Lathe safety!

[Bent Ramrod]

I didn't see this, although I may have missed it.

Wear good safety glasses, with side shields, and keep your collar buttoned up. The swarf that isn't trying to wad itself around the spinning workpiece and launch into your face will be flying off in a shower of tiny, hot chips. One down your shirt will definitely distract you from your operation, and one in your eye can delay your project for a long time.

Very good thread and discussion, by the way. Safety considerations in this area are as important as those in handloading, casting or shooting.

[bhop]

Clean you ways between jobs - new a guy who cut his lathe in half the hard way when it combusted - Ouch

Can you go into more detail on this please

[Red River Rick]

Can you go into more detail on this please

Probably machining magnesium............

RRR

[Mitch]

Can you go into more detail on this please

keep your machines clean would be the key here a little to clean up after each job or day is the way to go.be proud of you chop and your equipment.if nothing else it will be ready to sell when you are ready to retire from the hobby.the only thing I can think of that would combust badly is magnisum.if you machine any of this stuff only take heavy cuts to keep the chips thick.the finer the chip the more danger of fire.itfyou do have a fire with it DO NOT PUT WATER ON THE FIRE.it will burn wild and out of control instantly.magnisium and water make hydrogen.Best to leave this stuff to the pros.this stuff is very dangerous it will burn down your shop and melt steel

I been a tool and die maker for 35 years

all great infor here men I don't think much if anything was missed

[country gent]

Have machined magnesium both lathe and mill. several tricks are a purple star fire extinguisher and Bucket of sand. When turning on lathe we put a few inches of sand in the chip pan. Machine dry. Also dont let chips build up remove after every cut and put in a safe container. Magnesium will burn thru steel, concrete, and most materials. lso this is a good place when machining for tinted glasses as magniseum burning is as bright and intenese and a welders arc.

[M-Tecs]

I had titanium chips catch fire on me years ago. Titanium burns really well.

[ProfGAB101]

When I was first learning Lathe operations my instructor used to say: When ever the machine is running, put your free hand in your pocket. No one has ever lost a finger to a machining accident when the hand was safe in the pocket.

Always rotate the chuck 1 full turn by hand before turning on the spindle. Note if any types of feed or half nuts are engaged.

Hit and yank on the work, if you can move the work in the vise or chuck using 1 HP (Human power) at slow speed, imagine what will happen when the tool engages the work at speed.

Machines don't know the difference between metal and flesh other than the fact that flesh and bone takes less horsepower to cut.

Never operate a machine from a stool or chair, when things go wrong it happens fast, chances are if you can't jump out of the way it will hit you... before it hits the fan.

Never use rags near a lathe - any wiping etc. should be done using paper towels, they will shred themselves before they can pull you into the machine or cause other damage.

Like a motorcycle crash - Rule: Let it go! Feel free to step back and let the machine destroy its self. Ask your self would you trade the replacement cost of the work and machine for your arm, your hand or even a finger... Its only metal and can be replaced, parts of you, not so much.

Be sure your work area has EXCELLENT Illumination - many accidents occur while maneuvering to get a better view of your work.

[leebuilder]

Have many cuts from swarf, had a chip get under my glasses and lift them off my face. Busted much tooling and shattered tooling too. Had a birds nest of chips pick up and extention cord and the radio i had plugged in what a mess that was. Taught machine shop for a bit and seen lots of cuts. Had a few tripps to the eye doctor too, had my glasses on for most of those incidents. Friction welded drills in holes. Had a 4" drill seize and put a 360 degree twist in the arbour on a 25hp drillpress. Had stuff fly out of the lathe and mill.
I have been lucky, other than when i taught machine shop in the navy all the incedents happened at a shop i apprenticed at, the boss there did not care about anything as long as the money was coming in and the place was so dirty that it was a hazard. I know now the limits and not to try to get near those limits again, TRIAL AND TERROR.
As mentioned keep your shop clean and safe.
If it dont feel right or you are doing something that your mother should not know about, DONT DO IT.
Use your head, again as mentioned HP will mess you up, if you are lucky it will spit you up before you are mangled to a pulp.
be safe, please.

[30Carbine]

I"LL add a few things to this I didn't see. LIGHTS keep the lathe well lit put light above the machines. don't shove them back into a dark corner. I have 6 lathes right now and 4 bridgeports and 3cnc's, when I turn on my shop you almost need sunglasses in side. also I teach some new guys who think they want to learn to use these fairly often. one thing I have done is to mount the chuck key on a retractible reel above the lathes so they will go up automatically. nothing worse than to here them flying across the shop. also I mounted E stops on pedals you have to stand on to make them work, that way if you have to jump it will kill them right a way.

One more thing that helps now this is not for you guys that use these but for the ones I teach. I have one lathe set up right now we call it the teacher I mounted a momentary switch on the side of the tool head so it will kill the machine before it gets to close to chuck. this one has dro's set up on it there hooked up to mach3 on the other side of the shop, so when the machine stops you have to walk across the shop and press the E stop button on mach3 to get it to start again. gives them time to think about it haha.

[country gent]

I had jobs where set up and getting running true and centered was 1/2 days time ( think face plate and other tooling mounted) Im definitly not hitting and yanking to pull it out of alighnment. On some small thin jobs we faced a piece of stock and used double faced tape to hold part to machine it . Pushing pulling hitting have no place around pression equipment other than to tap a part into alighnment.

[doc1876]

My father was a machinist instructor for high school, and I can still remember his speech to the incoming freshmen about shop safety " I don' care if you want to wear your hair long, or your shirt tail on the outside of your pants, if you get caught in my lathe, and it drags you down to your knees, and the board of education just happens to walk in and they think you are praying in my class, and I catch it for that, you are never going to survive what I will do to you.


Chuck Key safety idea: I have seen them attached to a rubber band/hose/something that when you let go of it, it jerks the key about 2 feet above the lathe.

[oldred]

Spring loaded chuck keys work pretty well, they have a rather weak spring over the shaft that is just strong enough to push the key back out of the hole if it's released. I have heard folks complain about these but for the life of me I can't understand why, the spring is so light it takes no effort at all to hold the key in place during use but it makes it impossible to leave it in the chuck.

[country gent]

I have seen them with spring loaded plungers that push them out if the chuck ( most new drill chuckes have this abonimation in them also). Health and saftey at our plant deemed theey had to be on balancer units that held them out of the chuck. Use one of these for reitions a couple hours and your wrist start to get very sore. I removed the plungers from all the drill press keys here at home. The balancer was a great idea as it did keep chuck keys out of chuck and held it at just the right hit so every time you bent it hit you in the forehead. LOL I learned to remove keys wrenches and tools. Lathes are much safer now than when I started out in the trade ( first shop had mostly converted flat belt equipment) Alot of the new machines wont start till gaurds are in run position and keys stops that from happening. Ive seen more injuries from files with out handles than chuck keys. When you see yopur co worker with the bare tang of a 14" file burried in his forearm where it hit the chuck jaws and was diver several inches into his wrist / arm. Or the guy who was pulling a chip with pliers when it caught and wrapped around is finger removing it. Or simply the guy the chuck got away from and rolled of onto his foot or ankle. Machines are dangerous, wether lathe mill grinder wood saw or any other tools. Used with common sense and basic saftey in mind goes along ways. It takes some attention and thought to be safe. Look at new blow guns. I believe they are now down around 12 psi out put. Dont move chips or crud wont clear any real debris but they are safe. My old ones put out darn near line pressure.

[sprinkintime]

Probably the most common accident is leaving the key in the chuck, while not likely to be the most dangerous it can and has caused some serious harm. If the machine is set for a high RPM and switched on that chuck key can be ejected with surprising force!

Oldred, that is a +1, I have seen it happen machinist with many years of experience. Also don't take a heavy cut with your part hanging out, without support, you could be wearing it.
Sprink

[labradigger1]

Clean your chips with a brush, never with compressed air.
If your lathe is an older one with change gears always keep the gaurd in place (personal stupid mistake).

[BigEyeBob]

If you use a file on the work piece while running the lathe then make sure it has a good handle on it . The tang of the file makes a good "hand spear " when caught by the spinning chuck .
Ive seen quite a few hands impaled and one guy copped a file tang in the brisket .

[BigEyeBob]

I never wrap emery cloth around the work piece , I use a file and lay the emery along the file hold the file tip and emery between thumb forefinger with my left hand and the same at the handle end of the file with my thumb and fore finger .use it like a file works great , keeps every thing nice and even and you get much more emery to workpiece contact . The heat generated doesn't burn your digits. If the emery grabs it will come away with out injury to you .
I was taught this by my instructor over 40 years ago .He was a German Panzer Commander during the war (mongrel bastard of a man , but a very talented machinist) , if he caught you doing it any other way it was a swift boot in the **** and a good humiliating dressing down in front of the other trainees .
You never made the same mistake twice.

[Artful]

Can you go into more detail on this please

He never cleaned his chips out until he had a layer thick on the bottom
at some point something he was cutting put a hot chip to something that
caught fire and it just burnt something fierce and actually cut the lathe in two.
I don't remember what he was cutting on and don't know the mix of chips
he had under there but it was a bad combination.

[oneokie]

He never cleaned his chips out until he had a layer thick on the bottom
at some point something he was cutting put a hot chip to something that
caught fire and it just burnt something fierce and actually cut the lathe in two.
I don't remember what he was cutting on and don't know the mix of chips
he had under there but it was a bad combination.

Could have been a mix of steel and aluminum. Think Thermite.

[oldred]

Actually all it needed to be was steel chips with a mix oil to get it started, Iron chips and filings burn just fine thank you! Try setting a piece of 0000 steel wool on fire sometime and then imagine a giant version of that, dry fine steel wool will burn quite well but oily steel wool burns even faster and hotter. Remember also the burning steel is what actually provides most of the heat for cutting a steel plate with a cutting torch. The preheat flame gets it stated and then helps melt the oxide layer on the top surface but done properly the preheat flame can be cut off and the cut can still continue on O2 alone. Same thing with a Lancing rod for burning heavy steel parts, it's nothing more than a thin steel tube filled with small steel wires but once it starts burning it will burn through any kind of metal! I can imagine just how hot the middle of a pile of oily chips/swarf would get and I think it could easily reach the ignition point of iron at which time the unlimited draft moving up through that loose pile would easily provide enough Oxygen to do this kind of damage!