fingers. I am always surprised when I see competent machinists on YouTube holding the paper in their hands.

Nothing wrong with holding it with your hands as long as you use two hands to do it. I don't like to see someone use one hand, or like my friend did, and tighten up on a piece of ribbon cloth with his thumb.

Myself, I never use the sheets of emory, or sheets of sandpaper. I always use the 1" wide ribbon cloth and tear off enough to go around the piece plus enough length to keep my hands/fingers at a safe distance.

 

[Kevin54]

I just went back and watched the video to the end. I would say that where this happened was like in Russia maybe? Just about like the drivers they have over there.

None of the people except for maybe one or two has any sense about them at all. I was surprised it took as long as it did for someone to kill the lathe. Then what they should have done was loosen the chuck up right away. They just all stood around like they didn't know what to do.

And it sure appeared that it took a long time to loosen the chuck.

 

[NASTYZEN]

I showed the vid. to my girlfriend and right away she noted, what a bunch of idiots!

 

[ezzzzzzz]

I spent my youth working in a shop and on navy vessels. There was a large poster is black and white showing the shirt and most of the scalp of a lathe worker wrapped around the material between the chuck and tail stock. It would appear the operator probably died. It reminded me of the old signal 9 movies of automobile crashes and injuries/deaths. Onboard ship, the weapons had red circles with the words "MAN KILLER" painted every few feet. I worked on dual rail launchers that could go from stowed position to load position to target acquision/fire position and back to load position in several seconds. If you were in the path you were dead or wishing you were as you couldn't possibly move quickly enough. I learned a great deal of respect for machinery in those years. My lathe is still the most respected machine in my garage.

 

[Hiball]

Nothing wrong with holding it with your hands as long as you use two hands to do it. I don't like to see someone use one hand, or like my friend did, and tighten up on a piece of ribbon cloth with his thumb.

Myself, I never use the sheets of emory, or sheets of sandpaper. I always use the 1" wide ribbon cloth and tear off enough to go around the piece plus enough length to keep my hands/fingers at a safe distance.

Again, I've had Zero Professional Training or Classes. I was Taught how to operate the lathe by my Gramps, Who I suspect learned by watching/asking questions when he was working in the Engine shop during the Winter months.

The Picture below represents how I was Polishing on the Lathe, When my Gramps killed the power on the machine. Ill admit I was actually sawing the ribbon back and forth, Probably getting my hands a little closer to work piece than I should have.



There is probably a 100,000 people polishing on a lathe right know with the emery doubled around the shaft, And there probably going be fine. I just never do it anymore.



This is how I was taught, And that tool that I was referencing earlier mocked this setup, But it would hold a entire roll of emery at the bottom which fed around a roller at the bottom, straight up and around a another roller at the top (similar to a compound bow) and you held the tool versus the emery.

 

[Steinmetz]

I always think of that bright young gal that lost her life in a research shop of some major university out east. Accidents can usually always be prevented. 'Course if we knew they were going to happen, they wouldn't be accidents.

I saw a drill press remove a pony tail from a gal.

Yale. Tragic.

 

[Steinmetz]

Looking at that kid and his long sleeve shirt it was killing me to watch. I see guys in the shop everyday wearing gloves while using drills etc, some just learn the hard way.

It's a good thing he didn't have a six-inch pocket ruler on him. Those things can be deadly when an accident like this occurs. Think cut artery in neck region.

 

[Garage Coffee Roaster]

Great reminder to double check all clothing.

Take the time to be safe and you will have the time to work long in the future

 

[ears]

I just went back and watched the video to the end. I would say that where this happened was like in Russia maybe? Just about like the drivers they have over there.

Definitely Russia or Eastern Europe somewhere. May well be vodka involved. I think the "kid" is pushing 40 if you look at him close.

 

[Steroblan]

I rescued a guy at work who backed into a slow turning conveyor end shaft while cleaning up in a pit and the stub shaft got his raincoat and twisted him all up. He was purple when I got him cut out. He survived but couldn't work anymore due to psychological issues.

 

[Kevin54]

Definitely Russia or Eastern Europe somewhere. May well be vodka involved. I think the "kid" is pushing 40 if you look at him close.

I rescued a guy at work who backed into a slow turning conveyor end shaft while cleaning up in a pit and the stub shaft got his raincoat and twisted him all up. He was purple when I got him cut out. He survived but couldn't work anymore due to psychological issues.

If you look towards the end of the clip, does the kid or man running the lathe look like he went limp right before they carried him out? I thought maybe he had passed out from shock. It didn't take but a second to strip him of his clothes though. About the only thing that really saved him was the shaft was just a straight round shaft, although once it came out of the tailstock it lodged itself probably on top of the kids arm, but with it being bent would push him downward into the compound he was leaning over. Hopefully he was alright but like Ears said above, maybe a little Vodka involved. They'll just prop him up out side and pour another drink.

"In Russia, YOU don't run lathe, LATHE run you."

 

[Kevin54]

Again, I've had Zero Professional Training or Classes. I was Taught how to operate the lathe by my Gramps, Who I suspect learned by watching/asking questions when he was working in the Engine shop during the Winter months.

The Picture below represents how I was Polishing on the Lathe, When my Gramps killed the power on the machine. Ill admit I was actually sawing the ribbon back and forth, Probably getting my hands a little closer to work piece than I should have.



There is probably a 100,000 people polishing on a lathe right know with the emery doubled around the shaft, And there probably going be fine. I just never do it anymore.



This is how I was taught, And that tool that I was referencing earlier mocked this setup, But it would hold a entire roll of emery at the bottom which fed around a roller at the bottom, straight up and around a another roller at the top (similar to a compound bow) and you held the tool versus the emery.

Hiball....I won't dispute your Grandfather, as a lot of the older guys knew what they were doing. I always have and always will do it like you did in the top picture. One reason, when the paper breaks, and it will, your hands come back towards you in a safe manner away from any moving parts.

Doing it like in the second picture, you are pushing DOWN on the paper, and when it breaks, your hand go in towards the machine. I trained all the ones do do it in the first picture just for that reason.

An old Toolmaker that was my Mentor show me the scars on his left hand where it was ripped open on a chuck that the jaws were hanging out. All I can say is that I was taught by one who was considered the best, but then again everyone has different ways of getting the same results. I know that for 30 years I have done it just like you did and sawed the paper back and forth to get even wear.

 

[Jack Burton]

I think lathes are very innocuous looking to people who don't realize what kind of power is contained in that cabinet and that the chuck is essentially a lawn mower blade as far as your flesh is concerned. Lathes remind me of firearms in a way in that if someone never drilled into your mind how to handle them or you never realized how dangerous they are, you're gonna have a problem.

The poor guy in this video was not trained correctly and someone should have corrected him about his sleeves, glove?, and reaching habit.

If I use emery, I do it as in the second picture with a light grip and I don't push hard, I let the abrasive do it's job. The same way I use a file.

I've done the first picture thing before and it dawned on me that the paper can catch much easier, though if you have a light grip on the paper, you'll be okay. I realize the technique in the 1st picture cuts faster since you have more paper on the work but I'm not on piecework.

I may be very wrong but I actually feel most comfortable just folding a short piece of paper and pushing it on top of the work with the flat of my index finger. Almost like a sanding block. Mechanically, it seems like the safest way to do it to me. The worst that can happen is the paper is flung. Then again, I work on small lathes, no bigger than 16x40.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I think the kid (victim) got lucky that it was a small piece of stock that came out of the tail piece.

 

[3oheight]

jeezus. If you look in those comments there is a link of a dude getting completely torn to bits by a lathe. I'm now re-thinking how careless I am around my drill press, angle grinder, and band saw. Those tools aren't as lethal but I'm sure can do some damage.

What kind of shirts do you guys wear around spinning tools?

yeah that link in the first comments is brutal. I am always super nervous when I run the lathe, I much prefer running the mill.

Stay safe guys.

 

[Haveblue]

Thank you for posting this! I have used emery cloth almost the same way on a lathe...never again! Its scary what a rotating shaft can do to a person..bad things can happen very quickly!!

 

[BFBOB]

Hoo!
Insufficient supervision!
First day in the machine shop, head machinist took me aside and said, "I don't care how long you wear your hear, just keep it the hell out of my machines. Tie it back, wear a hat, but keep it the hell out of my machines!"

 

[ZRX61]

His left arm sure looked a bit floppy afterwards..

 

[ZRX61]

jeezus. If you look in those comments there is a link of a dude getting completely torn to bits by a lathe. I'm now re-thinking how careless I am around my drill press, angle grinder, and band saw. Those tools aren't as lethal but I'm sure can do some damage.

An awful lot of power tools have enough power to just barely kill you

 

[OctoMan]

I thought for sure the chuck key was going to fall on the rotating chuck and impale somebody. And the guy who comes to the rescue dosen't shut off the lathe first ? The shop is a mess anyway. Dosen't anyone have to read books like the Navy's, Tools and Their Uses anymore??

 

[Kevin54]

yeah that link in the first comments is brutal. I am always super nervous when I run the lathe, I much prefer running the mill.

Stay safe guys.

Just from my observation, most accidents occur when afraid of a machine, or being over confident in ones skills. I've always told the guys I trained to not be afraid of the machine, but to respect the machine. Every machine has it's own idiosyncrasies. You have to learn what they are, what noises the machine makes, where each lever is and what the levers are for. One of the biggest problems I have saw over the years is people not paying attention to what they are doing, but are paying attention to what others are doing, and THEY LEAVE THE CHUCK KEY IN THE CHUCK. I don't know how many times I have yelled at someone right before they were ready to turn the lathe on. If a persons hand or arm would be in the way, it would break it right now.

Also I have found that some people do not know how to properly tighten a chuck on a lathe. There are your large spindle nuts, and then you have the chucks that have pins. Always check that the chuck it tight before running the lathe. Our lathe had a large spindle nut. I would tap the nut wrench with a large rawhide mallet to make sure it was tight. A lathe running around 1800 rpm's and the chuck coming loose is a scary site. It will hit the floor spinning before it gets a little bit of traction then it's out of there just about as fast as a bowling ball going down the alley, only it weighs a whole lot more.

Another problem would be that some would not chuck up a part in a safe manner, then throw it out of the lathe. My BIL has a plate in his head, a paralyzed arm, walks with a limp, and has a certain speech impediment because a part come out of a lathe that he was told to run after the setup man set the tooling up. It was faulty designed tooling.

A lathe harnesses a lot of power and torque, as also does a mill. One may be more comfortable with running a mill than a lathe, but the only difference really is that one has a horizontal motor, and the other has a vertical motor. And one has to realize that if something lets go in a mill, there is more area for a piece to fly than in a lathe. Plus most things are at gut height.

 

[NASTYZEN]

I need to get some big E-stop buttons for my manual lathe and mill, Fix the foot brake on the lathe for sure. I have a disk from a Goldwing and a caliper from a go cart with a leaky master cylinder from a Yamaha. Stops the spindle dead.
When I don't have to pump the pedal that is...